Kapikulu

Bishmillah habibi the mounted guard of the sultan is done!

Janissaries 3

 Third and final infantry unit for my turks

The fall of Gibraltar

Autumn was a turn when lots of things happened, the austrians massed on the french border, the russians kept dragging their feet around Europe and fortified the caucasian borders. The british meanwhile seized Mysore, embarked a small expedition on the Caribbean, launched a reinforced fleet aginst the french ships in the Mediterranean, disembarkes Wellington in Portugal and finally invaded Andalusia with a sizeable army. The french for their part evacuated Andalusia for Castilla and attacked the heroic garrison of Gibraltar.

 The redcoats defend a chateau on the slopes of the Rock

 The french deploy: two units of infantry, one of cavalry

 The french form into line and advance

 The brits open fire

 Finally destroying one unit

But they are in turn routed and Gibraltar passes into french hands

Updated map

Janissaries 2

 This orta is dressed in contrasting blue and orange

Janissaries 1

  I've finally decided to start painting my ottoman army, since there isn't much information about the colours of 1800s uniforms I'm doing them in fantasy colours. The first unit has a synthwave vibe

Eternal Crusader

 The Eternal Crusader is the home of the Black Templars. Unlike more grounded astartes the Templars are a fleet based chapter, keeping only a scattering of fortified keeps across the galaxy that serve as recruitement and staging points. The bulk of the chapter takes to the skies aboard their many spaceships, keeping alive the flame of an eternal crusade lighted by their founder Sigismund. As such the Crusader is more than a battleship, it's where the spiritual home of the chapter lies, where its most valued relics, such as the first Black Sword, are kept and from where their High Marshal commands the deployment of crusades and fighting companies. As such she is rarely deployed into battle, as it's the chapter's de facto fortress-monastery, instead, other battlebarges take the burden of combat.

 Four plasma thursters drive the barge through space

 The chapter's icon is proudly dispayed on her flanks

 The Crusader's command cathedral is ornately gilded, with an imperil aquila sweeping on the foe.

The hardest part of the conversion was fitting the head to the bridge, lots of cutting and filing involved. The eagle head comes from the imperial knight kit, the wings are leftovers from a stormraven's blood angels iconography and the winged skull is the crozious from a chaplain

  The deathly gaze of the Emperor stares down the enemy

The Eternal Crusader takes battle to the foe during the Third War for Armageddon

Battles of Ostia and Gibraltar

 In the summer of 1805 the french rebuilt their fleet in the Mediterranean and recruited more troops in Bavaria and the Papal States, The british raised regiments in India and Portugal, the russians built up a new arm in Kiev and the austrians reinforced their main army in Padania.

Orders were issued: the french army in Andalusia attacked Gibraltar while the british assulted the Mahrattan territories, moved Wellington to the Atlantic, invaded the papal states and disembarked in the french west indies, the royal navy sent a ship of the line to rieforce the Atlantic squadron and lost a transport to hurricane Dorian. The austrians under Radetzky joined the march on Rome while Kutuzov marched on to Hungary, Bagration attacked Georgia and more russians invaded Ukraine.

 The neutral territories where quickly seized by the allies and the french surrendered in the caribbean

 The allied and french armies met in Ostia, south of Rome

 The imperials prepared their defence, forming around the objective

 The austrians massed before their target with the cavalry and guns to the left. The british where yet marching onto the field so the first shots would come down to the kaiserlichs

 Austrian cavalry flanks the french lines

 While the infantry marches ponderously forwards

French dragoons are swift to react, blocking the path to the guns

 While the cuirassiers menace the infantry

 The dragoons wheel about to face a flank charge

 While masses of austrians advance onto the village, a unit turns left to keep the cuirassiers in check

 Austrian ulhans skirt the french cavalry and charge the guns

 Lancing the unsuspecting gunners

 French dragoons are also caught in the rear and routed

 The cuirassiers charge the mauled hussars but are surprisingly repelled!

 Der angriff! Hungarian grenadiers assault the village

 While their comrades are shot to pieces around them

 The hungarians cause one damage but the garrison helds

 A wounded Radetzky fruitlessly tries to restore some order amongst the ulhans

 Finally the grendiers capture the village tipping the french over their morale threshold

 Tardy british under the incompetent general Sanderlay finally show up on the field when the battle is all but won (classic perfidious Albion)

 They move in speedy columns to the front

 The ragged austrian cavalry retreats from the fight

 A french unit pushes back the attacking austrians in the wood

 But are sabred in turn by the british light dragoons

 In the penultimate turn of the battle the french miss their morale role and the army flees

 Since they have nowhere to escape, the remnants surrender and are marched to POW camps

 We played a second battle: no less than six french unit attacking a single division of heroic redcoats

 Ulp!

 The lobsters hide from the french artillery in the first turn

 The french masses moved onto the built up area and a furious firefight ensued

However in the last turn the redcoats were still hanging by the skin of their teeth onto the village, and so they repulsed the attack and kept Gibraltar in british hands

The updated map reflects the decline of the french empire