So I decided to start this thread for my project of the Hungarian Revolutionary War of 1848.
Wtf is that-you might ask, so better start with a little historical summary: in the 1010s the first king of Hungary, István I., created an administration based on counties (this system is still in use novadays), and in 1222 the [X+1]th king of Hungary, András II. granted the right for the Hungarian nobilities to form a parliament. The county-based noble parliament was then the backbone of Hungarian government for 650 years (only replaced by the modern democracy), whoever ruled the country, could not govern without the Parliament (sometimes called Diet, its contemporary Latin name).
The Habsburgs, seizing the Hungarian crown in the early 1500s, soon realized this, they never could really merge Hungary into their Empire, always needed to compromise with the Parliament (ok, sometimes threat them) whose goal was national self-government ofc. Their plan with Hungary was to keep it a reliable and quiet background producing wheat and soldiers for their wars in the West, which worked during the 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars, but in the 19th the Parliament grew more ambitious, fighting for various reforms. In early 1848 the most ambitious reform package so far was sent to the Emperor, who was reluctant first. Then the Revolutionary Spring of 1848 swept through Europe, including a (bloodless) one in Buda on March the 15th, this broke the stalemate and the Emperor finally accepted these so called April Laws.
Everyone was happy, but not for long since Wien only accepted the April Laws to stall the Hungarians until the Habsburgs crush their revolutions and stabilize their status in Italy. To keep the Parliament occupied, they decided to feed the Hungarians their own medicine, and agitated the minorities in Hungary against them.
Romanians (into Transylvania) and Serbians (into the South) started to migrate to Hungary in greater numbers during 18th century, while Croatians were always there, Hungary capturing Croatia in the late 11th century. On the top of that Serbians and Croatians served the Habsburgs as border guards on the southern border, so they had weapons and considerable military experience. The newly (according the April Laws) formed Hungarian militia, the National Guard was already knee-deep in a war before the real enemy even revealed himself.
Not that they had to wait too long for that. As the situation in Italy became better, the Habsburgs turned towards Hungary. The Hungarian government got an ultimatum: cancel the April Laws, or being forced to cancel the April Laws by the Habsburg Army. Looking at the title of this topic, you can guess the answer, so the Emperor sent Lieutenant-General Jellasich to crush the "rebellion". This, of course, pushed everyone in Hungary into the revolutionary camp, so they started to organize a standing army, the so called Honvédség (hard to translate, Homeland Defense Force or something like that). The 35-40k strong Austrian army met the 27k strong Hungarian army in the battle of Pákozd on Sept 29th, and Jellasich suffered a defeat, with heavy losses, retreating towards Wien.
The pursuing Hungarian army was only stopped near Wien, at Schwechat. During the late autumn and the winter the war went back and forth, an Austrian counter-attack captured Western Hungary, while Hungarians completely liberated Transylvania. Both armies grew, the Austrians soon had 165k fighting men in the country, facing the 150k strong Hungarian army. In the spring of 1849 the Hungarian Army got a new commander, just like Lincoln found Grant, the Hungarian president Kossuth found Artúr Görgei, a young and ambitious commander-in-chief. The Glorious Spring Campaign liberated most of Hungary, and the Habsburgs were officially dethroned. That is when the disaster struck: Player 3 entered the game.
The new Emperor, Franz Joseph (who took the crown after the resignation of Ferdinand V. in Dec 2nd), saw his armies unable to defeat the Hungarians and on May 1st he turned to the Russian Tzar Nicholas I for help. The Russians saw the Hungarian situation with increasing worries, fearing the flame of the rebellion spreading to Poland. They agreed to help, and during the summer of 1849 a 200k men strong Russian army attacked Hungary from the rear. Unable to withstand the wrath of two empires, the armies of Görgei were pushed back, and, after failing to prevent the Austrian and the Russian Army to join forces, the Hungarians capitulated at Világos on Aug 13rd (the last fortress, Komárom, held until October, General Klapka only capitulated after a pardon was granted for him and his men)
The furious Austrians took heavy sanctions on Hungary, and the Hungarian nobles went into a passive resistance. Franz Joseph fought his wars without the Hungarian support. It did not went very well, after the catastrophical defeats in his Italian and Prussian wars he finally realized that peace is the way. In 1867 he agreed with the Hungarians, lifting all the sanctions (up to the re-forming of the Honvédség), pardoning every rebel, and, in return, being accepted as the rightful king. The Habsburg Empire was no more, the dualist state of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was officially formed, granting a golden age for both nations.
This is the brief summary of it, the not so brief could fill libraries- and it actually does, but only in Hungarian language, this war is being a really popular topic here, every town having its own story, national holidays to remember it, everything from streets to cigarette brands named after the popular heroes, etc. Time to also have some wargaming of it.
This war was the last of the Napoleonic era, being fought just a few months before the Minié bullet changed the warfare. Also this was the first major conflict where both sides used trains and steam ships for transporting troops and supplies. (Even featured a train hijack). The scale is from the very little skirmishes to the big battles of 80-100k soldiers fighting, so it has all from lore-wise.
I chose the system of Black Powder for the project, but it can be played with any matching system, be it big army or skirmish. The base unit back then was the battalion, featuring 600 men on paper. I will represent these with 10 men battalions- this way I can paint and field a lots of units with their distinctive uniform variations. I base them individually on the 20*20mm WHF-standard bases, which I put into movement trays. The trays are laser-cut, one of my friend does them.
Lets start with the Hungarians. The problem with them is that they almost have zero figures available in this size, so you have to be creative.
The infantry. There were line regiments, the National Guard and the Honvédség, first I concentrated on the latter one, being the most iconic. I started with the weapons, I made them from plastic and green stuff. The standard weapon of both the Hungarian and the Austrian army was the Augustin rifle, a percussion musket. After the hostilities started, Hungarians also started to produce it, being able to properly equip the army.
The soldiers I sculpted from green stuff, then they went into resin casting.
The drums and the flags were conversions. I used WHF bitz
The flags I painted by hand. Next time I will use paper ones
The first batch of soldiers were made with the rifle pointing forward. Later I sculpted a soldier with a shouldered rifle to form the back lines.
The standard uniform was blue trousers, brown jacket with red emroidery and a black shako. In addition, there was a blue field cap. Two battalions (9th Kassa and 11th Kolozsvár) got their field caps in red colour, and they were allowed to wear them on the battlefield as honours for their bravery. Five battalions wear standard uniform, the one in the front is wearing this red cap.
According to Black Powder rules, the army also has separate commander and sub-commanders, I chose to field the units in regiments of 3 battalions, just like they were in reality. For my 60 men I needed two Colonels. These are also my sculpts, casted and converted. The Hungarian official cadre was quite of a high quality, featuring mostly officers experienced in the Habsburg army. Their clothing was varied, they rarely wore the standard uniform. These two guys do, more or less. For the sake of convenience, I use infantry commanders for infantry units despite officers usually commanded from horseback.
The commander. He is a real person, General Damjanich. A Serbian man, who became Hungarian and became one of the best generals of the 1848 army. Winner of many battles, he died as part of the Arad 13, the 13 generals executed for treason in Arad on 1849 Oct 6th. I used a WHF horse and made the general out of green stuff. His sword is from the WHF Empire Militia, he had a distinctive, broad-bladed sabre.
The artillery. For these I used Napoleonic Austrian cannons from Front Rank, and sculpted the crew myself. They also can be detached from the base. Hungarian artillery was of high quality, the April Laws placed every army unit in Hungary under Hungarian command, the most prized of these were the 5th artillery regiment stationed here. The foreign crew eventually defected to the Imperials, but not before they trained the Hungarian artillery crews, and ofc they left their cannons too. The backbone of Hungarian artillery was the 6 pounder, also produced locally: Hungarian produced guns were painted light gray, while the ones originating from the 5th regiment were raw wood colour. Painting the side of the cannon for national tricolor was Hungarian custom. Hungarian batteries were organized with 8 guns instead of the austrian standard 6, the Austrians later adopted the 8.
6 pounders:
6 pounder horse cannon:
3 pounder:
12 pounder:
This is the Hungarian Army so far. The most urgent upgrade will be the cavalry, hussars to be more exact. Hussars in the Habsburg army were recruited from Hungary and they basically were the Hungarian cavalry itself in every war since the late 1500s.
Then I will concentrate on the National Militia. They were recruited based on the counties, and in the first weeks their uniform was all but standard. Some were overly decorated, some wore civilian clothes. Civilian clothing back then was colourful and varied, it will be an interesting sculpting and panting project. This guy is basically wearing civilian clothes and a straigthened scythe, but he can be built with any head and I sculpted a musket for him too.
This other is smoking a pipe while loading his gun, over the (eventually more-or less) standardized National Guard uniform he is wearing a civilian greatcoat (called "szűr")
Then the sky is the limit: the line regiments, the foreign legions, the jaegers, the missile artillery, the free corps, etc, etc
The Austrians. The backbone of the Austrian army were the line regiments, here I simply used the Warlord late Napoleonic Austrians- they can be used without any problem, the distinctive short shako from Franz Josephs early wars was introduced a few years after the 1848 war. And hey, I also have a Napoleonic army this way. The only problem is that I painted them before I decided for the 10 man battalions, so now the 19th regiment has 5 battalions. Whatever.
Now here is great potential for development. They will need some cannons first (the same types as for the hungarians), and then some cavalry: the heavy Kürassiers were the elite of the Habsburg army and lets say they earned their reputation in 1848-49 too. I will also add some Grenzers too.
And the Player3. It was actually very rare that the Russian and the Austrian army fought on the same field, but I will play like this for a while. Russians are basically the Crimean Russians, Napoleonic uniforms do not cut here any more. I simply bought the Crimean bundle from Warlord, 3 boxes of infantry and two 24 pounder cannons. Now I am painting them.
Some officers already done:
They also needed a leader. I sculpted this general, a little easter egg basically being a typical Soviet marshal in the mid-19th century uniform.
Russians, well, first need to be finished. Then I will have to look for some Cossack figures...
A rarely mentioned battle: the Battle of Garden of Morr. My favourite terrain piece ever, sorry.
To be continued...
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April 26, 2024, 12:59:12 AM
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