Further wonderful voyages of serendipitous discovery

The beauty of my painting approach, having lots on the go at once, is that I can switch from one subject to another and/or take advantage of figures that are 'nearly there'. So it was recently that, painting Polish-Italian legion uhlans for 1796-97 lead me to think that I should get on and finish some Polish Winged Hussars at the same time. These latter have been sitting, for several years, needing 'only' a black wash, highlights and varnishing to be completed. 

"Righto, in they go."

Husaria! Scene from the film "Pan Michael"

'Cept it ain't that straightforward.

I had borrowed the first volume of Norman Davies' History of Poland (reviewed on my Napoleonic blog), chiefly to get a bit more of an understanding of the Kościusko Uprising. It gave me far more besides. Reading this book, along with the fact that Julian and I had planned to catch up to do a game of something at my place, made me think,

"How about I use those nearly completed Great Northern War figures and we do that game of Klissow that I have been thinking about?"

Yeah, 'cause then I can use it as an impetus to get on and finish the Saxons (and perhaps the Swedes as well), either before or after the game.

Great.

Oh, I need more Poles. No worries, I had some prepared, some even undercoated, so just 'throw 'em in the mix'. 

So, the focus switched from completing a few figures to making figures that I had undercoated and others not yet started presentable enough on the table. I nearly got part of the way there.

'Fortunately' we did not complete the game and so decided to catch up for a second session. This meant that I was able to add more colour to the troops in the time between the two.

I am now back to step one, but with added figures for the Great Northern War to be completed along with my early French and Austrians for 1796–97. Just a lot more of them now. All good.

Saxon and Polish forces packed away after the recent game of Klissow and ready, along with additional troops, for some more painting.

More, predominantly Saxons.

Swedes and more Poles.

Polish cavalry and some of the early French 'Napoleonic' infantry behind (these are all part of this extended production line).

Along the way there was some wonderful, related but serendipitous discovery.

Painting tends to make me look at books videos and such related to the period (over and above looking for details of uniform and the like). Also vice versa; reading books inspires me to paint figures of a particular period. I don't think that I am alone in this.

I had saved a couple of extracts of a show in Polish "Ogniem i Mieczem" (With Fire and Sword) in my sub-folder called 'Polish Winged Hussars' within my Audio and Video collection. I went looking for more of it.

Serendipitous discovery 1: the entire file of "Ogniem i Mieczem" (With Fire and Sword).

Having watched that I became aware that it was part of a trilogy, based on some famous, fictional books of the same name.

Serendipitous discovery 2:  the films Potop (The Deluge) and Pan Michael (Colonel Michael).

This trilogy of films were produced by a famous Polish director named Jerzy Hoffman. They were produced and released in reverse chronological order, so Pan Michael, then Potop, then Ogniem i Mieczem.

They are magnificent films.

The versions that I found online are in Polish, without subtitles, so I do not understand a word (perhaps one or two words, but precious little). It does not matter at all. The filming is sumptuous and powerful. There are magnificent scenes of the Ukrainian and Polish steppes, wetlands, large areas of ripe crops in summer, deep snow in winter. Rain, mud and marshes. The divide between peasant and noble is captured brilliantly. The in-fighting amongst the nobles, joining together when threatened. The tragedy and loss of it all. The battle scenes are magnificent (even if all the cavalry, including the Winged Hussars charge in really loose formation). Furthermore, the films are a great source of ideas of colours for troops that had non-uniform dress. Oh yeah, there are some lovely female leads too!

Winged Hussars attack a line of Cossack infantry (from the film Ogniem i Mieczem).

Cossack pike ready to receive Winged Hussars—their musketeers having withdrawn through their ranks (from the film Ogniem i Mieczem).

Powerful opening scene from the film Potop.

The Swedish army enters the Commonwealth (from the film Potop).

A bit about each film, using the information from Wikipedia.

"Ogniem i Mieczem" (With Fire and Sword) was produced in 1999 and is based on the third book. Apparently, "at the time of its filming it was the most expensive Polish film ever made". This film/book is a love/adventure story set in the Ukranian area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising.

"Potop" (The Deluge) was released in 1974. It is based on the second book. The film "...was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 47th Academy Awards, but lost to Amarcord". This film is set during the time of the Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1655–1660.

Pan Wołodyjowski/Pan Michael (Colonel Michael), based on the third book, was the first of the three produced, in 1969. This is set during the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Poland in 1668–1672.

Each of the films has had a spin-off or adaptation. A serialised adaptation of "Pan Michael" was made in 1969. According to information in the Internet Movie Database, the first part of a television version of "Ogniem i Mieczem" was aired in 2001. "The television version is almost 30 minutes longer than the version previously shown in the cinemas and contains four episodes. It includes some scenes that were deleted from the theatrical edition, e.g. scenes with Krystyna Feldman and Agnieszka Krukówna playing Ukrainian women or Magdalena Warzecha playing Gryzelda Wisniowiecka". For Potop, in 2014 "...a new cut named Potop Redivivus was released [...], which is two hours shorter than the original".

The films had me wondering. What about the books? Are they available in translation? The answer is 'yes' and what's more they are available as a free epub version from Project Gutenberg. The author, Henryk Sienkiewicz, was inducted into several prestigious academies and won the Nobel Prize for "his outstanding merits as an epic writer". He is perhaps most famous as the author of Quo Vadis? Something else that I was previously ignorant of.

So to my last bit of serendipitous discovery.

I was looking for some information related to the origins and development of the Twilight of the Sun King rules that I was using for the game with Julian. This lead me to a listing of the Best free miniature wargaming rules. In there I found:

Serendipitous discovery 3:  By Fire and Sword rules.

This beautifully produced, 160 page pdf file, with accompanying 257 page army list book are available to download for free. A rule book that stretches to 160 pages probably sounds like a huge negative, but it is not. The actual rules condense to about four pages. The book is long as it includes explanatory text about the rules, examples, the specific rules and loads of inspiring, beautiful and useful photos and diagrams.

A page from the rules showing the superb and clear presentation. Paragraphs in plain text are background to the specific rule, those in italics are explanation of the rules, grey italics are examples, while the scroll is the nub of the rule(s) being described on that page.

An example of one of the lovely photos in the rule book.

A page from the book of army lists. Like the rules packed with information, detail and gorgeous pictures/photos.

The rules have been played in Poland for many years and it is only with some interest from elsewhere and an English translation that they have become more widely available. They are detailed, small-scale (1:20) and contain a lot excellent background information and explanation. The books are worth it alone for the superb production values and lovely pictures. The rules look really interesting though and are definitely in the mix for me. Once I get to having a go, It will be interesting to see how they play. I expect well and easily.

 

All in all a great couple of weeks when, yet again, serendipity was my friend.