So Begineth the Great Re-Basing

I've been getting dragged further into the world of Lard and as such I have been lured towards the delights of Sharp Practice. This may seem a forgone conclusion to many who play SP2 but it's a bit of a jump for me.

I'm a fan of Napleonic's which I started as a school boy back in the very late 70's but I don't get to play many games these days. Part of this is due to my preferred rules and scale. At my club FOGN in 15mm is popular as is a homespun set of rules called Cold Steel. FOGN - I'm not the least bit interested in. Cold Steel, I played for may years but it lost me somewhere a while back. I don't really know why and I've dipped my toe into CS every now and then but it doesn't really do it for me anymore. I think it's because I learned how to make it really gamey and I don't really like that.

So, a few years back, I went "old school" with Bruce Quarrie's - Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature. It got me back to painting new troops but the rules are difficult in these modern days. So things came to a halt.

Then I tried General d'Armee and I really like them. I got a few others involved and we played half a dozen games. But that was it. I was happy to keep going but I could see that I was going to have to paint up, at least, twice the troops I already had and I wasn't up to that challenge.

So my French and Prussians have been sitting in boxes for the best part 18 months and I can't seem to interest others in more games of GdA.

Now that I said all that; Why Sharp Practice?

Well I became a fan of Chain of Command a few months back after watching several Too Fat Lardie's videos. I watched, I played and I like it. Recently I watched some Sharp Practice videos and I like the look of the game. I wasn't keen when first given the chance to play them a few years back because they didn't seem to be on  a large enough scale for my liking. But having seen games played I've changed my outlook.

There are also several other members at my club that play Sharp Practice & they have different forces than I have. So this can only be a good thing. Variety is, after all, the spice of life and as we know: The Spice Must Flow! And here we are!

I was unsure how to go about using my troops. After asking around for advice, looking at what I have already and going against most of the advice I received: I decided to re-base my French and Prussians (along similar line to other club members).

"EGAD!" I hear you cry. "What is the fool doing?"

Well, I look at it this way: I'd rather re-base and get to play good games with good people rather than leave what I have in boxes and paint more of what I already have. The difference being about 6 to 12 months of brush-work v's a week and a half of pain. I'll go for the week and a half.

So, now that all of that is said here's what I have so far. What I have will work okay for 1812 to 1815.
The two opposing little forces below will work for 1813/14 for a couple of solo games to work through the rules.

I also have at least thrice the amount of figures still in their barracks-boxes awaiting a shipment of 20mm square bases!

 French:

Level III leader - 2 x Regular Fusiliers

Level II leader - 1 x Grenadiers

Level I leader - 2 x Marie-Louise's 

Level I leader - 1 x Voltigeurs

(I need to base a voltigeur sergeant)

The French don't have any sergeants to help out the junior officers - This represents experienced NCO losses in the Russian campaign. (And because I don't actually have many French NCO's).

Prussians:

 Level III leader - 2 x Regular Fusiliers

Level II leader - 2 x Regular Fusiliers

2x Level I leaders (Fusilier Sergeants) 

Level I leader - 1 x Volunteer Schutzen (V&C) & 1x Guard Schutzen (Skirmishers)

I have some sabot bases on the way. They've been made for me by Mike Parker at Battlefield Accessories. I've had more that I need made up but I have a cunning plan...

My plan is this: I'm going to base one standard, one drummer, and other tête de colonne figures on round bases for use in the game. Others I'll mount on large square bases to match the sabots to make command bases... In this way I can use the command base - Stick two sabot's on either side and I have a battalion for GdA.