Prussian Jaegers

I've added to my Prussian skirmish line and decided to put all of them out on parade for a photo opportunity. I have quite a decent array of skirmishers (21 bases) with plenty of variety in their uniforms. I also played around with the new AI Generative Fill feature in Photoshop 2024 to block out the wall and window that sits behind my table. Quite an impressive background for a few seconds of work.

I'm currently putting in an effort to finish a Prussian line infantry regiment (the 5th) but I took the time to finish these volunteer jaeger. Like many figures, these troops have been sitting on my painting desk for some time. They were half finished and dusty. They are from Warlords and, in my opinion, they are pretty crappy figures. That's one of the reasons why they gathered dust for so long.

On the other hand here are some more volunteer jaeger in Tyrolean uniform. These figures are Perry and they're very nice. These are from either the Brunswick or Austrian range. When I got them there were no Tyrolean's in the Prussian range so I had to adapt.

Here are some of the other troops in my skirmish line. The guys in black in the centre of the photo below are part of my Lutzow's Freikorps. There are only three bases strong but I can add one or two of the jaeger bases to bring them up to strength. The Freikorps is one of my favourite Prussian formations.

Here's another use of the Photoshop Generative Fill tool. For this one I asked it to generate a background featuring Napoleonic Prussian troops. It came out pretty well.

These two below come from the Perry Prussian infantry boxed set. The top lot are just the basic rifleman figure. All the same pose and pretty boring - But they do the job. The guys below are conversions made from the same rifleman figure. They are Guard Jaeger and they were made by using bits from some Victrix French infantry and the Perry French Dragoon set.

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And last but not least, here's another little chap that has been half painted and gathering dust. He's a Reaper Bones figure that I got a couple of years back. Now he's finished and hanging out with my other fantasy figures. I've named him Otto the Pack Mule.

Lutzow's Freikorps ~ Completed... ?

It's taken me some time but I finally finished my version of Lutzow's Freikorps. I started this project back in March 2018 and it's taken me all this time to get to the end... Or so I thought until I started taking these photo's!

The newest, and what I thought were the final pieces, are a battery of horse guns and some bases of jaegers. Both the guns and the jaegers are Perry figures. The jaegers are the only figures from the Perry's actual Lutzow range that I've used. When I first started this project I had to use their Musketeers in Greatcoats for the battalions because there were no Lutzow's!

These figures are plain old standard Prussian Horse Artillery. They're wearing the long frock coat so they look right for the part. I use a pair of gun bases for my horse batteries and three bases for foot.

These are nice figures. I think they're newer additions to the Perry's Prussian range. One pack of them is enough for a small skirmish screen. I also have three bases of Tyrolean Jaeger to represent the Tyrolean company that was attached to the Freikorps (as well as some volunteer jaeger bases that I can mix in if needed). 

And here are the infantry battalions & the jaegers all together. One base per battalion as per General d'Armee. 

And here is the whole Freikorps. For General d'Armee they make up two brigades where the rules are concerned: one infantry and one cavalry (two small units). And that's where we come to that little missing part... I need to make a cavalry commander or, alternatively, an infantry commander.

I have my little Lutzow, as you can see and I think he would best be used as the infantry commander. But he did end up commanding the cavalry in 1815 when they were remade as the 6th Uhlans (the infantry becoming the 25th Regiment). However, I have some extra hussar figures & I could easily kit-bash a brigadier so I think that's what I'll do.

So there it is. It took 4 years but I finished this little project. The whole freikorps makes up a nice little independent command within the my Prussian force. It has enough presence to stand on it's own and would work great as a flanking force. Both the foot and horse elements can be used for 1815 as the 6th Uhlans and 25th Regiment and I'm sure the gun battery also became a separate unit in itself at that time.

I'm currently looking to create the 5th Infantry Regiment as well as some heavy dragoon cavalry. But I've also been reading about Hellwig's Raiding Corps which looks like an interesting little project for the future.

Lutzow's Black Uhlans

I've been away from the blog for the past few weeks. I have been busy but I haven't taken any pics to share (but I will soon). During the past week I've also been painting a new unit to add to my Napoleonic Prussians and, in particular, my version of Lutzow's Friekorps.

The Black Uhlans are only two squadrons strong and, I think they may have actually been a single strong squadron but I can't remember off hand. Whatever way it was, I decided to make them as two regular squadrons as they appeared during The Hundred Days. I already did the Black Hussars the last time I was painting Napoleonic's but I included them here to show the unit as a whole.

This is a really nice little unit with a great history. In General d'Armee they are considered a small unit and when brigaded with the Lutzow Hussars make a nice little mobile force. In an 1815 scenario they will combine to make the full 6th Uhlan Regiment.

I don't know what flag they carried and I can't find anything definitive. One picture I have seen claims to depict the infantry carrying a blue flag which is actually the standard of the 2nd Battalion of the 35th Regiment of 1806 whilst the troops depicted are not the Lutzow Friekorps. So I just chose a cool looking flag for the infantry and made a smaller pennant using the same design for the lancers. I'm not sure but I think I might have actually created this flag from various sources. Or maybe I didn't. I can't recall.

As mentioned above, I did these hussars a while ago. I just decided that now is a good excuse to take more photo's of them. They are made from Perry French Hussars with spare heads from the Perry plastic Prussian Infantry box. I recently bought a new box of the French Hussars and with the 4 leftover figures from this set I'll be able to make a full regiment when I get around to painting them... (That's what I said... When!).

These little fellows have already been on the table so they're battle hardened and they can lend their experience to the new uhlans when they take the field.

One great thing about this unit is that I have been listening to an audio book called Waterloo by Tim Clayton and there were a couple of examples of the 6th Black Uhlans in action whilst I was painting them. I told them; "That's you guys he's talking about. I hope you're listening because you have to live up to the real thing!"

Prussian Attack ~ Gd'A

We're still trying to get back our Napoleonic mojo so we played another game of General d'Armee. We're getting a better handle on the rules and hopefully we'll get more games in early next year.

This time it was my friend Fly as the French and I played the Prussians. Previous games have been multi player affairs but my troops just don't spread far enough for multi player games. As a result this game made a lot more sense to Fly (only his second try at Gd'A) and we got much further along than previously.

There were more Prussians than French so I decided to attack. Me attacking was also the best way to present the various aspects of the game. Beside that; they're Prussians and they work best when they're used aggressively.

The French were pretty much regular line quality with two battalions of veteran leger. The Prussians were a mixed bag with the veteran Leib regiment as the core with two reserve regiments and four landwehr battalions.

We both had quite strong skirmish lines. My Prussians are the historical 7th Brigade for 1813/14 which is very much a light brigade and, as a result, has a fair few rifle companies (I've just represented these companies with skirmish bases). I've also included Lotzow's Friekorps which I'm in the process of completing.

For some strange reason we both deployed our cavalry on our respective right flanks. As a result they never came into contact with each other. My cavalry (below) made some disastrous charges but the French cav just protected the deployed horse battery. This game changed my view about light cavalry deployment. They should be placed in reserve and not used as a strike force. I did this once previously to good effect. I should remember this in the future.

Below: The Lieb Regiment in the centre with the Saxon Thuringian regiment in support, advanced slowly across a stream. They are supported by a landwehr brigade on the right who are, in turn, supported by a light cavalry brigade on the flank.

The French cavalry did very little but their horse battery did a lot of damage to the Prussian battalions taking their time to get across the stream. Lutzow's Freikorp especially got themselves bogged down and became Hesitant several times on the banks of the stream as the horse guns pounded them.

Eventually the Leib crossed the stream and began shaking out to begin their attack. The skirmish lines in the centre exchanged several turns of shooting with casualties on both sides (the first base of the game that was removed were Prussian skirmishers). The skirmish rules also work well for protecting the battalions behind. The skirmish rules are one of my favourite aspects of Gd'A.

My cavalry got into position to charge but became Hesitant. This gave the French time to form square and successfully pepper them with skirmish fire. I had a choice to sit there and get shot up or charge. So the cavalry charged! It was a dismal effort. The squares shot well and causing  4 casualties (and that was halved for being in square!). They uhlans rolled snake eyes for the charge and the support re-roll was a 2 for a total of 3 followed by the deductions for casualties... A bad result?

The worst possible result!

And my Prussian cavalry routed. This caused the brigade to Falter but they did manage to rally. If they hadn't they could have broken and taken the horse battery with them.

I got the Leib Regiment in position for the attack in the centre and... They Hesitated! With one battalion sitting in front of a French battery I thought the attack was doomed. But the fire from the guns was desultory at best and the battalion remained in good order.

The reserve regiment supporting on the left were slow getting over the stream as they had become Hesitant several times. The only thing that kept them in good order was that the Friekorp was the main target of the horse guns and their skirmishers kept the French voltigeurs busy.

The Leib's attack went in and they took out the foot battery caused one battalion to retreat and another to rout . This caused the French brigade to Falter. It was looking grim for the French centre but a check of the rules and we realised we were on the wrong track. The French managed to hold it together and hold the centre.

On the flank the Prussian cavalry re-gouped and with the second regiment taking the lead they charged again. This time the French were in column... But they managed to form square and the result was the same with exactly the same dice rolls. My cavalry were pathetic on this day.

The attack in the centre lost momentum after a minor French counter attack which pushed back the lead regiment. The reserve brigade, left of centre, charged but stopped short of the French lines. The veteran leger attacked on their flank destroying one landwehr battalion and driving back another in a rout causing yet another brigade to Falter. With the cavalry also Faltering again and trying to re-group the landwehr had no support other than the horse guns. On the opposite flank the friekorp were still muddling around on the banks of the stream and getting nowhere fast. The Prussian attack had faltered all round.

Conclusion:

We came to a sort of result. It was getting late and we were getting tired. But the Prussians had run out of steam and the leger on the flank were going to overrun the remains of the leger brigade with ease and ruin their day.

After getting through about a dozen turns we had a good handle on the Turn phases and the basic mechanics. But a re-read of the whole rules over the Christmas period should iron out any mistakes and reinforce the basics. I'm planning to paint more Napoleonic's during the holidays whilst taking a short rest from Wars of the Roses. I have a French dragoon regiment ready and I'm also hoping to do the cavalry and artillery for Lutzow's Friekorp which will make them into a nice little independent command.

So that's it for now. Merry Christmas.

Prussian Skirmishers ~ Tyrolean Jagers

After quite a long time away from Napoleonics I've made a brief foray back into the era to bolster my Prussian skirmish line. I'm hoping to play some General D'Armee in a few weeks and I need to get my thinking back into a Napoleonic Wargaming frame of mind. I now have a 15 bases of skirmishers, but I think I could do with a few more.

So, where do these troops fit in to a 1813/14 Prussian army, I hear you ask?

In Lutzow's Freikorp I tell you!

I've had these jager figures half painted for a couple of years. They are Perry Miniatures from their range of Austrians as far as I can recall. I remember that I couldn't find any actual Prussian Tyrolean figures. As it is, I collected and painted three battalions for Lutzow's Friekorp a few years back and found that there were a couple of companies of Tyrolean Jager attached. From what I remember they were attached to Lutzow because those in charge didn't know where else to put them. 

Anyway, I ordered them, prepped them, half painted them and them put them aside. The reason being that I really don't like these figures. I find that many of the older Perry metal figures to be pretty horrible to prep and paint and, with these figures I don't really like the final result. I did the same type of paint job that I've done for the rest of my Prussian: That means pretty much 95% flat paint with minimal shading and only using washes on the flesh areas. 

I'm sure they can be painted better but I just don't like that actual figures and couldn't be bothered making the effort. They have been sitting around for a long time collecting dust and making me feel guilty. At least they're now painted and based. Hopefully the can perform well on the battlefield and reignite my initial affection for them.

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As mentioned above, I now have 15 skirmish bases. These include regular fusiliers as well as volunteer jager. I also have three bases of kit-bashed Guard Jager which were attached to the Leib regiment in 1813. There should actually be two companies of them but decided to interpret that into 3 skirmish bases (instead of making up a useless half battalion). I plan to increase my Lutzow's Fiekorp to include artillery and uhlans so I may as well add some 3rd rank skirmish bases at the same time.

Prussians ~ Now With an Added Pinch of Lutzow!

Back into Napoleonic's for the moment and, as usual, I'll try and get as much stuff done as I can until this jag wears itself out.

First up is a couple of squadrons of Lutzow's Friekorp Hussars. The Friekorp cavalry only had two squadrons as well as 2 or 3 squadrons of uhlans. So I figure: 4 figures per squadron will work for most Napoleonic games. It also works out as a unit of 8 for Sharp Practice. I'm waiting on the command figures for the uhlans and I'll do them when they arrive. I expect them to be an easy paint job.

The figures are Perry plastic French Hussars with heads from the their plastic Prussian Infantry boxed set. The commander and hornist have their original French heads. They look okay. Suitably "Waterloo" Prussian with all that black.

And I finished my final Lutzow Friekorp  infantry battalion and that's all I'll be doing. I'm unsure how many battalions there should be but there were at least three. All standard Prussian regiments had three battalions, so three it will be!

 

 

And I did a commander too which appeared in some previouse pics. I suppose, I should say this is Lutzow himself. But should I be so presumptive as to tempt fate? Who knows? Who cares?

I'll be adding some some skirmishers in the form of a Tyrolean Jaeger company but I also need a company of fusiliers in the litkwa and with a horsehair plumed shako. I don't know where to get these last ones. Brunswick Leib Regiment in great coats would work, but who makes them? No one. I could sculpt them but I don't want to so I might just double up on the Tyrolean's.

I also did another 6 French light infantry voltigeurs in great coats. These are again Perry figures. Not their best in my opinion. I didn't really enjoy painting them but they look okay, I suppose.

And finally, some more sabot bases. These ones are for officers/leaders for Sharp Practice in the main, but I guess they can be used for just about any other game where required. These were made for me, once again, by Mike Parker at Battlefield Accessories.

So that's what I've done. More to come soon. I'm tossing up whether to do another French leger battalion or maybe I'll do Lutzow's gun battery.