New Regiment de Ligne ~ and Re-Basing

Continuing on with my current Napoleonic's binge, I decided I needed more French infantry. So I started painting. Along the way I also decided that, whilst I was at it, I should have a look at how my infantry is based.

My French infantry are currently based on 50mm wide bases, 40mm deep with 6 figures in two ranks. Each battalion has 24 figures on four bases. I don't really like this basing but I did it because it sort of matched my Prussians which are based in a similar fashion. After the exchange of several emails, lots of thinking (whilst painting these recent figures) and a long discussion I decided to re-base. 

Being a wargamer of a certain age and pedigree, I started wargaming Napoleonic's using Bruce Quarries rules and Airfix figures in the late 70's. As a result I have a certain mental image of what Napoleonic Wargames should look like. I also have an affinity to BQ's 1:33 figure/soldier ratio when creating battalions and regiments. so: Single ranks of figures with correct company composition and battalion strengths is what sits right in my mind.

A while back I rebased my Prussians onto double rank bases for use with General d'Armee. These bases look nice, they're easy to manoeuvre on the table and they make transport easy and, as stated above I followed suit with my French. But during my recent games they just don't sit right with my image of how Napoleonic wargames should look. 

So I thunk about it and I thunk some more. Cavalry and guns are okay. It's the infantry that are the problem. I didn't want lots of little bases and I didn't want big bases and I didn't want to use sabot bases. I have a whole lot of green plastic bases from many Perry boxes so my solution was to use those bases and put three figures on each base (45mm width). This means each base is a company. Six of these to a battalion all painted with the correct distinctions. I also added a tête de colonne to give me a battalion of 21 figures: not the 24 figures of a 1:33 ratio, but close enough.

To me these battalions look correct. One of my main reservation was: "Will they work with the General d'Armee rules?" My conclusion is that if proper formations don't work with the rules then the rules are broken. Any historical game system should work with historical troop formations. If they don't the problem sits with the rules and not the formations. Besides that: We'll make the rules work in our favour!

Having said all that: Here's my newest Regiment de Ligne.

Only a dozen or so regiments to go (then it's the Prussians turn!)

19eme Dragoons

I've had a box of Perry plastic French Dragoons sitting on the self for a long while and it was time that I got to them so they could take to the table and do their dragoonish thing.

When I got these I was keen to paint them up and get them into action but then the plague got in the way and my Napoleonic wargaming came to an abrupt halt and so did my desire to construct and paint these chaps. But we're getting back into the Napoleonic swing of things and their time has come at last.

For some reason there are 14 figures in this box. With the previous regiment I made I just did 12 figures and I don't know what ever happened to the other two figures. But with this set I decided to do all 14 and make a separate command base. I think they look better this way.

These figures are a bugger to paint because they have some great detail that I didn't want to miss. As a result they took a while to do but the results are definitely worth the effort. The coat for the bugler is a real challenge but I did my best to get him looking half decent.

So here is the 19th Regiment of Dragoons. I may add another base in the future to make an equal 8 bases. If I do that I will also add another two bases to my other regiment (the 1st Dragoon Regt) at the same time but there's zero level urgency for any such thing.

As it is, I now have a brigade of dragoons (1st and 19th) ready to take to the battlefield. I have a regiment of Warlord Chasseurs (very horrible figures) that did a while back and I have a box of Warlord Lancers (also not great figures) that I assembled a couple of years back but never painted. I'm very tempted to paint them at the moment but I need to do another French Infantry battalion before I do that. I also have some Prussian Dragoons that I'm keen to paint too!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5... ADC's Working Overtime

We're having a very quiet Christmas in here St Helena so I managed to finish a bunch of French ADC's for General d'Armee. All they needed was the bases done and a few photographs taken. I'm still trying to get use to the camera on my new(ish) phone. So today I played with the "pro" options that my friend  Robin showed me, and used a little light box I picked up from Aldi a few weeks back.

The results are okay but they still needed a bit of adjustment in photoshop. The pics look a bit flat to me.

The figures are all Perry Miniatures. I'm not keen on their metal horses. By that I mean all of them. Not just the Napoleonic ones. I find them to be pretty rough in some areas and they need a fair bit of prep. I appreciate their plastic horses much more.

However, these are nice looking figures and they should add to the overall look of the game. They will look much better on the table than tokens or dice. I like this one in the light cavalry uniform best. He was an easy figure to paint and has some nice detail.

I was not keen to paint this one below. I decided to assemble him before painting because I though he would be a real pain to fix in to place after painting. As a result he wasn't easy to paint. But he did come out looking pretty nice. The leopard skin saddle cloth came out looking nice. I've done these saddles in 15mm but this is my first in 28mm. I hope this chap can stay in one piece considering the rigors of the wargaming table. I did pin him pretty securely so he should be okay (I hope!).

I'm not sure about this one. I think he's actually an infantry colonel that got mixed in with the ADC's. Whatever... He's an ADC now and he better do a good job or else he might find himself on half pay as a reservist.

And that's it. I started these guys a couple of weeks back and decided to get them painted and out of the way before starting on the regiment of French Dragoons that I have prepped and undercoated.

Also, before I sign off these little beauties arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. Just in time for Christmas.

Lucky me!

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.

New French Napoleonic Things

These have been sitting on the paint desk for a quite a while waiting for me to finish the final company of voltigeurs. They all sat around patiently whilst I painted numerous other things and didn't hassle me. I mean... What were they going to do? They're just plastic and metal after all!

So here's my newest French infantry regiment. I actually finished the first battalion a while back and posted some pics, but here it is again just for the sake of completion. They are a mix of Perry plastics and metals.

I also finished these generals a few months back and they needed a bit of dusting off before their photo shoot. These are Perry figures and I think they're supposed to be divisional generals. They're very nice figures. I think one is supposed to be Jerome Bonaparte but I don't know which one. As per usual, I'm going to use them for whatever I want to use them for.

I bought some plastic HaT Industry 28mm voltigeurs. They're very nice figures even if they are a little bit plain and restricted by the HaT sculpting & moulding methods. I painted a couple of them and gave them a very plain, flat paint job to see how they turned out. 

They are made from a softer plastic than other manufacturers but it isn't that soft plastic that 1:72 scale figures are made from. This material is easier to work with than other plastics and is far, far less brittle. Therefore the weapons and other uniform items are far more realistic in scale (look at the musket, swords and plumes) and they're very unlikely to break off. 

Scale-wise, they are slimmer and more realistically proportioned than most other metal or plastic figures. Next to Perry French infantry they're slim and fractionally shorter. I don't think they'd mix well in the same unit. But battalions of these little guys would look okay next to battalions of most other manufacturers (Not Front Rank though. They'd look like skinny little runts next to Front Rank).

All in all, these are pretty good figures for what they are. Nice detail. Easy to paint. They'd be easy to multi-base, and they're quite affordable too!

New Recruits and Other Goodies

I'm back to painting Napoleonic's at the moment. I had a look at what I had on hand and realised that I don't have very many French. I have a good force of Prussians but not nearly enough French. So, last week I painted up a new regiment of legere and this week I did a horse battery. I also just started the first battalion of a new ligne regiment. 

These figures are from the Perry's and I've had them for quite some time. Each gun had 4 figures but I only used three which worked out fine because I could make each of the crews look little different. Nice figures and easy to paint although I'm never a fan of painting guns (or horses!)

And what are these other goodies that I'm referring to in the title of this post?

Well I bought a battle mat.

I got this from Warzone Studio which is a Russian company. I will admit that I was a bit apprehensive about the origins of this mat and wondering if I would just be throwing away my money but I was wrong. The mat is really well made in a thick material that feels synthetic. The print looks really nice with clear detail. They constantly kept me informed about shipping and just what leg of it's journey the mat was on. Also, the price was very good compared with other double sided mats I looked at. I'm really happy with it.

I didn't know what to get on the underside but I chose a desert type. It's more of a cracked/parched earth image which would work great for sci-fi, fantasy or similar scenario.

And to top the whole thing off... It came in this handsome, rigid felt case. It even has fake retro leather elbow patches on it for the discerning gentleman wargamer of bygone era. All it needs now is a beard and a pipe.

But there is one thing I'll say: As far as a desert mat goes I think I prefer my el Cheapo desert that was made with cheap white cotton, dyed with Tynee Tips Tea, and stained with International Roast Coffee.

It don't come much cheaper than that!