Bigger is Better - Upgunned Napoleonic French Infantry

My initial idea was to go for Napoleonic infantry units of 24 figures in an attempt to speed up production and get things on the table. Up to a point this was successful, but after a few games I felt that the units, particularly when deployed in attack column, just looked too flimsy. After much gnashing of teeth, I decided to upgrade them to 32s. 

For my Russian army, this was easy as they were already done that way and I had simply removed a base of 8 figures to get them to 24s, intending to consolidate these later into additional units. I never got around to it, so simply returned them to their parent units - no harm done. However having sold my existing French army, and wanting to accelerate replacing it, I settled on 24s as a solution, which turned out not to work for me. 

Upgrading involved painting up an additional 8 fusiliers for the 10 or so existing units and then sticking with this going forward. It was a bit of a pain to do, but I am glad that I made the effort as they now look satisfyingly "chunkier" on the table. I decided not to worry too much about representing the individual company structure with the unit. For one thing 6 doesn't divide into 32 (!!) - previously each 24 figure unit had a four figure base of grenadiers and voltigeurs and two 8 figure "double company" fusilier bases. I really couldn't face either upgrading to 36s, as they had been in the past, or re-basing, so I left the flank companies alone and just added extra fusiliers and re-painted a few company pompoms. Looks fine on the table. 

Secondly the rules I am working on operate on the basis that an infantry unit represents around 1,200 men rather than an individual battalion - between 3 and 8 units (usually 4 or 5) making up a division - the basic manoeuvering element in the game.  OCD it may be, but I am happier with the result and will have to settle for slower growth in the collection.

In addition to upgrading my French infantry units, I also had the beginnings of an Italian division and this will be next.

Was it worth it?

A Present To Myself - Buildings for Napoleonics and The Seven Years War

Following on from my unfortunate accident in 2023, the MIB (Motor Insurance Board) paid out (rather quickly to be fair) on the compensation claim. As a firm believer in the "it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good" principle, I thought that I would treat myself to a little something hobby related!! And here it is; or at least most of it - I have a nice church and a couple of redoubts still to come.

The buildings are by David of T M Terrain - a superb model maker, whose work graces many a tabletop. The brief was for cottages/barns suitable for rural Germany for my existing Napoleonic and planned Seven Years War collections. I hope you will agree that he has done an excellent job.

Rather than have the buildings embedded in specific "modules", I opted to have them done as free standing structures that I can put together in any number of ways to make up villages of different sizes and shapes according to what I might need for each individual game. I am currently working on a load of Renedra fencing, which will be added to the buildings to give interest and define boundaries, along with the occasional tree and other odds and ends. Although not as "integrated" as complete village modules, they should still look pretty good whilst offering much greater flexibility. I will report on progress as I make it.

Hopefully now that I am a gentleman of leisure, I will be able to update the blog a bit more regularly than I have in the past!!

Lest We Forget

This blog has always been about promoting our hobby, or at least, my own very small part in it. This post is a little different and I hope that you will find it of interest.

On November 16, 1916, during the closing phase of the Battle of the Somme, my maternal grandmother's brother Joseph Scarr, was killed in action defending the small village of Hebuterne, near Arras, some 50 miles south of Calais. He was barely 18 years of age. From the battalion history it seems that although there was little direct offensive action going on at that time, they were under extremely heavy shellfire and although I can't be sure, I think that was probably what killed him. Two of his comrades from the same battalion are buried on either side of him, the four of them also having been killed in the few days that they were in the line.

When I was young, my grandmother would occasionally talk of her brother, although it was clear that even 60 years later, it was still a painful memory. He volunteered for the 11th (Bantam) battalion of his local regiment - the Royal Lancasters, when he was only 17. Like many in the Lancashire mill towns of the time, he was below the regulation 5 feet 3 inches required to be accepted into the army, hence his enlistment in the regiment's "Bantam" battalion, composed of men over 5 feet but under 5 feet 3 inches. After training the battalion was sent to France, as part of 40th Infantry Division, a formation that was, I believe, composed almost entirely of Bantam formations.

Hebuterne cemetery itself has a slightly chaotic layout, where each of the sections that make it up contain casualties from a different phase of the war. The first seems to hold those from the fighting in 1915, another from the Somme battles and another from the 1917 operations. The village was fought over again in 1918, this time 53 of the casualties coming from the New Zealand division, including at least one Maori. In addition there are a number a gravestones around the edge of the boundary wall with the names of men who are "known" or "believed" to be buried there. There are also at least four Germans interred amongst their former enemies.

It was a very sobering experience to read the gravestones; no less than 10 of the soldiers were only 17 years of age and most of the rest, as one might expect, were in their early to mid twenties.

I was nice to be the first member of our family to visit his grave - as far as I know, my grandmother, her sister and parents never knew where he was buried or even if he had a known grave. 

 The only known surviving photo of Joe taken shortly before leaving for France.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission does a fantastic job in looking after these places.

As we were leaving, we came across this plaque at the village church in memory of the Bradford Pals who fought and died there. As you can see someone had left a poppy wreath. In the cemetery's visitors book there were several entries for 2024, showing that some of those buried there are still remembered, which was nice to see.

More Continental Regiments

 

Over the last year or so I have managed to make a fair amount of progress with my American army for AWI. From only a couple of Maryland Continental regiments, the collection has grown considerably. Here are the newcomers:

First up is Hall's Delaware regiment, one of the army's elite units.

Below is my New York brigade, 5th Regiment in front, with the 3rd moving up in the rear.

Next is the 8th New Hampshire.

Followed by the Pennsylvania brigade, 7th Regiment in the first line and the 1st in support.

The last one is a composite unit of  light infantry, made up of 8 bases with three basic uniform colour variations (blue, grey and brown), with the odd hunting shirt thrown in. From what I can see, the unit (under Dearborn)was simply put together during the Saratoga campaign from companies detached from their parent units, retaining their own uniforms. Unlike the other regiments, these are in firing line poses.

The fences are homemade, the mansion is by Oshiro Models - a lovely piece.

Sorry for the long delay in posting - have been working overtime for quite a while now to finish painting commissions before retiring - which I have now done!! After a well deserved holiday, I hope to give this blog much more attention than I have been able to up to now. With only myself to paint for, I should be able to really crack on with existing and new projects and share them here - something I am very much looking forward to doing.

A Hessian Brigade

German troops of course formed a considerable proportion of the armies fighting for the crown. The most well known were the Hessians - a term often used to describe all German troops, whichever state they came from. Below are a couple of shots of the Leib regiment, one of the crack units sent to North America. This particular battalion has 32 figures (quite strong by Live Free or Die standards), made up of Perry figures. The flags are hand painted by Mark Allen. I particularly like the colour combination on these!

 The 2nd Regiment is von Bose, which fought well at Guildford Courthouse amongst other battles. Also Perry figures with Mark Allen flags.

And here is the brigade covered by a screen of jagers.

I am just putting the finishing touches to a battalion of combined grenadiers (and I may even add a second battalion in due course).

More British AWI

 

It is well over a year since I last posted pics of my slowly expanding British army - I have been much more successful in building up their American opponents. Below is the latest regiment - the 63rd Foot, which saw a good deal of action during the war. Perry figures (32) with hand painted Mark Allen flags.

Below are some British light infantry in skirmish order - I did a dozen in total on 6 bases. We tend to field close order battalions of 6-10 bases and have separate units for when they are deployed in skirmish order - simply leaving an inch between bases and saying they are in skirmish order just doesn't look right - especially if the figures are marching. It means painting a few extra figures but....  In LFOD a base can represent anything from 50-75 actual men, depending on the size of the battle being played, although we have always used a 1:10 figure scale, making a close order base of 4 figures represent 40 men, or around 240-400 men per regiment. We usually say that a 2 man skirmish or cavalry base represents around 20, so this unit would be around 120 strong - perhaps 3 or 4 detached light companies. The figures are once again from Perry Miniatures.

Plastics For and Against

 

As a fully paid up member of the Old Farts Alliance, I have always had a bit of a thing against plastic figures. Whether this is age-driven snobbery I am not sure, but plastic figures were what I played with as a child and since then I have gone on to better things. Hmmm. In my earlier post about Partizan last year, I did confess to buying a few boxes of ACW Perry plastics in a moment of weakness following a beautiful display game that I saw there. And I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't however think that they would make their way into the holy of holies: Napoleonic. Wrong again. Having been working hard on my Napoleonic French army for a few months now (more to follow), I decided to try out the Perry French chasseurs a cheval box. Quite a revelation.

So, for and against. Negatives first - they are quite light and you feel that a mis-judged sneeze could send a whole regiment flying in an uncontrolled charge across the table! That said, a Really Useful Box with half a dozen regiments inside is a damn sight easier to move around than the metal equivalent. I also worry about the weapons, although they do seem a lot more robust than I would have expected. Even so, the first two regiments have the sword shouldered, apart from the officers, just in case! The case for the defence is pretty solid; they are relatively cheap, very nicely designed (as one might expect from the Perrys) and are easy to convert, quite apart from the incredible variety that you already get in each box.

Below are a few photos of my first two completed light cavalry regiments: the 4th Chasseurs and the 12th Hussars. Such is the detail and ingenuity of this particular box, that you can not only assemble units of chasseurs in a variety of dress, but you can also make them up as hussars in the Kinski coat - a simple and practical alternative to the dolman and pelisse that we normally associate with that arm. A really nice alternative. 

You get 14 figures in a box (my regiments are usually in 12s); so by getting five boxes and an additional 2 figure command sprue, you can get 6 full regiments (I am going to do 2 hussars and 4 chasseurs). Not only that, but by judicious use of all the spares in each box, you can easily make up another regiment's worth of riders and then buy spare horses and another command sprue and make up a 7th regiment (in my case a regiment of Neapolitan chasseurs a cheval, which fought in the 1813 campaign). No true born Yorkshireman can ignore economies like that! 

The three photos above give a good indication of the campaign variety that you can build in to your units, with the odd rolled manteau and forage cap to break thing up. A really nice and unusual unit.

The same with the chasseurs - I even did a bit of minor surgery on one of the horses and riders, to have a trooper tumbling out of the saddle due to enemy fire. This is much easier to do with plastics as you can imagine.

And here is the full brigade of 24 figures.

So, am I converted? Yes, I think I am. I will certainly complete all the regiments I mentioned above and am seriously considering a regiment of carabiniers and 4 or 5 of cuirassiers. I do particularly like the Perry metal dragoons in rolled manteau, so I may opt for them, rather than the plastics - not sure yet. I would also be a bit wary of doing lancers as I really wouldn't feel comfortable with plastic lances. That said, they are a really convincing alternative to metal figures and this old dog perhaps can learn a new trick or two.