French Light Infantry

Napoleonic wargaming is probably my first love, having collected and painted the things for more years than I care to count. Strangely enough, in all these years I have never managed to systematically build a collection of my own. I have started many times and with the best of intentions, but they have usually ended up being sold to finance other projects.

The group I wargame with has, for many years used Peter Gilder's rules "In the Grand Manner", but the games have started to become rather predictable, as anything does when you have done it regularly for 25 years. One of our number, Chris Flowers, who has over 16,000 25mm Napoleonic figures and a table to match, persuaded me to get on with a job I have been promising for years; to write a set of fast play Napoleonic rules that would allow games of 2-3,000 figures per side to be played in a reasonable time frame. The first draft is well on the way and should be ready for playtesting in the New Year. One of the reasons for this change of rules is that we are intending to stage a re-fight of Borodino in 2012 at Sheffield Triples and we need to be able to complete the game (around 6,000 figures) in a weekend - a tall order.

Because I still love the period, I decided to make a start on building (and this time keeping) a collection of my own. As I am also eye deep in other periods - of which more anon, this is very much a long term project, but this time I am determined to persevere. Rather than the Gilder style units favoured by Chris - 1:20 figure scale and large battalions of 32-48 figures each, I am making the first and necessary compromise of a 1:25 figure scale and "campaign strength" units of 24 figures for infantry and 16 for cavalry, representing 600 man infantry battalions and 400 man cavalry regiments. Some units will vary from this norm - most Austrian line battalions will be 50% bigger, as will Austrian and Russian light cavalry regiments and French Guard cavalry units. Artillery batteries will be represented on the basis of 1 gunner per actual piece; so a typical 8 gun battery will have 2 guns each with 4 crew, a 6 gun horse battery 2 guns, each with 3 crew on a proportionally narrow frontage.

The unit illustrated above is the 1st battalion of the 10eme legere; the 2nd and 3rd battalions are hot on their heels. The figures are Perry Miniatures (metal) with a GMB flag.

The coming year promises to be a busy one, with over 1,200 figures still to do for Borodino and others for a re-fight of Lutzen that we are planning for next year. I am also hoping to press on with my Grand Alliance, Italian Wars, Carlist Wars and other things. I am also planning a WWII project, from scratch. This will involve making everything from the terrain boards, drop on pieces such as buildings, woods etc, the figures and vehicles. The subject will either be the Ardennes in 1944, or East Prussia in 1945, as I fancy doing a special snow terrain theme.

This is the last post of 2010, but hopefully there will be lots more to come in the New Year. So can I take this opportunity to wish everyone an enjoyable and restful Christmas.

Dragoon Regiment Wartigny

The third and final regiment in my French Dragoon brigade, Regiment Wartigny seems to have served in Flanders before transfering to the Spanish front and later to Italy. Mainly dressed in red like the Regiment La Reine, the yellow facings and trim on the stocking caps offer a nice contrast. As the release of Lily Banners 2 grows ever closer, I have increased the painting tempo considerably, with several new regiments aiming to take the field in the near future.

I have also been busy with other periods, which I hope to include on the blog shortly. These will include The Italians Wars, Arthurian, Late Roman and Napoleonic. I have also got caught up in a plan amongst a couple of mates to start a Carlist Wars collection. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.!! Oh yes, and I also need to dust off and add to my 20mm WW2 collection and sort out my terrain boards and other drop on pieces. 2011 is going to be a very busy year I think.

The main effort however has been directed towards my forthcoming venture into scratchbuilt terrain, particularly buildings. Hopefully there should be a few pictures of completed items before too long. I will be concentrating initially on buildings suitable for 20mm World War 2 and 28mm "horse and musket".

Dragoon Regiment Fimarcon

The second regiment in my dragoon brigade, I particularly liked the dark green uniform, an unusual feature in the French army of the period. The unit served both in Flanders (Steenkirk and Neerwinden) and in Italy. The troopers are all Dixons mounted on their smaller dragoon ponies; the officer and standard bearer are Foundry. The flag (a bit of a luxury in 40mm scale) is from GMB.

Over the next couple of months I hope to start featuring other parts of my growing collection.

Dragoon Regiment La Reine

Counterparts to the Dutch dragoons that have already featured, this unit is the first of a brigade of three regiments, each two squadrons strong. Although inferior to the more numerous
"horse" in melee, dragoons can be used in a dismounted role, giving them a useful flexibility. One thing I must admit to being unsure of is how flexible they were in this mounted/dismounted role. It doesn't appear that they fought like, for example cavalry in the ACW, using both mounted and dismounted action in quick succession; a large number of French dragoons held the French right at Blenheim, but seem to have remained dismounted throughout the battle and were indeed behind barricades. This may have been due to a lack of horses. At Ramillies, a large force of dragoons that were initially mounted alongside the main body of horse, were subsequently dismounted to assist in an ill-advised counter-attack against the Dutch Guards. they were comprehensively shot up by these Guards and then overrun by Danish horse. This put them out of the battle permanently. This particular regiment had red coats with red facings and caps. The saddle cloths were also red, edged white. Most of their service was in Flanders.

Dragoon Regiment Dopff

This is one of my favourite units and is usually brigaded with the Garde Dragonder. The red uniforms are very distinctive - the Dutch army of this period having a tendency to white or grey. I have used the Foundry tricorned dragoon pack with the officer and standard bearer from the "informal tricorn" command and a hand painted flag. Whilst the regiments in BLB are not large, I am not averse to cutting down on painting time where I can and have included only 11 figures in the unit. As you can see the place of the 12th in the front left of the picture, is taken by a pool of water and a broken cannon wheel. Even such small attempts to "diorama-ise" a base can look quite effective.

Dutch Garde Dragonder

The Dutch Guard Dragoons, also known as Eppinger's, was an elite mounted regiment with a distinguished service record. At the Battle of the Boyne it was the strongest cavalry unit on either side, numbering over 6oo men and was prominent in the outflanking move against the Jacobite left. The regiment also distingished itself in the fighting in mainland Europe. At Steenkirk, the men dismounted and helped to cover the retreat of the army with their muskets. The inspiration for painting the regiment came from Barry Hilton (of League of Augsburg fame). I really liked his use of figures in both fur hat and tricorne; slung muskets and held on the hip. The unit, as befits its size in real life, is composed of 3 rather than the usual 2 squadrons. It is rated as Guard in BLB. The figures are all Wargames Foundry with a hand painted flag.

Infantry Regiment Clare

The second of my Irish regiments, Clare's service was initially in Italy for most of the War of the Grand Alliance, before transferring to the northern theatre. Here it fought at Blenheim, Ramillies and Malplaquet. In my French army it forms a small brigade with Dillon's regiment. Figures are mainly from Foundry with GMB flags.

With four units of infantry for each side now shown, I will upload some shots of the cavalry next.