Nansouty's Cavalry at the Battle of Hanau

 Nansouty's Cavalry at the Battle of Hanau

Here we have the representation of the Guard cavalry at the Battle of Hanau.
The first rank (left to right) we have the Empress Dragoons and the Horse Grenadiers- both in campaign dress, in the 2nd rank the 'Red' Lancers and the Chasseurs-a-Cheval - again both in campaign dress, and in the 3rd rank the Garde-du-Honneur and the Guard Horse Artillery.
 
I went with the campaign dress as the original collection direction was toward the 1814 campaign - and the look of that campaign was "in the mud and cold".

Arborist I am not

Awhile back I described the plastic trees I bought. previous post
My refurbishing of my old forest of pine trees had me thinking I should publish this post I created some time ago but had yet to upload:



The pre-made deciduous trees are very expensive so I decided to save a bit and make my own.  Big mistake.  If, for every swear word I made while gluing on the clumps (very loose clumps!) of foliage material, I paid myself 10 cents, I could have bought many more of the pre-done ones!
I bought all types of glue, none of which, for me, worked to keep the darn stuff on the branches... glue all over the fingers but none sticking to the trees....  Man, was I one frustrated puppy.  Check of the wargame sites for fellowly help suggests I was not alone in this trouble.

Anyway, after many different techniques, I managed to get some to stay on the branches and hoped that it would not come off with the transport to the convention game.  I was pleasantly surprised that they were almost unscathed.

Here are my 'forests' made specifically for the scenario but could be used for the open woods of Europe or with added lichen and such could be used for the darkest forests of North America. 
 
The hardboard base no doubt helped the transport and handling and serves also to blend into the terrain mat I use. 

Nevertheless, my pine woods will make the trip to Enfilade this time.

Prepping for the con

I laid out the complete French army at the Battle of Hanau (1813) which will be played out at the 'Enfilade!' convention at Olympia, WA in a week's time.

Each element is approximately a thousand combatants with the artillery representing some 40 guns (!).  The battle was the Austo-Bavarian attempt to halt Napoleon from retiring to France after the decisive battle of Leipzig.

These elements of the French Old Guard artillery will hopefully be the 'plow' to move the white stuff away (the Austrian infantry!)

The battle is unique as it has the French emerging from a large forest through which it has moved to face the Allies in the fields beyond before the town of Hanau.  Drouot, the Guard commander expertly brought out the Guard artillery and blew apart the enemy formations before him, leading the French past the town and back to France.  Should be an interesting wargame.


For the forest through which the French emerge I volunteered my pine forest (the Black Forest is close by to Hanau, yes?) as it would travel much better than the deciduous trees which I fear would fall apart during transport. However I did not like what I had made. (um, some, heck 20 years ago?). So I went at 'improving' them.  Not quite the before and after picture as I had already painted the rocks as they were a bright light gray originally picked up from a walkway.  But the new matching flocking I feel quite nicely blends them to the ground cloth. (looks closer in the flesh than the photo probably as the glue has yet to dry and is still a darker wet!)

Newly refurbished woods stands to the left, old to the right. The fragile deciduous trees in the background.  These are nice but to weak to make the transport.

Milhaud's Horsemen

It started innocently enough.  I had just a few minutes so I did not want to start a bulk painting session (I hate stopping part way through something if I can help it...just me).  So I picked up the nearby French cuirassiers. (I just love the French cuirassier uniform!) to put on a few colors. Well, I just had to finish them....

 The horses I had done previously - I do a large lot of horses for various units all together for production efficiency, for which why I am considered a quick painter, I guess.  I know I have painted better in the past but age and lacking eyesight has taking a bit of a toll I think)

One of these units is the 11th Cuirassier.  It is famous for not having the cuirass as these were in short supply and so were without during the Waterloo campaign.

I modeled this unit from the trumpeter torso, scraping off the lace. I think these were from the Dragoon set but nevertheless the horse furniture was the same.  I stuck on cuirassier helmets and the 11th were born. Well, OK I was one helmet short so my favorite trick: the bandaged head...poor boy must have lost his helmet when getting his wound!

For my III Cavalry Corps (Kellerman's) for the campaign, the 11th are added to the Wagnerian darlings (also known as the 1st Carabineers) and a dragoon element.  I get to be selective in my OB ratios picking and choosing out of all the historic units within each large formation albeit trying to maintain correct proportions of each troop type.

Like something from a Wagnerian production, the 1st Carabineer is a quite the show. Surprising how with an altered helmet and only a different color scheme, it can made from the same miniature as the cuirassiers!

The other cuirassier unit done completes Milhaud's IV Cavalry Corps which led Ney's fruitless charges at Waterloo.

Milhaud's Cavalry Corps

 The last picture is the comparison of the look between the cuirassiers with the cuirass and that without the armor.

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Commentary note from author:

Yeah, OK.  Perhaps nine chaps on horses hardly constitutes a cavalry corps but neither does only 360 if one is so inclined.  That is 12 regiments @ 30 a piece; which while looking very impressive on the table, that table would need to be mighty big, and the game take a long time to play - moving that many figures alone would be many minutes! AND STILL it is ONLY 360 to represent thousands of soldiers. In the same vein as 'Volley and Bayonet', 'Snappy Nappy', and other rules of the like, I am going for the Waterloo on a 8 x 5 foot table with room and time to spare.
Personally I feel the games still look good and are fun to play without too much 'Napoleonic Rules Burnout' common with many Nappy games.

Fictional Battle of Unpont (continued!)

"THE BATTLE IS NOT OVER! YOU HEAR ME?! NOT OVER!" Napoleon rages to his aides.

(actually, I merely decided to play it completely out by myself to check out how the game progresses with fewer and fewer elements...
....The answer is attached HQ to single remaining element of their command,  lots of 'spinning' elements and outnumbering situations!)

Anyway, the battle continues as Napoleon thinks, yet again, he can pull off the victory from near defeat.

Gerard had moved up and with the benefit of solid maneuver rolls he countered the lone Garde-du-Honneur element and finally charged the Guard Foot Battery.

With the total elimination of Nansouty's command (he having received two slight wounds), Gerard still with numbers on the other flank; and Drouot's Guard infantry on the far side of the river holding the town having ultimately pushing McDonald's now very weak corps from the village but now too far away to help, Napoleon attaches himself to the nearest element of the Old Guard.

  He rallies them and has them form square lest they be attacked in the rear by the Carabiniers, Sebastiani's sole remaining cavalry.   However a short time later with yet more combat ineffective formations n his army and surrounded, he admits defeat and has his guardsmen ground their arms and halts further French bloodshed.

The final count was only 10 of the original 29 formations of both contingents remained organized on the battlefield with many of these very fatigued and on their last legs. 

The playtest was informative and I would like to thank Andrew for the go at it.