Saturday 9 January 2021

Three very different Napoleonics

When one thinks "Napoleonic" warfare the huge battle comes to mind. But of course one can do smaller engagements also. Different style of basing and sizing for different warfare.

My skirmish level Napoleonics has units in small groups of 6 or 12 using currently the rules "Rebels and Patriots" (yes, yes, designed for American wars but really suitable for any Horse and Musket era) 

The latest unit for any skirmish actions are the Brunswick Advantgarde Jagers of the Waterloo Campaign.  Created from only two poses of the original Perry ACW plastics box,  I did some minor scraping, chopped off heads, glued on some arms and added the Corhut style headwear.  With the pike-grey uniform color, the ACW look is hopefully less obvious.


Next unit completed (actually, I just added to it) is the 13th Foot, ex from the Caribbean thus the white shakos.  They were given the standard black ones within a short time after arrival in Canada for the War of 1812, but that shan't deter me from painting up such a distinctive unit.  I use units such as this for the "big battalion" games/rules ('Black Powder' is a better known of these) with units utilizing 24-36 or more figures in each.



Finally we have an example of the "big battle" unit.  . Each element is a representation of a brigade of troops. Yes, we do use a high ratio of figures! 10 = 2500 or so.  Past posts of our large Napoleonic battles will see that on the table this actually works visually also even with 28mm. 

This one recently painted, represents the French National Guard of 1814 After years of massive losses, The French state/Napoleon, was reaching very deep in the conscription pool and young boys and civilians were called up to contribute mostly without uniforms or equipment.  These examples are from Old Glory's 1812 American militia pack which look to wear the common French blouse.  I have replaced with a spare shako or forage cap which might have been the only vestige of military dress they wore.  In the rear are two in baker's smocks made famous from actions in the 1814 campaign for France.  Based for our rules, which are similar to 'Blucher'.  


from F.-G. Hourtroulle's '1814'