French Chefs de bataillon

When I started painting napoleonic figures about 4 years ago, there was little information on the internet, I do not remember seeing any blogs and very few manufacturers had decent web sites. Since then the information growth has been exponential.

Being a solo wargamer, I find having a blog is just great. It keeps me in touch with other wargamers, I see what others are doing and I get all kinds of great ideas on how to do things.

One thing I have tried to do on my site is put up some comparison shots of different manufacturers. Today are some French mounted infantry chefs d'batallion. Here we have five different manufacturers. Please try not to judge their quality by my painting job. These have been painted over a 4 year period with the Perry chef d'bataillon and the Foundry lègere colonel figure being the most recent. They are all nice figures and I have no problems recommending any of them.

I hoping to soon put up some photos of some buildings I have acquired, this is a really tricky area as the different manufacturer described sizes have absolutely nothing to do with their actual sizes.

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The 95th got their colours!

A few months ago, I discovered Maverick Flags, so I thought I would post a photo of my latest acquisition. Now, I am well aware that light regiments usually do not have colours. But what is a wargaming unit without a little flag. The great thing about Maverick is that Stuart knows that all units need colours, so he had one for the 95th. I had already purchased the colours for the South Essex, so I knew Stuart's flags are of great quality. It was with impatience that I waited for my flags to arrive from overseas. So here we go, the 95th in skirmisher order with their new pennant.

Here is a nice close up, you can see that it is a linen flag that is especially nice. I am not sure where Stuart got the design from, but it is very similar to the one in the TV production of Sharpes Eagle.

Front Rank, of course, does not provide a flag bearer with their rifles figures, so I had to "cut one up". This is one of their sergeants. I removed his rifle and filed a groove in his hand for the pole. It came out pretty well. It also illustrates the improvement in my painting style, the rest of the figures were painted about 2 years ago, and our pennant bearer was done yesterday. It is nice to know that painting miniatures can be learned. I know my method is not a traditional one, but I am really starting to quite like my figures.

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7th Jagers

The 7th German Jagers, presented in skirmish order. Front Rank as usual, again nice figures. Used GW Astronomicon Grey for the uniform and Knarloc Green for the facings. I felt my faces have been a little dark, so I diluted the GW Ogryn Flesh wash and then highlighted it with GW Elf Flesh. Then an application of the AP midtone.

Still can not get the white balance right, but I am working on it.

I am going to take a break from the Austrians now, I am half way through the Avant Garde Division, and focus my attention on the Hougomont Project. This will be my biggest undertaking to date, and I am quite excited about it. But, more to come.

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3rd Erzherzog Karl Uhlans

For my Lasalle Avant Garde Division, I needed a large cavalry unit of Uhlans (Lancers), the only unit I could find that were at the Battle of Wagram were the 2nd (Schwarzenberg), but I could not resist the 3rd, as they had distinctive red czapkas.

These are Front Rank figures and as usual they are quite good. The figures were pretty detailed, but I did enjoy painting them. I used GW Dark Angels Green Ink as the basis for the uniform. This was the first time I used a green ink and I was very happy with the result. Single coat over a white primer great two tone result. I used the mid tone AP on the figures and the light tone AP on the horses.

Here are the command stands, I could find no information on the trumpeter, so I decided to put him on an alternate coloured horse and paint his lapels and cuffs yellow. Also went ahead and attempted my first striped flag pole, needs a bit more work, but ok for first go. The flag and pennants are from GMB, the pennant have been heavily overpainted.

Side view, some day I will make an attempt to paint on a regimental mark on the saddle cloth, but not today.

Next up are the 7th Jagers, which is a bit of a relief as I am only painting 16 figures as they will be in skirmish order.

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The Inn at Santa Bárbara de Casa: AAR

This ended up as a very bloody game, with very few units left by the end of the game. I played over several days, but probably less than 5 hours in total. It was the first scenario that I have played that was designed by someone else and I can now say that I am quite conversant with the rules. I seldom had to refer to the book by the 4-5th turn and by the end I seldom needed the QRS sheets. It was fun and I highly can recommend the scenario.

Starting positions:

To the southwest of the Inn.

Mallory's Brigade

To the west of the Inn on the other side of the river.

Bardet's Brigade with French Light Cavalry

To the northwest of the Inn.

Goodenot's Brigade

To the southeast of the Inn.

Kirkwood's Portuguese Brigade and Shockley's Light Brigade

The Inn garrisoned by French Conscripts

The Advance begins:

Goodenot's and Mallory's Brigades advance to join battle.

What appears to be the main area of engagement, just to the west of the Inn. Goodenot has sent divisional artillery and one veteran infantry battalion to the north of the Inn under the control of his commander, Géneral de Division Lorell. Bardet's brigade advances to the bridge. Lorell has ordered his 2 cavalry brigades to join him post haste.

The British and Portuguese advance to the southeast. Lt General Clowes has ordered Shockley's brigade to advance to the south of the Inn while he wants Kirkwood to stay to the east.

The forces are engaged, with 4 battalions of Goodenot's bde, taking on 2 British brigades. The 26e ligne are sniping from under cover at the flanks of Shockley's bde.

Where are the Portuguese FA, rough terrain really holds up artillery trains!

MIdgame, heavy losses all around:
The 1st Caçadores charge the French artillery, they have no refuge!

We are now in turn 6, and the losses have been quite heavy, both sides have lost an artillery unit, absolutely poor dice and poor planning! An absolute melee is taking place west of the Inn. Even the South Essex are engaged, will Simmerson stand? The French and Portuguese artillery are charging each other. Loses now include the French Divisional Artillery, the British RA, 39e ligne, 66e ligne

Continued heavy losses all around. The 95th have broken after continued fire from the Inn. The 2/52nd are broken by the 1/25e légere and the South Essex fail to stand, Simmerson is seen fleeing the field in ignominy. The KGL Hussars have been continually thrown back and have fled to the forest to regroup.

The French cavalry have been also quite unsuccessful, and just can not defeat the Portuguese foot and horse. The 9th Portuguese line ascends the hill. Finally the Portuguese FA get through the rough terrain.

The French cavalry continue their attacks, but are continuously repulsed.

Bardet gets the reserve artillery unlimbered, Clowes defensive front is weakening.

The end game:
Now approaching turn 13, scenario allows for 14 turns, both commander need to think about Victory Points, and the British are rapidly approaching a Morale Check because of their losses.
Lorell pulls back is cavalry in an attempt to rally them, repeated charges have decimated their ranks. The légere make an attempt to decimate the caçadores. Kirkwood has gained the hill to the east of the Inn, he sends the 8th Portuguese foot to take the church.

The British defensive lines are decimated, the KGL Hussars finally attempt a charge, perhaps to late. Clowes has lost the 2/52 and both the 1/52 and the 71st have 3 DISR each, he decides to pull back the remaining KGL infantry and secure the hill south of the Inn before nightfall. Goodenot although losing 3 of his veteran battalions and 1 of his conscripts continues to hold the Inn. Clearly his tactical skill and vigorous style have helped.

The KGL gain the hill, but the 1/52 and the 1st Caçadores have broken, the British have met their break point.

The French Hussars dispute Portuguese possession of the eastern hill. Turn 17 ends, the British fail their morale test. They lose. The final dispositions of the surviving troops:

The British have lost 8 of their 11 infantry battalions, 1 of their 2 cavalry regiments and artillery batteries. The French have lost 5 of their 9 infantry battalions and 1 of their 2 artillery batteries. The British hold the southern hill, while the French hold the bridge and the Inn. The eastern hill and the church yard remain disputed. A clear French victory.
Général de Division Lorell discusses his victory with his ADC.

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The Inn at Santa Bárbara de Casa: A Lasalle Solo Scenario

Getting a little bored of painting, so I felt it was time to have another game. I had a search about, I was thinking about doing one of Charles Grant's Table Top Teasers but settled on this scenario which I found on the Scenarios Wiki on the Honour website.

I have stuck to Faron's scenario "No Room at the Inn" aside from some minor terrain details, starting positions of brigades, the units in the OB and of course I had to change the name slightly. I did keep to all the original ratings and have stuck to a 9x5' terrain.

I play solo, so I will append my solo variation rules below. I decided that I would not use blinds or spotting in this scenario as I believe this would detract from the intent of Faron's scenario.

Here is a link to Faron's original AAR.

No Room at the Inn by Faron Bell (changes in red)

early 1809

Background: As Soult’s French Forces invade Portugal, the Spanish-Portugal Border is in turmoil. Innocent civilians flee for their lives as the French plunder the border villages for food and supplies. Shortly before dawn, two opposing advance divisions find each other marching towards a vital crossroads near the border. Lorell’s French Division is made up of a mix of conscripts, veteran and elite allied troops. They have the advantage of position with a Battalion of conscripts having reached the crossroads and taking up positions in and around a country inn. Lorell’s command structure is overburdened and lacks cohesion due to recently being re-organized. Clowes’ British/Portuguese Division is made up of solid troops, though the Portuguese Line Regiments are fatigued from marching all night. Clowes is a good commander, has capable subordinates and has a slight advantage in overall quality, especially with his extra light infantry skirmishers.

Objectives:

Vital supplies and munitions are stored within the Church and are of great value to the French. The Inn and Hills are also points of interest for both sides as they serve to dominate the approaches to the crossroads. Flanking the battlefield by securing the bridge and, thus, access to the river is also desirable.

Set Up: French set up first inside their deployment zones. They hold the Inn at game start and may deploy a battalion from Goodenot's brigade within the Inn square. After the French deploy, the British set up inside their deployment zones. The British Move First.

Special Notes: (1) British may use the superior commander rule. (2) A unit crossing the bridge must be in march column to move across it. (3) The river is impassable. (4) The Inn and Church built up areas offer soft cover. (5) The 2 hills (both 1 level higher) can only be climbed through their access points and the movement rate is as through normal terrain. (6) There are multiple area as indicated on the terrain as "rough" and these and the two wooded area half the movement rate. (7) All stone fences are regarded as obstacles.

Victory Conditions:

Basic game length is 14 Turns + any bonus turns.

“No Room in the Inn” has two possible sets of victory conditions: (1) If a player fails his army morale before the game ends, he looses. (2) Failing result #1, assess victory as follows: 1 VP is awarded to the side that controls (1) The Inn; (2) The Church; (3) each Hill (2 VP’s total). (4) and the Bridge. 1 VP is also awarded to the side that has fewer routed/eliminated units (regardless of type) at game’s end. The side with the most VP’s at game end win.

Note: “Control” (or recapturing) is defined as no enemy troops touching the objective. Control is negated for either side if enemy troops are touching the objective.

Solo Variation Rules:

Activation Cards cards are used. The sub-commander's card activates his specific brigade, while the commander's card activates any of his brigades or independent units. The units have to be within 10BW's, so a partial activation of a brigade can take place. When a card is drawn that brigade goes through the 4 phases of it's turn (well 3 really as the status phase is carried out when the deck is finished, at the end of the turn), followed by the next card and so on. Going through a deck of cards is one turn, they are re-shuffled and you start again. If the Commander is killed or wounded his card is removed from the deck. Each deck is the equivalent of a turn in Lasalle speak. Units are marked when they fire, and can only fire once per turn (card deck). I have also found in this card driven version, that a unit can be charged and the charging unit can be reactivated a second time (by the commanders card) before the defender gets a chance to react. Certainly the defending unit needs to be able to react, I am still deciding on whether I should do it at the time of original contact or just prior to the combat.

Order of Battle:

please note that this is the first outing for the South Essex

The Terrain:
I had to make some adjustments in the terrain as laid out in the original scenario to adjust for the terrain I have. The hills are to the south and east of the small hamlet of Santa Bárbara de Casa (an actual place just west of Badajoz). I have moved the forests slightly and will start one of the French brigades on the far side of the river. All units will start in column of march, aside from the 26e ligne which is deployed.

Centre view with initial brigade dispositions. The Inn and the Church are demarcated by the stonewalls and are single town bases. Shockley and Kirkwood's brigades start to the southeast of this view.

Looking west, with rough areas and access points to hills noted. Shockley and Kirkwood's area of disposition noted. The terrain ends at the measuring stick (10x5').

Looking east, the forests to the north and the south are also rough terrain. Aside from the church and the Inn, all other buildings are purely decorative, but of course are hard obstacles. Good view of both hills. The only passable road starts to the west of the river and leads to the hill east of Santa Bárbara de Casa, unfortunately in 2 areas in is quite overgrown, significantly slowing traffic.

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13th Wallachisch-Illyriches Grenz

Here is my first unit of Austrian Grenzers for my Avantgarde Division of my Austrian Lasalle Army. Still working with photoshop to improve the lighting, I believe I could have gone a little further here. The Grenz were the border forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They functioned usually as light infantry and served with advance guard units. I believe most of the details for the 13th are correct, they were first raised in 1766. The unit was based in Northern Moravia now in the Czech Republic.

I elected for this unit to have white leather, by 1809 the 13th were in brown tunics. I have tried to paint the drum correctly, but still have left off putting stripes on the flagpole.....next time. The buttons may be wrong, I painted yellow and I suspect they were white.

In line:

Back view:

There appear to be quite a few Serresaner (the fellows with the red cloaks) in this unit, Doc Smith tells me they were Balkan muslims who acted as sharpshooters, scouts and even police in the Austrian army.

Next up the 3rd Uhlans!

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The "South Essex"

It is hard to believe that it has been 6 weeks since my last post, in between there was a lot of shifts and a 2 week vacation to Newfoundland, but I am now back in the saddle and have started to paint again.

First new unit off the table is the first battalion of the South Essex, the 105th regiment in the British Order of Battle. I know you asking, why would anyone pick the South Essex of all the units in the British Army. I could say that I had a box of Perry British infantry containing both infantry and rifles and really it is the only battalion and I can think of which fielded both in a single unit. But the true reason is that I was recently absolutely enraged by a series of posts in TMP, where several members disparaged the Sharpe TV Series. This is just something I can not understand, some said none of the actors were any good.........Sean Bean, Pete Postlethwaite, Hugh Fraser, Michael Byrne, Brian Cox, Féodore Atkin, Michael Cochrane and Elizabeth Hurley.........what is wrong with these people, Elizabeth Hurley even showed her "lovelies". And then they went on about the size of the battalions as portrayed in the series and this is from people who scale napoleonic battalions at 16 little metal figures..........get a life..........what a...holes!! Clearly I needed to calm down or I was going to end up having a "Porterhouse Blue", so I decided to channel my anger into a tribute to the TV series and Bernard Cornwell. And I decided to paint the South Essex.

A Short History: The South Essex arrived in the peninsula in 1809 under the leadership of Lt Col Sir Henry Simmerson. It served through out the peninsular campaign being assigned to multiple different divisional commands. Lt Sharpe, newly gazetted as an officer, joined the light company of the South Essex with his platoon of riflemen. The South Essex lost their colours in the fiasco at Valdelacasa and at the soon after their strength had dropped from 850 on arrival in Oporto to 550 men. As a punishment for Simmerson's incompetence and cowardice, Wellesley made them a battalion of detachments. Fortunes were redeemed, however, when the battalion serving in the 3rd Division under Lt Gen Hill, Sharpe captured an eagle at the Battle of Talavera. They then served on the Lines of Torres Vedras where they were broken into company detachments, it is during this period that Sharpe's light company saw many adventures. The battalion missed the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro because they were still understrength, but did serve and gained battle honours for Busaco, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca,Vittoria and Toulouse. Simmerson had been send back to London after the Battle of Talavera, he was followed by Lt. Cols' Lawson, Windham and Leroy; who was killed at the Battle of Vittoria. By then, now Major Sharpe returns to England in a recruiting effort which cumulates in Simmerson's ultimate downfall, new recruits for the battalion and the installation of Lt Col Girdwood as commanding officer. By now Sharpe has effective command of the battalion and at the same time has gained the patronage of the Prince of Wales. The regiment now has the honourary title of the Prince of Wales Own Volunteers. The battalion is reformed under Lt Col Joseph Ford after Napoleon's escape from Elba. The now Colonel Sharpe, has been seconded to Dutch general staff under the Prince of Orange, but is given the command of the South Essex after Ford's death. The South Essex crowning glory was the defeat of the Old Guard under Col Sharpe. The regiment was broken up in 1817.

Anyway, back to reality. Here we see the South Essex arrayed in line, all Perry plastics aside from the mounted Lt Colonel which is a Front Rank figure. The basing is for Lasalle, but will work equally well for the Field of Battle or Republic to Empire rulesets.

Here we see the right wing of the battalion, including the grenadier company. I initially used Army Painter midtone, but it was a little too dark as you can see on the drummer's stand. I used the light tone on the grenadier stand.
Here we can see the left wing with the light company as well as the command elements. Interestingly enough, the light infantryman is carrying a Baker rifle, he must of learned something from the riflemen. I like how the riflemen came out.
Here we can get a great view of the regimental colours of the The Prince of Wales Own Volunteers as supplied by Maverick Flags. This is one of their linen flags and it is absolutely brilliant. I am going to try to talk Stuart into creating a pennant for my 3/95th Rifles command stand. I can highly recommend this company, his response time is phenomenal and the quality is really quite excellent.
Finally, let me illustrate one aspect of my new basing plan. I wanted the ability with my battalions to break off the light or grenadier units to form ad hoc light or grenadier battalions. After some thought, I came up with the following plan. Rather than using a 40x40 mm 6 figure base on all the figures, I used two 3 figure 40x20 mm bases on the end units which are magnetized.
Additionally, I can use this method to mark casualties.

Mandatory back view..........we get a good view of Simmerson retreating as the battalion advances at the Battle of Talavera. (Free FR Sir Thomas Picton figure to the first who can identify the inconsistency in this statement and photo)

Anyway, thanks for looking and like I said a free Sir Thomas Picton will be send postage free to the one who spots the inconsistency as noted above. First correct response in comments wins the prize.

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