The 10mm Napoleonic Combatants Muster for Battle!

Hey all!

Well, the combatants are chosen for my first 10mm Spanish Napoleonic fight... so I thought I would share!

Above you can see a shot of the table, all set and ready to go.  The French will deploy on the far side of the table, the British on the near side.  I will be rolling each turn to see if troops arrive... on the first turn they arrive on a 1, on the second a 1-2, and so on.  I will then randomly see WHERE they arrive out of the three entry points.

Both sides have two divisions with a total of four brigades.  Surprisingly both sides rolled up three infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade... but the similarities stop there!

First up; the French!

The French commander decided to try something a little unusual.  Rather than evenly divide his brigades among his two division commanders, he gave all three infantry brigades to the 1st Division, under the command of Napoleon himself. There were two reasons for this.  First, he figured that this way his army would stay LARGELY together... if the single cavalry brigade that made up the 2nd Division showed up, it would probably be able to stay away from the British until the 1st Division arrived, and if the 1st arrived first... well then, it would be ready to rock!  Also, the French commander rolled up a TON of artillery; THREE batteries compared to only a single British battery.  Therefore the French commander will likely sit back a bit and pound the British player the entire game, using his infantry to defend the guns.

He did roll up a pretty good set of infantry brigades too!  The first, under Colonel Canard (an above average officer, which would allow the brigade to operate a little father away from Napoleon than the rest) is an elite brigade with three battalions.  The second brigade was rolled up as ANOTHER elite brigade of three battalions, and put under the command of Colonel LeRue, an average officer.  The third brigade was made up of three regular line battalions, under an average, if somewhat cautious Colonel Vin.  And ALL THREE brigades were supported by artillery!  Yikes!

So!  Napoleon's 1st Division wouldn't be the LARGEST in terms of battalions, but it featured a TON of quality troops, and a flood of artillery.  It would have to be kept somewhat close together to be kept functioning at top shape, but this didn't seem likely to be a problem.

 
The French 2nd Division was made up of a single brigade of cavalry under Division Commander Ney.  Ney would likely take personal command of the brigade from Colonel Lebreque... while Lebreque is a perfectly capable commander, Ney has only this single brigade to be responsible for!  This is pretty good for a cavalry brigade, in that it will be able to operate totally autonomously, with no fear of failing command rolls

Now on to the British!  Like the French, the British feature two divisions, with four brigades total.  The British organized their brigades fairly traditionally, with two brigades per division.

 The British 1st Division is a real mixed bag.  Commanded by the Duke of Wellington, the 1st Division features two very different infantry brigades.  The first is an elite brigade of three infantry battalions under the command of the super aggressive (if somewhat average) Colonel Smith.  The second is a larger brigade of four Spanish infantry battalions, under the capable (and also very aggressive) command of Colonel Del Rio.  The Spanish troops, however, are of poor quality... two battalions are below average, and two are simply average.  The 1st also features the only battery of artillery that the British are fielding, which makes this a very difficult battle for the British.

The 2nd Division, under Picton, also features two brigades.  The first is a large brigade of British infantry, with four full battalions under a balanced commander, Colonel Thayer.  The second brigade is a large cavalry brigade under the command of an extraordinary (+2) commander, Colonel Sharpe.  This will allow the British cavalry to range far afield without running into too many troubles getting orders.  The cavalry is maybe the only place that the British have an advantage... their cavalry brigade is larger than the French, with an extra unit of light cavalry... hopefully for the British they will be able to use that cavalry to harass the French and POSSIBLY help level the field against all those French Guards and French artillery!

So... that's it!  I thought I would roll up the first men to reach the table... in the first turn, no one arrived, but then...

In the second turn, BOTH French Divisions marched onto the table, along with the British 2nd Division!  It was like everyone decided to show up all at once!

The French deployment was NOT ideal.  The massive 1st appeared on one flank of the battlefield, behind some low hills and some woods... not the best place for ALL of the French artillery to be placed!  It would take them some time before they got into an ideal position.

The French 2nd, which consisted of all of their cavalry, galloped onto the far end of the table... just opposite the British 2nd, which included a MUCH larger group of cavalry!  The French would have to be VERY careful not to get caught by the British, who might make an attempt to wipe out the French cavalry early while they were exposed!

And there is still the British 1st that hasn't yet gotten onto the table...

So!  The men have hit the field, and I am ready to play!