While I realize I put up an update rather recently, I thought I would continue today with another new regiment from my 25mm French Napoleonic army; my second unit of light infantry!
Like my other unit of light infantry, this unit can be put into one of two movement trays; in this case again I chose to showcase them in their skirmish trays, rather than their unit tray.
A note about all of my light infantry in my Napoleonic collections. The skirmish trays are actually exactly the width of a regular unit of infantry. This is true of my French, my Russians, and will be the same for my Austrians. The idea is that a single tray of light infantry can successfully screen a single tray of regular infantry. I like this regularity!
The first two trays worth of lights are the officers and a tray of men defending a stone wall. I have a similar tray in my other unit of light infantry, and I like being able to link the two up to form a single wall. This particular wall is crumbling in a spot, and the men are starting to rush through the gap to advance!
The second set of light infantry are similar. One is a blank tray; originally I was going to have a dead Frenchman on the tray, but I found after I had painted him that I liked him better with the surgeon; a good surgeon and hospital needs a generous smattering of dead and dying men! The second tray actually has a sacrificed left-over piece of a second surgeons wagon... no one needs TWO surgeons in an army this size, and I wanted to use the piece. It is painted the same color as my French artillery and other wagons, and I enjoy having this tray of lights near the artillery; it gives the feeling of men advancing over a devastated part of the field.
To the right is a close-up of a few figures. I very much enjoy the Perry figures and wish I had Perry commands for these guys, but the Old Glory guys work fine.
The majority of the light infantry is from Perry Miniatures, with the officer, standard, and musician from Old Glory and the sappeur, like always, from Front Rank... nice beefy sappeurs!
After the forge, I figured I would get back to showcasing a standard unit. This time I went with that gold standard of Napoleonic heavy cavalry; the French Cuirassiers! The cuirassiers are the heavy cavalry of the French army. The largest horses, ridden by the largest men, all clad in steel breastplates... the Cuirassiers were a terror on the battlefield, especially to vulnerable infantry!
This is a unit of twelve men, divided into 2 sections. There is a command section and a standard section. They are in blue, with the musician in the traditional green. Cuffs and collars are yellow, and the breastplates are a shiny metal!:)
The figures are 25mm Old Glory.
Here is the second centerpiece of my 25mm Napoleonic French army; the forge and blacksmith.
Now, there are many important functions of an army blacksmith. They shoe horses, repair wheels and cannon, service artillery, fix cuirasses, and so on and so forth.
My army has a blacksmith who has a small travelling forge with a few apprentices. At the moment he is pounding out a new shoe for a nearby Dragoon. He has an assitant bringing a bucket of water to dip the white hot metal into. He also has another man bringing a wheel, the spokes of which have been splintered, in for replacement. Finally, another assistant waits for direction.
The forge itself is of the two wheeled variety, with a bellows and a bed to
keep the hot coals. There is also a French dragoon with his horse, which is getting a new set of shoes put on. Now, I was told that the blacksmith is in the wrong spot, as he would get kicked there, but I thought it looked best. Silly, but it works.
The set is from Old Glory 25mm.
Napoleon got his start, of course, not in the infantry or in the cavalry, but in the artillery. And so we come to the first artillery division of my 25mm Napoleonic French collection; the Guard Artillery.
The guns were one of the most formidible parts of the Napoleonic army, not
just because of the damage they caused but also the damage they had on morale. Artillery pieces were capable of forcing men to ground and, when working in conjuction with cavalry, capable of punishing infantry in square to a horrifying degree. The guns are each manned by five gunners, all wearing the uniform of the Guard artillery. Like with my cavalry and infantry, each gun comes on a movement tray for ease of movement and appeal to the eye!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I enjoy an army most when it has the supporting elements that an army really needs. This is most apparent in the artillery, where I have almost as many men manning the caissons and limbers than the guns themselves! Somehow cannon just don't look proper without their support.
In this case it took a conversion to get the limbers and caisson for the Guard to match the actual gunners. Old Glory has no Guard limbers, and so I had to go about a little head swap, taking the bearskin-wearing heads from spare
artillery gunners and putting them on the bodies of the regular limber riders. To the left you can see the poor donors, as well as the original heads; I am trying to think if I have any need for a pile of shako-wearing French heads for my Russian army! To the right you can see the limbers right after the head swap, pre-painting, as they sat on the workbench waiting to be finished.
All of the Guard Artillery is from Old Glory 25mm.
Well, I've shown a lot of men on foot; it is about time I got away from the infantry and to the other branches of the French army!
First up, some of the mounted boys. In this case, I thought I would start with the light cavalry, or Chasseurs a Cheval. These guys are best used in hunting down skirmishers, riding down artillery crews, and harassing retreating and routing units.
All of my cavalry units are split into two halves, with six men per half. This unit is actually different than the rest in that it has no true command half; instead, there is a mounted commander for each piece of the unit.
The first half, featuring red busbys, are led by my favorite mounted figure; this dashing fellow, mounted on the only white horse in the entire French army. The horse is actually a bit of a conversion; originally it was just galloping along. A little twisting and turning, and I made the horse rearing, one hoof on a rock, the other in the air. The officer atop the horse is a dashing fellow, clearly motioning to his fellow cavalry to either hold fast or, more likely, follow him!
The second half, wearing yellow busbys, follow this austere looking fellow to the left. As with his mate, I did some conversion work on the horse; since this is light cavalry, I imagined their officers would look best with their horses in a very dynamic pose. He is charging forward, sword raised, leading his men to charge some poor, doomed target!
The troopers themselves wear green, which sets them off nicely from the vast sea of blue that a French army seems to be at times. The colors of the busbys in particular came out very vibrant; I am not sure if they come across in the photos!
All of these cavalrymen are from Old Glory 25mm.
Of course, anyone who is reading this blog knows that wargaming and miniature collecting isn't just a barebones affair with no regard to asthetics or complete-ness. In fact, in my not-so-humble opinion, an army is not truly complete until the cannon have limbers and the men have a few wagons to carry their stuff! I also believe that armies often benefit from having centerpieces, not only because then there is some neat, historically accurate ancillary project for the army-creator to enjoy working on, but also because then you have a nice natural piece to put in the center of the army when they are displayed!
For my 25mm Napoleonic French army, I have two centerpieces. This is the first; a surgeon and his ambulance.
The piece has a number of elements. Most importantly, of course, is the surgeon himself. He is operating on a fellow who is strapped down to the table with a piece of wood firmly gripped between his teeth. Clearly he has been injured and is in the process of losing a foot. The surgeon is exhausted from hours of work, and in his carelessness he has even wiped the sweat from his brow, leaving himself with an interesting momento of his work.
There are, of course, a number of other figures sharing the movement tray (or in this case display tray) with the surgeon and his ambulance. There are a pair of orderlies bringing a wounded soldier in on a blood soaked stretcher. Beside them hobbles another injured Frenchman... maybe a friend of the wounded man in the stretcher? On the ground are two injured men, twisting horribly in pain, waiting their turn on the table. And finally you can see the dumped body of a man who did not survive his injuries a few meters from the table; I doubt he will keep his shoes and jacket for long.
The surgeon and wagon and a few of the injured are from Old Glory; the rest of the injured are Perry Miniatures.
So far we've seen the legere who made the French army so effective, and the Guard, who made the French army so scary! But what about the lowly privates?
Here is my first standard unit of line infantry. This particular regiment is advancing into fire, the commanding officer urging his men forward with the help of the NCOs, while men in the front rank go down around him. As I mentioned earlier, all of my non-Guard infantry units are in campaign dress; a mix of greatcoats and pants and the like, all a bit muddy and worn. I like this look, as it makes the army look a little more battle-worn,
All of my standard ligne units have the same four man standard base. On this base is a standard bearer, two eagle guards armed with pikes, and a sapper, a large, nasty looking man with an axe. While this might seem like a lot of eagles (and indeed it is) I decided to go this route because, quite frankly, it looks good, and toy soldiers need to look good!
The majority of the troops in this unit are Perry Miniatures, with the exception of the sapper, who is Front Rank (as all my sappers are; they are bigger figures and make strong looking sappers! Plus, I didn't have to buy a pack of 8 guys to get them.)
Of course, no French army would ever march to war without that infantryman who was made so famous by the French themselves; the light infantryman.
Now, French light infantry, or legere, could fight in skirmish order, but they often fought in close formation too. These men were often the quickest men, best shots, and most thoughtful soldiers, able to be trusted to fight away
from the main formation. They were often used for skirmish fighting, but also for fighting in built-up areas and even ladder assaults.
This particular unit can be ranked up as normal and has a regular movement tray for it, but for the purposes of the photos I have put them in their skirmish trays. The first two trays can be seen to the right. The command tray includes an officer, musician, standard bearer, and sapper, as well as some troopers (including one grizzled veteran NCO who is waving the men on.) The tray behind it features some men advancing past the ruined stump of a tree which obviously strayed too close (if a tree can stray) to a cannon ball.
One note at this time about my French army. With the exception of the Old Guard, all of the infantry is wearing a mix of regular uniforms and overcoats. I felt this mixed bag look would not only make the majority of the army a bit more rugged and messy looking, but would also serve to make the Guard stand out more than normal. You
will see this trend of greatcoats continues through all of the light and line infantry in the army.
The next two trays of light infantry can be seen to the left. The tray in the foreground is defending some rocky ground on the edge of a fenceline; part of the fence actually meanders through the tray itself. The tray to the rear actually represents some light infantry who have found a nice safe rock wall to take cover and fire from behind. The men near the low parts are ducking to keep themselves safe. This tray is actually designed to match a tray from another unit of light infantry, in which the troops are actually breeching the wall through a broken down spot.
Finally, here is a shot of a few individual troopers. The rocks are actually bits of bark used in the bottom of lizard tanks which are undercoated black and drybrushed with a few shades of grey; the bark picks up the grey nicely. I enjoy the great coat look for these guys; it really makes it look like they are fighting in some nasty places!
The majority of these figures are Perry Miniatures; the sapper is Front Rank, and the musician, officers, and NCO are Old Glory.
Marching onto the battlefield today in support of the Old Guard Grenadiers are the Old Guard Chasseurs!
While not as rough and tumble as the Grenadiers, these chaps, known affectionately as Les Grognards (or The Grumblers; they were famous for being pretty vocal when complaining to their beloved Emperor, and he famous for being rather understanding!) are still the elite of the elite, very much in the vein of the Persian Immortals of years past. The Guard was feared throughout Europe and beyond, and there were few troops who bothered to stand when the Old Guard took the field!The commander of this regiment is clearly an aggressive fellow, pointing towards the enemy with his sword so that his men know which way to go. Of course, he is supported by veteran NCOs to help guide this veteran killing machine!
His men are clearly veterans, and show the scars of many campaigns and the fiercest fighting. Of course, no matter how much incoming fire they face, they continue forward, for The Emperor!All figures are Old Glory 25mm.
We finally get to the last 25mm Napoleonic French regiment; my Lancers!
cuirassiers are on black horses, the chasseurs a cheval are on dark brown horses, and these guys are largely on bays.
