The French Vanguard Crosses the Border

12e Chasseurs a Cheval pass through a Spanish town on the way to Portugal. Colonel Guyot (far right watches his regiment march by. Legere infantry clear out the town before the cavalry enters.

The 12e Chasseurs and the 25e Legere are observed by the civilians from the roofs of the houses.

The 7e Chasseurs a Cheval bring up the rear of the column. The 25e Legere steps off the road so that the  cavalry may pass. (Double Click all pictures to enhance your viewing pleasure)

Marshal Soult's army has left Corunna, after defeating Moore's British army, which evacuated by sea. Now the famous marshal, the Duke of Damnation, to the British soldiers, has cast his eyes on the real prize: Lisbon. The preparations have been made and the vanguard of the French army, consisting of the 12e Chasseurs a Cheval (240 horse), the 7e Chasseurs a Cheval (150 horse) and the 1er Chasseurs a Cheval (180 horse) lead the army across the Spanish frontier and into Portugal. The 25e Regiment de Legere (720 men in all ranks) accompanies the cavalry. Colonel Guyot of the 1er Chasseurs is in command of the French vanguard (1,290 men infantry and cavalry).

Spies are already sending their observations and intelligence to the British headquarters in Lisbon, Major General Pettygree commanding. A clash of arms appears to be imminent, perhaps as soon as six days (on Saturday March 16, 2013) in this first encounter of our new Iberian Campaign, 1808 to 1814.

Campaign in Iberia Begins

12e Chasseurs a Cheval in Spain. Double click to enlarge.

I am very excited to announce that our Iberian Campaigns of 1808-1814 have commenced and we will be playing our first campaign game next Saturday, March 16, 2013 in Brown Deer, WI at Chez Protz. Click on the link below to read the first chapter of Major General William Justinian Pettygree's journal of the events that took place in the Iberian Peninsula from 1808 to 1814.

Pettygree's Campaigns In Iberia

The story will be conducted in a series of chapters in the same manner that Bill has done his Colonial Campaigns of another member of the Pettygree clan, serving in India and Africa during the 1890s. So follow the link above, book mark it, and keep abreast of the adventures of the Major General as he defends Portugal and British honor from the legions of the Corsican Ogre, old Bones A Part himself.

The first encounter will occur during early 1809 near Oporto in Portugal. Marshal Soult's army is intent on invading Portugal and evicting the British presence in the country. His vanguard is already working its way south, even as you read this and so Major General Pettygree has begun to marshal his forces in the Lisbon garrison to deal with this threat.

In the picture above, the French chasseurs a cheval are from Elite Miniatures, as is the colonel in the bearskin colpak, who watches as his squadrons move through a small town in Spain. The accompanying 24e de Legere battalion is comprised of the original Dave Alsop Old Glory special edition figures. These are real beauties and I liked them so much, that I was loathe to part with them when I sold off my 28mm Napoleonic collection. Little did I know that some five years later, I would be glad that I kept them, for they are a key unit in the French order of battle in Iberia during the campaign. 

The civilians are from the Perry Carlist Wars collection and the buildings and trees were all constructed by the talented Herb Gundt. I actually got my fingers dirty and made the road sections, back in about 1992, as I recall.

Murat the Vain Peacock

Murat at Heilsberg - by Patrice Courcelle (click to enlarge)

Joachim Murat was perhaps the most famous cavalryman in Napoleon's army during the empire days. He was certainly brave, always willing to lead the charge from the front and mix it up with the enemy; and he was also vain and gaudy, as shown in some of his outfits above and below, both taken from the 1807 campaign in Poland. What he was not was a good commander of large bodies of cavalry, i.e. anything above brigade level.

However, I am not posting these pictures to discuss Murat's career and personality. No, I post them because I want to point out that the pickings are slim in the "personality figure" genre and hope that one day some sculptor will rise to the challenge of creating several version of Murat.

My favorite is the Winter uniform that he wore at Eylau in February 1807. It is a nice mix of showy and practical, what with the fur lining and trim.

Murat leading the grand cavalry charge at Eylau in 1807. By Patrice Courcelle

Both of these pictures are found in the book "Soldiers and Uniforms of Napoleonic Wars" by Francois-Guy Hourtoulle and illustrated by Patrice Courcelle. It is a wonderful book to have in your reference library.

French Square at 1:5 Ratio

French square at a 1:5 ratio (144 figures). Note the officers taking refuge in the center of the square.

Same square, but moving a little bit away from it.

Moving back a little further.
French 12e Regt. de Ligne at Auerstadt in 1806. Mostly Elite Miniatures. Click twice to enlarge.

Several people asked me to create a large French square with my 1806 French army and take some pictures. I thought that this was a good idea, so I pushed two 72-figure battalions together to form a 144-figure square at a roughly 1:5 ratio of figures to real men. Now mind you, I don't game at 1:5, for many reasons including tabletop space, cost of the figures, and the fact that it would take me two months to paint a battalion of 144 figures. But it is nice to see what a truly large battalion would look like and it gives you an approximation of how the real deal might look. Our group games Napoleonics at a 1:10 ratio of figures to men and so I draw the line at 72-figure battalions (which is its own form of madness).

A close-up view of the same square. Note the Eagle Bearer and the Drummers are all in the center of the square along with the officers mounted on horseback. Click twice, if you dare.

The French infantry are from Elite Miniatures as is the Prussian dragoon regiment von Irwing (DR3) shown hurling themselves against one of the corners of the square. In the distance, one can see the super large Imperialist Miniatures dragoons - these must be 35-35mm figures. Giants indeed, but they look really cool so I use them anyway.

I immediately discovered that I don't have enough dragoons in my 1806 Prussian army. I do have about 60 Prussian SYW hussars from the Stadden 30mm range that have uniforms suitable for double duty in 1756 and 1806. However, I was anxious to shoot the photographs and get them posted so I did not put the hussars on the table.

The square is actually more of a rectangle, with two stands on each end and four stands on the sides.

French Column at 1:5 Ratio

French battalion at 1:5 ratio (144 figures). Elite Miniatures. Click to enlarge.

Just for the fun of it, I pushed two of my 1806 French battalions together to increase the casting to figure ratio from 1:10 to 1:5. So now a company increases from 12 figures to 24 figures. Now I have no intention of gaming Napoleonics at a 1:5 ratio, but it is an interesting exercise in optics. In the top picture, I provided a little bit of spacing between the companies of the column. The column is actually a column of grand divisions, of which it has a frontage of two grand divisions (48 figures x 5 = 240 men). So in theory, the French could fire off 240 muskets in three ranks when deployed in a column of grand divisions and facing an opponent in line formation (2 or 3 ranks deep).

UPDATE: the formation shown in the picture above is called colonne a grand distance with a 2-company (peleton) frontage per the 1791 regulations. There was an interval of 22 yards between the companies when they were in column and they had a 2-company frontage of about 44 yards.

1791 Regulations Column as used in 1805-1807 Campaigns

OOOO   OOOO
OOOO   OOOO    = 2 peleton frontage (grand division) for a column
OOOO   OOOO
                                =  interval of 22 yards between companies in the column
OOOO  OOOO
OOOO  OOOO
OOOO  OOOO

OOOO  OOOO
OOOO  OOOO
OOOO  OOOO

OOOO  OOOO
OOOO  OOOO
OOOO  OOOO

OOOO
OOOO                 = grenadier or voltigeur company
OOOO

In the picture shown below, the companies or peletons have been closed up in a formation called serre en colonne (close in column).

I have to say that I am sorely tempted to change my 1806 armies over to the proper 1791 Regulations organization of 9 companies. I would probably want to add 9 more figures to my 72-figure battalion, resulting in 81 figures or 9 companies of 9 figures. For the Peninsula War, I could change the movement trays (sabots) back to the six stand organization.

1808 Regulations used from 1808 to 1815

In 1808, the 9-company organization used in the 1806 campaign was now organized as a 6-company battalion (which is shown in my French armies for convenience' sake). So two peletons or companies in the 1791 regulations are equivalent to the a single company in the 1808 regulations. So now the companies are larger and they thus have a wider frontage. A column of grand divisions is shown below. This is the traditional "attack column" that we depict on the wargame table with six stands of figures, two stands wide and three stands deep.


OOOOOO   OOOOOO
OOOOOO   OOOOOO    = 2 company frontage for the attack column
OOOOOO   OOOOOO

OOOOOO   OOOOOO
OOOOOO   OOOOOO
OOOOOO   OOOOOO

OOOOOO   OOOOOO
OOOOOO   OOOOOO
OOOOOO   OOOOOO

The companies or grand divisions are closed up in this picture.

In the picture above, I have closed up the companies in the column so that there is little space between the individual companies. This is more of a wargaming formation than it is an actual formation, as there has to be some room between the companies. However, for wargaming purposes, we hardly ever depict any space between the companies when they are in column formation.

Work in Progress

French 1er Chasseurs a Cheval. Elite Miniatures.

Here are ten of the old Elite Miniatures French chasseurs a cheval that I painted over the weekend as the 1st Regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval. The entire Elite range was resculpted at some time during the 1990s and the older castings were discontinued. The new figures have definite scale creep as they are closer to 30mm whilst the old figures were closer to 25mm. I think. At any rate, I kind of like these older figures and I have been able to acquire 30 of them, which is almost 3 squadrons of 12 figures. I will have to use some (six to be exact) of the new  Elite chasseurs a cheval to fill out the regiment in my 1806 French army.

Eventually, I will have the 1st and the 12th regiments of chasseurs a cheval, both of which served in Davout's III Corps as the light cavalry contingent.

The picture is kind of dodgy and was taken with my iPad in the basement. The full size picture is a whopping 5 megs so I had to reduce it down to about 700 megs so that the pictures do not take up too much of the storage space that Blogger provides to me.

1806 French Army - Update

Old Glory French Legere battalion, from the old limited edition Dave Alsop sculpts that Old Glory issued in the early 1990s (?). The figures were painted by Dennis Smail. These are wonderful figures full of elan and animation. Click to enbiggen.

I updated the post from this morning, removing the picture of the Prussian cavalry, and adding a new artillery and cavalry picture. I also replaced the infantry picture with the same pic, though in a better quality. If you double click on all the pictures, then the enlargement is huge.

I also added more commentary and information about my divisional organization, so please take another look at this morning's posting.

I will post pictures of the 1806 Prussians tomorrow.

Now, let's get that "Follower" count up to 320. We've been stuck on 319 for too long and Old Fritz likes the symetry and order of even numbers. If you are not a Follower, then go to the upper left corner of this page and click on the Follower button. Thanks in advance.

1806 French

French divisional artillery battery. Elite Miniatures cannon and crew with Front Rank French limber.  Essex caissons can be seen in the background.

The introduction of the new range of 28 mm Prussians for the 1806 Campaign from FG Miniz caused me to clear off my Wargame table and set up both the Prussian and French armies so that I could see what I had so far. Click on the link below to take a closer look at the proposed Prussian range. They look really nice and I ordered enough to create three 60-figure battalions. If you are interested in these figures then why not contribute to their Indiegogo campaign (this is similar to Kickstarter) at various price levels.

FG Miniz 1806 Prussians

I currently have 6 battalions of Prussian infantry and 2 dragoon, 1 cuirassier regiment and some Stadden SYW hussars that can do double duty in my 1806 Prussian army. I will do a separate posting on the Prussians, as this is supposed to be a French topic thread.

Gudin's Division (3rd) in Davout's III Corps in 1806

Big battalions of 60 figures take up a lot of space on a wargame table, even on my 15ft by 6ft table with two parallel back tables for added depth. So I decided that my French army would actually be a division in one of the corps in the 1806 campaign. I picked one of Davout's division since, well, come on it's Davout! 

The division has two brigades of two regiments, with each regiment having two battalions. So that is four battalions per brigade and eight battalions in the whole division. This allows me to field one divisional foot artillery battery (six 8-pounders and two howitzers) with one cannon model equaling one actual cannon (so 1:1 ratio on the artillery).

Below is a picture of the First Brigade commanded by General de Brigade Claude Petit and consists of the 12e Regiment de Ligne (2 btns) and the 21e Regiment de Ligne (3btns, but I will only field 2btns). You can see the two regiments deployed in attack column, each having two battalions. There are 72-figures in each battalion representing 720 men or 1,420 men in the regiment. I include the brigade commander on a 2" diameter round stand and an ADC on a 1" by 2" stand. ADCs are used for sending messages and orders up and down the chain of command. Players are not allowed to talk to the other players on their side, except via written communications.

First Brigade of General de Brigade Claude Petit. 12e Regt de Ligne shown in the upper left and the 21e de Ligne is shown in the foreground. All figures are Elite Miniatures. Click to enlarge. Click twice if you are brave.

French Cavalry Brigades in 1806

French corps light cavalry in the foreground and a brigade of heavy cavalry in the background.

My Grande Armee of 1806 has the III Corps light cavalry which consists of the 1st, 2nd and 24th regiments of Chasseurs a Cheval. At least that was the initial plan. I will eventually paint three chasseur regiments, but maybe not the actually III Corps cavalry regiments. I also added the Vistula Lancers for our games that take place in Spain and Portugal. I know that the lancers were not part of the 1806 French army, but I love lancers and I just had to have one regiment in my army. So there you have it.

There is also a heavy cavalry brigade consisting of 48 dragoons and 60 cuirassiers. The dragoons are the 20th (I think, I'll have to double check) and the 1st and 2nd Cuirassier regiments. The cuirassiers will not be used for our Peninsular War games since there weren't any cuirassiers deployed in Spain (save for the provisional regiment in Eastern Spain, and its questionable as to whether they even wore cuirasses). If you have a Napoleonic French army, you have to have Les Gros Freres (cuirassiers) in your collection. Their uniforms are spectacular and are the epitome of all things Napoleonic.

Final Thoughts

It is fun to haul the old army out of storage every once and awhile and line them up on the table to look at them and to see what you have and what you will need to complete your wargame army. You can see in the cavalry picture, above, that there are some unpainted castings in the lancer regiment. I placed them there to remind me of what I need to paint to bring the regiment up to strength (in this case, from 20 to 24 figures). I also thought that I had more French battalions completed than I actually had. I can see that I still need to paint three more line battalions to complete Gudin's division. That is 216 more infantry still to paint. That is a lot of piping on the sleeves to paint. Yikes!