First Battalion, 48e Régiment de Ligne

The third battalion of the 1812 French army has been mustered, passed through the uniform store and into the barracks.

In have done this unit almost entirely in greatcoats and have decided that this will be 1/48e Régiment de Ligne. 

1812 French Napoleonics

There has been a lot of activity on the painting table in the last week as I push ahead with the French Napoleonics.

In all three units of Perry plastics have been finished:

The 2nd Battalion of the Joseph Napoleon (Spanish) Infantry Regiment that forms a part of Groisne's 3rd Brigade, Friant's Division, Davout's Corps at Borodino.

The 5th Dragoon Regiment, mounted...

...and dismounted (less the officer figure that is yet to arrive, hence the unfinished stand). The standard bearer and trumpeter are conversions.

Still more French are on the table now as I fill in some time while I wait for the Crimean War Heavy Brigade to arrive.

In 1957 Meredith Willson wrote "Seventy-six trombones led the big parade..."

".....With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand."

Well my parade has neither trombones or cornets, but it does feature four cavalry trumpets and twelve side drums.

As promised last week, here is the  parade of the French in Egypt army. Now because I only had a piece of green cloth you have to use your imagination a bit here and pretend that we are in that lush part of Egypt that benefitted from the annual inundation and that each of the units brought along a bit of sand to stand on.

First of all there is the staff.

Then the cavalry. The hussars...

The Chasseurs á cheval...

The whole group, with the dragoons to the rear

Then the line infantry...

The light infantry...

...and the dromendaries, mounted...

...And dismounted

Then the artillery

Finally the team photo.

Then they are put back into their storage trays...

...and stacked in the study cupboard with the other containers of little men.

American Civil War Game

Today we played our second game of the year, an American Civil War game, on a very hot and humid Auckland Sunday.

We had no scenario before we got together so on arrival we threw together a terrain,  put together the armies and just played a straight up scrap.

The forces were even: 18 infantry regiments a side, two of cavalry and six batteries (although the Confderates had an extra battery to take account of their four gun batteries to the Union six gun batteries). We had three Confederate and two Union players.  

We started play at ariund 11:00am. The images here are in no particular order, just a capture of the day.

The Union, on whose side I played, did well at first, roughly handling the Conferderate centre with massed artillery. Then on my flank I forced back a significant attack, while on the opposite flank we had some gains.

Then things started to go wrong. Attrition started to play against a few units and we lost them. Then we lost a critical combat in the wood on our right, that gave the Confedrates a toe hold there.

When two of my units were destroyed the rot really set in and soon one of my brigades completely disintegrated. A brigade on our right also disolved and the game came to an end at around 3:30. 

For a quickly set up game it was a lot of fun, but it was good to get home to that cold beer on this hot day.

Napoleonic French Army 1812

Wednesday night saw the completion of the 1^st Carabinier Regiment for my French 1812-1813 collection.

 

The figures are from the Perry plastic heavy cavalry set.

 

After a bit of thought I have decided that the basis for this collection will be from the OOB for Borodino.

The plan is to do the entire force in plastic where practical to keep the costs down. This should mean all of the infantry, cavalry and line artillery in plastic and only the generals and horse artillery in metal.

 

For the infantry component I have chosen to build Friant’s 2^nd Division of Davout’s I Corps. This will give a force of 17 battalions, one field, three light and one horse batteries.

 

2nd Division: Général de division Friant 

1st Brigade: Général de brigade Dufour 

15th Légère (5 batt. and 4 light guns)

2nd Brigade: Général de brigade van Dedem de Gelder

33rd Line:  (5 batt. and 4 light guns)

3rd Brigade: Colonel Groisne

48th  (5 batt. and 4 light guns) 

2nd and 3rd battalions of the Joseph Napoleon (Spanish)

Artillery:

2/7th Foot Artillery (8 guns)

5/3rd Horse Artillery (6 guns)

   

For the cavalry I have gone overboard, as you will see from the lists below, because I want to get broad selection of types. Since I am unlikely to ever field all this cavalry at once, I will only do three horse batteries and allocated them as the games require.

2nd Cuirassier Division - Général de division  Pierre Watier comte de Saint-Alphonse                       

1st Brigade: Général de brigade Louid-Chretien de Beaumont

5th Cuirassier Regiment: Colonel Jean-Francois Christophe

2nd Brigade: Général de brigade Jean-Louis Richter            

8th Cuirassier Regiment: Colonel Grandjean

3rd Brigade: Général de brigade Joseph-Philippe-Marie Dornes                 

10th Cuirassier Regiment: Colonel Franck

Artillery                                  

1/2 Artillerie a Cheval (6 guns)

4/2 Artillerie a Cheval (6 guns)

 

4th Cuirassier Division - Général de division Jean-Marie-Antoine Defrance                        

1st Brigade: Général de brigade Louis-Claude Chouard                   

1st Carabinier Regiment

2nd Brigade: Général de brigade Pierre-Louis-Francois Paultre de Lamotte                       

2nd Carabinier Regiment

3rd Brigade: Général de brigade Joseph Bouvier des Eclaz,             

1st Cuirassier Regiment

Artillery

3/1 Artillerie a Cheval  (6 guns)

4/1 Artillerie a Cheval  (6 guns)

 

6th Heavy Cavalry Division - Général de division Armand Lebrun la Houssaye             

1st Brigade: Général de brigade Nicolas-Marin Thiry

7th Dragoon Regiment

23rd Dragoon Regiment

2nd Brigade: Général de brigade Denis-Etienne Seron                     

28th Dragoon Regiment

30th Dragoon Regiment

Artillery                                  

4/6 Horse Artillery (6 guns)

5/6 Horse Artillery (6 guns)

 

2nd Light Cavalry Division - Général de division Claude-Pierre Pajol                        

7th Light Brigade: Colonel Desirat

11th Chasseur a Cheval Regiment

12th Chasseur a Cheval Regiment

8th Light Brigade: Général de brigade Andre Burthe

5th Hussar Regiment

9th Hussar Regiment

Artillery                                  

1/4 Artillerie a Cheval  (4-6pdrs & 2 How)

This will not be a quick project and I fully expect it to extend into 2019.

Palm Sunday

OK it is still eleven weeks to Palm Sunday, but I finished basing all my palm trees on Sunday so the title was irresistible. Here is the last batch of 18 trees in six groups. 

I am really surprised how the simple task of putting these on a textured base makes such a simple yet effective model.

My apologies to you Lawrence H if this post brings on another bout of the mental distress palm trees have caused in your life.

French in Egypt Project Complete....Well Maybe...

This post celebrates the flattening of the lead pile that was the French in Egypt project.

 

These are the last two battalions.

First is the 2e battalion, 22e Demi-Brigade Legére.

Second is the 1re battalion, 4e Demi-Brigade Legére. There is a lot of conflicting information about the uniform for this unit. One source says the had crimson facings, another brown and a third puce. After much thought, and a couple of tests, I chose to go with brown.

 

And both battalions...

So what is the state of the French in Egypt project?

 

The original target was:

 

  6 Generals

  9 infantry battalions (6 line, 3 light)

  1 regiment of Hussars

  1 regiment of Dragoons

  1 regiment of Dromedary troops (mounted and dismounted versions with camel holders)

  2 field guns (with limbers)

  1 horse gun (with limber)

 

This has been completed.

There was a bit of scope creep. I added:

  1 field gun (with limber)

  3 line battalions

  1 regiment of Chasseurs á Cheval 

  3 line colonels.

 

This too has been completed.

How does the overall project plan look now? Well not too bad. The Prussian Napoleonics expansion, the War of 1812 and the French in Egypt are complete (the latter two weeks ahead of schedule). The Crimean War Heavy Brigade is delayed, but the figures are on order. The Non-Specific Plastic figure project has morphed into a  French Napoleonic army for 1812-13 and my the month’s end will have another two units added. The Egyptian ruins are done, as are the palm groves. The Egyptian buildings are started, but will be a bit of a background project, filling in between painting projects. The first order for British in Egypt will be placed sometime after the 25th of January – when the credit card rolls into the next accounting period and I don’t have to pay for them until March. I am still thinking about the Great Northern War.

 

How does that stack up against the original plan set down in August last year? Here is the plan as it stands.

Well the significant change is the addition of the British in Egypt. This is for three reasons; first, because I realised that the Ottoman Turks were not going to be adequate opposition for the French; second, because of cost – Brigade Games would be the manufacturer of choice for the Ottomans, but they are significantly dearer than other manufacturers (more than double the cost in some cases); third, Brigade Games service of late has been terrible – a month or more to ship orders. I will do some Ottomans, but as a reduced force to support the British, rather than a significant force supported by a small British force.

 

There is going to be a French in Egypt expansion project (the unkind would call it yet more scope creep). This will entail:

 3 generals

 3 colonels

 1 regiment of dragoons

 3 battalions of line infantry

 3 battalions of light infantry

 4 4lb battalions guns

 

But this expansion project will not be undertaken probably until March or April, after the British have been started.

In the meantime I will begin the assault on the plastic pile that is the French Napoleonics for 1812-13.