Napoleonic Army – Page 9 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

The Battle of Bitteburg 1816

Once every three months or so we play a ‘mega’ battle where all the units that we have painted are placed onto the table. The last battle that we fought in this way was our Waterloo tribute, on June 13th. The battle of Bitteburg was the follow up played on Sunday 22/11/2015. We don’t get too vexed about how many troops are on each side, as long as they are painted , they are on the table! We are also quite lax regarding uniforms. I know that purists will find this difficult to accept but provided the troops are from the Napoleonic era, we are quite happy to mix Peninsular Uniforms with Waterloo issue. Likewise early revolutionary French will face off against 1815 Prussians. We even had a battalion of Caribbean troops to bolster the Allied numbers…

The scenario was as follows:

Following Napoleons victory at Waterloo, the Allies were able to retreat in good order back into Belgium, holding Napoleon back from capturing Brussels. The Allies were however, in no position to go back onto the offensive. Despite his victory, Napoleon was prevented from further pursuit of the British and Prussians by political unrest at home and again had to return to France to settle matters once and for all. Meanwhile, a combined Austrian/Russian Army was approaching from Germany and reinforced by a small Anglo Prussian force, threatened the borders of France. Napoleon swiftly marched out to meet the oncoming army and battle was joined just outside the town of Bitteburg.

First Table set up – note scenic cloth

We were using the basic Black Powder rules with a few of our own additions and modifications. There were four players on each side. Each player commanded a Division made up of between 3 and 6 brigades of Infantry and cavalry with the appropriate artillery support. In all there were over 3000 figures to go ontyo the table! The French deployed their forces first, with the Allies responding. However, all players could only deploy half of their division, the rest following on, one brigade per turn at the Divisional commanders discretion. One player on each side was appointed ‘Army Commander’ and was given the ability to issue one additional order to each division ( four orders maximum) to any unit or brigade that had either not moved or failed an order to move. The Army Commanders rating was 9 and these orders were unaffected by distance to the unit. (We assumed a very fast ADC would issue the order!) However, the Army commander was still required to pass the order on a dice throw as usual and of course, subject to the ‘blunder’ rule.

Apart from adding to the fun, the idea of the extra order was to create a pause at the end of each turn so that the players would get a feel as to what was going on else where in the battle. In addition it ensured that all four players on each side kept in turn with each other.

The Zig Zag Table set up. Pete takes a break before deciding whether to place more cover on the tables!

Rather than lay the tables out in a straight line, we adopted a zig zag shape to create some ‘pinch points’ on the battlefield. This gave us about 26 feet of deployment area per side! Scenery was set up by three of us the day before the battle and placed arbitrarily to break up the battlefield without giving either side a particular tactical advantage. We modified the rules regarding fighting in buildings to make it easier for assaulting troops. The first round of combat would be fought as per standard Black Powder rules. If the defenders won the combat, the assaulting troops would immediately recoil, regardless of the outcome of the morale role. If the combat was a draw, the troops would remain locked in combat but the defenders would have their save modifier reduce from 2+ to 1+. In the event that the attackers won, the it was assumed that they had fought their way into the building and subsequent rounds of combat would take place subject to normal combat rules with no further advantage to the defenders. The aim was to encourage the assault of buildings!

The last of the Allies are deployed

With all of the above in mind, the troops were deployed, the Allies had the first turn and The Austrian Commander on the left wing gave his first order of the day… and with the first roll of the dice, a double six! A blunder! The omens did not look good for the Allies…

All troops deployed – let battle commence!

To be continued.

Napoleons Carriage on the Workbench.

Napoleons Berlin Carriage

It was some time ago that I mentioned that I was about to start work on Warlord Games version of Napoleons Carriage – see my blog entry ‘A Confession’ . I was hesitating to start the project for two reasons. One, I was struggling to find the information that I needed regarding colour scheme etc and two, I had decided that I wanted the door to the coach in an open position for reasons that I will explain later.

Well, I’ve tracked down a brief account of the famous carriage. I didn’t have to look too far – on page 419 of the book ‘Waterloo Companion’, by Mark Adkin is a short description of the coach and how it was used. Incidentally, Mark Adkins book is a must have item for any Napoleonic Wargamer. If you haven’t already got it, then put it on your Christmas list now!

Waterloo Companion

The carriage is described as ‘ a large green carriage’ used by Napoleon as a mobile command post. It had strength, stability and manoeuvrability and was weather-proofed. It must have been quite a large affair, as one seat across the back was partially partitioned so that two persons could work, without being thrown around. Opposite was a lockable cabinet that could be converted into a writing desk. There were other cupboards containing everything that Napoleon might need. A silver chronometer hung on one wall and Napoleons seat could be transformed into a bed!

Napoleons Coach assembled.

The Warlord Games version is clearly not a scale model of this actual coach but is a very good representation as far as a wargaming piece goes. Which leads me to remind myself that I am neither interested or capable of making a detailed scale model of this subject, merely a passable representation that will look good on my wargames table as an objective or conversation piece. In this respect the Warlord Games model is an excellent model.

Napoleons Coach under coated – dare I take a scalpel to it?

The real coach was captured and plundered in the chaos and confusion after the battle of Waterloo. Indeed on the 19th June 1815, Commissariat officer Tupper Carey passed it, still surrounded by Prussians ‘scraping and sifting the ground, in consequence of a report that some diamonds had fallen from their settings in the night scramble’. Although the Prussians stripped and plundered what ever treasures were aboard the coach that day, the coach itself was returned to England where it eventually ended up in Madame Tussauds in London but was destroyed by fire in 1925.

So having decided that I would like to build the model, I decided that I would depict it as being captured after the Battle of Waterloo. In my minds eye, this would simply involve the Carriage being halted by the Prussians and the start of the search for plunder. It is quite an ambitious diorama for me to build and I suspect that it will take some time. The first task was to see if I could safely remove the door of the coach. Using a new, sharp scalpel blade, I carefully cut around the frame of the door, both inside and out. Fortunately, Warlord Games use a good quality resin, rather than the cheap & nasty brittle sort used by some manufacturers, so after about 20 minutes of patient cutting, the door was safely removed!

Napoleons Coach – door removed

And that’s about as far as I have progressed with this particular project. I think that it will take me some time before it is actually completed. I intend to paint it in stages and the horses are the first on the painting table. Having undercoated them, I’ve given them a coat of light grey, the idea being to gradually highlight them up to white. I’ll post updates as I progress with the painting.

The horses get their first coat of paint.

Hello Sailor!

Royal Marine officers

Perhaps a subtitle of ‘Where’s Wally’ would also have been appropriate – you will see why later. This weeks blog will be a bit of a short one. I’ve been diverted from the painting table by a number of distractions, from family weddings to a nasty cold and I have been working on a set of Black Powder campaign rules for the club. However, I have made some progress with my shore party of marines. Having completed 16 Royal Marines, my next task was to start on the Foundry Shore party and Boarding party sets. The Former contains two Royal Marine officers as well as some well armed sailors, the later pack, just some mean looking sailors. Finishing these would complete my raiding party.

Sailors join the action!

As you can see the first batch of officers and sailors are just about completed with the basing to finish. I also have 4 more sailors at the ‘Dip’ stage- although I actually paint the quick shade on. That leaves another 4 to paint in the coming week and then it is on to my next project. I have been a bit lazy when it came to researching the sailors ‘uniforms’ and just copied the painted versions on the Foundry web site. To be fair, although sailors were issued with some sort of basic kit, from what I have read they made their own clothes and wore what was available. There was a bit more of a relaxed attitude taken to their appearance than to the Royal Marines on board. So when it came to painting the soft hats of the sailors, I went for a nice stripey design which in hindsight does look a bit like a night cap or a ‘where’s wally’ hat! Sometimes things dont turn out quite as I planned but I don’t plan to repaint these. It will no doubt amuse my friends when these figures do appear in battle…

Where did you get that hat?

For the time being, these figures will go straight to the cabinet, although there is a chance of an appearance on the table later in the month. For now though, they are part of my growing Caribbean/Naval force.

The last of the shore party to be painted.

The Marines are coming – Part 2 – first batch arrived!

Royal Marines Shore Party

What! Two blog posts in one week! After the excitement of completing the Moai I thought that I would round up my progress elsewhere. As you can see my first eight Royal marines are complete and ready to take to the table. Fortunately, my gaming buddies are very easy going and they wont object if I deploy a unit of Royal Marines along side the rest of my British Army. As I have previously mentioned they will be part of my Caribbean force although they will also see service as part of a detachment in my Peninsular army – when I get around to starting it!

I’ve photographed the final stages of these figures being completed as part of my batch painting process. Once they were block painted, I gave them a coat of Army Painter Quick Shade.

Quick shade Dark Tone applied

The next stage is to give them a spray of Army Painter anti shine.

Anti Shine applied sparingly

Once the Anti Shine matt varnish is dry, I add highlights to the figures. This often just entails repainting the lighter colours – white in particular, the red on the jackets and retouching the metallics with Gold & silver as they can look too dull in places. On this occasion I also attempted to paint in the eyes and added some highlights to the faces – not something that I normally worry about with rank & file troops. Looking closely at the picture, you can see why I tend to leave the eye’s… A couple will need retouching.

Highlights added & basing is started

The final touch is to finish the bases. I used my usual ‘recipe’ of Vallejo Desert Sand to cover the bases. Then painted them with Vallejo Chocolate Brown, highlighted and dry brushed them with Flat earth & increasing amounts of Iraqi Sand added. I then added some green scatter & some of the new Gamers grass tufts and they are done.

Basing completed

The final process of repainting sounds as though it is a bit of a chore but in reality it is quite a quick job. I think that it is worth the time as it also gives you the chance to correct any obvious painting errors. For some troops, it is just as easy to leave this part out and go straight to the basing. After all, these are rank and file troops to be used on the table, not painting competition entries. It all comes down to a matter of taste and of course, time. If you would like to read my blog giving details of all the colours used in the early stages of painting, click here.

The Marines are coming!

After lasts weeks adventure with Lion rampant it’s back to the painting table and the next project from the lead mountain. I have finished my small war party of Woodland Indians and they are waiting for reinforcements before they can take to the table. However, there is no rush to add to the band at the moment. Muskets and Tomahawks are on hold at the club whilst we explore a couple of other options – the Sudan is looking like the favourite at the moment!

Indian War Band

Of course that can be the problem with our hobby. Too many choices and distractions with the result that you can start too many armies and not finish any of them! I will add to my Indian war band in order to finish a skirmishing army for M&T’s. My next purchase will be a couple of packs of Rodgers rangers before deciding on which regular troops to add into the mix.

In the meantime, it’s on with ‘climbing’ the lead mountain that I already have. I would like to be in a position where I have painted everything that I have bought, so that in future, when my wargaming buddies at the club decide to look at another period, I can join in with a few figures of my own fairly quickly. And here’s the point of my ramble. The reason that I have a small lead mountain is that I bought the figures with a project in mind or because I liked them. Not to paint them is just silly. So as I surveyed my collection I saw a batch of Foundry Royal Marines lurking on the pile!

I bought these marines and a naval boarding party for a couple of reasons. They sort of fit in with my plans for the Caribbean force that I have been steadily building (Use this link to bring up a few of my blog posts on this subject). I already have a few ‘Battalions’ of Caribbean troops ready for action and adding a detachment of Royal Navy Marines seems like a good idea. The Royal Navy Marines saw quite a lot of action across the world during the Napoleonic period, obviously fighting in all the major sea battles and of course taking part in all the amphibious actions, particularly in the Peninsular War. In fact on this very day, 8th October, 1806, British forces, including the Royal Marines of course, lay siege to French port of Boulogne using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve. They were also very much in action during the war with America in 1812 ( another one of my interests), so having a detachment in my army makes sense.

I also fancied a ‘quick batch paint’ job after getting a bit bogged down painting the Indians. So with this in mind, I cleaned up the first 16 figures ( two packs) primed them with Army Painter grey and got to work painting them. I tend to paint rank and file in batches of six or eight figures. This method allows me to paint one colour on each batch of figures in a reasonable time and stops me getting bored. Using this method I can turn out about 8 figures a week to a reasonable table top standard. As a painting guide, I used the recently published, Issue 4 of Painting War, Napoleonic British Army.

That said, it was more of a colour guide and inspiration rather than a painting guide. I mentioned that I was going to batch paint these figures, which means I will block paint them with the basic colours, shade, using Army Painter Strong Tone, Matt varnish them and then re highlight the lighter colours to give a sharper finish & correct any obvious errors.

Batch Painting Marines

The colours that I am using are shown above. They are all Vallejo Model Color as follows:

70955 Flat Flesh – Face and hands

70950 Black – Hats, Boots, Cartridge box

70822 Black Brown – Hair

70984 Flat Brown – Musket Stocks

70864 Natural Steel – Gun Barrel, Bayonet & Buttons

70947 Red – Jackets

70899 Dark Prussian Blue – Facings ( Collars & Cuffs)

70820 Off White – Webbing, Lace, Trousers

70862 Black Grey – Gaiters & highlights on Black

70801 Brass – Webbing plate, badge on Cartridge box, detail on Muskets.

There are three other colours that I will also use for highlighting, 70996 gold and 70997 Silver to re-highlight and emphasise the metal work, 71077, Wood, to highlight and add detail to the musket stock and 70951 White, to really brighten up and highlight some of the white areas.

Block Painted nearly completed – just Brass to add.

You can see from the pictures above how far I have got with the Marines. They look a bit bland and washed out but the Quick shade will do a lot of the work needed to add depth and detail. The other massive difference will be finishing the bases of course! More to come next week!

Wheel Wagon, Pig and Partizan

It’s been a bit of a hotch potch week for painting. I’ve managed to finish a few bits and pieces. First of all, I was very kindly given one of the Historicon figures by those very nice guys at Warlord Games. The figure is based on a scene from the film ‘Waterloo’ when a soldier of the 1^stBattalion 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot is caught stealing a pig by none other than Wellington himself. You can see the clip here on youtube. Rather than add the figure to my ‘lead mountain’ I got on with him straight away, using the superb painted example by Andrés Amiàn on the warlord site as a guide. I had intended to rebase him and perhaps add a figure of Wellington but in the event, I finished him as intended. I can always revisit this option but for now he is done and in the cabinet!

Historicon Figure

Defending a hopeless position

The next project that I managed to complete ( well nearly) is my Napoleonic Wheel wagon. Based on a drawing from C E Franklins superb book on British Napoleonic Field artillery, it is now almost ready to take the field. The sharp eyed will see that I just need to make some wheel hubs to finish the wagon. I couldn’t find my leather punch that I use to make the wheel caps with, so rather than wait, I painted it as it was and I’ll add them later. I am writing a step by step article on how to produce the wagon and hope that it will be included in a future issue of Wargames Illustrated. If not, you will read all about it here!

Wheel Wagon and Limber

Incidentally, if you, like me are interested in the various support wagons used in the British Napoleonic army, you might find these two previous blog articles of interest:

Wagons Roll!

Water Wagon

Thanks to a very last minute invite, I was able to attend the Partizan Show at Kelham Hall in Newark. As you can see, I had a small stand of DeeZee Miniatures, Sarissa Precision buildings and Lucid Eye figures. This is the last time that Partizan will be held at Kelham Hall, the venue is moving to a much bigger and brighter venue at the Newark Show ground.

The Arcane Scenery Stand at Partizan

I enjoyed the show and although I was busy on my little stand – I was sharing with Trent Miniatures and squatting in some spare space between them and Wargames Illustrated – I did manage to have a look around. I wont review the show here, I would refer you to the Wargames Illustrated site for an excellent round up. The real drama for me was that during the set up, I managed to drop a case with all my painted figures…Aargh! So the last couple of evenings have been spent, retouching all of the chips and breakages that occured. Next weeks blog might not have much in the way of painting progress to report….

The DeeZee display before it was dropped….

The Legend of the Hartlepool Monkey!

Arrest that French Spy!

I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent since finishing my last Battalion. I mentioned that I fancied a change and whilst sorting through my ‘lead mountain’ I came across a limited edition figure of a Pirate Monkey, issued by North Star. It instantly reminded me of the Tale of the Hartlepool Monkey. I wondered why the Hartlepool Town football supporters were known as the ‘Monkey Hangers’. Every Saturday on Soccer a.m., Tim Lovejoy would refer to the Monkey Hangers and laugh, so I had to find out what the joke was.

The story goes, that back in the Napoleonic Wars, a french ship was wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. The only survivor was a monkey, who was dressed in french uniform to amuse the crew. The locals who found the monkey, had neither seen a monkey or a french man before, and decided to hold a trial, accusing the monkey of spying. Unfortunately for the monkey, he was unable to answer the questions put to him and was indeed found guilty of being a french spy. The poor monkey was duly sentenced to death and hung on the beach!

There are two other versions of the story. In one of the alternative versions, the poor unfortunate that was caught and hung was just a poor cabin boy, or ‘powder monkey’. The most plausible (for me) was that the whole episode was based on a comic song from the 18th century that was simply poking fun at the locals in Hartlepool. You can read the official versions on wikipedia and see the song lyrics for yourself!

Hartlepool Monkey!

So I decided to paint my own version of the Harlepool Monkey to use as a French spy in my wargames! It would amuse me to be able to poke fun at my French opponents and come to that, some of my friends from the North east – little things please little minds and all that… The plan is to create a little vignette, with two of Hartlepools’ finest, arresting the monkey. You will get the idea from the picture at the top of the page.

I painted the monkey using Vallejo paints as usual, the main colours being Beige Red (flesh), Beige ( Shirt), Off White (Trousers), Prussian Blue (waistcoat), Gold (trim) Black Brown ( fur). I use these little projects as a chance to try my hand at ‘proper painting’ rather than using the army painter dip method that is so useful for churning out Battalions! So, I’ve highlighted with lighter shades of the base colours and used a couple of thin washes to add shadow. It’s just the basing to do – I’ll keep it quite simple – perhaps just a sandy base! I haven’t yet decided whether to use the figures that are in the picture (a couple of spares from my earlier attempts at building battalions) or remodel some new ones. For now, I think I’ll go with what I’ve got, after all. it’s just a bit of fun.

A Clear Work Bench!

Osterode Battalion Hanoverian Landwehr

Well, not quite, but my final Battalion of Hanoverian Landwehr, the Osterode Battalion are finished, based and ready to take the field. As you can see, I’ve used my standard basing, four figures to a 40mm square rendra base. The base is coated in Vallejo sandy paste and then the figures are just placed into the paste. I use a sculpting tool to bring the paste up and over the actual figure bases to blend them all in. Once the paste is dry it seems to be strong enough to hold the figures in place. From there, the bases get a coat of Vallejo Chocolate brown, highlighted and dry brushed with Flat earth and then Iraqi Sand.

The final touch is to add some fine turf scatter and then a few grass tufts and of course, flowers! There was one other little addition that I made to the basing. The unit consists of Warlord Hanoverian infantry but I have used a command group from the Perry’s metal range. The Perry’s figures looked a bit on the short side compared to the Warlord men, so I added a thin piece of plasticard under the Perry Command figures to raise them up a bit. They now blend in quite nicely.

I’ve decided to take a break from churning out units for my Napoleonic army and just focus on a few of the random projects that have been lurking on the to do list.

Spare Wheel Carriage

The first of these projects is a spare wheel wagon for my artillery park. Ok, so it’s still a Napoleonic subject but it involves a bit of a conversion using a Trent Miniatures gun carriage and a pack of their British wheels. The picture above shows progress so far and if I like the way it turns out, I’ll provide a full blog post with the modelling details.

Next up, and totally different, I’ve been playing with the new Diorama bases and Standing stones from the DeeZee range and I’m looking at using one or more of the Lucid Eye Neanderthals to make a small diorama as a display piece. Here is the test shot of the layout so far.

Lucid Eye Diorama

So that’s it for this week. They say that a change is as good as a rest so I’ll finish with a couple of pictures of the Hanoverian Brigade in all it’s glory! There are a total of 96 figures representing the 4th Hanoverian brigade at Waterloo, commanded by Colonel C. Best and comprising of the Verden Landwehr, Luneberg Landwehr, Munden Landwehr and Osterode Landwehr.

hanvoverian brigade close up - Command Figures

Hanoverian brigade close up – Command Figures

They were initially deployed left of centre at Waterloo under the command of Picton as part of the British 5th Division and presumably were in action or at the very least in close reserve as D’Erlons attack was made. As the day wore on, they were joined by the British 10th Brigade and placed under the command of Colonel Lambert as part of the 6th British Infantry Division – I think guarding the crossroads and the right from La Haye Saint towards Papelotte.

Hanoverian Brigade advances out of Little Bingham!

Battle Report – Polish/Italians Vs British Napoleonics….

You can learn a lot by looking at photographs, they give you another perspective and a chance to see detail that you might otherwise overlook. My last two blog articles have been quite instructive in this respect. First of all, it’s clear from the photograph of me painting the house that I need to lose a few pounds. From my usual perspective I had always thought that I looked quite slim…..looking upwards, that clearly isn’t the case….

That aside, I also reviewed the Hanoverians and it’s clear that they would benefit from an ink wash over the bayonets & a highlight with silver just to bring out the detail at the top of the muskets – A job that will take about 10 minutes – more on that next week.

The final insight and the real point of this observation was last weeks battle report and just how good the battle was, in part because of the scenery that we were using. I had actually commented that good scenery wasn’t really necessary for Napoleonics as you needed plenty of space for your troops. Well looking back at the pictures made me question this and at this weeks club battle, we put a bit more effort into both the scenery and the scenario itself. The result was a most enjoyable battle. We used one of the new ‘Cigar box’ battle mats that has a scenic design printed onto it. Although a bit expensive, there is no doubt that the result is much better than playing on just a plain battle mat. Some of the scenery that we used is a bit tired and battered but by adding a bit more than usual, the table was broken up and a few problems were added for the ‘generals’ to solve.

Italians & Polish take up position on their new battlefield!

The actual game was an entirely fictitious affair involving a joint Italian/Polish force (Duncan) taking on a British force (Steve). The objectives being to secure one end of a bridge and capture the two hills dominating the approaches. Deployment was carried out simultaneously, without too much regard for each other, although the objectives became the focus of the main Infantry forces, with the cavalry deployed facing each other out on the far flanks. The British won the initiative and ordered an advance to secure the objectives. Unfortunately, the first roll of the evening produced a blunder, leaving the largest British Infantry brigade out of position, hard against the river in column of battalions.

Polish Artillery supported by infantry

Polish advance in column - figure from the Trent miniatures range

Polish advance in column – figures from the Trent miniatures range

The opposition, taking full advantage of both the confusion in the British ranks and the terrain, moved forward at a more measured rate forming a cohesive line as can be seen above. If the British Infantry were somewhat slow to respond, the cavalry ( two heavy regts, two lights) did as they were ordered and advanced to threaten the Polish Flank. The response from the Polish/Italian force was immediate and a fierce cavalry battle ensued. The action was so ferocious that I didn’t have time to take a photograph! The result was a victory for the opposition. Although they lost one heavy cavalry regiment and two horse artillery guns, the British lost a whole brigade of heavy cavalry and a regiment of light cavalry, leaving the right flank somewhat exposed.

British hold the line!

Despite the set back on the right flank the British infantry held the Italians in the woods, firmly anchoring the left flank. The Polish infantry, encouraged by the success of their cavalry, advanced in the centre to capture the road.

Poles capture the road and take position behind the hedgerow.

This move was in turn, matched by the British infantry who immediately engaged the forward elements of the Polish advance with a superior force of infantry.

British advance to drive the Poles back

The initial British musketry was somewhat ineffective, and despite the overwhelming odds the Poles held on long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Polish reinforcements arrive.

With a fierce battle raging for control of the centre and the Polish/Italian Cavalry threatening the right flank, held only by a solitary regiment of British Hussars, the Italians consolidated their position in the woods by the bridge on the left flank, threatening to take yet another objective.

Italians hold their ground in defensive position at the wood

The British response was again to attempt to drive the Italians back with superior musketry. Volley after volley was poured on the Italians but their clever use of the cover and terrain meant that the British were unable to inflict the casualties required.

British Musketry attempts to remove Italians

British Musketry attempts to remove the Italians

As the infantry faced off against each other, the casualties began to mount! Virtual stalemate was the result on the left at the bridge but in the centre the British were able use fresh battalions and it was the Polish that were begining to waver.

Casualties mount!

At last the Polish Battalions broke under the constant volleys of the British and the whole brigade started to retreat. The centre belonged to the British!

Charged in the flank!

This victory was somewhat short lived. The Italian Cavalry had by now brushed aside the last British Hussar regiment and charged into the flank of the British line! After a brisk engagement, despite the loss of an infantry battalion, the cavalry were driven off and finally the Polish were sent on their way. The centre did now belong to the British.

The Poles repelled!

If the British had won the war of attrition in the centre, things were not going so well at the bridge on the left Flank. In an attempt to bring their superior Fire power to bear, the British had advanced to close range of the Italians and their solitary artillery piece. Initially, there was some success as the British destroyed an Italian column. That success was once again double edged, as it made space for yet another Italian Cavalry attack!

The attack reaches a critical point!

With the lead British battalion pushed into square under the guns of the Italians and casualties mounting in the supporting British battalions, the Brigade began to run out of steam – and men! The next round of Italian Musketry and cannon fire inflicted sufficient casualties to shake the brigade! With both of the British Cavalry brigades broken and now the largest infantry brigade in retreat, this meant that the British Army was forced to withdraw. The field was left to the victorious Italians troops and their courageous cavalry!

Rain Starts Play!

I have been doing quite a bit of painting this last week. Unfortunately, it was with a four inch brush and a can of Dulux Weather Shield. As you can see, I have been up a ladder, painting the exterior of the house, so the important job of adding to my Napoleonic Army was put on hold. Fortunately, that all changed on Sunday, when the weather turned and the rain came down all day. No doubt, many people were dismayed but not me! It gave me a break from the chores and a chance to get on with the last regiment of Hanoverian Landwehr, the Osterode Battalion.

Hanoverian Landwehr Osterode painting guide from Mont St Jean

As you can see form the pictures below, the first 12 troops are done which is half the regiment. I followed the colour scheme on Mont St Jean, which may be incorrect but as I said in my last post, the chance to paint a slightly different looking unit was too good to miss.

Hanoverian Osterode Landwehr

The colours that I used are shown in the picture below. I followed my usual procedure of block painting everything and then used Army Painter Dark Tone to provide the shading. Once the dark Tone had dried for 24 hours, I used the Army Painter Anti shine to matt the figures down. I then repainted some of the lighter colours to give a better highlight. So the red, Yellow, white, green and metallics were all touched up. This last stage is not really necessary but does help the brighter colours to show up on the wargames table.

Vallejo Model Colour

The basing scheme was my usual method of Vallejo Sandy Paste, over painted with Chocolate brown, highlighted with Iraqi Sand for the ground work. I’ve added the basic green scatter but will also add some tufts & flowers and static grass for a bit of interest once the whole battalion is complete. With another 6 troops and the officers and ensigns still to paint, it will be at least another week before the battalion is ready for the table. This will definitely be my last batch of Hanoverian troops for some time now!

I’ve got a number of small projects lined up once these are done, most of them small dioramas that wont really add to my Army but will add a bit of interest to my collection and provide a bit of ‘flavour’ on the occasional big set piece games. These projects include a spare wheel wagon, Napoleons Coach, a Prussian mule train, a Vivandiere, and a tribute to the Hartlepool monkey.

All I need to get these finished is a few more rainy days……

A little knowledge….

I’ve read 7 books on the battle of Waterloo in the past 18 months, visited the battlefield itself and have just completed a distance learning course with Southampton University on Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo. For a change, I decided to give Waterloo a rest and I read an account of the Peninsular War ”The Peninsular war 1807-1814 A Concise military History” by Michael Glover.

All the above doesn’t include the blog entries, Uniform references and internet research, conversations with other gamers, Magazine articles, films and TV and radio program’s that I have absorbed. The net result of all of this is that I still feel as though I have just scratched the surface of the subject of the Napoleonic Wars. I have however, reinforced my view that definitive answers, whether regarding who did what, when or why, or who wore what uniform in which style are sometimes difficult if not impossible to come by. 200 years of distance from the events and only artist impressions and eye witness accounts to go by will often lead to confusion.

What we generally have is a collection of opinions and views ( some more thoroughly researched than others) from which we as gamers have to make a decision on which to follow. In making that decision though, be careful not to totally discard the possibility that you may just have picked the ‘wrong’ set of facts. Just take the thorny issue of uniforms.

During the invasion of Gascony in 1814, an observer described the 57th as follows:

‘The men are absolutely in rags and tatters. Here and there are five or six inches of bare thigh or arm visible through the patches; some have had only linen pantaloons all the winter through’

Remember, this isn’t the retreat to Corruna being described but the British advance into France at the end of the war. Meanwhile, elsewhere, the 1/39th Battalion was at St Jean-de-Luz, collecting it’s new issue of clothing ( Clothing was issued once a year if possible). I suspect that given the date, this new clothing was the new style uniform of grey trousers & Belgiac Shako. So it looks like you would have one Battalion (1/57th) in very tatty, patched ‘Peninsular’ uniform fighting alongside the much smarter Battalion ( 1/39th) in ‘Waterloo’ style uniform.

The point that I am making is that unless you are recreating a specific battle in a specific campaign at a specific date there is no need to be too vexed as to who wore what when. Which brings me to the last of my Hanoverian Battalions, the Osterode Landwehr. I’ve done quite a bit of research on the subject and the details of the Landwehr uniform appear to be sketchy at best. They usually have a paragraph devoted to them in a book. Here is the general guide:

Lüneburg Landwehr Batt: Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore shacks of a tapered [stovepipe] design.

The above details are repeated for the Osterode, Verden and Münden Landwehr Battalions.

So thats pretty clear and to be fair, its confirmed in a couple of the other references that I use. However, when I checked my favorite reference, Mont St Jean, the following scheme was shown.

Hanoverian Landwehr Osterode

Quite clearly, the facings here are green, not blue and the shoulder tufts are also shown as green. Now it could be that there is a mistake, as the Field Battalion had green facings and the author of the site may have made an error in transposing them to the Landwehr Battalion. So what should I do? Well, as I have already painted three battalions in Blue facings the chance of a change in colour was quite an attractive proposition. So my Battalion of Osterode Landwehr will have green facings!

But I promise that if anyone asks, I will say that I have taken a possible liberty when choosing this option. Furthermore, if in the unlikely event that I meet up with a fellow gamer who has decided that his version of the Osterode Landwehr have blue facings I will keep my opinions to myself and just compliment him on his fine body of troops!

Napoleonic Field Forge completed!

Napoleonic Field Forge – Perry Miniatures

My Napoleonic Army continues to progress and the field forge completes another mini diorama that will eventually build into my Artillery Park. I have always been fascinated by the support units that ensure that an Army is able to fight. It is a shame that the rules systems that I have come across fail to take into account the logistics required to get an army into battle. I have just finished reading about Wellingtons Peninsular campaign and it seems to me that the battles were won because of Wellingtons attention to this area. The French seemed to have lost the campaign because of their decision to live off of the land rather than have a supply train in place. They were unable to continue to press any advantage gained because they ran out of provisions. This is best illustrated by the problems that Massena experienced when Invading Portugal. Held in check by Wellingtons defensive lines of the Torres Vedras before Lisbon, Massena saw his army dwindle away due to starvation and sickness.

I wouldn’t expect ‘club Night’ games to reflect this logistics problem in every game but there is certainly room for a scenario or two here! Just to give you an example of the logistics involved, a Brigade of Infantry required about 150 mules to carry supplies. A troop of Horse Artillery required some 205 mules to carry supplies. And these were only the Commissariat mules. In addition, every unit had it’s own beasts to carry camp kettles, reserve ammunition, pay chest, medical stores and tents. Whilst all of these beasts were left in the rear during the major battles, I suspect that there were times when they were present ‘in the thick of it’ or certainly close to the action.

Blacksmith close up

I digress, back to my field forge. It is from Perry Miniatures, although I have added a spare artillery man & officers horse to fill out the base. As usual, I have used Vallejo paints to complete the figures. I could find very few references for details of the clothing , So I painted the figures as Foot artillery in shirt sleeve order! The leather aprons were my first attempt at painting raw leather and I used the Vallejo Orange brown as the highlight and wash over the actual leather brown paint. I then just stippled some black on the aprons to represent the burns that would be there from working. I think that it has worked quite well.

Detail on Blacksmith aprons

For the base and ground work, I used Vallejo Sandy Paste. I actually have a pot of the desert coloured paste that was left over from another project, so I am working my way through this, being too mean to buy either the plain or brown that is available. I am a great fan of this product. It is ideal for blending your figures into the base and has sufficient texture when dry to enable a quick dry brush to bring up the detail.

Field Forge Ground work detail

Once the paste was dry & painted, I used a green scatter to represent the grass as well as some static grass dotted around to add some different texture & colour. I then added a few Grass tufts ( I like the ones from Noch) and flowers and the basing was complete.

The field Forge takes it’s place in Little Bingham!

So although my Field Forge is unlikely to change the course of any battle that I fight, it will make either a nice objective or simply add to the scenery. It was of course a pleasant distraction from painting the rank and file….Talking of which, next up are my final battalion of Hanoverian Landwehr, the Osterode Battalion, More on those next week.

Work in progress – More Hanoverians! And my new favourite basing material…

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Category Archives: Napoleonic Army