A Little Prussian Sideshow

...In which our protagonist starts takes another miniscule bite out of his pile of accumulating lead, and begins yet another project unlikely to go anywhere, this time with Prussians.

Two battalions of the Prussian IR no. 49 Muffling. Colonel Muffling himself rides with the first battalion.

 
Another quick post this week (shocking, I know!). This rather small and whimsically-embarked-on venture is not so much a project as an experiment. I like to call it:

You can't have enough Napoleonics

Yes, those tumultuous decades bestriding the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries are the one period that I seemingly can't get enough of. To those in the know, it's pretty easy to see why: there were not one or two, but many competing powers of near-equal strength, all with expansionist foreign policies; the battles were big, the uniforms flashy, and all the shooting tended to take place at manageable distances. There were great personalities, epic battles, whirlwind campaigns and bitter slugging matches as well. In short, it's a great period for wargaming... except the only Napoleonic miniatures I've heretofore owned have been part of my Borodino project.

Adler PA 2C - Prussian Musketeer, bicorne, marching. Nice detail, as can be expected from Adler Miniatures. The hat lace is somewhat tricky to paint behind the musket stock, and the three multicoloured pompoms can be tedious, but hey-- you can't claim the detail isn't there.

Not that there's anything wrong with what I've done for Borodino. It's all turned out quite lovely, and I look forward to doing more. Sadly, the issue is that I don't really see myself gaming with them. I've barely scratched the surface of the Borodino order of battle, and I've already got more troops than I can comfortably fit on my gaming table.

Why just learn from someone else's mistakes, when you can learn from your own as well? 

Anyway, I wanted to do some period gaming, of necessity on bases smaller than the 60mm x 60mm I've been using for Borodino. The thought of doing 1812 again with different basing seemed redundant, so I looked at all the other Napoleonic campaigns I was interested in (which, admittedly, is most of them), subtracted the ones lacking complete 6mm figure ranges, and picked one. I blame Andy McMaster over at Another Slight Diversion for the end choice, since he was working on an 1806 Prussians-versus-French project during the time I was pondering all this over.

Adler PA 8A - Prussian Musketeer cmd (5). Again, very nice sculpting. Apparently the early Prussian range hasn't been that popular; on the plus side, this means that the molds are in good shape and the figures have relatively little flash. The officer's sword and the bottom of the colour guard's spontoon (or half pike, or whatever) are fairly flimsy.

Settled on 1806, it was time to figure out how to do it. I'd agonized over basing size, unit scale and figure choice for Borodino, and I wasn't eager to repeat the process. Many a 6-mil gamer before me has confronted the basing issue; their reminiscences can be found all over the net. Long story short, I went for 60mm x 30mm, because: a) I already had some spare bases, b) I knew I could paint enough figures to cover one in two or three evenings, and c) they would work for a variety of rule sets. No, I didn't have any particular rules in mind when I made the decision, and I still don't.

The arse end of the two battalions. By 1806, the Prussians had given up their powdered wigs, but evidently soldiers were still required to wear a pigtail. Also clearly visible is the straggling line on the 1st battalion; many gamers complain about Adler's singly-based figures, but I find the basing possibilities more than make up for the annoyance they cause.

For unit scale, I went with one base = one battalion; again, a common choice, and visually appealing to boot. The figures I went with were largely determined by what I was already doing-- I'd already done lots of French, so I decided to start with the Prussians for a change. I was already planning another order from Adler for some Borodino odds and ends, so Adler it was going to be. And since their 'advancing' pose tends to significantly increase how long it takes to base them, I opted for the ol' march attack. Lessons had been learned.

One step forward, two steps back

So am I going to plunge headfirst into the 1806 campaign on 60 x 30 bases? Well, no... Like I said, this is more of an experiment than an outright project. Also, I'm a dedicated fan of Richard Borg's Commands and Colors: Ancients and Memoir '44; and since I bought these figures, GMT has since released the new Commands and Colors: Napoleonics. I'd love to do armies for C&C:N, but that would mean Peninsular War armies, and multiple bases per unit. In short, I'm still pondering the possibilities.

Next time: something different. Hopefully with more and better pictures.

Some 6mm Huns

...In which our protagonist proves his continuing existence by taking his first tentative steps back into the blogosphere (and the hobby) in many long months, and decides to tackle a new project in the bargain.

Noble Huns... if that isn't an oxymoron.

Yes, after many a moon, I'm finally back behind the brush and keyboard! The long hiatus is over; I've been painting again, and what's more, I've actually been gaming, much to my own surprise. While some of you may be dismayed, it should hardly be surprising to anyone that break of the better part of a year has caused my old projects to fall by the wayside. So make way for the new Mike's Leadpile-- same great taste, but all new recipe-- now with 25% more salt (yes, you heard me: 25% more salt. It's not like you're eating it, so even you health-nut types shouldn't complain)!

Tell us about this new project, you blathering nitwit

Huns, I hear you ask? Seriously? Yes. And in 6mm, too. This despite the fact that I've already got Late Imperial Romans in 10mm. If experience has told me anything, it's that restarting a project in another scale is always a terrible idea... but here I go nonetheless. The thing is, 6mm is my favourite scale-- for me, the balance between physical size and amount of detail is perfect, and I'd much rather be doing something in microscale nowadays rather than anything larger. Also, Baccus has a more-or-less complete 6mm range for Late Rome and her enemies, while (sadly) Pendraken does not in 10mil, despite years of waiting for such a thing to be producted. Also a consideration is that Baccus has been so fan-friendly that I feel like they deserve another little burst of business from yours truly.

The ubiquitous Hunnic horse archers, in all their 6mm glory.

Anyway, my impetus for (re)starting with the Huns is that the range is really small-- only three figure codes, two of which are essentially the same. It pretty much comes down to "buy two units, and you've seen the entire Hun army range". Admittedly, this isn't a great justification for starting a project, but history gives us many examples of much more elaborate things being done for equally murky reasons-- and I've certainly done worse myself in the past.

Speaking of Impetus, that's the plan. Basic Impetus, actually, since my return to active gaming has seen the continuation of my previous shift towards the philosophy that Simpler is Better (within reason). Also, free is my favourite price, at least when I'm doing the shopping. Eventually, I hope to paint up a couple dozen miscellaneous bases from Baccus' Late Imperial Roman, Hun, Goth, and Sassanian Persian lines, which should allow me to field opposing BI armies of various flavours. Most of the marauding/migrating barbarian types of the period ended up fighting either for, alongside, or against pretty much everyone else (and frequently all three), so for a minimum expenditure I should be able to have a go at all sorts of different figures, and be able to game with them too.

Hunnic nobles, front and rear. The bright blue tunic on the one rider is rather jarring; I wouldn't paint it that way again.

So just how good are those 6mm Huns, anyway?

They're not bad, I'll say that much. That may not sound like a sterling recommendation, but in actual fact it's nigh impossible to sculpt a really good Hun. The problem is, no one knows what they looked like. No dependable picture has come down to us. The written descriptions of the ancient writers tend to describe Huns as hideously scar-faced and filthy-- but modern scholars point out, rightly, that these tend to amount to little better than sensationalist and/or propaganda pieces, hardly to be trusted. We don't even know if the Huns had oriental features, like modern Mongols, or if they were caucasian, like modern Turks. Some fortuitous archaeology has given us some examples of broken Hun weapons, but that's about it. This all leaves the enterprising sculptor with... not much to go by, actually.

Baccus AHU1 - Hunnic Horse Archers - Galloping

Consequently, the fine folks at Baccus have given us Hunnic horse archers wearing Mongol-esque clothing, right down to the fur-trimmed hats. Maybe this is anachronistic; maybe it isn't. As I said, no one knows. At the very least, these Huns carry bows with prominent 'horns' or 'ears', which is good; on the other hand the bows are sculpted with symmetrical upper and lower arms, which is bad (Hunnic bows were asymmetrical). The 'Galloping' horse archers come in three different poses, two with drawn bows and the other more relaxed. Notably missing are archers performing the "Parthian shot" and left-handed archers (the Huns were reputedly ambidextrous), which would have allowed for a little more variation in basing. Nevertheless, the quality of the sculpting is a definite step up from older Baccus work, and the casting is crisp; out of a dozen figures, the only defect I had was a single miscast bow, which was easily replaced by a bit of wire.

Baccus AHU3 - Hunnic Nobles

The other code I put to the brush were the Hun nobles. Unless the sculptor knows something I don't (which, admittedly, is perhaps likely), these seem to belong to the realm of highly-speculative-for-aesthetic-reasons. I've never heard of lance-armed Huns, although there are certainly other examples of 'Sarmatized' steppe peoples, so these are at least within the realm of plausability. Giving these guys lances was likely just an easy way of giving the Huns something visually distinguishable from the run-of-the-mill horse archers. The helmets are also a nice touch, with a clear Gothic/Sarmatian flavour to them. One thing that would've been nice is if these figures were available with open hands-- I suspect those lances won't long retain their straightness on the gaming table.

So do you have anything else to say for yourself?

Yes, actually. Keep an eye on the Leadpile, because-- I can't believe I'm saying this-- barring calamity, you can expect a veritable flurry of posts here in the near future! I'm hoping to show off some more new projects, revisit some ongoing ones (including the oft-promised Württemberg division for Borodino), and maybe even paint up some of the innumerable random figures that have been languishing in the pile.

More soon!

Russian VIII Corps in 6mm, Part 2

...In which our protagonist, conscious of his many shortcomings as a blogger, nonetheless begins what will doubtlessly be a brief and feeble comeback, and shows off his Russian 27th Division for Borodino.

Odessa and Vilna infantry regiments. These regiments weren't actually brigaded together, but I mixed the pairings up somewhere along the way. Crap. Kind of shows how my hobby activities have been going, recently.

Yes, it's been a long time since I've last posted-- an observation which begins all too many of these blog posts, it seems. I sincerely regret that, and I apologize to anyone (if there is indeed anyone) who has ever hoped for more frequent updates from yours truly. I wish I could oblige you! The current dilatory schedule of posts is distressing to me as well.

Another view of the Odessa and Vilna regiments. The Odessa reg't should properly be brigaded with the Tarnopol reg't, and Vilna with Simbirsk. In any case, the NCO brandishing his sword is a favourite sculpt of mine, from Adler's early Russian Napoleonic musketeer command (RA 10A).

In fact, I'm so distressed that I've decided to turn over a new leaf, starting with this post. Don't get too excited; I'm not going to promise that I'll post more often, or anything like that. Nor will I even promise to maintain the high standards of photography, reviewing, and helpful hobby-related articles that I (sometimes) feel like I've upheld thus far. That's right, fickle reader: for the immediate future I'm actually promising a drop in quality. Don't like it? Tough! It's the only way you're going to get any posts at all!

The 3rd brigade of the division, consisting of the 49th and 50th Jäger regiments. For some reason that currently eludes me, this brigade was commanded during the battle by Colonel Voyeikov of the Life Guard Preobrazhenskii regiment. Apparently I've been off my Borodino kick for too long to remember these things.

Wasn't this post supposed to be about Russians?

Right, Russians. Today's subject is the Russian 27th Division, yet another element of the VIII Corps which has been in the works for far too long. Commanded by Major General Dmitri Neverovsky, the 27th had been heavily committed during the fighting around Smolensk and the subsequent retreat. Having sustained heavy losses, the division was appended to the VIII Infantry Corps for Borodino, which consequently became the only Russian corps at the battle to consist of three divisions.

Adler RN 4B - "Militia, musket, advancing". Fairly generic looking, wearing trousers, coat and some sort of fur cap. Only one pose means that Opolchenye units will look rather uniform unless painted differently.

Since the 27th had suffered the heaviest casualties of any of the Russian divisions prior to Borodino, I wanted to do something special to show this. Reducing the number of figures in each of the component units would have saved me too much time, effort and money, so of course I didn't do that. Instead, I opted to fill out the second rank of each regiment with militia-- a practice that became common in Russian units later on in the war, as attrition thinned the ranks. For Borodino it's probably anachronistic, but that didn't stop me.

3rd brigade again. I've whined before on how much space the 'advancing' posture takes, and how difficult that makes it to cram bunches of them onto bases. The lovely hay cart is produced by Irregular Miniatures, purveyors of all sorts of scenic goodies, any and all of which can be obtained through the ever-helpful Angel Barracks.

Apparently, our Protagonist can't count. 

Yes, it's sad but true. Simple mathematical tasks like multiplication and division seem to cause especial problems. Take for instance my attempt to populate the second rank of each of these formations with militiamen: in order to make it look good, I figured at least half of each of the ranks in question should consist of militia. Easy, right? Nine men per rank means five militia per, times three bases equals... well, that equals fifteen, which, since they come in strips of four, is actually one less than I bought for the task.

Tarnopol and Simbirsk infantry regiments. The militia populating the second rank of each regiment can be seen clearly (well, aside from their rather nondescript paint jobs, that is!).

Of course the astute among you will have noticed before now that there are two regiments per base, and that means two second ranks for each one. The very astute among you will have realized that this in turn means thirty militia men would be required to meet my condition of "at least half" of each rear rank. Thirty, not fifteen (or sixteen, as explained above). Way to go, Mike.

Tarnopol and Simbirsk regiments. Again, this isn't a proper brigade, since I misread which regiments were brigaded with which. Not only can I not count, but evidently my literacy skills are in question these days as well!

Anyway, that's the Russian 27th Division complete. It doesn't quite finish the VIII Corps, as there's still another grenadier division, artillery and command to do... which I'm not going to promise anytime soon.

More of an eye level view.

Next time: part of the long-awaited Württemberg division (Württembourgoisie? Württembergers? Our protagonist doesn't know, but he likes them anyway).

Also, a special shout out to David F. I have no idea who you are, but apparently you became a follower of Mike's Leadpile while I was writing this! Man, it takes me a long time to write these things...

The Art of Small Soldiery: Putting 6mm into Perspective

...In which our protagonist attempts to show how little 6mm figures actually are.

I can't claim any credit for the battery idea. If there's anything that's recognizable all over the world and always the same size, it's batteries-- and far wiser people than I realized this a long time ago.

Admittedly, I've generally avoided dwelling on how big (or little) the figures I'm working with actually are. Instead of drawing attention to the toy soldiers themselves, my focus has gradually shifted towards what those toy soldiers are meant to represent, to make that mini look like the real soldier might have, and the miniature army look like a real one.

For a while now I've been using the Canadian penny to show how big figures are. Of course, out of the six-and-some-odd billion people on the planet, only a miniscule fraction actually know how big these things are...

In my current Borodino project, I've taken this philosophy even further, trying to take advantage of the excellent Adler miniatures to give the impression of movement and action. I've tried to make every base a vignette, and tried to highlight that dynamism in my photography. Heck, my most poplular posts recently have probably been the massed army shots, where I've employed every last bit of 6mm scenery in my feeble collection to try and bring the scene to life for the viewer.

Headphones make really big speakers for really little men. I mean really big speakers. It kind of reminds me of that scene from Apocalypse Now... except there are no helicopters, no napalm in the morning, and this is not Charlie's Point.

But what if I took a step back? What if, for just this one post, I really went and concentrated on the toys, rather than the soldiers? I mean, I can do my very best to make them look big and real, but the fact remains that they are pretty damn small. And really, that's the remarkable thing, isn't it?

So how do I go about showing the Liliputian marvellousness of what is perhaps my finest batch of toys? Attempting to accurately convey a sense of scale has been one of the eternal difficulties for figure painters. In this case, anyone who has painted 6mm figs will of course have a good idea of how big they are, but what about gamers and painters who deal exclusively with 15mm, or 20mm, or the gargantuan 28mm?

Bon Appetit! Plates, unfortunately, come in all sorts of sizes. This one happens to be quite small, which makes the little fellas look a great deal larger than they actually are.

And so I concocted this series of pictures: 6mm Napoleonics shown alongside everyday items. Neat, huh?

...Okay, so it's pretty lame. I'll concede that much. But you're not paying anything to see this, so don't complain.

Talk about a crappy site for a battery! Ha ha ha! ...Yeah, I guess I'm not quite ready to quit my day job to become a stand-up comedian. Also worth noting: I did not bring any miniatures into the bathroom for this. These are fresh, unsullied rolls that have never been within 10 metres of a toilet.

This would've been a good shot if it was in focus. I suppose I could have taken another picture, but let's be serious here: in this day and age, you just take 10 shots all at the same time, and if none of them turn out, this is what you get. Deal with it.

Funny story about this one. Well, actually it's no funnier than the rest of this post, but I'm still gonna tell it. Anyways, I've been renovating my basement recently. Eventually I hope to build a nice little hobby area down there (among other "more important" things, whatever those are), but in the meantime it's all just a lot of dust, swearing, and sharp and/or dirty stuff that generally succeeds in destroying clothing and not doing much else. I've got lots of tools and whatnot, including a greatly under-used carpenter's apron that generally seems to end up in the least accessible part of the room. Consequently, I keep stuffing my pockets full of nails and screws whenever I'm using them, and when I come up at the end of the day to change, I almost invariably discover myself trailing leftovers all over the bedroom. Nails and screws do, however, make good objects of comparison in this sort of situation.

Also, you could probably make some pretty nice 6mm poplar trees if you flocked some screws.

Not such a good picture here. From a technical standpoint, it's in poor focus. Aesthetically, the horsemen should be riding towards the centre of the picture to make a more satisfying image. And rhetorically, the unfortunate choice of background suggests that A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars is available on CD, which, to the best of my knowledge, it is not.

Another good idea let down by faulty execution. With all the blurry pictures in this set, I must have drank too much coffee beforehand. Or more likely it was the hours of hammering studwalls together in the basement-- hard on the nerves. But hey: at least it's a good poker hand!

A portrait of the Artist as a Brobdinagian

Next time: more Russians. And I really mean it this time.

Russian VIII Corps in 6mm, Part 1

...In which our protagonist, for reasons of throroughness rather than necessity, shows off some more old stuff, in this case the Russian 2nd Grenadier Division.

Colonel Shatilov's 1st Brigade, comprising the Kiev Grenadiers to the fore, followed by the Moscow Grenadiers.

Most of my Borodino-in-6mm efforts so far have centred around the French/Allied army. There are a couple of reasons for this; for one thing I've simply painted a lot more of the Allies, but for another, the Allies are simply so much more photogenic.

The problem is (and yes, once again I'm going to rant about the so-called problems I have with this project, despite the fact that I've done so many times already, and despite the fact that I have no one to blame for starting it but myself. But anyway), the Russians are saddled with the twin disadvantages of 1) having very dark uniforms, and 2) not having much by way of differences in uniforms.

A ground-level view of the 1st Brigade. I've compained before how the Russian NCOs that come with the infantry command strips are generally in pretty boring poses, but I should mention that the mounted officers, by contrast, allow for some interesting possibilities.

I'll admit dark green isn't a terrible colour in of itself. Heck, it's probably my favourite colour, and maybe what drew me to the Russians in the first place. But paint the coat on a 6mm figure dark green, and hold it at arm's length, and you begin to see... well, not a lot, admittedly. Dark green makes for pretty good camouflage at life-sized, let alone in 6mm. I've even had people browsing through the uniform plates in my copy of F.G. Hourtoulle's Borodino: The Moskova (a book that's forever underfoot hereabouts) comment on how the Russian uniforms "make more sense". Now, I've tried explaining how this viewpoint is largely anachronistic; at a time when most soldiers were armed with smoothbore muskets and generally closed to 50m or so before shooting (when they even bothered to shoot, instead of going straight to the bayonet), the camouflage value of one's coat was not such an issue. Well it was, but looking good was more of an issue.

Colonel Buxhöwden's 2nd Brigade. Alex Mikaberidze, in his The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Against Kutuzov, spells Buxhöwden with an "ö"; consequently, I have no idea how to pronounce it. Pronunciation notwithstanding, the group with the orange flags is the Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment, followed by the Fanagoria Grenadiers with their pink-and-green.

Anyways, there's not much you can do about dark green. If you try brightening it up, it looks "wrong" for Russians; if you leave it dark, the damn Russkies start to disappear.

As for the complementary problem, namely the Russians' identical uniforms, there are steps that can be taken. I mean, no one wants their grenadier regiments to be confused with mere line, after all. But what's that, you say? You can tell which are grenadiers because they have big tall plumes on their shakos? And those plumes are... oh, yes, that's right, they're black. Just the hue to stand out against a background of dark green coats.

The 2nd Brigade, showing some experimentation with the rear formation. Mixing poses, I tried to make it look like the Fanagoria grenadiers are breaking from march-attack into a bayonet charge. I might try this again some time with the French, where the greater variety of poses would allow for more intermediate steps between muskets carried horizontally and vertically.

I opted for a different approach. I've complained before (can you believe it?) about how Adler's Russian infantry command strips only come with one standard bearer, whereas they should have two. This oversight, combined with my general cheapness-and-laziness, led me to build all my line infantry regiments with only one flag apiece. This of course left me with a golden opportunity: I could give my grenadier regiments two flags each!

Colonel Levin's 3rd Brigade, with the Siberia and Malorossiiskii (or Little Russia) Grenadier Regiments.

Doubling the flag count for the grenadiers meant making an exception to my usual cheapness-and-laziness, and furthermore led to an unfortunate surplus of already-underutilized drummers and NCOs. But who am I kidding? It was worth it-- after all, in a very drab-looking army, these brigades have twice as many colours as the rest! (Ba-dum ching: Napoleonic joke in poor taste.)

The 3rd Brigade from the anterior side (honestly, who says 'anterior'?). Astute readers might recognize this base from my basing by numbers post from way back in November!

So that's Major General Karl von Mecklenburg-Schwerin's 2nd Grenadier Division, as well as my quota of whining for... well, probably that's enough whining for this year. I'm still going to whine in my next post though. Also all the ones after that.

Next time: more Russians. Or not. We'll see.

French III Corps in 6mm, Part 2

...In which our protagonist finally gets around to posting about things that he can't even really pretend are new, since he already showed them last month.

Beurmann's Brigade, comprising the 4th and 28th Chasseurs à Cheval. I'm opening the post with this base not because it's the most interesting, but because it comes first alphabetically.

Yes, once again I've fallen behind in blogging, so here I am finally showing the brigades for Ney's corps at the Battle of Borodino that were already finished almost a month ago. Actually, as I alluded to in the intro, these bases all appeared in last month's 6mm French Napoleonics Eyecandy Extravaganza, so it's not even like I'm delving into never-before-seen content here, either. The fact is, that while I generally plan for great things here on Mike's Leadpile, I only have so much time to devote to this hobby, and when time is tight, I usually opt to paint the next batch of figures!

Chasseurs à Cheval, by Adler Miniatures. There are a bunch of different codes covering these troops, and, as you might guess from the above picture, I painted a bunch of them together and lost track of which models belong to which product codes.

The good side of my tendency to paint-first-and-blog-later is that I generally have a backlog of new stuff to blog about. The bad side is that no one gets to see any of it until long after the fact. Oh well; one of these days I'll try to catch up.

Adler FNC 10C - "Chasseur Shako". This command group features corded shakos, which none of none of the troopers seem to have; but then, like most of Adler's cavalry, they are so well sculpted that I can forgive a lot. The trumpeter/colour bearer also works much well for the French, since all of their cavalry seems to have carried colours of some kind.

At any rate, this time I get to show off my newest batch of cavalry. The huge number of different uniforms Adler offers for each troop type, combined with their by-the-strip purchasing options can cause problems-- at least if you're like me, in that you make one huge order rather than a number of smaller ones, don't really make any notes as to which figures are intended to represent what, and then work on projects sporadically with months-long stops and starts. I'm still not certain as to whether I'd originally intended to mix headgear within each "regiment", as I did with Davout's cavalry, or go for uniform headgear, as I did this time around.

Adler FNC 3A - "Chasseur, habit, colpack" (I think). Lovely figures, useful for elite regiments or companies who retain this older-style headgear. The coloured "bag" provides great contrast and helps these figures to stand out at a distance.

On the plus side, at least I'm not the only one who's confused; after nearly 200 years of research and argumentation, no one's really sure who was actually at the Battle of Borodino. For this first base I gave General Beurmann the 4th and 28th regiments of Chasseurs à Cheval; Beurmann's actual brigade probably comprised the 4th and one or more regiments from Württemberg. Where the 28th was, I'm not even sure-- although apparently several of its officers were killed at the battle, so one might infer that they were at least present.

One of the challenges of 6mm is trying to make the uniforms bright enough to attract notice without making them the wrong colour. For more somberly-clad troops like these, bright highlights like the yellow facings of the 4th regiment can help to create contrast and liven up a formation; even so, this bunch is on the verge of being too dark.

Another ongoing problem has been the French army organization. For anyone not versed in this sort of thing, this warrants an explanation. More or less how it works is this:

• several soldiers = a platoon
• several platoons = a company
• several companies = a battalion
• several battalions = a regiment
• several regiments = a brigade
• several brigades = a division
• several divisions = a corps
• several corps = an army

That's how it works in theory, anyways. This level of organization conferred logistical, strategic and tactical advantages over armies not so organized that contributed to French military ascendency in the early Napoleonic period. It worked so well for the French that everyone else copied it (well, except for maybe the British, who pretend they didn't). Some armies, namely the Russian, were even pretty consistent in applying this organization. The standard Russian division in 1812, for instance, always comprised six regiments of two battalions each.

Gengoult's brigade, with the 24th light infantry regiment and the 1st Portuguese regiment.

Not so the French. Napoleon was pretty notorious for rearranging his orders of battle, taking battalions, brigades, or even divisions from one commander and reassigning them to another. This allowed him to give more responsibility to his better commanders and less to his lesser, and also helped to confuse enemy espionage and reconnaissance-- but for the wargamer it can be pretty annoying!

Adler BN 4B - "Centre comp Belgic advancing". Again, I've used British troops in the "Belgic" shako to represent soldiers of the Portuguese legion wearing the barretina. The ankles on this particular code are quite fragile, and although my order arrived intact at my doorstep, I had several casualties while preparing them for painting.

I've complained before about the inconsistent number of battalions in a regiment and regiments in a brigade in French armies. I've even tried to impose order on chaos by making each base a brigade of two regiments, irregardless of actual historical composition. It was a struggle I thought I was winning, fool that I was. Yet now, as I pass the halfway mark for finishing Ney's III corps, the weaknesses of my plans begin to show. You see, Marshal Ney had only half as many troops as Marshal Davout in reality-- but Ney is on course to end up with more bases!

Gengoult's brigade from behind. Both the French and British/Portuguese on this base are in "advancing" pose, but the minute differences from one advancing pose to another can clearly be seen.

So what to do? I guess one of the advantages of French infantry, at least in 6mm, is that it's pretty generic. I could go back and beef up Davout's I corps to the appropriate number of brigades, sacrificing the easily-organized "always-two-regiments-to-a-base" system for something more accurate, and no one would be the wiser (well, except for anyone who's bothered to read this far, since I've just told you). But that would involve more time, effort, and money...

Adler FNC 6A - "Lancer, helmet". The lance shafts on these models are pretty fragile, and a few of the ones in my collection have undergone amputation.

I've mentioned previously how I didn't really start this project with any particular rules in mind. In fact, gaming with this bunch at all is, for the moment, a distant consideration, as renovations-in-progress have taken up all my space. Completed units are left to reside ignominously in re-purposed Ferrero Rocher trays, or, at best, taken out for the occasional parade on a 2'x2' card table. So do I really need to go back and expand formations that I've already set aside as finished? Especially when I've already expressed doubt as to how far in this project I'm even going to get?

Mourier's Brigade, with the 11th Hussars in the lead, followed by the 6th Chevau-légers. The lancers' shiny gold helmets really stand out nicely on the tabletop, while the pelisse, or decorative coat worn over one shoulder by the Hussars also makes a good accent.

Then again, what does need have to do with anything in this hobby?

The Lancers' pennants also help create contrast.

Next time: some Russians

6mm French Napoleonics Eyecandy Extravaganza!

...In which our protagonist really just wants to show off his stuff.

By taking pictures like this, I can pretend I'm actually making good progress!

Work continues slowly but steadily on Marshal Ney's III corps for the 1812 project. I finished a few more bases since my last post, but rather than taking pictures of them individually, I opted to dig out some scenery as well as Davout's I corps and take some pics showing the Grande Armée so far. If you've been paying close enough attention, you might be able to pick the new bases in the crowd.

Why is it my troops always seem to have their backs to a forest? Are they attacking out of the woods like a pack of savage Ewoks? Could it be that I just don't have anything else suitable as a backdrop?

The French side has three main advantages, as I see it:

1) A great variety of troops. Even having started with the most 'French' of corps, I've already done some Spanish, Portuguese and Polish troops, have the entire Württemberg division on deck, and there are zillions more units from all over Europe that will eventually join the ranks. Even without including allies, the French cavalry has more different types than anyone else!

The III corps so far. The brigade at the top left is a 'loaner' from the I corps. Still to come are the corps artillery, command, and a rather large (and snazzy) division from Württemberg.

2) Very colourful. While taking pictures of my Russians, I realized anew that brighter is better in 6mm. The Russians don't really stand out at a distance, whereas the French do. Yes, the French coats are supposed to be some kind of 'dark' blue, but most people will accept a brighter hue (such as I've been using) at this scale. Really, I should have gone for a battle with a brightly-coloured opponent, like the Austrians, the British, or the Spanish.

 A test base from the Cavalry Reserve managed to sneak into this picture. Can you spot it?

3) Complete range. When you're trying to follow a specific order of battle, nothing's more frustrating than discovering that you can't find minis for all your troops. Luckily I can find pretty much everything I need for the Allied side at Borodino, including not only obscure troop types, but also a variety of different poses for the more common types to make things more interesting.

Variety is the spice of life.

Why do French cavalrymen wear green? I've never figured that out.

Of course the Grande Armée is frickin' giant. As is the Russian army of 1812. The more I paint and the longer it takes, the more I wonder whether I'll be able to see this project through. On the one hand, it would be so cool if I could; on the other, there are so many other great projects I'd love to do. It's a toss up.

My bases seem to have been getting distinctly grassier, which is both unnecessary and expensive. I should cut back.

Have I mentioned recently how awesome Adler's cavalry figures are?

And, now that I've run out of content, I'll just let the rest of the pictures do the talking:

While I try to figure out how long I can stick to the plan for this project, I'll continue to paint the minis I already have for it. Heck, even if I don't buy any more, the stuff I already have should keep me busy for most of the year at the rate I'm currently getting through them!

Until next time, adios.