20mm French Napoleonic army Review

I think it's worth pointing out that this lot weren't described as 20mm originally - I just call them 20mm because they are a bit smaller than the later ones that were described as 25mm. 

FNC11 Carabinier.

FN3 Old Guard Grenadiers marching

I gave the Grenadiers 2 flags!

Generals and/or senior officers. I've got it down as BNC1 Horse Guard...

French artillery - crews are originals, not conversions... Gun is the Rose Napoleonic French cannon.

FN8 Fusilier marching

They only get 1 flag.

FNC8 Light Horse Lancer

FNC7 Chasseur a Cheval

Still need a load more of these. I can see myself abandoning the 7 Years War armies and getting back to these!

French infantry brigade finished.

Nothing else to say really - now done 3 x 3 company batallions of infantry, 2 guns and a general. All on element bases.

All that is needed to complete the element-based basic army is a unit of cavalry...

1897 French artillery etc

Had word from Amazon that the Osprey Sino-Japanese War book has been delayed, so today's post is slightly different to what I intended...

Firstly. finished the 'not quite' French 1897ish artillery - Rose 20mm ACW gunners with a Parrot gun acting as a generic late 19th C piece! By mounting the gun on a DBX base and the crew on individual bases the guns can by used for both individual and element-based games.

Colour scheme was meant to be the same as my 42mm guns but found out I'd run out of both new and old wood paint. So I painted the guns green instead.

Meanwhile, continuing with the other two companies (or whatever) of  infantry.

 

And some Jacklex Russians and more Arabs have arrived while I wait for the release of the Chinese.

 

20mm French War of 1897

 

Well, really they're mostly Rose dismounted Union cavalry, they're just painted French. I used Dark Sea Blue rather than Dark Prussian Blue for the jackets - does seem to suit French better.

24 figure 6 element battalion organised as 3 2 element companies.

 

Not really accurate as historical French infantry of the time, but fit in nicely as fictional 1897 figures.

 

The initial intention is to produce British, French and Russian armies based like this. Each army to consist of 3 6 element infantry battalions, 1 4 element cavalry regiment (elements represent HQ plus 3 squadrons) and 2 guns, plus possibly a machine gun. French and British armies will be Rose (with Jaclex officers and standards), Russians will be Jacklex, though probably Rose guns. These figures will complement the individually-based pulp battalions, with the guns serving for both.

Quick 'sorted figures for painting' update - on left, all the officers, standard bearers and artillerymen I need, middle marching infantry I need, on right what's left of the marching infantry.

60's Airfix French Foreign Legion.

Back in the 60's I bought the Airfix fort. It had some French Foreign Legion figures attached, some of which have survived. Back then, my 'wargames' took place outside and artillery fire consisted of throwing clods of earth at them. This lot show the effects of ancient battles...

 

So, first things first a good cleaning was in order!

Based and given covering of PVA glue - OK, accept the pooling to a certain extent, accept the loss of detail, but it should make them a bit tougher!

Total surviving figures... Basic paint job but looks OK, done as pulp rather than 'authentic' - troops should have white trousers but I reckon all French soldiers should have red trousers!

That brown spodge is actually a pistol holster! Also, Vallejo basic flesh doesn't photograph well.

Couple of bases still need touching up a bit. If I choose (and I will) more Foreign Legion troops I'll go with  Jacklex. They should be getting a reasonable amount of business from me in comoing months. I'm currently checking their site daily for when the Chinese come out!

French battalion finished

Should be enough of the single based French line colonial infantry for pulp uses.

Figures are a mix of Rose infantry with Jacklex officer and standard bearer. Flag just a basic paper tricolour from the internet - download flag, copy, reverse copy, put them together so that I finish up with both sides. Again, nothing fancy on this lot, just basic wargames standard. Future figures will be for the element based army.

 

Other countries - 20mm French Colonial

The Rose Colonial British are actually quite versatile - pity there were only 4 figures in the range (plus a casualty!). The officer is Jacklex.

Here I've simply painted the Rose figures up with blue tunics and red trousers. The French (and just about everyone else) seem to have had a lot of colour variations. In their case, different blues, sometimes including the trousers, Trousers could also be (possibly mostly?) white.

To a certain extent it would be easy to use lots of different schemes for an army. Here, I think a more stylised blue tunic/red trousers is better than a mix. My intention is to get the 'full' battalion of these on single bases witjin the next few days - though currently working on the 25/28mm Scottish Colonial battalion at the moment. I'll probably start doing both at the same time - Scots take a long time because of all those tartan kilts!

Having said that, the Rose ACW figures make quite good French in this scale. Next to him, the all blue figure suits as either Royal Marines or Germans. Of course, Germans could also be produced by painting the figure khaki!

There are lots of other variations possible. Add in the use of Jacklex figures and I've got quite a project/projects ahead of me in this scale.

Somewhere in Europe - the battle

 

Everything just about in position. Except for the French artillery - they arrived late. Mainly because I forgot about them...

The Guard attempted to attack the Prussian troops in the cornfield flanked by the Bavarians.

Meanwhile the other French infantry regiment attempted to attack the troops in the churchyard while they also tried to use their superiority in cavalry to outflank the Prussian army.

The guns finally arrived and started an artilley duel with the Prussian guns. They completely failed to have any impact on each other throughout the battle. Incidentally, the horse teams are the Rose teams I did for my Rose ACW armies.

Forcing the right flank, the French took a lot of casualties - not helped when the Prussian cavalry charged into the Bavarians!

Things weren't really going well for the French on the left. The cavalry couldn't break through and the infantry  bounced.

Things were no better on the right. Especially as the Prussian cavalry were starting to make an impact! So the French decided on a tactical withdrawal at this point.

Which makes a lot of sense when you look at the respective casualties! Quite simply, attacking troops behind walls while in column without outnumbering them by quite a bit doesn't work. Likewise, having to cross a fence into withering fire is a bad idea, especially when the enemy has cavalry on that flank and you don't! I made a deliberate decision to split the Prussian cavalry but keep the French cavalry together - I thought that the French would benefit most by having theirs together - wrong, it was the Prussians who gained the most!

So an interesting battle that I completed in one day. Perhaps this will help me kickstart the Napoleonic side again? Need a lot more infantry regiments for meaningful battles!

Somewhere in Europe - the armies arrive

 

The Prussians start arriving first

 

The Prussian heavy cavalry are basically Russians, though this particular unit is painted as Prussians!

 

The army starts to take up positions...

 

Nearly there...

 

As the French start to arrive.

 

And start to take their positions ready to attack the Prussian line.

 

 

The Prussians split their cavalry equally to each flank whereas the French kept theirs together.

 

Only having 2 French infantry regiments I've assumed that Bavaria in this battle is still on the French side.

A skirmish at the crossroads

 Not sure when I'll get this game finished - visit to the hospital on Wednesday and it involves being rendered unconcious! So not sure when I'll be recovered. (Don't ask. It's a Urology thing...) Meanwhile, Blogger being a pain and I've started to have issues replying to blogs again - keeps asking me to sign into Goggle, (I am), then click on the link and it does nothing!

Anyway. The game. The game will have a provisional title of 'Somewhere in Europe' but I thought I'd start with scouting parties meeting up first.

The Russian church doesn't mean this is happening in Russia. The game is between France and Prussia!

Chasseurs a Cheval versus Hussars. Straightforward encounter between equal forces to see who gets to initially control the battlefield!

Well, that was short and sweet!

So took it as first rank of Chasseurs dead, rest make a tactical withdrawal in route mode.

So I'm giving the Prussians a couple of free moves to get their forces set up.