French Guard Cavalry

Grenadiers a Cheval

Finally finished the French Guard Cavalry of the 1815 campaign.

The light Cavalry Brigade under General Desounettes had a large regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval (48 figures) and a Lancer Regiment comprising of the 1st and 2nd Guard Lancers. The majority of the lancers were the Red "Dutch" Lancers with a squadron of the Polish. I have only depicted the Red Lancers, might have to do a squadron of the Polish later.

 

Imperial Guard cavalry brigades

The heavy cavalry comprised the Grenadiers a Cheval and the Empress Dragoons under General Guyot. Guyot took over command after General Letort was wounded by a stray musketball, at Charleroi after the Dragoons broke two Prussian Squares. The Dragoons angered by their beloved commander charged and destroyed the remaining Prussians. He died a few nights later on the eve of Waterloo.

One of my favourite stories of the Battle of Waterloo was during the French retreat where the Allied Cavalry confronted the Grenadiers a Cheval who ignored them and walked off. The Allies were so intimidated they didn't attack, even with overwhelming numbers on their side.

Both Brigades played a part in the charges at Waterloo.

The Empress Dragoon and Red lancers were painted by Fernando Enterprises. I painted the Grenadiers and Chassuers a Cheval.

Now onto the Guard Horse Artillery ...

Heavy Brigade

Light Brigade

Quatre Bras OOB Roster

More pre-game preparation. This time the Order of Battle for Quatre Bras. I have used an Excel spread sheet to list the two sides with ratings (using Republic to Empire), number of figures (20:1 ratio soldiers to figures), a column for tracking casualties, and some room for notes.

This is version 1.0 of the OOB, there may be corrections additions after the test game. I'll save corrections to the same file so it will always be the most up to date. It will also be found on the Downloads page here on the blog with other files as I develop them.

I plan on using a copy on my iPad to keep track of things during the game.

Feel free to download it and give feedback

Click here to download the Roster.

Quatre Bras reinforcements table

Part of the challenge of the Quatre Bras scenario is the uncertainty and confusion of reinforcements on both sides that arrived during the battle. In some ways it was an accidental battle. If it wasn't for Perponcher and his 2nd Netherlands Division disobeying orders and holding their ground, the battle would have been very different, or not have occurred at all.

To try and simulate this, I have made up a simple table for reinforcements. It is divided into 20 minute turns from 12pm until 9pm.  If there is a number in a time slot for a unit, a D6 is rolled. If it is equal or higher than the number in the box, the unit arrives. If not a roll is made the next turn with a reduced number.

The French have more reinforcements at the beginning, then it slows down later. I have got the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Divisions from d'Erlons Corps in the mix to see what happens, but there is a chance they don't turn up.

The Allies start off lean, with more and more troops arriving as the afternoon progresses.

The Excel file can be found here - Click here to download. Feel free to modify it to suit your needs.

I'll do a test run and see what happens.

Quatre Bras practice run

Overview of the battlefield. North is to the right of the photo

I thought being June I'd set up a practice game of the Battle of Quatre Bras. This is the battle I have been working towards on my 10mm project and it was a good opportunity to see how much progress has been made over the last 18 months. This is the first game in the newly redecorated War Room, a nice way to christen it.

There are obvious gaps in both the terrain and OOB, but where possible I'll use proxies. I might get a chance to finish some more units as I go. One of the big gaps is the leader bases - Prince of Orange, Reille, Ney, Division and Brigade commanders.

I'll be using "Republic to Empire" as the rules, and try out some scenario specific additions. As I am travelling a fair bit in the next month or so, this will be a multipart blog entry as I "slowly" play the game. It probably be a solo effort as I will be doing bits when I get a chance.

The terrain is mostly done. The Board is 8' x 6', which is almost enough. Bossu Wood came out well, it maybe needs to be a little denser, but the effect is there. The roads are temporary using gasket cork, they will need to improve. The creek is more like a river, again something to improve. I am undecided about the field placement, I'll do some more research before putting them on. Don't be surprised if they appear in later pictures. I'm not happy with the hills either - a rough layout, but need to do a closer match to the contours from the maps.

A view of Gemioncourt in the midground with Quatre Bras in the distance

Looking to the north east

The buildings of Quatre Bras seem ok. Gemioncourt needs to be redone, I am using a my version of La Haye Sainte as a proxy. Overall not too bad for a first attempt.

The starting troops for the Allies are from the 2nd Netherlands Division under Perponcher and the Prince of Orange. The first round of reinforcements at 2pm will be parts of Pictons Divison (done) and the Dutch Belgian Light Cavalry (which I need some proxies for). The rest of the later reinforcements I have done with the exception of the Hanoverian forces. I am waiting for some new Redline figures from Bend Sinister to get them done.

I have most of the French done. The starting troops are the 5th Infantry Division, II Corps cavalry, Guard Cavalry (Chasseurs a Cheval almost painted) and Guard Horse Artillery (not done yet, some Old Guard Foot Artillery as proxies). The next waves of forces are all done.

French initial deployment on the southern side

I'll draw up a schedule of reinforcements and OOB for the scenario. I was toying with a way of randomising who turned up when to create the confusion of the battle.

So ready to draw up the battle rosters, some initial admin then roll for initiative. What I really like about Quatre Bras is the build up nature of the game, it starts quite small then more and more troops are added to the fray.

I have bought a copy of the Piquet rules with some scenario cards and the Theatre of War Campaign supplement, with the idea of helping the solo play. I haven't really worked it out yet, but might use the scenario cards to simulate the fog of war element.

I've just noticed that the blog has collected over 25,000 views. A big thanks to all those who have read and commented, it has been a wonderful journey so far. 2015 is not too far off and progress seems good.

Quatre Bras to the North

Gemioncourt with Belgian Line and Dutch Militia

Nassau 28th Regiment and some Jaegers at the edge of Bossu Wood

2nd Nassau Regiment in Quatre Bras ready to move South

War room upgrade

Before -  game table in middle and everything else around the outside

The time has come to get serious about the "War Room". I am fortunate to have a whole room to use, but it isn't being used to it's full potential. The current storage situation consists of piles of boxes and various containers around the sides of the room. Terrain is getting a bit dusty on the shelves. Dust is a bit of an issue, as my workshop in the same building and I don't always close the doors between the rooms.

Nothing seems to have a permanent home. While striving for order in my armies, it is a shame there is no order in their presentation. Some random pictures hang crooked on the walls.

Preparing for the new shelves

While I have a good map storage cabinet under the table, there is no order in what is in it and it seems under utilised. The random stuff around the edges of the room limits the space for the main table in the middle.

I think you get the idea.

So the plan to change it into a more inspiring place :

• Removal of junk, cleanup, sort out and maybe a sell unused stuff
• Get most of the stuff off the floor where it can get stepped on! And have a dust free floor.
• Wall decorations - some recently bought full size flags to cover the empty walls, re-hang pictures in some order, Grenadier a Cheval sword on the wall
• Storage - trip to IKEA to get a selection of Billy shelves with doors and extra glass shelves. There are two tall shelves in the middle with glass doors for display and three half shelves with solid doors to hide boxes and other stuff. The tops of the half shelves can be used in games for rules, troop removals etc.
• Sort and order the display and storage of armies, projects, terrain and books. Needs to be inspiring and dust proof
• Free up the painting station so there is more room for WIP
• Make sure there is enough space around the game table to move well. I use three 6' x 4' MDF boards as a base so can have up to 12' x 6' for games
• Make a map table for a campaign map to be separate from the game table

Ikea shipment ready for the allen key

After - dust free storage and order 

Flags, notice board, map table

Extra glass shelves for miniatures

Painting table

Lots of storage to hide the mess

Planning the 1815 Campaign - maps

Quatre Bras

I am working towards is doing the 1815 campaign in 10mm for the 200th anniversary. Obviously there is recreating the battles that took place, but there is also the option of a "what if" campaign to play with.

Looking for a suitable campaign map was a bit of a challenge. I decide to look for some old board games that covered the campaign. The bonus would be getting the unit counters to plot the movement. I was not interested in playing out the combat in the board game, just using it to track movement and to work out the OOB's of the battles that took place.

Wonderfully detailed map of  "L'Armee Du Nord"

I found two suitable board games, both by Clash of Arms Games, - "The Emperor Returns" (1986)  and "L'Armee Du Nord"(1993). They were both a bit difficult to get, but some patient watching on eBay and boardgamegeek.com paid off. I got both sets unpunched and BNIB!

Both move divisions around and cover the Belgian campaign. The artwork on the maps is the same, done by the talented Rick Barber,  but the scale differs. "The Emperor Returns" is 1 hex = 3200 metres using one 34" x 22" map. "L'Armee Du Nord" is 1 hex = 700 metres using three 34" x 22" maps. They are both fantastic maps.

I think the "L'Armee Du Nord" is the map I will use as the detail makes setting up a table of terrain a breeze.

Board template to translate to tabletop

To help translate the hexes to my game board I made up a clear plastic template the size my game boards would represent using 1 mm = 1 yard. This allows me to move the template over different parts of the map to see how this would translate into the terrain I have.

One option to consider in the future is mounting the boards on a metal backing and magnetise a set of counters. This would allow the campaign to be safely stored on the wall of the War Room saving some space.

Belgian Militia and Jaegers

Belgian Militia and 27th Jaegers

The last part of Bylandt's Brigade infantry is done - three battalions of Belgian Militia - 5th, 7th  and 8th as well as the 27th Jaegers. They now join the 7th Belgian line. I also painted up some Skirmishers for the 2nd Brigade.

I used greatcoated British in Stovepipes from Redline for the Militia. There were some minor conversions in some figures for the field caps to give a more Militia look. I cut the shako off above the brim and flattened a small ball of greenstuff to make the cap. Painted them blue with an orange band. Works for a few in the battalion, wouldn't want to do a few hundred of them. I also used the Nassau officer for the command.

The skirmishers were using French skirmishers from the Redline range, with the badges cut off and painted in the green uniforms.

I only have some Dutch and Belgian Artillery and Van Merlen's Light Cavalry to complete the Brigade.

Militia command with MG Bylandt

Detail of command with converted drummer

Skirmishers for Saxe-Weimar's Brigade

Skirmish command

Dutch Jaegers made from French line skirmishers 

Saxe-Weimar's Brigade

Bylandt's Brigade 

Perponcher's 2nd Netherlands Division

Brigade in a chocolate box

Recovering from Easter's chocolate induced diabetic coma, I happened on this little idea - Lindt chocolate boxes for storing 10mm figures.

The low metal tins are a perfect hight for 10mm figures. The box is big enough to fit at least a brigade. The magnetic bases stick nicely to the metal box, not too strong, but enough to reduce movement inside. They stack well as a bonus, making it easy to organise the armies. Disadvantage is you can't see what is inside.

It may be considered psychological warfare if I turn up to a game with boxes of chocolates only to reveal my armies within.

Now all I have to do is eat 30 more boxes of these to fit all the figures in! Another long term project.

Magnetic bases stick to the metal tin

Heavy cavalry brigade with some artillery