Fictitious Wars: mechanics

Introduction

First, my apology that this is an entry without pics. Someone on TMP has found the original article that sparked all of this off and there have been questions about uniforms, rules and so on. So I will try to give (brief) answers to them.

The Story

As I explained in the previous entry, the current campaign is an extension of the one set in 1740. I took the key character from my opponent’s side, Prince Maurice of Nassau (nothing if not original) who had been Stadtholder of the Orange Republic. We originally took countries made from the Age Of Reason campaign map of around 5 or 6 EP, and Orange was made up of Holland, the Austrian Netherlands and Westphalia. I created a south-western German Kingdom based on Baden, Wurttemberg and Franconia, called the Kingdom of Franconia.

For the resumed campaign things were a little more sophisticated, but I postulated Maurice kicked back into his small Duchy with old Louis of Bamberg in exile with him and a few units that escaped 1740. Maurice, brooding revenge, would need allies. As I was now going to run it as a solo campaign I created some for him but tried to give them different characters and motives: there is the Duchy of Hessenstein, led by the young and naïve Prince Frederick, and the Duchy of Luneberg led by the crabby and bad tempered old Augustus II. I tried to reflect in their debates the nature of a coalition that was unified only to a degree.




But I also wanted to create a French-inspired Kingdom too, so up cropped the Kingdom of Alsatia, geographically Alsace-Lorraine with a capital at Nancy. So it gave Maurice another ally against Franconia and allowed me to split the campaign into two fronts.

Characters and Personalities

One of the fun things about the Fictitious Wars scenario has been to allow me to introduce characters and personalities that are based on people in my life. From the humblest colonels to Generals and Ambassadors (one chum is even Prince-Archbishop of Mainz) and base their character sheets on the individual’s personalities. Otherwise they are rolled randomly, some influence their battlefield skills, others their diplomacy or abilities to recruit (useful to draw in mercenaries). Some are just interesting little backstories: the Colonel that escorted the current Queen of Franconia from Naples to her new husband was Count Rudolfo Farinelli. Allowed to raise a Freicorps he was also said to be the lover of the Queen of Naples, which is why the King of Naples had him packed off to Franconia. Farinelli was killed at the battle of Hardheim and it allowed me to create a good story for the Neapolitan queen, distraught, raising money for Franconia.

Uniforms and Flags

All the uniforms are fictional, although often based on historical colours. The base colour for infantry coats, for example, is white for Franconia and Bamberg, pearl grey for Alsatia, dark blue for Luneberg and Hessenstein and dark green for Nassau. For flags they are also fictional but historically based: the national flag of Franconia is based on a Lubeck Burgerwehr colour in the Wise/Rossignoli book for example.



But for more dynamic or odder units there are different uniforms: the Franconian Freicorps of Prince Aleksandr Kliuchevski is uniformed in claret faced black, the Hessenstein Hussars are in a canary yellow. Dragoons and hussars in general are fairly pretty, contrasted with the more numerous and staid line infantry.

I was also constrained by figures. We had started with the 1/72 Revell SYW figures bolstered by some from other manufacturers and AWI ranges. These constrained uniform styles somewhat. Nevertheless the ability to create many different styles and colours is still there.



Rules

I originally used English Computer Wargames rules for the 1750 campaign and fought 3 battles with them. I found them ideal for a solo campaign and battle because you could order units or Generals to do something and they *might* do it. Then again they might not, or do something totally different. Generals would hang around for a while. Sometimes over a week, waiting to move on campaign depending on ability. This meant you could, as a solo player, draw up a plan for either side and then watch the computer screw it up and create an entirely unforeseen set of circumstances.

The same thing happened in battles. If you read the account of Strassburg, for example, Jeune’s attack was totally unexpected but as a solo player you simply accepted that it fitted and played accordingly. Equally De Brun’s flank march was timed for 9.00 according to the route of march, but he was late. If he had been on time the battle would surely have gone differently.

There were also unexpected surprises: Franconia lost its most talented GfwM due to an outbreak of blackwater fever before the campaign was a fortnight old, but the biggest one was the death of Devligne at Strassburg. This was, again, computer generated and Devligne had been central to ‘the story so far’. It was tempting just to pretend it had not happened, but instead I soldiered on and it has changed the basic character of the war, with Alsatia in the hands of men far less committed to the conflict, that country’s participation looks less aggressive and more half-hearted.

Now, with a new PC and some two years of real time passed I can no longer use the ECW set. Instead I am using The Great Captains, but this does not have the sense of independence that the ECW set had. But I have tried to come up with paper matrices to make up for this.

Next Battles

I will draw maps and write up the two succeeding engagements, Hammbruck and Hardheim, that were both fairly small. But now it looks like the climactic battle of the campaign is upon us, certainly on Franconia’s northern front. That battle will be fought in a month or two, as I have a few more units to paint for it, and we shall see how it goes.

J

Fictitious Wars

Background

Inspired by an article in Wargames Illustrated many years ago I began, with some mates at university, a fictitious 18th Century campaign. This took place in 1740 and became the First Bamberg War as forces from the Orange Republic attempted to stop the troops of Franconia dislodging the Protestant Duke Louis in favour of the Franconian Crown Prince, Johann.

This ended after university, but I re-started the campaign a while ago and it has been juddering on. Fast-forwarding ten years the old Stadtholder of the Orange Republic, Maurice Duke of Nassau, has attempted to corall various German states into a league to prevent further Franconian expansion. Removed in as Stadtholder 1741 after his defeat at Bamberg, he was left with his small duchy of Nassau and needed allies to cement his position as leader of the Protestant cause in Germany. By 1749-50 he had succeeded in attracting the Duchies of Hessenstein and Luneberg to his cause as well as some minor principalities.

Still not strong enough to take on Franconia Maurice found an ally in the shape of the Regent of Alsatia, Jean Duc de Devligne. The crucial issue was the fate of the Duchy of Strassburg. The Duke, without any identifiable male heirs had only daughters. One was married to an Alsatian Prince and Devligne had confidently expected Strassburg to fall into his grasp when the old Duke died. But the Duke, alarmed at Alsatian ambitions, arranged for his second daughter to be engaged to Michael, Crown Prince of Franconia and publicly nominated her his heir. Thwarted, Devligne began planning a military expedition to dethrone the Duke and replace him with his older daughter. It may have succeeded, but a spy in Nancy blew the whistle on this plan and the old Duke of Strassburg sent to Franconia for help. The letters arrived with Michael first, who gathered up his own regiments and what neighbouring forces he could and marched towards Strassburg. The scene was set for the first battle of the campaign.

Events to the 2nd April 1750

Devligne had formed a small army of under 20,000 men and had divided it into two columns. His own would advance straight to Strassburg, a second under the Duc de Brun was to come up from Mulhouse. Confident of a walk-over Devligne set a strong pace, De Brun was slower. But, on the 1st April 1750 he ran into the encamped forces of ‘Black’ Michael of Franconia. Aware that De Brun was close he sent messages to hurry him along, confident that his forces and De Brun’s could sweep Michael aside.



Michael, along with Duke Ernst of Strassburg, resolved to give battle in the morning. Knowing De Brun was close Michael resolved to attack Devligne’s forces before he could join hands with the southern column.

The Strassburg Redoubt

Orbats for Strassburg

Franconian/Strassburg Forces

Franconia Feldjagercorps 638
Strassburg Husarencorps 670
Grenadier Battalion ‘Waldeck’ 353
1/Strassburg Regiment 584
2/Strassburg Regiment 709
Strassburg Artillerie 8 3pfd Kanone
1/IR7 ‘Kronprinz Michael’ 665
2/IR7 ‘Kronprinz Michael’ 677
1/IR24 ‘Kronprinz Michael’ Fusiliere 728
KR3 ‘Kronprinz Michael’ 746
DR5 ‘Waldgraf von Baden Durlach’ 605

Reinforcement Column under GdeI von Riebeck

DR7 ‘Ritter von Salmannsweiler’ 860
Horse Grenadiers ‘von Nager’ 327
1/IR10 ‘Graf Oettingen-Oettingen’ 697
2/IR10 ‘Graf Oettingen-Oettingen’ 725

Alsatian Forces Northern Column: Duc de Devligne

1/Corps Franc Devligne 616
2/Corps Franc Devligne 608
3/Corps Franc Devligne 616
4/Corps Franc Devligne 624
5/Corps Franc Devligne 552
Hussards ‘Devligne’ 822
Hussards ‘De Mercy’ 516
1/Regiment ‘Des Cretes’ 657
1/Regiment ‘La Doller’ 614
1/Regiment ‘Arc des Vosges’ 722
2/Regiment ‘Arc des Vosges’ 763
Converged Grenadiers ‘Tual’ 229
Artillerie a Pied 8 4livre cannon

Southern Column: Duc de Brun

Fusiliers-Frontieres ‘Hoheneck’ ?
2/Regiment ‘Des Cretes’ 714
3/Regiment ‘Des Cretes’ 668
3/ Regiment ‘Arc des Vosges’ 705
2/Regiment ‘La Doller’ 749
3/Regiment ‘La Doller’ 775
Hussards ‘Maizeroy’ 458
Converged Grenadiers ‘Sevres’ 229
Artillerie a Pied 8 4livre cannon

The Battle of Strassburg, 2nd April 1750

Devligne was committed as the battle started to a waiting game until De Brun showed up, his only real movement was to order Brigadier Jeune, commanding his left, to probe the Franconian position. Jeune, clearly interpreting his orders in the most aggressive way possible, launched a full-scale attack on Glt von Hohems commanding the Franconian right. Hohems ordered a charge by the Strassburg Husarencorps with overthrew the Hussards de Mercy and then flattened the third battalion of the Corps Franc Devligne, taking 46 prisoners, it’s colour and destroying the unit as a military force. Nevertheless the Schwarzwald Jagercorps began a tough fight against the first battalion of Corps Franc Devligne and to Hohems the whole situation was very alarming.

The Strassburg Husarencorps

Initially things looked no better for the Franconians in the centre. Devligne tasked the Arc des Vosges battalions to feel out to their right for De Brun. Through the gap came the Devligne Cavallrie and a melee developed first against the Baden-Durlach Dragoons and then Michael’s own Kurassier. Devligne’s horse established a comfortable victory over both units but both sides withdrew, tired. Nevertheless 290 Franconians were either dead, wounded or unhorsed during the melees with the Alsatians.

IR7 'Kronprinz Michael' First battalion and 3pfd gun

This left the Franconian infantry advance. Michael had resolved that this should be a careful and stately advance. The officers commanding the three attacking battalions had other ideas and drove their men on to the enemy. In the volleys with the battalions of La Doller and des Cretes the Alsatians did better than the Franconians despite their weaker numbers. In response the second battalion of Kronprinz Michael’s regiment elected to press the issue with the bayonet, breaking the La Doller battalion which dragged along the Des Cretes battalion in sympathy.

It could yet have been reversed by Colonel de Fontbonne of the regiment Arc des Vosges, who had the option of wheeling to his left and attacking the Franconian infantry in the flank. But, unfortunately, de Fontbonne was not the world’s most enterprising officer and stuck to his orders, waiting and looking for De Brun. So the Alsatian right crumbled. Seeing the forces coming down upon them the Tual Grenadiers simply took to their heels and the whole mass was pursued off the field by the Kronprinz’ Kurassiers, refreshed after their earlier fight.

Alsatian Regiment 'La Doller' and 4 livre cannon

On the Franconian right the attack be Jeune was making progress. Having finally pushed back the first battalion of Corps Franc Devligne the Franconia Jagercorps rashly pursued them out of the wood only to be sabred to bits by the Hussards Devligne. Hohems, desperately trying to hold the line with the combined grenadiers was fatally shot as he did so, but, once again, the fierce men of the Strassburg Husarencorps saved the situation. Again the target was the Hussards de Mercy, who had rashly ventured forwards. The Strassburg Hussars broke them, killing Chevalier de Baymann in the process. The whole fleeing mass overran Devligne and his staff and, as the Regent tried to rally them, he was shot in the stomach by a pistol ball, presumably from one of the Strassburg troopers.

The arrival of De Brun’s avant-garde force under Brigadier Escallier at 10.45 was far too late to change the course of the battle. The Regiment Arc des Vosges and Colonel de Fontbonne paid the price as they were trampled by Michaels victorious Kurassiers.

Aftermath

As Michael and Ernst pulled their troops back to Strassburg, wrote victory letters and held a Te Deum, things on the Alsatian side were not so rosy. In total they had lost over 2000 men and two colours. De Brun, a convenient whipping boy for the defeat later, simply washed his hands of the shattered army and it was left to Brigadiers Escallier and D’Artellier to put in hand some sort of orderly retreat to Brumath.

On the way, at the Blaue Igel inn, a regimental surgeon named Champmorin attempted to treat the Regent. Although he managed to remove the bullet from Devligne’s stomach the Regent slipped into unconsciousness and was finally pronounced dead at 1pm.

Casualty Returns Franconia

Glt Freiherr von Hohems KIA

‘Waldeck’ Combined Grenadiers 60
Franconia Feldjager 252
1/IR7 ‘Kronprinz’ 22
2/IR7 ‘Kronprinz’ 122
KR3 ‘Kronprinz’ 136
DR5 ‘Waldgraf’ 161

Total: 792 from an original 9,507 or 8%

Alsatia

Jean Duc de Devligne

1/Corps Franc Devligne 49
2/Corps Franc Devligne 75
3/Corps Franc Devligne 194
4/Corps Franc Devligne 30
5/Corps Franc Devligne 289 plus Colour
Hussards ‘Devligne’ 6
Hussards ‘de Mercy’ 340 plus Colour and Col Baymann
1/Des Cretes 301
1/Doller 210
1/Arc des Vosges 324
2/Arc des Vosges 227
‘Tual’ Grenadiers 4
Cavallerie ‘Devligne’ 124

Total: 2,235 from an original 13,119 or 17%

Never right and wrong again…

Neither yes and no

Ok, well I was part right about the Spanish and part wrong. Dave, the Zoroastro of the 200-ers, has been doing some digging. I was right about the Granada battalions being the two missing regular units, but hopelessly wrong about the Catalans. He has been trying to make sense of Jose Bueno’s book on the Spanish Army in 1808 and the two battalions of Catalonian Volunteers are not the regular light infantry units I supposed. Neither are they levies as Oman supposed either.

Turns out they are the Rondas Volantes de Catalunya, a sort of Gendarmerie charged with anti-smuggling operations (or probably just those the unit itself was not involved with) and looks like being some sort of Miquelet-type light infantry. The pic below has them looking rather dashing, and the blue goes by the name of ‘azul celeste’ – heavenly blue. Dave suggested, and I agree, that the FR Guerillas in cape would be the best representation of this bunch, so off we go again.

126: Rondas Volantes di Catalunya

Diesbach completed

The flags arrived from Vaubanner this week and I took a few shots of the completed unit (see below). How fast this project progresses is dependent on money, or rather if I can sell the Finns or not. I try to keep to a strict annual budget for buying figures and terrain and I have reached it for 2007! So, if the Finns go then fine (and there is just over a day left to go) and I had a question about them yesterday, but I am not convinced that they will sell. If they do then that means a lot more WAS figures. But there is also the issue of what the Eureka Dutch WAS will look like, and I will have to turn to them for some of the Spanish, notably the troops with turnbacks and collar but no lapels.



In the meantime, enjoy the photos





































Talking to a brick wall



I have also been doing some more work on my 15mm Vauban Fortress, seen here with some 1790’s Austrians in residence. I have a few more pieces to paint to complete it, but it looks jolly impressive on the edge of a table, so when it is fully complete and can stand alone it should be real fun.



K

Birthday Boy

Grumpy Old men

Yes, today I am 35. I am now officially eligible to join the age segment of Grumpy Old Men. This group, so it has been scientifically established, occurs at the age of 35 with the realisation that you are no longer young and all there is to look forward to is the mortgage payments, divorce, the kid’s university fees and a general loss of vitality. Also, in Gay years, that makes me around 70.

Grumpy Old Men: Holtzendorff and L'Estocq

People who have known me a long time are well aware that in fact this is the moment my life has been building up to. Middle Aged at 18 I was only waiting for time to catch up. People, rather oddly in my view, seem to be committed to convincing me I am still ‘young’ somehow. I regard this as somehow futile and in denial of the facts. Now I can justifiably moan about hoodies, loud music and reminisce about snowy winters and sunny summers. In other words begin to take refuge in the past. Soon I will be reading the Daily Mail with its promises of a better yesterday and start blaming everything on asylum seekers.

IR3 'Erzherzog Karl'

The next big sea-change, apparently, is at 55, with the realisation that it is only ten years or less to retirement and the mortgage will be paid off, the kids are out of your hair (at last) and you can actually enjoy yourself as the other half has got heartily sick of you and will do anything to encourage you to get out from underfoot. Roll on…

Reportage

Otherwise nothing much to report on the painting front; I have finished Regiment ‘Diesbach’ but I am waiting for the flags I ordered to arrive from Vaubanner before taking more pictures. I have also managed to complete the last half dozen Austrian Uhlans from UlR2. The next batch to get started is eight more Catalan light infantry to finish the unit I did last week.

UlR2 'Schwarzenberg' in line

The Finns are not going well. Five days to go and no bids, with only three watchers. Maybe they are overpriced? I suspect, though, that they are too esoteric as most WW2 wargamers want to play late war with bags of armour. The Finns, allowed nothing heavier than a StuG III is hardly in that league.

I have been doing a bit more thinking about my Fictitious Wars campaign. This has been going on-and-off for ages, since I left University in fact. I am thinking about abandoning the 20mm plastic route and going for the 10mm Pendraken range and start the whole thing all over again. But this is part of my weakness, the inability to concentrate on one thing. I found myself today looking longingly at my 15mm Marlburian stuff as well…

Next on this blog I guess I must get round to looking at the Eylau refight of earlier this year. It will take a certain amount of self-flagellation to do so, of course, but I think it is time.

J

Linguistic Gymnastics

Does anyone speak Catalan?

Well, the latest lot of Spanish are done ad do they look good. There is a saying in my part of the world that ‘red and green should not be seen, except upon a fool’. Well, this lot may be foolish but they certainly look good.



In one of Coupigny’s Brigades there are two battalions of light troops, the 1st and 2nd Volunteers of Barcelona. I am still trying to convince Trevor that these were not levies from Barcelona but regular light infantry battalions. If nothing else, common sense dictates that if they were levies from Barcelona they are a long way from home if they are in the Bailen order of battle.



It is so often the way though, that the initial evidence often robs people of their powers of interpretation. The list is from Oman, who was not there either and clearly pieced things together after the fact. A similar issue has come up over the two Granada battalions in the division as distinct from the Provincial Militia of Granada. As the first battalion of the Regiment was also present elsewhere I am pretty convinced these are the other two regular battalions. It would make sense given the character of the army. If this was Palafox’ Army of the Reserve which had vast numbers of hastily raised volunteers and levies I would be far less certain.



Anyway, this is 8 figures of a total of two battalions of 16 figures each. I enjoyed painting them a great deal, as there was no equipment they were also very quick to do.

Also the La Valliere 4lb’s have arrived today for the Horse Battery. These are from Elite and have long ornate barrels: they look far more like turn-of-the century pieces and may be good for the Spanish, but will certainly not do for the Prussian 1806 3lb battery I am still trying to put together.

Speaking of impossible languages, how about Finnish?

The next lot to be sold are the 20mm Finns I have. The 15mm ACW stuff looks destined to go for the £75 asking price, maybe more.

37mm Bofors Anti Tank gun and crew

I have now dug out my Finns and I have around two battalions of 3 companies, some maxims and so on. 4 field guns and a Bofors 37mm AT gun plus some tanks. Thinking about it my mate Adam must have more of this: certainly another 37mm, a Praga truck, the fearsome FT17 and half a dozen cavalry. The FT17 fought a titanic clash with a Russian BA10 armoured car I remember. Neither side managed to hit the other for ages, until eventually the BA got lucky first.



There is a lot of fun in the Finns, but Adam now lives in Norfolk and I have no desire to build up a Russian 39-40 force to match this lot. I did, though, leave the T26s and the OT33 unmarked to allow them to be used by both sides. Not so the Vickers 6-tonner and the Landsverk Armoured cars.





So, they will go up on ebay in the next few days, hopefully they will fetch the £200 I am looking for. The money will be redeployed to pay for yet more WAS troops…

J

A few of the first

Ordenes Militares

Well, here is the first full Spanish unit: the first battalion of the Ordenes Militares Regiment from Coupigny’s division. I have to say that I like white as a basic uniform colour. It is, admittedly, a real pain to paint as things can easily go wrong and you just end up with a white blob. I have tried to avoid this to some extent by painting the woollen uniform in a slightly off shade as compared to the cross belting. Although it is almost imperceptible, it helps. In the case of this unit there were also white cuffs and turnbacks and I did these in brilliant rather than off white as well. It may not be 100 per cent accurate but it helps distinguish the two, also the cuffs and cuff flaps are piped in blue.



I also did the Colonel from this regiment as the Brigade commander for this brigade. I am not really that happy with him I confess, but he looks ok and not too shameful. With no equipment to speak of except the bayonet and cartouche box the Spanish as a whole painted up quite quickly, or rather I was able to do batches of eight figures rather than six.



The real challenge was the lace for the Grenadier’s sealskins. I took a fairly simple design from a period print and, well, it looks ok but is wobbly in places. Another wobbly issue was the standards. The colours themselves were from the excellent GMB, but I chose to use Front Rank standard tops with fleur de lys and honour ribbons for a change. Well, they look fine except that I simply could not bring myself to try and paint something meaningful on them as it would look terrible, so I just did squiggles.



Churchillian Intermezzo

I was watching the Stephen Fry bio “50 not out” last night. I won the Stephen Fry award at school so I have had more than a passing interest in his career over the past 20 years. Anyway in a clip he told a story which I thought very funny and will pass on here.

In the 50’s, during Churchill’s second premiership, he was awoken at 4am by a Private Secretary.

WC: “What is it? Has war broken out? Have we lost Somalia…?”

PS (Trying to stem the tide of confusion) : “No, Prime Minister. I am afraid that there is a bit of a scandal brewing.”

WC: “What?”

PS: “Well sir, last night one of your backbenchers was, er, discovered in Hyde Park with a Guardsman sir. I am afraid the newspapers have got hold of it and it is going to be in some of the early editions.”

WC: “Ah, I see…Last night?”

PS: “Yes sir.”

WC: “Cold last night wasn’t it?”

PS (a bit flummoxed): “Yes sir, I think it was the coldest February night for 17 years.”

WC: (Smiling to himself): “Ah…makes you proud to be British.”

The old man went back to sleep again.

The Gnomes of Zurich

And here, as a change of pace, are the first batch of a full War of Austrian Succession unit. These are Front Rank SYW French painted as Regiment Diesbach, a Swiss Regiment in Savoyard service. I must say I am very happy with the way that these turned out and the figures seem to have worked out fine. The only real issues are that they have a collar, the musket is slightly wrong and there is no plate on the cartouche box. That said the regiment was in collar by 1744 according to Manley, so I am not too phased about that.



The command figures are a little less satisfying as you cannot get an Ensign or a Drummer in this range with lapels or turnbacks. But the front of the Ensign will be masked by the standard anyway, so it is not too bad. The flags will come from Vaubanner in Canada who so a good range of WAS flags. The 15mm ACW stuff already has one bidder and another 7 watchers, and that will pay for enough flags to be going on with plus a few more Front Rank figures.



The mounted officer in cape is actually the Front Rank British Dragoon officer: that cape covers a multitude of sins and textures well with the blue. This battalion will have another two bases of four musketeers and a half base of two grenadiers on completion. Using the Age of Reason supplement I cited in an earlier entry I will be able to make use of firing figures too with a kneeling front rank.

Next on the list…

Well, eight Catalan light infantry for Coupigny are currently next in the line of fire and are already undercoated. Going slowly are the last six uhlans from UlR2 “Schwarzenberg”, the Austrians are taking back seat now to the Spanish. I reckon that if I do one Spanish Napoleonic batch and then a batch of something else as a cycle I should finish Coupigny in time without getting too bored.

Here’s hoping

J

Ole, Senor and Costa Brava...

Ole

Well the first Spanish for Coupigny’s Division are done. The order from Front Rank arrived yesterday so I chose the smallest Spanish unit (7 figures strong) and got cracking to see how they looked.



This unit is the Truxillo Provincial Militia, one of the five Provincial Militia battalions that were with Coupigny. The rest, as you can see below, are much stronger. I painted them in blue faced red. The battalion was probably in white by then, and I will paint the other 4 battalions in white faced red, but I thought some would look fun in blue. I also chose the figures in top hat to represent the militia, although there are issues with the coat in this regard: it is actually a coatee rather than a coat and with the linen trousers, blue coat and top hat they have the feel of an early Victorian party of bluejackets!

The orbat I am working to for Coupigny is as follows:

Brigade
1/Ceuta Regiment
2/Ceuta Regiment
2/Granada Regiment
3/Granada Regiment
Granada Provincial Militia

Brigade
1/ Ordones Militares Regiment
2/Ordones Militares Regiment
1st Catalionian Volunteers
2nd Catalonian Volunteers
Truxillo Militia

Brigade
3/Ordones Militares Regiment
Bujalance Militia
Cuenca Militia
Cuidad Real Militia

Unattached
Bourbon Line Cavalry
2nd Horse Battery

I am doing the line battalions and the Catalan light infantry 16 figures strong. Some of these battalions will be this strong when we refight Bailen next year and, at 4 companies per battalion the maths actually work. Equally, apart from the Truxillo battalion, I am doing the militia at 12 men per unit. I have not bothered getting more grenadiers for these battalions, although they should have them. Instead they are all in top hat. The Bourbon cavalry will be 13 strong. According to the orbat there were 401 of them plus 120 men from the Espana Regiment. I have conflated these into one unit, as at 1:40 a force of 3 men will be totally useless. Everything is Front Rank except I have on order 2 La Valliere 4lb for the Horse Battery from Elite.



As a division goes it has lots of infantry, but with only 6 4lb guns in support the least said about artillery the better. One regiment of heavy cavalry is not bad in terms of cavalry support: I have been spoiled by the Austrians to expect a lot more. The trouble is that this is the picture across the army as there is no specific cavalry division to take up the slack. But I am looking forward to painting them, and the 1/Ordones Militares is already on the stocks.

WAS update

Well, I have bitten the bullet and ordered some figures that will, hopefully, work for WAS. This is by way of being my birthday present to myself, but with these, the Austrians, Spanish and French I have I will have plenty to keep me busy until after next Xmas. I read on the TMP site of a gut who had painted 800 in 3 months! I am lucky if I manage a tenth of that in the same time frame. Still, winging their way towards me are enough troops for 4 Spanish and 3 Sardinian battalions. These are from the Front Rank French SYW range, either with turnbacks and lapels for the Sardinians or without lapels for the Spanish. If they will not work then they will simply be the start of an SYW French army instead.

ACW For sale

As I mentioned in my last posting I have decided to sell my ACW Confederates. I never use them and they are just taking up space. I have moved around enough to realise that doing just one side while a mate does the other is fine, until you move 200 miles away. So I will keep my 15mm Marlburian, and 15mm Napoleonics and Revolutionary collections but am looking very hard at what is just ballast. The ACW collection is the biggest one. URL is here if anyone is interested:

http://tinyurl.com/2weoka

Anyone interested is free to leave a comment or send an email.

J