Painting Update - Napoleonics

Here's what I've been painting.

I've finally started on my French for Weissenfels, starting with test light and line infantry battalions. The above is the first battalion of the 10th Legere. 

Beginning a series of units always takes the longest time, as I need to double check my references and figure out how the miniatures have been sculpted. A few more units in and the process tends to speed up. 

As an example, it took a little work to figure out that these miniatures (from Viking Forge) have shako covers on with their chin straps folded up. 

The standard bearer doesn't come with a flagpole, so I've purchased some from Essex Miniatures. Not perfect, but fine from arm's length.

I also finished the light infantry brigade's complement of skirmishers.

The second test unit was a line battalion, this one being the first of the 14th Line. I have another 11 battalions to paint up like this!

Overall, I'd say I'm aiming for about 70%-80% historical accuracy. These won't be a perfect recreation of French troops, but I think they're a pretty good overall effort. 

And to round out the post, here's the first line brigade's skirmisher bases. 

Painting Update - Napoleonics

I've not played many games recently, but painting continues!

Here's another battalion of Russian infantry, from the Tchernigov regiment. 

And the last of the line infantry battalions, from the Revel regiment.

The scenario for Weissenfels gives the Russian a large battery of horse artillery. I may consider adding a couple horse teams with limbers and ammo caissons.

The last infantry brigade for the Russian is a trio of Jager battalions (of which I'm just showing one since they don't have any real distinguishing features without any flags). I decided to go with the green winter trousers to further distinguish them from the line battalions. 

And finally, the last of the commanders for the scenario. 

And here's a shot of the Russians for Weissenfels. Whew! That's half the first scenario done, and it only took me... 12 months?! 

I was hoping to have the Russians finished by the end of June, and then have the French done by the end of December. Of course, "no plan survives contact with the enemy”, and this year my "enemy" was a massive change in location, job, and gaming groups. 

I'm going to continue working on this project (with a couple diversions elsewhere since this is taking way longer than expected) through the next year. The French force for Weissenfels has twice as many infantry stands as the Russians, but at least they have a third of the amount of cavalry. I'm going to take a break and work on a couple other projects just for fun, and then dive back into Napoleonics in 2024. 

Vive L'Empereur 2023 - Introduction

Welcome to the new year!

I would describe myself as something of a "wargames butterfly", flitting from project to project as my interests take me. 

While indulging these whims means I always have something new to focus on, it also means that my limited wargaming space and budget fill up quickly. My backlog grows with half-finished projects that I either box up for storage in the attic, or sell and recycle the funds back into my budget. 

In 2022 I managed to cut down my lead pile by giving away or cheaply selling some projects that I had lost interest in. And instead of going back to the trough for more, I decided to instead hold off and focus on a single project for this year.*

And what a project it is. 

There's a certain period of history that I've mostly steered away from due to its intimidating nature: Napoleonics. It's the ultimate wargaming iceberg; a relatively small surface above the water that hides an absolutely terrifying depth. 

I've dabbled in it before; mostly with Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules, since they've got some really nice unit cards that don't require any painting to play. 

So I've decided that 2023 is the year of Napoleon for me and this blog. I will spend my time and attention putting together my first dedicated Napoleonics collection. 

Technically, I'm cheating with this goal, as I started last year with some Russian cavalry to round out Ted's collection and play the Weissenfels scenario from the GDA '1813' scenario book. 

Conveniently, that's also what I'm going to base my Napoleonics collection on. The 1813 campaign for Germany was a desperate fight between Napoleon's battered French forces against a coalition of Russian, Prussian, and Austrian forces. Both sides had a mix of tired-but-tested veterans and new recruits. 

Having played General d'Armee and enjoyed it, I'm going to stick with it as my set of rules, although I'd also like to try Soldiers of Napoleon, which has army lists for the nations included in the main rulebook. 

Of course, between the time that I had original written this post and its publication, General d'Armee 2nd Edition was announced. 

I'll be using 18mm miniatures from Blue Moon, Viking Forge, and AB Figures.

My first target will be to match the OOBs from the Weissenfels scenario in the 1813 campaign book. That will give me a good start to my French force, and finish off the Russians I started last year. This is also helpful as I can then use the same French models in the Lutzen scenario (with some reinforcements), against the Prussians. 

As an example, here's the expanded OOB for Weissenfels. I've had to identify the Russian infantry regiments that were at the battle to get the correct flags, and it's also a convenient spot to put any links for uniform research. 

Let's see how far along this project I can get. If I can at least play out Weissenfels and Lutzen, then I'll consider it a success. 

So, let the year of Napoleon commence. Vive l'Empereur! Vive la France!

*I will probably have small asides here and there, as a means to avoid burnout and reduce the lead pile. The goal here is to avoid starting any new projects.