Collecting a Wargames Army 104... Again

As you have seen from my Work in Progress page, I have finally started on my 28mm French collection. I have almost two hundred Foundry French and Bavarian miniatures that I bought ten years ago. I painted four French grenadiers and decided the amount of work required was beyond me. After all these years, my technique has improved to a point that I can tackle the complex uniforms of the period with speed and still maintain a good standard. This is a project I have wanted to do since I started wargaming and to finally turn my attention to it feels great! So now what? As usual there is a method to my madness! My goal is to paint four 36-figure battalions of line infantry. As I am basing these models singly, I will have the flexability to rearrange the figures to form different size units. Four 36-figure battalions can easily become six 24-figure battalions, eight 18-figure battalions or twelve 12-figure battalions depending on the rules or strength of the unit I wish to depict. All I need to do is paint a handful of extra eagle bearers! These units will form the core of my army. With the addition of some light infantry and cavalry elements I can field a fairly strong division, whcih is all I can really fit on my standard 4x6' table! I have an eye towards running a semi-annual Quindiacon in my garage where I can set up a temporary 6x8' or 4x12' and run larger games... after I get some more stuff painted, that is! Getting back to reality, my initial plans are again drawn from the Combat on the Coa. Loison's division bore the brunt of the fighting that pushed Crawfurd away from Almedia. The line battalions in that engagement were understrength and most may be represented by 18-figure battalions with a reasonable degree of accuracy...

Simon's Brigade: 26th Line (3 battalions of 18 figures), Legion du Midi (1 battalion of 20 figures), and Legion Hanovrienne (2 battalions of 20 figures). Ferey's Brigade: 32nd Light (12 figures), 66th Line (3 battalions of 24 figures), and 82nd Line (2 battalions of 18 figures). I won't have quite enough infantry for the 66th, so either I will field them as 18-figure battalions and upgrade their unit class by one grade or I'll just have to paint a few extra models. I'm not sure if the 32nd was only present in part or if they were just severely reduced, but I will paint a full 36-figure light battalion when I get that far. The allied infantry (the Legions) will add some variety. The Legion du Midi are basically French light infantry with brown coats and sky blue facings. The Legion Hanovrienne have red coats and white facings. Both regiments had five companies in each battalion. Of course, I'll be adding cavalry and artillery as well! Again, because of the size of my table, I only have modest goals for cavalry at this point. Departing from my Coa theme, I am going with a more generic representation of Penisular cavalry with two squadrons of dragoons (12 figures) and two squadrons of lancers (12 figures). For the future I'll have an eye towards reinforcing the dragoon to a full regiment of four squadrons and adding a few squadrons of hussars. For the artillery I am planning on a single battery of three guns modeled with limbers and an ammunition caisson (which reminds me, I have to go back and paint the RHA artillery I have to support Craufurd). The next article will look in more detail at the French infantry.