Planning a Napoleonic Adventure....Part 9

Brunswick troops in 1815 - I always had a soft spot for these chaps and back in the day (early 1970s) my converted Airfix Confederates gave sterling service as Avant Garde Jagers

Work on the figures continues apace and it is vital that I maintain a good head of steam as I have a number of domestic issues to attend to over the next couple of weeks. Two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, a party and a family dinner out rounded off with a visit to Cavalier at Tonbridge on 23rd February. In addition I also have some parcels to get posted out (that will be my job for tomorrow) as well having the fitting of my new glasses. All in all then, February is a busy month but Cavalier will round it off nicely.

The British heavy cavalry were taken off their bases and the first of the infantry went into soak. I also made a start of cleaning up the Prussian cavalry bases prior to painting. I have sourced some additional figures for the collection and have also arranged some trades with Bob Cordery who had some spares squirrelled away.

I had thought about painting as I went but I have decided instead to get all the figures off of their original bases first. I am fortunate that the cavalry are based on 2" squares with two figures so in some cases I could get away with merely repainting the base. It also means that the various new acquisitions will have filtered through into the collection.

I have been giving some thought to the organisation of the collection and whilst it has not in anyway been finalised I am looking along the following lines for the Anglo Dutch.

4 x Mounted generals
2 x British Guards infantry
2 x Highland infantry
6 x British line infantry
2 x Rifle infantry - 1 British and 1 KGL
1 x Light infantry - more accurately combined light companies
2 x Household cavalry
1 x British heavy cavalry
3 x British light cavalry
3 x Foot artillery
2 x Horse artillery

2 x Mounted generals - 1 Belgian and 1 Brunswick
2 x Belgian heavy cavalry
4 x Belgian infantry
1 x Belgian light infantry
2 x Brunswick infantry
1 x Brunswick light infantry - I will need to buy these as Del Prado do not have figures for them
2 x Foot artillery - 1 Belgian and 1 Brunswick

I have a substantial amount of this lot to hand and the number of figures I will need to buy in from Tradition is quite modest and at this stage limited to the Brunswick contingent.

There is one key difference in the way I am organising the above in respect of the Portable Napoleonic Wargame. I intend using light infantry units and skirmishers in addition to rifle armed specialists. My early thoughts on this are allowing an infantry unit to deploy a single figure in the hex they are occupying to indicate that a skirmish screen is present. There are a number of kneeling firing figures in the collection so this would be a good way to make use of them. Similarly there are a number standing figures reloading muskets which I could use as garrison markers - indeed Bob Cordery has whole formations of these.

I have some ideas around the rules governing the use of skirmishers and to be honest it is a component of Napoleonic warfare that I am keen to allow for in my games.

The Prussian army is far more straightforward and will need some additional troops at some point but there is sufficient to begin with.

2 x Mounted generals
3 x Dragoon regiments
2 x Hussar regiments
6 x Landwehr Infantry
4 x Foot artillery

Ideally I would like to add a couple of line infantry regiments and perhaps some Jager but other than that the force is sound enough for my immediate needs.

Logically i should be outlining the French yet but that will a post for another day.