Old Rules and New Ideas

A real blast from the past and a set of rules I have some fond memories of. These were the set of choice for my 1815 Airfix Anglo-Dutch army.

Way back in the early days of my wargames career I received as a Christmas present a copy of the AirFix Magazine Guide Number 4: Napoleonic Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie. This book was a revelation at the time and both myself and my then gaming friend, Paul, decided to raise armies organised as per the rules using our large supply of unpainted Airfix Napoleonics. In a relatively short space of time we were fielding armies of around 150 figures a side and had some really entertaining games using the Quarrie rules – they seemed almost an ‘adult’ step up from Charge! or similar….

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the idea of National Characteristics was originally mooted by a chap called Steve Tulk (?) and I believe the rules were published by the London Wargames Section (?) but I certainly stand to be corrected.

I remember seeing these on sale at the New Model Army Limited (the wargames shop owned by Eric Knowles) but I never owned a set.

This was the first set of rules I used that featured the concept of National Characteristics. The troops for each army were rated for just about everything – morale, firing ability, hand to hand ability as well as movement rates for every imaginable tabletop circumstance. This was quite controversial by all accounts but much of the perceived outrage amongst the diehard Napoleonic fraternity passed us by, located as we were on the Isle of Sheppey, far removed from the mainstream of the hobby.

One of the versions of Bruce Quarrie's Napoleonic book.

Looking back at the rules via the medium of Bruce Quarrie’s later Napoleon’s Campaigns in Miniature I can honesty say that whilst I enjoyed them at the time I would certainly not do so now. In my opinion rules have moved forward from these and whilst I respect the work that had obviously gone into them they are not the type of rules I would use now.

National characteristics are in my opinion a little bit of a slippery slope because where does one draw the line? They are hugely subjective in any event and so from my own perspective I prefer that troops are treated equally but with differences based on unit size, training, equipment, leadership and esprit de corps being used as the differentiating characteristic. For me this translates simply as rating troops as good, average or poor and adjusting the notional unit size accordingly - which is something that the Portable Napoleonic Wargame does. 

Command and Colours: Napoleonic allows for differing unit sizes and also for an element of National Characteristics but overall is far less rigid than the approach adopted by Messrs. Quarrie and Tulk. For the most part troops of the same notional type operate in a similar way which feels far more comfortable.

In summary I will admit to really enjoying my games with the Quarrie set 'back in the day' but it is hard to reconcile my current thoughts about rules with them. They were from a galaxy far, far away...

Planning a Napoleonic Adventure....Part 21

Old Guard Infantry. From what I can see (and I am no expert in respect of French Napoleonic uniforms) the differences between the Grenadiers and Chasseurs seem to be the bearskin and the cuffs. In any event a simple paint conversion would certainly be easy enough to tackle.

It has been a busy day on the domestic front - two trips out shopping and giving the lawn its first cut of the year - always a tough one - but I still managed to make some progress with the next batch of base sealing. The French army has all of their bases sealed and so next up will be the British.

Whilst going through the French a few ideas came to me in respect of paint conversions. Some of the light infantry in the standing firing pose - there are two types, one wearing gaiters and the other in trousers - are the same figures as have been used for the infantry of the line. As I am desperately short of line infantry rank and file (I only have 20 in total!) it would make sense to repaint some of the light infantry. There are only 7 figures wearing trousers so it will boost the line rank and file up to 27 figures which makes a substantial difference when you factor in the command types I am using to bulk out the units.

I will be painting a lot of shako covers - mainly because it covers a multitude of sins - and one of the other paint conversions that occurred to me was Turin I gotta some Old Guard Grenadiers into Chasseurs. The brass front plate on the bearskin could easily be painted out - it is not that well defined to be honest - and the plume repainted, along with the top of the bearskin. I shall take a closer look to see what other differences there are and how doable this is.

Tomorrow I should be taking delivery of a number of Del Prado figures acquired from eBay. These will be filling quite a few of the remaining holes in the collection so I shall be adding figures to bases first before I start on the British.

Planning a Napoleonic Adventure...Part 20

Minifigs 25mm Napoleonic French Dragoon regiment Number 17, 20 strong and from the collection of Mr Fox, kindly donated to the Del Prado collection of yours truly.

It is no secret that the biggest single problem with the Del Prado Napoleonic collection is that it was designed for a diorama rather than for a wargame. This means that the range of figures is limited to a particular point of the battle represented. There are a number of holes in the collection that can only be addressed by using figures from other sources. Therein lies a minor difficulty as many of the figures are rather on the small size, being 25mm rather than 28mm. There is a further complication in that some of the figures are quite large and are fully up to current 28mm figure standard - the British Guards and Highlanders and some of the French Light Infantry (only those kneeling firing which is a little frustrating).

In order to address the shortfall in troop types one is forced to look elsewhere and for the most part figures similar in style and build can be found in the Tradition 25mm range - this will be my preferred choice in due course - so I have been looking long and hard at what i will need from them. the list seems to be getting larger as the days go by but I reckon I am close to knowing what I shall be needing.

From an unexpected but most welcome source came the rather attractive Minifigs 25mm French Dragoon regiment you see above. This was kindly donated by the redoubtable Mr Fox and had been lurking in his very own Area 51 for rather more years than he cared to remember. The regiment is 20 figures strong and includes all the usual 'flam and paradiddle' one would associate with an old school wargames cavalry unit. They are based on beer mats - the only basing material that gamers of a certain vintage will remember fondly (at least acquiring them in any event!) - which will be really easy to remove compared to the more modern MDF types.

Whilst the figures themselves are in very good shape the years have been less kind to the paintwork. For sure they look fine in the picture but a closer inspection reveals a fair amount of what looks like paint having been rubbed off or even just flaking away. I actually had some paint breakaway from the figure merely from being handled. Originally my plan was to just rebase and varnish the figures but it looks like rather more work will be needed to get them 'match fit' so to speak. Best I dig out my tins of the old Humbrol Authenticolour: French Dragoon Green then! 

Under my planned organisation, which has mounted units being a maximum size of 8 figures, I will be able to produce two units. When used for Command and Colours then I can get 5 x 4 figures units which will be more than sufficient for my needs.

I also acquired from Mr Fox an unpainted Minifigs 20 figure French Line Chasseur a Cheval regiment so I shall be able to organise this in the same fashion as the Dragoons.

These two units will give my French army some much needed line cavalry and so my warmest thanks are extended to Mr Fox for his generosity! 

The Spinning of Plates

The man cave used to see me routinely juggling a dozen or more things at once - fortunately not any more!

You could be forgiven for thinking that with all this emphasise on the Del Prado Napoleonic collection that I have been neglecting the other bits and pieces I am currently involved with.

Not so.

Not so because in a couple of weeks’ time I shall be taking delivery of Eric’s Ottoman Turkish army as well as the final box of painted 18^th century figures – these being the Prussians of the Seven Years War of which most are Minifigs.

Eric’s Turkish army is huge. Huge as in having its own post code huge. In fact it could readily be split into three or four armies that would still be very much on the large side. The plan is for me to sort them into units and to draw up an order of battle so that interested parties can see what there is  and to make their plans accordingly. The follow up to this is the remainder of Eric’s Napoleonic collection which has some quite unique figures in it and was used in the famous 1965 refight of Waterloo.

Once I have these I shall be sorting them out and will take some pictures which will be shared via the blog.

In other news I shall once again be attending Salute in April (Coronavirus not withstanding) in my usual role of helping the legend that is Dave Lanchester and his good lady set up his book stall. I am rather pleased to be going as it will give me a chance to take a good look at the latest Plastic Soldier Company joint venture – Mortem et Gloriam by Simon Hall. I am also very keen to see the new 15mm figures that PSC are releasing to support them – Sassanid Persian, Late Roman, Goths and Huns or in other words, prime candidates for the latest edition of the Command and Colours game – Medieval, which covers the Later Roman era up to just before the Arab Conquest. Using the figures instead of blocks is something that I am rather keen to take a closer look at….

Things have been quiet on the ACW front recently as the last of the figures are currently under the brush. To be honest I am in no hurry as my focus is on the Napoleonic collection. However, having said that, once I have the last of the figures for this project it will open the door on the naval side. I have pile of Tumbling Dice 1:2400^th ACW ships that are painted and based and merely waiting for their names and flags to be ready. I have intentionally parked this collection until all the elements are together so that I can roll out the whole thing.

My collection of Risk plastic 20mm Medievals has been lurking on a shelf for some time but fear not, there are plans afoot for these figures in due course.

There remains a couple of other things I have on the 'to do' list - nothing major and more importantly readily available so no effort would be needed in massing material for them. I will not bore you with the details but suffice it to say spaceships and mightily thewed barbarians feature....

Then there is WW1 and WW2 of which I shall remain silent. There are a few ideas I am kicking around but as yet nothing concrete.

In the meantime though, it is back to 1815 and the grand rebasing!

Planning a Napoleonic Adventure....Part 19

French Voltigeurs from Tradition of London

Yesterday evening I was able to seal the bases of all the French mounted troops - 64 cavalry and 10 mounted commanders. The remaining French will be similarly processed by the weekend when I shall then look to the Allies.

In the meantime though, I have been giving some thought to the additional units I shall be adding to the collection - mainly as the Del Prado range does not include them - as well as the paint conversions I shall be undertaking.

The new units I shall be raising are as follows:

British

2 x Line Infantry units (20 figures in total)
1 x Heavy Dragoon regiment (8 figures)
1 x Light Dragoon Regiment (8 figures)

French

1 x Guard Empress Dragoons (8 figures)
2 x Guard Foot artillery crews (6 figures in total)
2 x Line Horse artillery crews (6 figures in total)
2 x Line Chasseur a Cheval (16 figures in total)

Prussian

3 x Line infantry (24 figures in total)
2 x Jager (12 figures in total)

Brunswick

1 x Avant Garde Jager (6 figures)
1 x Hussar unit (8 figures)
1 x Foot Artillery (3 figures)

From within the Del Prado range itself there are a few models that I have earmarked for paint conversions. This could potentially be a bottomless pit in many ways so I shall confirm myself to that for which there is a pressing need. It is a lot less than the ‘new units’ section above!

For the British I want to paint some of the Life Guard figures into the Blues. This will be straightforward to do but as yet I do not have enough figures – I need another four which will give me two units each of 6 figures. I am also considering repainting half of the British Hussars to represent another regiment but have yet to finalise this. British line infantry is a little problematic as the only figure has yellow facings. It would be nice to change this for some other units but it would be a fiddly undertaking – especially as the regimental colours are in yellow as well! It may offend the purist but I am tempted to leave them as they are so all the British line infantry will be represented by regiments with yellow facings (actually pale yellow for the 30^th Foot).

I have rather a lot of Guards and Highlanders – rather annoyingly without sensible command groups – and whilst the former is naturally rather limited (3 units only) the latter has a lot more potential. For sure the figures have an oilskin cover over the shako and are wearing white trousers but that is nothing that a repaint into grey would not put right. The problem of course is that the facings are blue which will impact collars, cuffs and turnback’s. For those that are pedantic there is also the small matter of flank company shoulder furniture. For the Highlanders there is the question of the ‘set’ of the tartan - a subject that I simply avoided back in the early 1970s by the simple expedient of painting the Airfix kilted Highlanders using a plain dark blue or green for the kilts and facings. Oddly enough at table ranges they did not look too bad.

My plans for the French are along similar lines. I have some spare light infantry kneeling firing that are going to be paint converted into line infantry Voltiguers and I am also planning a large scale shako cover offensive. I did toy with the idea of painting some Old Guard Grenadiers as Guard Chasseurs but I do not have any spare figures to do this with although it would relatively straightforward.

The main thing with all this is simply that I need to eke out the collection as much as I can and so by adding a few new units and tweaking some of the existing range I can do this.

Besides, it is quite good fun!

Planning a Napoleonic Adventure....Part 18

Phase 1 complete! All of the figures from the Del Prado collection that are being used have been rebased. This is around 150 mounted figures and 350 or so foot with 15 guns (these are staying unbased). I have managed this in just over a month which, allowing for the week off and travelling, birthdays and our wedding anniversary is pretty good going in my opinion.

The next step is the bases themselves in that they will need to be sealed (I have used 25mm circular bases for the foot figures and 50mm x 25mm ‘pill shaped’ bases for the mounted - on both cases these are 2mm thick and are the same as those I used for the ACW collection), given two coats of Humbrol Satin 131 and then varnished Matt. I will tackle the whole collection at this stage as the next part - touching up the odd dink and scuff and the few paint conversions I am planning - will need to be done in batches rather than en masse. Once this is completed then the whole lot will get a fresh coat of gloss varnish (the bases will be Matt) and and will be ready to go!

In the meantime though I thought it would be a good idea to show you the French part of the collection.

The French army in its entirety - well not quite as the guns are in another box.

Mounted commanders (including the man himself) and the following: Horse Grenadiers of the Guard,  Carabiniers, Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard (actually they are what appears to be the elite company of the 3rd Chasseurs but further research will be needed to check) and Polish and Dutch Lancers of the Guard

More cavalry and commanders - in this case two units of Cuirassiers and one of Dragoons

Infantry - Old Guard, Young Guard, Line and Light

More Light Infantry and gun crews

There are a few holes in the French army that will need addressing and I have been very fortunate in that the recent box full of goodies from Bob Cordery has really helped with the collection. I have been able to bulk out nominal units with plenty of command figures. 

Now that I have completed this phase it has given me the opportunity to not only become acquainted with the figures but also to think about the provisional organisation of units. For Command and Colours based scenarios then using one figure for one block I can for the most part cover. This only applies to the scenarios in the base game using a 13 x 9 hex grid which is the size of the playing area I will be using.

For smaller CaC:N scenarios or those of my own invention I will be adopting the following standard. Infantry 6 to 10 figures, Cavalry 6 figures and artillery 4 or 3 figures. This will give the appearance of bigger units and will fill the playing space rather better. I will try to use two figures to equal one block but with the cavalry the 6 figures will represent 3 or 4 blocks depending on the nationality. I have a plan for how to manage this. When I used to fight actions using the block armies (using rules that derived from Command and Colours) the sweet spot for games was usually no more than a dozen units a side which the collection can cover comfortably although the Prussians are a little on the light side at present.

I have made no mention of the next steps after completing this lot as this will be the additional units that Del Prado do not produce. I will be using Tradition figures as they are closest in style to the bulk of the collection.

Lots to look forward to then.

Planning a Napoleonic Adventure....Part 17

Assorted allies with the (hidden) Prussians currently occupying the shoebox on the left. There are Brunswickers, Dutch-Belgians and a selection of British on show.

The great unbasing of the figures from the Del Prado collection is complete. The final figures - which came from Bob Cordery as part of our recent exchange - came out of soak last night (after 4 days!) and their 3mm thick bases were carefully removed. The bases peeled away, onion-like, with the average being 3 slices a base. There were no casualties!

Completed the night previously - some of the French cavalry, in this case two regiments of Cuirassiers and the Dragoons with a selection of mounted commanders and a solitary Old Guard drummer.

After having done this I set to with the super glue and based some assorted allied figures, a sample of which you see above. There were also a dozen or Prussians that are now residing in a dedicated shoebox as their temporary accommodation until something more permanent is organised.

This evening and indeed probably the rest of the weekend, will be devoted to the French Infantry and artillery. The plan is to have the whole lot based by the close of play Sunday and if the additional artillery I have ordered arrives in time that will be processed as well.

The next phase will be painting and varnishing the bases.