Saturday 23 March 2019

Gardes, Gardes!


I was doing a photo shoot yesterday for some new Flatpack Terrain river and track products that I'm selling, and found I needed some marching figures. In my loft I found these; they've not seen the light of day in five years or more (photo is clickable). My Napoleonic collection remains somewhat "in the closet", but I couldn't resist setting them out for a photo, especially as I'm currently working on a related project (below) with chums David Imrie and Lionel Bechara.

Lionel painted and David has highlighted and weathered.

With six battalions each of 24 Garde Chasseurs, it occurs to me that I'm within shouting distance of being able to field a full eight battalion division of them, which, with the Garde Grenadiers, would give me all the Old Guard infantry for Waterloo or the winter 1814 campaign. I also have most of the Young Guard, already based, much of the Garde cavalry and some of the artillery. It strikes me that they would work very nicely on a 20cm grid. Now if someone would only write a decent set of grid-based card-driven Napoleonic rules... ;-)

16 comments:

DeanM said...

Great looking Guardsmen, Simon. Looking forward to seeing them gamed too.

Daniel Moreno said...

"Now if someone would only write a decent set of grid-based card-driven Napoleonic rules... ;-)" *Thinking* To The Grandest!!! :)))

William Stewart said...

"The grid is to the ruler as three is to one."





BigRedBat said...

I'm still a way off gaming with them. Their allied opponents are currently only 12 painted plastic Prussians.

Andrew Brentna said...

12 Plastic Prusdians should be enough to see off a bunch of ear-ringed, luxuriantly moustachioed, Village People wannabees!

Millsy said...

Don't listen to a word that vagabond Brentnall says Simon. He can't even spell Pusssians and wouldn't recognise elite infantry if they charged him frontally in broad daylight!

BigRedBat said...

Prudsians, Pusssians- what hell is this? ;-)

Friends Of General Haig said...

I really like the mud stained great coats. They look a hard marching bunch to me.

BigRedBat said...

Thanks. I'm doing the entire army in muddy greatcoats. Hoping I'll be able to have the enemy in greatcoats, too.

Andrew Brentna said...

Prudsians, Pusssians, are you not aware of the difficulties of transliterating from Slavic languages written in Cyrillic script? The point remains the same, however it is spelt, the guard will always ‘recule’in the end! And even Landwehr can evict ‘Young Guard’ from a village.

Gonsalvo said...

SIX battalions of Garde Chasseurs a Pied? That's more than existed for the vast majority of the Napoleonic Wars (as you're obviously aware).

And armies all in greatcoats - might just as well do American Civil War! :-)

Give me armies in Grande Tenue any day\; one must look ones best when facing the enemy in battle!

BigRedBat said...

"And even Landwehr can evict ‘Young Guard’ from a village." Eventually! ;-)

Hi Peter, happily I'm looking at the end of the wars, so I can have quite a lot of Garde. :-)

Nikephorous said...

"Now if someone would only write a decent set of grid-based card-driven Napoleonic rules..."

I feel confident you might know someone Simon. ;-)

BigRedBat said...

Indeed! :-)

Curt said...

It's wonderful seeing your Napoleonic collection getting some of the spotlight. Bravo! I seem to remember you had some stonking units of French dragoons as well...

BigRedBat said...

Hi Curt- Yes I recall I have a heck of a lot of dragoons. I've also got cuirassiers, hussars, lancers and most of the Garde cavalry. Only the Dragoons have ever seen action, briefly, in one game.