A Project Stalled...

There is always a surfeit of projects available to occupy my butterfly brain, so when The Assault Group stopped releasing figures for their Napoleonic line of Austrians and eventually sold it to Alban Miniatures this project was stalled in favour of simpler fare.

In the meantime the revolution that is 28mm rigid plastic figures has occurred, which has given a new boost to interest in Napoleonics as a period. The availability of figures at a half to a third of the price in metal has tempted many people to have a go or return to what has always been a popular period. An added bonus from my point of view is that the Perry sculpted miniatures are quite close to the proportional style that I prefer from Alban Mioniatures, ex TAG (sculpted by Richard Ansell.)

Luckily for my wallet (and probably sanity) the Perry twins have concentrated on the Waterloo/ Hundred Days campaign and this means that only a portion of their range of plastic and metal figures are suitable for the years I have decided to concentrate on - 1805 to 1811.

I have chosen these dates for a number of reasons: firstly the French army under Napoleon is at its peak in 1805 and is dressed in the most elegant version of uniforms of the time. The French still have a tactical advantage in this period as its opponents were slow to learn from their mistakes. This means that on the tabletop there will be contrasting tactical systems, which makes for a more interesting game. As I am already commited to fielding Austrians these are interesting years where they go from their most crushing defeat at Austerlitz to acheiving the first victory of any opponent over Napoleon at Aspern-Essling in 1809.

So far none of my regular opponents has been drawn into the mire of this period so currently I will have to be paintiong and organising at least 2 armies (they'll catch on after a few games!)