The Look of It

The basing scheme I have decided upon for my Napoleonics venture is a product of a variety of constraints. First off I want to use 28mm/30mm figures from a couple of different ranges (see below). This has an immediate effect on groundscale issues and practicality. I am not particularly interested in skirmish games, which are the obvious way to use 28mm and larger figures, when a gaming table the size of a tennis court is not available, so some sort of compromise in the way massed units of troops will be deployed must be adopted.

I was inspired by the memory of an article many moons ago in Miniature Wargames, about a project to game Waterloo representing every unit on the table each as one dioramic base. Each base would show a small portion of the soldiers making up that regiment in action, instead of trying to represent a shrunk down version of the entire line/column. One base is a little too restricting for my needs but 2 bases still allows some flexibility in showing different unit formations.This is the basic infantry battalionI am decided on, with 2 bases of six figures. Side by side they show the infantry in line and one behind the other one of the variety of columns used on the battlefield (companies or divisions for example.)The cavalry are based just the same (but with just six figures,) representing a regiment. I am fairly happy with this as a compromise between playability and complexity that will allow me to do divisional sized games or larger with a realistic prospect of painting the figures and completing games in a reasonable time.

Efforts so Far

My painting efforts have, so far, been a bit sporadic and random. I have simply been painting figures as they have taken my fancy and without a particular plan in operation. Starting with the figures from The Assault Group (now with Alban Miniatures) that brought my attention back to Napoleonics, the first few stands I have painted are Austrian Jagers.


Part of the attraction of this unit was trying to get the grayish blue colour right for these figures. The basing is what I am adopting as my standard for infantry; six figures on a 60mm x 50mm base. Two bases for a battalion.

The Eagle Figures Spanish by Ian Mountain, are very fine and a pleasure to paint. There is a great selection from full uniform through partial uniform to entirely civilian clothing:

The only cavalry in my chosen ranges that currently exist are hussars for the Austro-Hungarians. The plastic cavalry from Perry Miniatures are a good substitute. The cuirassier and hussar boxes are both excellent and there are some British hussars on the way.


The French figures from Alban are currently limited to infantry from light regiments but only the Voltiguers (the light company) from line regiments and this leaves me potentially short of the bulk of French infantry. The Perry French are too late for my needs so I have tried an experiment of using spare Perry hussar heads on Victrix bodies. The results are reasonable but I am hoping for figures from Alban to fill in this gap.


I do love the flexibility and ease of conversion that plastic figures allow, so earlier Perry French infantry would be almost as acceptable.

The Plastics Revolution

In the last two to three years rigid plastic wargames figures in 25-30mm "scale" have gone from an experimental rarity to being a thriving and expanding part of the wargamer's buying options. There are now eight companies producing at least one box of historical figures* and probably more will enter the marketplace this year too. The first to get to market was Warlord Miniatures closely followed by Perry Miniature, who brought their trademark superb quality of sculpting with them. Quality across the different companies has been very variable, as has size/ scale.

I have bought quite a few of the available boxes out of curiosity and for periods I am not committed enough to to want the expense of metal figures. When I have paid £1.00+ for a figure I do the best I can with what painting skills I have, 50p or less, not so much. The opportunities for adding Napoleonic regiments to my collection in the slim, proportional style of miniature that I am trying to stick to looked promising at first but so far it has been quite limited.


Of the manufacturers who produce Napoleonics, only Perry and HaT figures are close to a proportional style. Perry are chunkier that Alban and HaT are shorter and not such nice and consistant sculpts. The Perry figures have until recently been mainly focussed on the Hundrd Days rather than the earlier periods. The French infantry produced by Victrix do include a box based on the earlier uniforms (pre-Bardin) but althought the bodies of these figures are similar in size to the Perry offerings, the heads are a bit too chunky for my needs. I have experimented with Victrix bodies with spare Perry heads and these will do until there is another choice to fill the ranks of the Premier Empire.

(*For the record: Perry, Warlord, Victrix, Gripping Beast, Immortal, HaT, Conquest Games and Wargames Factory. Sorry to any I have missed.)

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!)

Back to Basics...

Although I am no sort of expert on the Napoleonic Wars, but I do share the common wargamers' attitude that I have a working knowledge on most periods of history to some degree. This I have decided, is not quite enough to pin down exactly what are the elements of Napoleonic warfare that I want to reflect in wargames of the period. So I am just going to have to do some research...

This project is largely miniatures led, which does limit the theatres and years that it is possible to game at the moment. The TAG Austrians are for the peiod 1800 - 1809 and this does coincide with the most elegant period of Napoleonic uniforms (IMHO) The French army won some of its greatest victories and was arguably at the peak of its military capabilities. Before I can decide which rules will give me the sort of game that I want to play I have to consider what level of combat I want to portray, from skirmish games up to grand tactical manouevring.

My first port of call was to my own collection of books. They are mostly uniform references but I do have a few general histories and some more in depth analysis. My initial reading list consists of:

Nosworthy's "Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies" (I found his book on the 18th C. Anatomy of Victory very enlightening.)

"Austerlitz" by Christopher Duffy

"The Art of War in Revolutionary France" by Paddy Griffiths
"Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon" by Gunter Rothenberg

Hopefullly I will have my thoughts in line after perusing those, or at least know where I have to enquire next.

My Downfall...

I was until recently in the smug position of thinking myself immune to the madness that is the lure of the Napoleonic period (1796 - 1815). I had finally sold off my 15mm Napoleonic figures, as much due to a general lack of interest as disenchantment with 15mm figures in general, and I was already committed to a “horse and musket” period—the Seven Years War (and in several theatres!)

What has finally shaken this complacency is a recent development in the figures that are available for the period. The fine purveyor of modern and renaissance miniatures, The Assault Group (TAG) suddenly brought out a range of 1809 Austrians. It was not the subject matter so much as the style of the figures that drew my eye however. These were from the talented hands of Richard Ansell whose work I had seen recently in the form of a growing SYW line for Minden Miniatures. The proportions of these figures are very realistic, making them much slimmer than most other figures of the same height. This does make it nigh on impossible to mix these figures with other manufacturers in the same army let alone in the same units, the clash of styles is just too great.

These figures are so nicely done however that I just had to have them despite not being able to buy from a plethora of sources, as is my usual habit. This situation has been mitigated by the arrival of two more companies producing similarly proportioned figures (Eagle Miniatures and Alban Miniatures) and with the promise of more to come as this style gains favour. The vast and comprehensive ranges by the likes of Foundry and Front Rank however will not be available to me (and probably a good thing...)