An update from Victrix

Victrix have cleared up where they are at on various projects from their announcement:

This is just a quick update to keep you informed of our current production schedule.

We are a bit behind on our release date for the Old Guard Chasseurs at present and the 2 sets of French 54mm, Grenadiers and Voltigeurs. We were expecting the Chasseurs to be out in September but we had a few unavoidable delays during the summer months. We are currently a week or two away from getting test shots of the Chasseurs and 54mm test shots should be following a few weeks after that. We think mid November will be a realistic release time for the Chasseurs and late November for the 54mm.

These delays have had an inevitable knock on effect with the release dates of the Greek Hoplites and the Austrians. The Greeks wont be out this side of Christmas, we are looking at getting them out as soon as possible in January. The Austrians are next in the queue after the Greeks but no firm date yet. Disappointing news I know for all of you have been waiting eagerly for the Greeks to be released. Even more disappointing for us! But rest assured they are being released and they will be some great sets, full of character and positional options.

We will be showing off some pictures of the Austrians next week. The sets are looking great and we can’t wait for these to be released, Bob Naismith has done a really lovely job on these miniatures.

There will be 4 initial releases for the Austrians.

1)      Austrians in Helmets. These can be used from 1805 to 1809

2)      Austrians in shakos. These can be used from 1806 to 1815

3)      Austrian Grenadiers. 1805 to 1815

4)      Austrian Landwehr. These are in Corsican hats and can be used for the Volunteer battalions, Landwehr and Militia of 1809 to 1814.

These sets have a battalion of 36 in a box plus a plastic mounted field officer and flags. We have chosen to do these in March attack poses and have a nice balance between easy assembly whilst retaining the options for adding character to your units.

We will look at Hungarians in future releases.

We are currently working on the metal Command packs for Russian Grenadiers and Pavlovski command plus flag sheets for the Russians

Being positive about things for a moment, the Austrian specs. sound very good, covering the mid/late period, there is I am sure a huge demand for 1806-1815 Austrians, I certainly will build an entire army if they release them. Line, Grenadiers and Landwehr are a good start but we need more, much more, cavalry, artillery etc. but good to hear at least Hungarians are planned though how many years in the future? Not much to say on Chasseurs,we have seen the Grenadiers early in the year and these are just really a variant of those, a good set, excellent sculpts one of the best infantry sets to date.

It's also good to see that Victrix have heard people's views on the 'assembly' issue but are still trying to seek a balance between speed of assembly and customization, hopefully they will steer clear of the WG style 'one piece' design but I think two or three piece is fine.

However I guess reading between the lines we shouldn't expect the Austrians until June next year and Victrix are just so horribly unfocused you wonder if you start building an army with them will much of it ever appear.

Example, for 6 month's now we have been waiting for a limber team to accompany their British Artillery set but to no avail, and I for one will not buy even one set of their's until they do have the team available. Tell me just how much and how long does it take to produce 6 horses and two riders ? If they hadn't produced the limber I wouldn't be complaining but they did and it makes the current set a 50% waste of money and leaves a lot of existing customers well and truly stuffed. I will admit a couple of month's back I did consider having someone sculpt the team for me but that's shear madness! How can anyone have faith in the Victrix line if you are just going to produce bits of units and then move on to something else and maybe leave people with half complete units for several years.

Last xmas I bought some of their 54mm British, I thought it would make for an interesting skirmish game, and they spoke about producing 54mm version for all their sets going forward, so I waited for the 'opposition' and waited and waited, now here we are 12 months later the second set finally appears and my Brits are still packed in their box, I would sell them but I doubt they are worth the postage, I have long since lost interest in this project and faith in Victrix so I won't be buying the new set.

How can you release some early Russians infantry one moment and then the next moment announce you are working on late Austrians, and in so doing dash any hope on seeing an expansion to the range for at very least a couple of years. Even though I think early Russians were the wrong choice in the first place having done so they should be expanding that range to at least enable you to build a viable force, I can only see them shooting themselves in the foot in just releasing a random and unconnected unit every 6 month or so.

It would be different if the figures were compatible with other ranges but they are not really compatible with either Foundry or Front Rank style figures, these small 28mm Napoleonics of Perry, Victrix, and WG are only compatible with each other and as such it makes it important that a range is coherent with at least some cavalry and artillery early on, otherwise people wont buy the infantry as they have nothing to make up an army to play with.  Just look at WG, they release something and very quickly there are 'add ons' available and you know they are hard at work trying to round out the range as quickly as possible

But not Victrix, hopeless is the word that springs to mind when I think of Victrix these days!

What makes all this so frustrating is that the work that Victrix does release is so good, really excellent sculpts and well executed in plastic. If this was Wargames Factory I wouldn't care, their quality is by and large so poor that you wouldn't want to buy it anyway but that isn't the case with Victrix, you actually do want to buy their stuff, your just put off buy the way the company apparently runs it's business.

I know it can't be easy establishing a new business and there must be reasons for them doing what they do but I can't see it, and I don't think they are making the best use of the obviously limited resources they have in hand.

The only hope is that they some day see the light....

More Prussians coming from WG

Warlord Games have previewed some new Napoleonic Prussians to go with their recently released Plastic Landwehr:

Oh, come now – you didn’t think we’d stop at plastic Napoleonic Prussian Landwehr did you? Take a butchers at the new sculpts for this range which are due for release in the not-too-distant future…

These dynamic casualty miniatures are just the thing to mix in with your regiments for a gritty dose of reality. The poor fellows have been knocked off their feet! These would also make for excellent elements in a cinematic diorama. In the pack will also be two dead landwehr – great to use as casualty markers in your games of Black Powder or to add to your bases for even more atmosphere.

Check out our Landwehr at trail – the separate right arms gives you bags of variation whilst retaining a uniform look to the unit. We also have Landwehr pikemen on the way too…

Well great news!!
They look very interesting to me, great looking sculpts, and interesting to see that after the 'one piece' design of the first set these are multipart, well at least two piece's anyway, but that's enough to give you a lot of scope to make your units look more life like and not just a bunch of robots. If I recall correctly the Pike armed Landwehr would only be appropriate for some of the units and the first half of 1813 only, by the middle of the year they were all properly armed with muskets.

Personally I like this compromise between the 'one peice' design of the first set and the mega multipart design of say Victrix's sets, though I think on balance I still would like separate heads as being able to slightly change the head position adds a lot.

Of course it's a trade off isn't it, the more pieces there are in a figure the longer they will take to assemble and some of those Victrix sets seem to take forever to assemble, but they do also allow you to create a variety of poses and make units look more life like. The 'one piece' design is quick to complete ideal for the wargamer who wants them on the table today but they don't really allow for much opportunity to customize.

I think this set has it 'just about right', I am impressed and surprised in a way, I sort of expected WG might just settle with the one box for now and then release a small bunch of really expensive metal figures as they tend to have done in the past, well I can't wait for the 'not-too-distant-future' to come around!

But I guess it will be after xmas.... but you can always hope!

Anyway I am still waiting for my Landwehr sets to arrive, hopefully they will be here in the next day or so, however I did receive the Prussians Flags today that I ordered from Solway Crafts, these are their new 'linen' flags, I will post about them in a day or so and hopefully put up some pics.

What's in a name?

I should be back up to speed with the blog by the weekend, a work project is almost over.

I am currently mulling over a change of name for this blog.

It appears that Google for some reason doesn't like my blog name and says I am a 'cybersquatter', though they won't be specific and say exactly why they think that, just that I am one, frustrating!

I can only assume either they mean the MW magazine but they have their own site miniwargame.com which is not the same as this, or maybe they mean miniaturewargames.com a domain currently not in use but up for sale at only $2,800!!

Whichever it is or if it's for some other reason Google don't like it at all, and as it's hard to find someone at Google to appeal for some commonsense I am not sure whether caving in isn't the best option.

Not a decision to take likely as it changes the url of the site, which means this blog effectively dies and reappears as a new one though the content will be saved.

So what to call the new blog? Hmmmmm...

Renegade - Pics of Napoleonic Cavalry

First pics of the new Renegade Napoleonic cavalry are up on their site.
As I suspected the horses are EBob licensed, 3 poses are shown, the figures are distinctly Renegade, sculpted to be size compatible with Perry and  cheap! The cavalry are not as yet up in the Regiments section, so maybe email them if you need to order now or wait a little while longer and I am sure they will appear.
 

BRITISH HUSSAR TROOPERS CHARGING

BRITISH HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY CHARGING

BRITISH HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY SHOULDERED ARMS 

BRITISH INFANTRY KNEELING, FIRING CENTRE CO.

Work getting in the way of blogging these last few days, will try to do a proper review of these later. I already have an order on the way with the WG Landwehr and the Perry Spanish/Catalan Guerrillas so hopefully will be able to show those next week.

WG Prussian Landwehr Now Shipping!

Seems they're here at last!

NorthStar have them already, so I assume that Caliver does as well, and that all the small orders will be shipping as well in the next day or so.

Here is where being o'seas is a pain as I will have to wait a week or so before having them in hand.

BTW I noticed today Caliver are doing a 4Box deal for GBP57.50 free shipping world wide, worth taking a look at if WG's 6Box deal is too much for you.

At the same time WG are releasing some complementary metal figures. Below is a 3 figure command pack which retails for GBP5.00, from what I understand this is different from the 3 metal command figures that come in the box with the plastic set. Click the image for more details.

The Bridge at Rábade - 9th/10th January 1809

This looks at the 'real' history behind yesterdays post "Blow the bridge".

From the 6th to the 8th January 1809 General Moore halted his retreat on Corunna at Lugo and offered battle to Soult, whilst the British regiments recovered something of their discipline and collected many of the stragglers. The French Marshal hesitated to attack, and, on the night of the 8th/9th, Moore, who had no more than one day's supplies remaining in Lugo, resumed the retreat. The army reached Betanzos on the 9th, and on the night of the 11th the main body entered Corunna.

As the army prepared to slip away from under Soult's nose at Lugo Captain Gordon of the 15th Hussars records:

Orders were accordingly given to withdraw the guns as soon as evening closed in sufficiently to mask the movement, and the troops began their march about nine o'clock.

Watchfires were left burning on the ground we had occupied , which were kept up during the night by the picquets, who remained to observe the enemy's motions.

The different columns retired with the utmost regularity, and in such perfect silence that the French did not discover our evasion until after daylight. The night was extremely dark, which favored this manoeuvre.

Out route to the town lay over broken ground and though intricate lanes; the country was also intersected by dry stone walls, enclosing fields and vineyards, which made it difficult to keep the squadrons together, as no man could see his own horse's head, much less his file leader.

Out regiment was destined to form the rearguard as usual, and halted under the walls of Lugo, near the Corunna Gate, at eleven o'clock, to allow time for the infantry, who had not yet come up, to join the line of march.

During this interval the left squadron was ordered to the town-house to take charge of 35,000 dollars, which must otherwise have been left as a prize for the enemy. Sealed bags, each containing 500 dollars, were distributed to the troopers, and in this manner GBP8,000 was saved to the nation; but our poor horses were much oppressed by the addition of nearly two stone to the weight carried.

Some of the columns lost their way, owning to the darkness of the night and the mistakes of the guides, so that it was nearly two o'clock before they got clear of the town.

Some 8 miles north-west of Lugo the main road to Corunna crosses the Rio Miño at the village of Rábade. The bridge is a typically solid stone Spanish structure dating from medieval times.

We followed soon afterwards, and on crossing the Miño found the Engineers employed in mining the bridge. It was natural to suppose that, after so many failures, they had acquired sufficient experience to enable them to accomplish their object, and in this instance success was particularly desirable, as the river was not fordable.  The steam is broad and rapid, the bank rotten, and the neighborhood does not furnish material for making even a temporary repair. The destruction of this bridge was therefore expected to throw considerable impediments in the way of the enemy's advance; but our hopes were again disappointed. The powder exploded, the bridge remained uninjured, and the French crossed the river within a few hours. It is an extraordinary circumstance that our Engineers, who bear such a high character, should have failed so frequently in one of the most simple operations of the science.

However from the French perspective, Le Noble states:
The French entered Lugo on the 9th, where they took 18 pieces of cannon and 100 caisson destined for the army of Romana. Marshal Soult assigned Franceschi's division to the avantgarde and sent him off in pursuit of the English. However the General found that the enemy had blown up a pillar on the bridge at Rabade where the main road crosses the Miño, two leagues from Lugo. Colonel Garbe having under his command the engineers and sappers of the regiment was able to restore the bridge sufficiently during the night (9th/10th) for infantry and cavalry to pass and by the following night it was strong enough to allow the artillery to cross.

Once across the Miño, Franceschi's cavalry pushed on rapidly trying to prevent futher attempts to blow other bridges on the Corunna road:

Our avantgarde arrived in time to stop the destruction of the bridge over the Ladra, and we executed a charge in which five hundred English prisoners were taken.

The cavalry continued to pursue the enemy, the same day, they forced a passage of the bridge over the Mendeo and pushed up Montefalquiero. On this occasion, General Franceschi twice charged the enemy's cavalry, and captured a thousand men, five guns, two of them French, from the time of Louis XIV, many boxes of ammunition and baggage, and among which was the carriage of the general commanding the rearguard.

Blakeney of the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment also noted the losses on the 9th and 10th and the dismal performance of the Royal Engineers:
During the disastrous march from Lugo to Betanzos more men had fallen away from the ranks than during the whole previous part of the campaign. The destruction of several bridges was attempted, but failure was the invariable result.


However not all the skirmishing seems to have involved the rearguard that day, as Blakeney continues:
Directing our attention towards the stragglers as soon as day dawned, we discovered them formed in tolerably good order, resisting the French cavalry and retiring up the road to where we were in position. General Paget saw the whole affair, and perceiving that they were capable of defending themselves, deemed it unnecessary to send them any support ; but he declared in presence of the men, who from a natural impulse wished to move down against the cavalry, that his reason for withholding support was that he would not sacrifice the life of one good soldier who had stuck to his colours to save the whole horde of those drunken marauders who by their disgraceful conduct placed themselves at the mercy of their enemies.

The stragglers by this time became formidable ; and the enemy's cavalry having lost some men, and seeing the reserve strongly posted, declined to follow farther this newly formed levy en masse, who, true to their system, straggled up the hill to our bivouac.

Battle of the Panniers
Blakeney recalls how the action that day between the stragglers and the French came to be known as the Battle of the Panniers amongst the men.

A soldier of the 28th Regiment, really a good man, who had the mule of Doctor Dacres, to whom he was batman, having fallen in the rear because the animal which carried the surgeon's panniers was unable to keep up with the regiment, stopped at the houses mentioned ; and, getting up before daybreak to follow the regiment he was the first to discover the enemy as they advanced rather cautiously, no doubt taking the stragglers for our proper rearguard. The doctor's man shouted to the stragglers to get up and defend themselves against the French cavalry ; bat before they could unite into anything like a compact body, some were sabred or taken. He then gallantly took command of all those who, roused to a sense of danger, contrived a formation, until, to use his own words, he was superseded by a senior officer, a sergeant, who then assumed supreme command ; upon which General Panniers, with his mule, retired up the hill to where the reserve were posted. I understand that the sergeant got a commission for his good conduct among the stragglers ; but the poor batman was neglected a not unusual instance of "Sic vos non vobis" in the British army.


FYI This last action was covered in a previous post as well, the Battle of the Stragglers a scenario for Capitan.

Futher Reading:
A Journal Of A Cavalry Officer In The Corunna Campiagn 1808-1809 - Captain Gordon
Memoires sur Les Operations Militaires Des Francais en galice, en portugal er dan la valee du tage en 1809 - Le Noble
A Boy in the Peninsular War - The services, adventures or Robert Blakeney

Blow the Bridge - A Capitan Scenario

CAPITÁN is a selection of rules designed to play battles between small groups of troops, such as advance recognition, convoy escort, guerrilla actions, raids on small towns, border posts, incursions into enemy territory, actions against advanced camps, and all those situations where specific tasks were assigned to a few troops of their units.

This is a translation of Capitan Scenario Pack - Scenario #3.

Capitan scenarios are designed to be played on 60cm square game board, adjust as necessary if using a larger game board. To designate the location of troops and terrain in a scenario the game board is divided into four quadrants; NorthWest(1), NorthEast(2), SouthWest(3), South East(4). (For more details see Scenarios)

Blow the Bridge

HISTORICAL SITUATION
In January 1809, as Moore's retreated to Coruña, he halted for three days at Lugo before deciding on the 8th of January to continue his retreat, the Royal Engineers are given the task of blowing the bridge over the Rio Miño at Rábade 8 miles northwest of Lugo, the cavalry outposts of General Franceschi are hot on their heels and time is running short.

TERRAIN
The River Minho runs east to west across the board, 50cm from the western edge is the Rábade bridge, quadrant 2 contains gentle rolling hills, while quadrant 4 is a sparse forest. From southwest to northeast, passing over the bridge is the road to Lugo. In quadrant 3, there is a small farm.

ORDER OF BATTLE
FRENCH:
300 points in command units
1 unit Dragoons (500 points).
1 unit Chasseurs a Cheval (500 points).

BRITISH:
Captain Hill of the Royal Engineers
250 points in command units
1 unit Engineers (300 points)
1 unit Hussars (350 points)
1 unit 95th Rifles (350 points)

DEPLOYMENT
FRENCH:
Anywhere along the east side of the board no more than 10cm from the edge

BRITISH:
Engineers and their command on the bridge.
All other troops can be placed anywhere once the French have been deployed, but no closer than charge distance to any enemy units.

SPECIAL RULES:
If the French prevent the blowing of the bridge add 200 victory points.
To blow the bridge, at least four engineers must remain on the bridge for four turns without moving, without fighting, without being shot at or shooting.

Miniature Design Studios Warbands are back

OK so this is a Napoleonic's blog but about once a month I end up doing one 'off-Topic' post and this is the one for this month!

Miniature Design Studios are a fairly new producer of 28mm white metal miniatures, exclusively focused on ancients. They first appeared on the scene, if I recall correctly, about 18 months ago and had these great 'Warband' deals which worked out around 50p per figure and with their postage being only GBP5.50 worldwide they were an absolute steal, a complete no brainer. Last year the range was also expanding very rapidly and they seemed to have some momentum behind them.

Anyway the figures are all the 'small' proportionate style 28mm, actually very similar in size to the WG plastic ancients, that also should make them compatible with GB's and Immortal's new plastic ranges I believe. Overall they are a pretty good quality, I see them mainly as a cheap way to bulk out an army, whilst perhaps not being the best they are good enough for that purpose. The Achaemenid Persians, Sassanid Persians, Berbers, Celts and Saxons were excellent, I don't think you can find fault with them, the Picts and Greeks were IMHO howlers. I also quite like the Berber cavalry, I would have preferred to see EBob horses but these are not terrible. To be honest these days any 28mm producer who needs horses should just licencee them from EBob, you have less work to do, we getter better horses who can complain.

Then at the beginning of January they abruptly announced a new pricing model and the end of the 'Warband' deals, it effectively meant that prices had doubled overnight and ever since they went very quite with no new releases, I had started to think they were probably dead.

Well just as abruptly I have noticed this week that the 'Warband' deals have returned and once more you can buy their range for 50p per figure. Not only that but they have announced that they will soon be adding new figures to their range, with Hittites, Celts, Picts, Saxons and Israelites getting specific mention.

If you are in to ancients, or want to add some variety into some of the new plastic ranges take a look, at GBP25.00 for 50 figures the 'Warbands' have to be worth at least a try don't you agree?

la Guerra de la Independencia en los tebeos

A while back I posted about Spanish Napoleonic Comics, well here is a second dose!

If you can read Spanish there is an excellent (and long) article about this exact subject here, there is a wonderful shot of a squadron of Curassiers mounted the wrong way round! You can see it below if you don't want to download the article, the officer is calling his men a bunch of cowards and threatening them with being sent to Russia for the winter! The article originates from the magazine Researching&Dragona, nº6

The first set of pictures here are from a post on the GUERRA DE LA INDEPENDENCIA 1808-1814 blog, the second set of 4 are from the 'Asterix' era and came from this blog which is dedicated to Spanish 'classic' comics in general. The bottom picture is from a pamphlet for a 2008 exhibition the original can be found here. The artwork on the Talavera piece was by Dionisio Álvarez Cueto who some of you will be familiar with, if not you can look here.

All these are sadly just a single pictures rather than the actual comics, but here is a link to one comic  that you can download or read online, this one is about Dos de Mayo and Goya, more an educational piece than a 'Sharpe' style adventure.

In the Asterix style

Or next winter you will be in Russia!

Historietas sobre la Guerra de Independencia

The Battle of the Stragglers

CAPITÁN is a selection of rules designed to play battles between small groups of troops, such as advance recognition, convoy escort, guerrilla actions, raids on small towns, border posts, incursions into enemy territory, actions against advanced camps, and all those situations where specific tasks were assigned to a few troops of their units.

This is a translation of Capitan Scenario Pack - Scenario #4.

Capitan scenarios are designed to be played on 60cm square game board, adjust as necessary if using a larger game board. To designate the location of troops and terrain in a scenario the game board is divided into four quadrants; NorthWest(1), NorthEast(2), SouthWest(3), South East(4). (For more details see Scenarios)

The Battle of the Stragglers

HISTORICAL SITUATION
Another picturesque episode in the retreat of Moore to Corunna, occurred when a group of British stragglers, is attacked by pickets of the vanguard of the French cavalry. A sergeant in the British 43rd Infantry Regiment tries to organize the stragglers so they can confront the cavalry and maybe save themselves.

TERRAIN
A road runs from west to east across the board, in quadrant two, along the center of the board and near the road should there is a group of houses (heavy cover), quadrant three is open forest (light wood), and in quadrant one there is a hill (steep hill).

ORDER OF BATTLE
FRENCH:
250 in the command units
1 units Dragoons (300 points)
1 unit Hussars (250 points)

BRITISH:
Sergeant Harper of the 95 Rifles
250 points of Rifles
300 points of Line Infantry or similar
100 points of Grenadiers

DEPLOYMENT
FRENCH:
Deploy anywhere along the northeastern edge of the board, at no more than 10cm from the edge.

BRITISH:
The British deploy first.
All troops must be deployed within 15cm of the houses.

SPECIAL RULES:
For every British figure that exits the west edge via the road, the British player receives double the normal victory points.

Action at Benavente

CAPITÁN is a selection of rules designed to play battles between small groups of troops, such as advance recognition, convoy escort, guerrilla actions, raids on small towns, border posts, incursions into enemy territory, actions against advanced camps, and all those situations where specific tasks were assigned to a few troops of their units.

This is a translation of Capitan Scenario Pack - Scenario #2.

Capitan scenarios are designed to be played on 60cm square game board, adjust as necessary if using a larger game board. To designate the location of troops and terrain in a scenario the game board is divided into four quadrants; NorthWest(1), NorthEast(2), SouthWest(3), South East(4). (For more details see Scenarios)

Action at Benavente

HISTORICAL SITUATION
In late December 1808 the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard, led by General Lefebvre, seeing Moore's troops withdraw, decided to launch an attack on the cavalry pickets of Lord Paget's rearguard, just outside Benavente. It was a great shock, when they found themselves overwhelmed and defeated by the British Hussars, who also captured General Lefebvre in the action.

TERRAIN
Place a group of houses in quadrant 3 simulating Benavente, with a main street and adjacent streets. Quadrant 2 is crossed diagonally by a stream that is fordable by cavalry.

ORDER OF BATTLE
FRENCH:
General Lefebvre
2 units Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde (800 points total)

BRITISH:
300 points in command units
2 units Hussars (800 points total)

DEPLOYMENT
FRENCH:
The Chasseurs enter through the northeast side of the board and can move a maximum distance of 15cm on their first turn.

BRITISH:
A command unit and one unit of Hussars remains in Benavente until the end of the third turn.
The remaining troops are deployed after the French, at a maximum of 70 cm from them and no closer to each other then 60cm.
SPECIAL RULES:
The French deploy first.

Defending the bridge over the Cua - A Capitan Scenario

CAPITÁN is a selection of rules designed to play battles between small groups of troops, such as advance recognition, convoy escort, guerrilla actions, raids on small towns, border posts, incursions into enemy territory, actions against advanced camps, and all those situations where specific tasks were assigned to a few troops of their units.

This is a translation of Capitan Scenario Pack - Scenario #1.

Capitan scenarios are designed to be played on 60cm square game board, adjust as necessary if using a larger game board. To designate the location of troops and terrain in a scenario the game board is divided into four quadrants; NorthWest(1), NorthEast(2), SouthWest(3), South East(4). (For more details see Scenarios)

Defending the bridge over the Cua

HISTORICAL SITUATION
On January 3rd, 1809 the British troops of General Moore were retreating towards Corunna. Protecting their rear were the 95th Rifles, the 43rd Light Infantry Regiment, and the 15th Hussars which formed the rearguard under Lord Paget. The French vanguard was led by Generale de Brigade Cölbert, commanding the 3e Hussars and 15e Chasseurs, who decided to attack without waiting for reinforcements. At the start the situation seemed favorable to the French, but the intervention of the English cavalry produced a counter attack that routed the French troops, and as they withdrew Generale de Brigade Cölbert was killed.

TERRAIN
From north to south there is a river that runs across the board, and in the center there is a bridge. The river is fordable by the cavalry for 20cm from the southern edge of the board. In the southeast quadrant there is a group of houses extending to a maximum of 20cm from the board edge. In quadrant 2 there is a gentle hill. In quadrant 3, there is open forest and in quadrant 4 there are 3 stone walls.

ORDER OF BATTLE
FRENCH:
300 points in command units
2 units Hussars (400 points)
1 unit Chasseurs a Cheval (500 points)

BRITISH:
300 points in the command units
1 unit Hussars (400 points)
1 unit 95th Rifles (500 points)
1 unit Light Infantry (200 Points)

DEPLOYMENT
FRENCH:
The French Hussars and Chasseurs are deployed with in 10cm of the west edge of the board.

BRITISH:
The Rifles are deployed no more than 40cm. from the bridge.
The Light Infantry are deployed anywhere in quadrant two.
The British Hussars are deployed within 10cm. of the east edge of the board, after the third turn.
The units are deployed on the table using initiative rolls.
The British are deployed first.

SPECIAL RULES:

Cochrane takes Mongat Castle - A Capitan Scenario

CAPITÁN is a selection of rules designed to play battles between small groups of troops, such as advance recognition, convoy escort, guerrilla actions, raids on small towns, border posts, incursions into enemy territory, actions against advanced camps, and all those situations where specific tasks were assigned to a few troops of their units.

This is a translation of Capitan Scenario Pack - Scenario #5.

Capitan scenarios are designed to be played on 60cm square game board, adjust as necessary if using a larger game board. To designate the location of troops and terrain in a scenario the game board is divided into four quadrants; NorthWest(1), NorthEast(2), SouthWest(3), South East(4). (For more details see Scenarios)

An alternate version of this scenario can be found here 'The taking of Mongat Castle – a raid of Lord Cochrane' - (First published in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy)

Cochrane takes Mongat Castle

HISTORICAL SITUATION
In 1808 Captain Thomas Cochrane commanded the frigate HMS Imperieuse and was the scourge of the Spanish east coast, one of his most famous actions was the taking of Mongat Castle, aided by a band of Spanish guerrillas.

TERRAIN
Place a fortified building (stone building) representing Mongat Castle in quadrant 3, quadrant 4 is dense forest (heavy woods), in the remaining two quadrants place scattered groups of trees (woods). A road runs from the castle to the north.

ORDER OF BATTLE
FRENCH:
300 points in command units.
1 unit Gendarmes (400 points).
1 unit Grenadiers (500 points).

ALLIES:
300 points in command units.
1 unit Marines (500 points).
1 unit crew of HMS Imperieuse (400 points).
1 unit Guerrillas (400 points).
Captain Cochrane.


DEPLOYMENT
FRENCH:
Anywhere in quadrant 4 including in the castle, the French are placed first.

ALLIES:
The guerrillas are placed with 10cm of the northwest edge, all other troops are placed within 10cm of the northeast edge.

SPECIAL RULES:
If the British occupy the castle they earn 200 extra victory points.

The disgrace of the Vistula Lancers Los Yébenes 24 March 1809

This prestigious body of light cavalry was made up of about 1000 men, all of Polish nationality, distributed in four squadrons of two companies, commanded by Colonel J. Konopka. Although the name of Vistula Legion was given to them by the Emperor on the 2nd March 1808, in fact its origins went back to the 8th September 1799 when it was created as the "Regiment of Lancers of the Polish Legion of the Danube", which in 1801 took the name of the "Regiment of Polish Lancers" and in 1807 that of "Lancers of the Italian Polish Legion".

Its showy and unmistakable uniform consisted of trousers and short jacket of turquoise-blue cloth, with yellow collar, facings and lapels and silver-plated buttons. Their helmets were the typical Polish chatska, in this case yellow, and each lancer carried a small arsenal consisting of his lance with red and white guidon, sabre, two pistols and a carbine.

As far as the regiment’s standards went, it continued using the four republican standards of the Polish Legion which it had received in 1800 in Italy from the hands of the then First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. They had refused to replace them in 1805 with new ones which were in conformity with the new imperial iconography.

The Lancers in Spain

The Lancers entered the Peninsula via Roncesvalles on the 28th May 1808, arriving at Pamplona on the 31st. They left on the 5th June, heading in the direction of Zaragoza with the French punitive column detailed to occupy this city and punish its rebellious inhabitants. En route they overcame the Aragonese successively at Tudela, Mallén and Alagón on the 8th, 13th and 14th of June, and on the 15th were able to gallop into the city of Zaragoza, but were ejected from the city the same day. They then joined the beseiging troops until the 14th August, when they all withdrew in the direction of Navarre. On the 23rd November they fought again at Tudela, and after this victory the bulk of the regiment was transferred towards the centre of the country, leaving before Zaragoza, during its second siege, only a detachment of thirty-three men and horses who were detailed to form Junot’s escort and later Lannes’.

The Disaster of Los Yébenes

On the 20th March 1809 the Lancers left Toledo with the rest of General Sebastiani’s troops en route for the Sierra Morena, and on the afternoon of the 23rd they arrived at the town of Los Yébenes, while the infantry and artillery were near Mora.

That night the sentries heard suspicious sounds and informed the Colonel, "but he calmed all his officers, assuring them that the enemy was several days march from here, near the Guadiana river", but he was mistaken, since facing him and hidden by the fog was the new Army of La Mancha, commanded by Count de Cartaojal, who at seven in the morning mounted an attacking front against the Lancers, who at that moment had just got out of bed.

Lancers of the 5th company engaged their enemies at once. The rest of the regiment was forming in disarrayed squadrons by the church in the center of the village. Suddenly the fog lifted and the Poles caught sight of dense ranks of the Spanish cavalry, and two batteries of horse artillery as well. The Colonel managed to form his men at the entrance to the town, but as soon as he realised his clear numerical inferiority he ordered the withdrawal of the whole regiment by the only road possible, which was a climbing, narrow and winding track which led to Orgaz. Shortly before this the carts and baggage of the Regiment had started to retreat along this road, being unaware that that the Carabineros Reales of the Vizconde de Zolina’s cavalry had been posted on this road, waiting for them.

Their march had hardly begun when the Lancers encountered their own wagons returning in disorder pursued by the Carabineros, and in this situation, attacked at the front and in the rear on a narrow road, the Colonel had his men make a desperate charge.

Soon the lancers, led by Konopka, met two regiments of the Spanish cavalry. Konopka cried: "Forward, boys!" and then the foremost 8th company men leveled their lances attacking furiously. It was the Carabineros Reales, one of the better regiments in the Spanish Army who blocked the narrow road on the edge of a precipice without any chance to go forward or back

It was a merciless fight. Lancers were prevailing with their lances, and carabineers, armed with swords, were – from the very beginning – condemned to defeat. In the terrible melee, where only few soldiers could fight back the attacking Poles, the carabineers, pressed between their attackers and the following Spanish regiment, had no chance. Some hurled themselves in despair into a stony river while others tried to climb the rocky slopes above. Those on the road died.

The lancers' attack completely surprised the Spanish soldiers, who moments before were absolutely sure they would prevail. Now, seeing their front lines smashed by the enemy, they began to move back, and those in last ranks started to retreat. The lancers were pressing, and soon they hewed their way to a wider part of the road. There, separated from the Spanish soldiers, they went into gallop.

Colonel Konopka, along with Major Ruttie and dozen of lancers, left the regiment, which finally reached the open field, and began to form defense lines to repulse the Spanish cavalry, which flowed out from the canyon. The Polish colonel safely reached Mora, where the main forces of General Valance stayed, convinced that the regiment was lost. The regiment however, led by one of the squadrons' COs, Captain Telesfor Kostanecki, fought its way through the enemy's lines, and in a roundabout way – by Consuegra – arrived few hours later in Mora, although without their carts, which were left on the road.

Shortly afterwards General Valence’s Polish infantry arrived from Mora to help him. At the moment both forces met, the following scene took place, which is related by one of its direct participants, the officer Wojciechowski:

"When I jumped off my mount, I took Kazaban to one side and asked him why our Colonel, always so brave and perspicacious in all the previous combats, had completely lost his head today, and was complaining to our General about how our regiment was lost. He did not understand these complaints, because he was sure that the whole regiment was out of danger. Kazaban took a deep breath, took my hand and said to me,

‘You are probably right, and our regiment is out of danger, but nevertheless something worse has happened. We have lost the standard of our regiment, the emblem we received in Italy many years ago during the French revolution. The emblem that Napoleón wanted to change when he became Emperor and the regiment opposed, because it felt so strongly about it: this emblem was our four standards.’

‘What the devil are you telling me?’ I shouted. ‘I am sure that we left them in the depot at Madrid!’

‘Yes’, he said, ‘the covers and the poles have gone, but I put the standards with my own hands, in the greatest secrecy, in a saddlebag that was in the Colonel’s wagon. That wagon was left on the other side of the big mountain and I am sure it has been captured by the Spaniards’.

I was stunned. I knew the consequences of this accident for the whole regiment. In this case our regiment would merely exist, and we Lancers, no matter how brave we might be, would be deprived of all reward or promotion".

Indeed, the Regiment had lost its four standards, which was serious enough in itself, but to make matters worse we had disobeyed a superior order, according to which they should have been left in Madrid in a safe place. As a result of this the Regiment was deprived of the right to receive new standards, even after Albuera (16-V-1811), at which it managed "heroically" to take six British infantry flags in the course of a “legendary" charge.

The Regiment merely existed in this way in Seville, by Imperial decree of the 18th June 1811 serving as base for the new 7th Lancers Regiment (Chevaux-Légers-Lanciers).

In the action at Yebenes the regiment of Polish Lancers suffered significant losses. Lieutenant Stanisław Moszyński (Molzinski) was killed. Captains Jan Szulc and Kajetan Stokowski, as well as Lieutenant Stawierski and surgeon Jan Gryll, all wounded, were taken prisoners (the retreat was so difficult that the regiment could not evacuate its wounded). Overall, between 8 March and 15 April the regiment lost 89 men. Subtracting from that the 47 who were taken prisoner and noting that subsequent losses of the regiments were negligible if any, the remaining number of lost lancers was 42, which was probably the number killed in the clash of Yevenes.

The regiment also lost all of its wagons of the supply train, and along with them all four squadrons' banners, gifts from Napoleon's wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais when the regiment was still in Italy in 1802. The loss of the banners was recognized by lancers as an infamy. They decided - for honour's sake - to wash it away as soon as possible. The lancers' defeat became known all over Spain. It was probably the only defeat from the Spanish forces during all Peninsular War that truly hurt them, and dented their fame. In the nearest future "los infernos picadores" with all their impulsiveness and bravery would try to regain their former reputation among the ranks of the Armée d'Espagne.

Extracted from the Napoleon Series/Wikipedia

Bibliography:
The standards of the Vistula Lancers
Battle of Yevenes
The Peninsular War, Charles Esdaile
Michał Karpowicz, Mirosław Filipiak, Elita jazdy polskiej
Stanisław Kirkor, Legia Nadwiślańska 1808-1814
Marian Kukiel, Dzieje oręża polskiego w epoce napoleońskiej
A History of the Peninsular War 1807-1814, Charles W.C. Oman
Kajetan Wojciechowski, Pamiętniki moje w Hiszpanii, Warszawa 1978
Andrzej Ziółkowski, Pułk jazdy legionowej, Pułk Lansjerów Nadwiślańskich 1799–1815

Revenge of the Carabineros Reales - A Capitan Scenario

CAPITÁN is a selection of rules designed to play battles between small groups of troops, such as advance recognition, convoy escort, guerrilla actions, raids on small towns, border posts, incursions into enemy territory, actions against advanced camps, and all those situations where specific tasks were assigned to a few troops of their units.

This is a translation of Capitan Scenario Pack - Scenario #6.

Capitan scenarios are designed to be played on 60cm square game board, adjust as necessary if using a larger game board. To designate the location of troops and terrain in a scenario the game board is divided into four quadrants; NorthWest(1), NorthEast(2), SouthWest(3), South East(4). (For more details see Scenarios)

This scenario represents the historical action that took place at Yébenes on the 24th March 1809 covered by this post Disgrace of the Vistual Lancers.

Revenge of the Carabineros Reales

HISTORICAL SITUATION
On March 23, 1809, the lancers of the Légion de la Vistule entered the city of Los Yébenes, but they realised that they had strayed too far ahead of the main body of their force, and therefore decided to withdraw to Orgaz. The withdrawal began, led by the regimental supply wagons, however once out of town the road runs through a very narrow gorge, and here the supply wagons were disarrayed when the Carabineros Reales, who had been waiting in ambush, attacked them. The Lancers now found themselves surrounded and launched a desperate attack on the Carabineros Reales to avoid being blocked, but they were defeated and lost 4 of their standards that had been left behind in a wagon.

TERRAIN
A road traverses the board from west to east, all quadrants except quadrant 3 are dense forest (heavy wood) except for a 5cm strip on either side of the road. On the road, within 30cm of the west edge of the board place 3 supply wagons.

ORDER OF BATTLE
FRENCH:
Colonel Konopka
1 or more units Lancers de la Legion Vistule (600 points)

SPANISH:
Colonel Viscount Zolina
1 or more units Carabineros Reales (650 points).

DEPLOYMENT
FRENCH:
Place anywhere on the eastern edge of the board or on the road, within 10cm of the edge.
The French are placed first.

SPANISH:
Can be placed anywhere in the quadrant 3 or with the supply wagons.

SPECIAL RULES:
For every wagon that is captured the Lancers earn 100 victory points, to capture a wagon at least two lancers must remain attached to the wagon for two turns, without any enemy unit within at least 20cm. For every wagon not seized, the Carabineros Reales earn 150 victory points.

WG Prussian Landwehr Deals

I read on the WG site that the boxes have already been printed up and the sprues are expected to arrive next week, so the release must be really immanent!

In anticipation of that seems WG have put up some bargains deals on their site.

From their announcement:
With the imminent release of our new plastic Prussian Landwehr boxed set we’ve pulled together the following deals so you can put together your Prussian army quickly and cost effectively. So, whether you’re wanting to refight Ligny, Leipzig or Plancenoit look no further than here.

Prussians At Ligny Special Offer

At the Battle of Ligny (16th June 1815) II Battalion, 1st Westphalian Landwehr withstood 3 charges by French Cuirassiers and Heavy Cavalry of the Old Guard, driving the French back each time with volley fire.

• 5 Prussian Landwehr boxes

• Free box of Landwehr (saving you £17!)

Prussians At Plancenoit Special Offer

Decisive assault on Plancenoit from Bulow’s IV Corps and Pirch’s II Corps helped win the day for the allies. Landwehr battalions from Elbe, Neumark, Pomerania and Silesia were all present and fought bravely.

• 10 Prussian Landwehr boxes

• Free Black Powder rulebook (saving you £30!)

You can take advantage of these great deals on our webstore here or you can always give us a call.

They look pretty good deals to me, though does someone really want 10 boxes of Landwehr (grin), anyway I already have Black Powder so that's not really of interest personally but YMMV.

FYI if even 6 boxes of Landwehr is too much for you, then take a look at Caliver they have them on offer at GBP15.00 per box and Caliver is post free worldwide if you spend GBP16.50 or more. Xmas starts here!

Victrix Early Russians go on sale

Victrix have now released the first of their early Russians which they had announced a while back.

From their announcement:

The first packs of Early Russians have just arrived from Griffin moulds. They have been added to the shopping cart and are ready to order.

We are working on the command packs for the Grenadiers and Pavlovski Grenadiers at present and they should be ready by end of October or early November.

Great value Battalion and Brigade deals will be added to the shop in the next few days.

Also Steve is currently working on some Russian flag sheets. We hope to have them ready in November.

They are currently priced at GBP10.00 for a pack of 8, but as they say above Battalion and Brigade deals will be up soon, I guess pretty much as they have done for the Cacadores, so maybe 40 figures for around GBP38.00 in the Battalon deal and 117 figures or GBP115.00 in the Brigade deal.

If early Russians are your thing these look pretty good to me, the command pack pictured above looks superb don't you think? I just wonder what will they mix with though, as this is only the very start of a line and you get the impression that Victrix are not exactly fast in releasing new figures, and how many people are into early Russians and need to buy more at this moment?

Anyway, good luck to them!

You can order them from their site, click on the pics to jump to their store.

Plus I can't finish a Victrix post without my obligatory bitch about the British Limber Team...

More Napoleonic Flags from Battle Flags

Hot on the heels of last weeks releases here comes more goodies from BattleFlag.

From their announcement:

This week sees the release of two all new Brigade sheets for the British at Waterloo.

The first sheet of model flags contains the Kings and Regimental colours of the 6th Brigade:
2/35th (Sussex) Foot
1/54th (West Norfolk) Foot
59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Foot
1/91st Foot.

The second sheet contains wargame flags in either 28mm or 15mm for the 1st and 2nd Brigades, The Guards.

The 1st Brigade;
1st Battalion 1st Foot Guards Regiment
3rd Battalion 1st Foot Guards Regiment

The 2nd Brigade;
2nd Battalion 2nd (Coldstream) Foot Guards Regiment
2nd Battalion 3rd (Scots) Foot Guards Regiment

There are now 32 individual flags covering 16 British Regiments of the Waterloo campaign on 4 Brigade sheets offering the modeller and collector high quality artwork at sensible prices.

As with the previous releases they are priced at GBP7.50 per sheet + pp. "high quality artwork at reasonable prices", can't complain with that, good stuff ! So take a look and give them a try, you can buy them here.

As I said last week, personally I think fabric is the way forward for 28mm flags but the majority of people are still going to want the more traditional paper flags for the foreseeable future and these fit the bill, especially if they keep up this pace for new releases. Anyway now that they have 4 English Brigades done I hope they will give the other Allies a bit of love and attention, Dutch-Belgians, KGL, Hanoverian's.

Note that with BattleFlags you get to choose the size of flags, which is very useful if you want these to fit in with your existing flags.
"Please specify the size of flag required when ordering. Flags available from 30mm to 40mm on the hoist. If not specified the standard size, 33.5mm, will be supplied. The client only need specify the dimensions they want, ie 36Fx33.5H (F=Fly or length and H=Hoist or height)."

Roquemaurel and the Chasseurs de Montagne - Part 1

Jean Baptiste Marie Maurice de Roquemaurel St. Cernin was born August 27th 1771 at Chateau de la Tour in the village of St. Sernin, just north of Soueix.

His military career is difficult to summarize, his having been a Lieutenant in the Régiment d'Infanterie du Dauphiné, an officer in the army of Condé, and a second lieutenant in the 2e Hussars with Napoleon in Italy as well as having spells in the service of the English and Austrians all by the age of 32!

However it was on both sides of the Pyrenees where he was to leave his lasting impression, nicknamed "la terreur des espagnols" by the French and "hombre del Demonio" by the Spanish.

In 1803, his father, he was the only son in France, the rest being immigrants in Spain, forced him to resign from the army and return to Soueix, he married and had children, but felt restless being away from military operations and so resumed service in 1808 during the Spanish war. On the advice of Bellouguet, sub-prefect of Saint-Girons, he was appointed Capitaine-Commandant of the company of Hussars de la Garde d'Honneur à Cheval for the district of Saint-Girons.

The Chasseurs de Montagne were raised with the objective of patrolling the Spanish side of the Pyrenees to disperse bands of Catalan's who harassed Marshal Suchet's corps. From 1808 to 1812, Maurice de Roquemaurel served as Capitaine-Commandant, and his many accomplishments, his audacity, and resolution, earned him the nickname in Ariège "le brave Roquemaurel". The Prefect of Ariège in 1810 wrote: "He is endowed with great military skill and bravery that have been particularly noted by Count Suchet, commanding general of 3e Army Corps in Spain. The missions which he had led and his conduct earned him the Knight's Cross of the Légion d'Honneur".

Indeed, having quickly learned the tactics of guerrilla warfare, itself fast, mobile, persistent, the Spanish war would bring him lasting glory: he is involved in several actions including a dangerous night attack, where at two o'clock in the morning at the head of four companies of the Chasseurs de Montagne he leads a bayonet charge to open a passage through the Spanish lines, saving Colonel Lapeyrolerie troops who had found themselves surrounded in the l'Isavena valley, and earned him the admiration of Suchet.

But his finest achievement was the capture of Fort Venasque, the Spanish bastion of High Aragon : Suchet's staff estimated that 10,000 men were needed to carry the place however on November 21st, 1809 Roquemaurel with his troop of 300 'Ariégeois' Chasseurs de Montagne, crossed the Sagoun glacier during the night, and surprised the outposts, capturing the town and fort.

Suchet's memoirs record:
Captain Roquemaurel was sent there with the battalion of 64e and the Chasseurs d'Ariege, he forced the positions in the valley, entered the city, and summoned the fort, the garrison, intimidated by people, forced the Governor to open its doors. This advantage gave us a new communication route with France, and allowed us to disarm the valleys of Vénasque, Gistain and Bielsa, an ammunition dump in a nearby convent on the border of Catalogne was discovered and destroyed.

He went on to distinguish himself at the siege of Lleida, then in the conquest of the Val d’Aran, where he spent two years, constructing the fort of Sainte-Croix, and organizing the defenses to prevent the movement of the Catalan guerrillas and the incursions of the terrible Mina. His valour, and his exploits made him the terror of the Spanish border.

To be continued (1812 and the operations in the Ariège valley)

Bibliography:
Le Colonel Maurice de Roquemaurel, défenseur de la vallée de l’Ariège contre les Espagnols en 1812 - P.Peyral
Grands notables du premier Empire - Louis Bergès et Michel Cours-Mach
Branche de Saint-Cernin, issue de la branche de Montégut

Related Post:
See The Chasseurs de Montagne bring honour to their name a Capitan scenario which covers the action at Venasque.

See History and Uniformology of the Chasseurs de Montagne

The Chasseurs de Montagne bring honor to their name - A Capitan Scenario

CAPITÁN is a selection of rules designed to play battles between small groups of troops, such as advance recognition, convoy escort, guerrilla actions, raids on small towns, border posts, incursions into enemy territory, actions against advanced camps, and all those situations where specific tasks were assigned to a few troops of their units.

This is a translation of Capitan Scenario Pack - Scenario #8.

Capitan scenarios are designed to be played on 60cm square game board, adjust as necessary if using a larger game board. To designate the location of troops and terrain in a scenario the game board is divided into four quadrants; NorthWest(1), NorthEast(2), SouthWest(3), South East(4). (For more details see Scenarios)

This scenario outlines an action involving the Chasseurs de Montagne who were the subject of a previous post on this blog covering their history and uniform and represents the historical action at Venasque that was covered in this post Roquemaurel and the Chasseurs de Montagne.

The Chasseurs de Montagne bring honor to their name

HISTORICAL SITUATION
In 1809 a base of operations for the Chasseurs de Montagne was organized in Jaca, from there a detachment was dispatched with the objective of taking the Matarile heights which dominate the plain of Venasque.

TERRAIN
In quadrant 2 there is a hill which represents the Matarile heights (steep hills), the other quadrants are gentle rolling hills and scattered, dense forests (heavy wood).

ORDER OF BATTLE
FRENCH:
Sub-Lieutenant Rangel of the Chasseurs de Montagne.
2 units Chasseurs de Montagne (500 points each).

SPANISH:
350 points of command units.
300 points of Infantry.
300 points of Grenadiers.
300 points of Barón de Eroles Partisans.

DEPLOYMENT
FRENCH:
Anywhere along the west side of the board within 10cm of the edge.

SPANISH:
The Spanish are placed first, anywhere in quadrants 2 and 4 but not within charge distance of any enemy unit.

SPECIAL RULES:
If the French clear, even if only for one turn, the Matarile hill of Spanish troops, they earn 200 victory points.
The Matarile Hill is considered mountain terrain(steep hills).