Saturday 22 April 2017

The Model Soldiers – How to organise them

28mm Austrian Army
 


I wanted to play large multi corps battles, but my armies were organised as 36 figure infantry battalions and 8 figure cavalry squadrons.

Clearly a major compromise was required.   I finally decided on small corps of 32 infantry, 4 cavalry and 1 gun per corps.   I would convert each 36 figure infantry battalion to 4 infantry brigades of 8 figures each.   Each 8 figure cavalry squadron would become 2 cavalry brigades of 4 figures each.

The national breakdown was as follows

4 Austrian corps
4 British/Portuguese corps
4 Prussian corps
4 Russian corps
4 Spanish corps

1 French old guard corps
1 French young guard corps
6 French line corps
3 Bavarian corps
2 Polish corps
1 Baden corps
1 Italian corps
1 Westphalian corps

 18mm Austrian Army


Some may find it difficult to accept that 8 infantry figures would represent an infantry brigade, or 4 mounted figures a cavalry brigade.   But the alternative would be to restrict my wargame system to fighting brigade or division sized wargames, which I was not prepared to do.

With this compromise I had sufficient figures to create a reasonable, if fictional, order of battle for each nation.

My final order of battle was 20 allied corps and 16 French corps

You can find a detailed order of battle for each of the 36 corps on the Campaign Diary Blog here


Next we will consider how they will be organised in armies.

4 comments:

  1. Paul,

    I've only just realised that I did not write a comment about this very interesting blog entry.

    It and the previous one have been very informative about the methodology you have used to create the armies that you use in your campaign wargames, and I wish that I had been able to read it before I embarked on my rather on/off Napoleonic project. (I have now been working on it for over two years, but keep getting waylaid by other projects such as my book.)

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Bob

    Thanks for your comments.

    I suspect that most of us have spent as much time organising and reorganising our armies as we have spent playing with them on the table. And indeed it can be an enjoyable experience.

    But now that I have found a comprehensive system that works so well for me, and have proved itself over ten years, I would like to make it available to anyone who might find it useful.

    I have tried to present it in such a way that it can be adopted to individual requirements.

    In the coming weeks I will show how the whole thing fits together in the campaign, and how the maps relate to the wargames table.

    Hope that you find it interesting

    best regards

    Paul

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paul,

    The say that war is 5% action and 95% inaction, and I suspect wargaming is not that different; 5% wargaming and 95% preparation, planning, painting, and thinking.

    I look forward to reading your future blog entries.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Bob

    I had not thought of it like that, but I am sure you are quite right. Even now that I no longer paint or collect model soldiers I still spend much more time working on the campaign, making maps and working on the campaign and wargame rules than I do playing on the table.

    The easier it is to do something the less you are inclined to do it. Even though we always have a wargame on the table we only play three or four times a week.

    regards

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

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