For a long time I had been musing over what to do about Napoleonics. However now I am back into Napoleonics full time in 28mm, re-enthused by the release of SHAKO II and possibly also LaSalle. I’ll be documenting here the assembly of my forces for Quatre Bras, along with gaming notes and more. Eventually I’ll be hoping to expand my forces to cover a portion of the Waterloo battlefield – Megalomania? What’s that!
It was my intent to include a SHAKO Order of Battle for the forces of both sides – but the new rulebook includes such an OOB in it! However I probably will be doing an expanded OOB at a later date to allow for the expansion of the battle beyond the critical stages as covered in the SHAKO II Scenario – allowing it to be played in a mini-campaign format, and to do ‘what ifs’ covering the possibility that Ney acted sooner and more vigorously…
First Photos
The following are a collection of initial photos of some of my Dutch Belgian Troops in the early stages of basing. None have standards yet, and are simply glued onto their plywood & magnetic bases awaiting sculpting and final detailing… Some of the photos are largish so if you are on a slow link they may take a few seconds or more to load…
Another view of the 27th Dutch Jaeger Battalion is provided int he image above at the start of the article, with the bases separated to give a better view of the basing layout. The basing we use for our infantry is essentially that of “Napoleon’s Battles” with the size adjusted to suit 28mm figures and the SHAKO II rules (scheme ‘C’ in the rulebook).
However another local Napoleonic Gamer (Roundie Steward) uses a slight variation to this – he combines the two centre stands into one single large 80mm x 50mm base with 8 figures, and just has 2 of the 40mm wide bases for the flanks – when he needs a square, or a Column (of Divisions), the 2 small stands fall in behind the centre stand and either face forwards (column) or backwards/to the side (square – this gives him more scope to make a diorama of the unit or even get away with less than 16 figures if desired…
One of the beauty’s of having ‘4’ bases per unit – a symmetrical square can be formed easily although with this basing scheme its not necessarily the most beautiful square you’ll see, being still a little abstract!
The Nassau troops mobilised for the campaign in Belgium in 1815 and two regiments of infantry, each with an attached Landwehr battalion, were fielded together with the regiment of Nassau-Oranien infantry, and served as part of the Prince of Orange’s 1st Corps at Quatre-Bras and later the Hannoverian Reserve Corps at Waterloo.
Cavalry and Artillery
Our Cavalry Regiments normally have 8 figures in total, 4 each on two 80mm x 50mm bases – giving them the same frontage and depth as an Infantry Battalion for game purposes. This is not the same scheme as our Infantry Bases – being instead a variation on scheme ‘A’ in the SHAKO II rules adjusted to match the Infantry Battalion frontage. Eight figures can be a slightly tight squeeze (into 160mm) but looks good (I plan to photograph some of the ‘normal’ cavalry in the near future to illustrate).
In the case of the Brunswick Uhlans, as they were only a single large (slightly oversize) Squadron I ended up deciding to model them as a full Regiment but with only 6 figures instead of 8 – making them simpler to handle for game purposes as a unit, but still having a visual cue (6 figs) that they weren’t a full regiment (in case I decide to treat them different – see further). As the Brunswick Uhlans are somewhat of a unique unit I considered modelling them as a single base of say 100mm x 50mm but with just 4 figures – to try and suggest a single large squadron – but decided against it (mainly because it just didn’t seem the right fit although I think it would work fine with SHAKO II). I will plan to experiment with treating them as having 1 ‘hit’ less in SHAKO II than a normal full size Second-Rate Cavalry Regiment (i.e. MR 3 but can only take 2 Hits) to simulate that they are only 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a full cavalry regiment (i.e. 230 men vs. typically 400-700). However that may or may not be worth the effort and they may just end up being treated as a standard Second-Rate Cavalry unit (albeit with a visual distinction of less figures).
Divisional & Corps Command
At Quatre Bras Major-General Jean Victor de Constant Rebecque, chief of staff to the Prince of Orange, realised the danger from Ney’s forces and the Duke of Wellington’s inaction, and on his own initiative ordered Lieutenant-General Hendrik George de Perponcher Sedlnitsky the commander of the 2nd Dutch Division to dispatch his 2nd Brigade (Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach) to occupy Quatre Bras.
Divisional Commanders are on an 80mm x 50mm base the same size as one-half of a Cavalry Regiment.
This 120mm x 80mm base (the same size as an artillery battery) will be turned into a diorama, either with HQ clutter (table, chairs, supplies) or possibly a ‘field scene’ with the Generals paused under a tree or such like… General Chassé might end up being replaced here if I decide to model the 3rd Division in the long-term future…
(I am also obviously doing a ‘Duke of Wellington’ command stand as well, and for Quatre Bras will probably use them both together as a large ‘combined’ Command or HQ stand for visual effect).
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