The first unit of the Eylau Project is marching out of the depot. Today we see the first unit of Davout's III Corps assembling for battle. Our crew is putting together an Eylau game to hopefully be played in early 2022. If we can pull it off, this may be my most MEGA mega game ever?
While the 1st Division's 1st Brigade at Eylau technically consisted of Legere Regiment 13 as well as Ligne Regiments 17 and 30, I've decided to model this unit after the 13th Legere and left off the ligne Regiments just because...
In "Blucher" terms, I've made this unit elite and given them a special paintjob to match their battlefield prowess. The uniforms might not be completely historically accurate but for pete's sake they're 10mm tall. Figures are Old Glory 10mm strips and there are 9 strips to this unit. Other units may have more or less strips on them, and feature units broken down into battalion columns.
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| Why do we always have to lead the assaults? Don't they know what happens to the units with the nicest paintjobs? |
These dapper, grizzled veterans are sporting blue pants with matching coats, crossed white belts, blue and white cuffs, red collars, green and red epaulettes and green boot tassels. I used this site as a guide since I got rid of all of my Napoleonic Wars uniform guide books. Believe it or not, looking it up on the internet is easier.
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GdB Brouard leading the Regiment into battle!
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| A Pendraken French officer figure - painted up nice enough |
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| Valeur et Discipline |
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| The Regiment formed into line for attack! |
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| The whole unit |
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| Stats for Blucher. Note the 7 SPs, and also the blank "chevron" on the left. I can use this unit for future Blucher games in any Corps I want by just penning it in with a dry-erase or wet-erase marker. Note that this unit has 7 Strength Points and the "skirmish" trait. While it's part of Davout's Corps, I left that white space blank for future Blucher games. |
I should also let you know I did a bunch of research into Blucher bases and the best way to present information on the stand. This has been something I've been looking at for years. I debated creating cool skirmish markers, steady markers, ammo markers, and dedicated battery / attached artillery markers, but I kept coming back to the data fields on the back of the stand, which I think are really cool. Besides, Eylau will have close to 80 units on the table and there will be lots of opportunities for tiny marker stands to get mixed up. Anyways I ended up creating a data card for every French "brigade" at Eylau and will likely make them for the Prussians and Russians as well. I'll be sure to post a link to them if you're interested in downloading them.
Also - I found a website where a hardcore gamer used packing tape for "laminating" the unit information on the back of the stand. This is the heavy duty clear tape used to pack cardboard boxes for shipping. It worked like a charm and voila, instant lamination. Now I only have about 30 to go!!!
This unit took me about 2 weeks of sneaking down to the basement and painting 1 piece of kit such as all of the cartridge boxes, or packs, etc at a time.
I currently have 2 Regiments on the table right now, the 33rd Ligne, and the 51st Ligne, both of Davout's Corps at Eylau. They will be up next.
Sir I am shocked.
ReplyDeleteNot only did you not paint every correct detail even down to the last sword knot. You (and I can hardly believe this) got rid of your Napoleonic uniform books.
Hopefully your battlefield performance can recover some of your lost honor.
Kindest regards.
Neil.
Highly unlikely, Neil. To regain my napoleonic honor, the best someone like me can hope for is to be shot off my horse.
DeleteLooking forward to seeing this reposted on TMP - that would be a fitting penance I think - to be paraded in front of that lot.
Excellent work! I like the basing too!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jonathan! After years of debating this in my head I took the plunge and based them for Blucher.
DeleteDammit man, those look fantastic!
ReplyDeleteV/R,
Jack
Many thanks, Jack, they were originally yours, BTW. I just gave them uniforms :)
DeleteYou certainly did'em up proper! I'm gonna need those back ;)
DeleteV/R,
Jack
Everything is just right on this base, from painting to layout - superb and an excellent MEGA project for the group to all be involved with.
ReplyDeleteMy interest for Eylau is going to be high for 2022 as by napoleonic boardgame series of choice (Eagles of France by Hexasim) are scheduled to do Eylau as their 5th module, so much to look forwards to.
Thanks, Norm! Ken is taking the Russians and our buddy Dave the Prussians. We've done Aspern Essling (with your EAQB rules!) And thought time was right for something a bit different.
DeleteWatch this space for more progress reports, practice games, and rules musings. Looking forward to your Eylau posts, also.
I should add that I bought the old SPI Eylau game and played through it to get a better understanding of the battle. Had some neat reversal of fortune mechanisms in it due to weather. Recreating on the table will be fun.
A nice project and an outstanding job at this scale!
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil!
DeleteThese look superb. The early “Glory Years” are a favourite of mine as well. The stands and base information look wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carlo! I'm quite happy with how they turned out!
DeleteThose look great Steve and really give the impression of a large unit marching forward to battle. Labels at the back get my vote for many games, which make game play much easier, which is a big thing in my book.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve that's exactly the look I was hoping for. I e always been a big fan of the boardgame-turned-wargame so the label on the back is instantly appealing, and I think it looks sharp.
DeleteI’ve seen quite a few bases designed for Blucher, but this is the best by a long way. Just the right number of figures, a character figure and a clear (but not obtrusive) information strip. Super job!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeffers! I've put alot of thought into the Blucher bases over the years and have wanted something exactly as you described. I think ive found a "sweet spot" in terms of figures, data, and overall look. Will look outstanding with a whole Army of them on the table.
DeleteGreat work - and some great advice for blucher too.
ReplyDeleteI have a bit of a side project with 54mm plastics for Blucher...which blows hot and cold. Good reminder for me.
Thanks, Darren! I'll send you the labels if youd like. They'd work well just being taped to a stand temporarily for a pickup game. Wow 54mm! Would love to see that game!
DeleteThis is a fine looking regiment, and the 13e Leger is a favorite of mine. Both my original and current French armies started off based upon the units of Davout's Corps.
ReplyDeleteEylau (how the heck do you pronounce *that*?) is an interesting battle indeed, and one of only 2 that I made specific terrain for. I will have to run it again in a few years!
I have no intention of relinquishing my 25's, but 10 mm uis a nice compromise scale, showing enough of the gorgeous detail of Napoleonic armies to look very sharp, without having to stress over the minutiae.
Thank you sir. I personally pronounce it as "eye-lau" with the lau sounding like the first 3 letters in the word lousy. My group selected Eylau as a good battle involving the Russians that's not Austerlitz or one of the later battles of the Napoleonic wars.
DeleteDo you think the French were primarily in Bicornes or Shakos at Eylau?
A quick check of references shows the decree of the Shako in February 1806 (and the infamous white uniform in April of that year), and that the shako had largely replaced the bicorn "by 1807". Suchet observed in late 1809 that the last of the bicornes and white uniforms had finally disappeared. Given that, and the supply difficulties with the French Grand Armee quite far from home, most likely the troops that fought at Eylau were a cacophony of blue coats with shako, blue coats with bicorn, and white uniforms with shako. I just used my standard French troops, more or less in their 1809 blue uniforms in shako, though. :-)
DeleteTraditionally, the sight of the bloodstained white uniforms after Eylau convinced Napoleon to halt the transition and revert to blue uniforms.
Thank you sir. Here, I'm content making my French as versatile as possible so I can use them for other theaters and times. I feel as if i should order a few handfuls of bicorne'd French to mix in and that would satisfy the rather hodgepodge nature of Army supply gradually getting the headgear replaced.
DeleteThank you for the great info. I should add your blog was a great source of information as I was doing my research.
Glad you found it helpful; I added some bicorned regiments in the past few years myself. No white uniforms, though. I quite enjoyed painting them!
DeleteUnfortunately, it’s rather hard to find 10mm Russians in a uniform suitable for Eylau. There are only two companies that do them, Magister Militum and Lancer, both of which are in the UK
ReplyDeleteKen you should be good. They can be re-used. Think of Eylau as prep for Borodino. Or some other clash. Shako be-damned! Eylau!
DeleteNice Work! Only 36,196 figures to go for Eylau!
ReplyDelete:)
Beautiful looking figures. You do a great paint job on the 10mm and they look out stand g enmass.
ReplyDelete