57e Regiment de Ligne

Another quick update this time. I've finally finished painting up and basing my French divisional sized force which i'm using for Napoleon at War and play testing the up-and-coming Napoleonic ruleset from Toofatlardies. Watch this space for some after action reports.

I've designed my French force around the 1809 campaign. It's division on General de Division Saint-Hilaire's division, which fought under Marechal Davout's III Corps and later under Marechal Lannes' II Corps at Essling, where both Saint-Hilaire and Lannes were killed.

I'm still working on a divisional command stand for the brave and talented Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire, but in the meantime i've painted up some higher ranking commanders. All of the figures i've used so far are from the excellent AB figures, excepting the Marechal Joachim Murat figure from the very talented Boki.

Here is first of the Corps command bases, depicting Napoleon's skilled cavalry commander, the exceptionally flamboyant Marechal Joachim Murat. Although Murat did not play a part in the 1809 campaign, I really could not resist painting up this command base. Murat is painted up for the 1807 campaign and he is dressed as the Grand Duke of Berg. His aides-de-camp are uniformed in the opulent magenta and buff uniforms designed by Murat himself.

Murat, Grand Duke of Berg and Commander of the Cavalry Reserve

From the flamboyant to the workmanlike, this is the first battalion of the 57th Regiment of the Line, which gained the cognomen 'Le Terrible.'

Formed from the pre revolutionary Regiment Limousin, the 57e Ligne was one of the most renowned line regiments in the Napoleonic army. The Regiment was commanded in 1809 by Colonel Jean-Louis Charrière. Charrière was wounded several times at Essling, where his uniform was left in tatters due to the musket ball strikes. At Wagram, his horse was shot out from under him and he was carried from the field. He was made Commander of the Legion d'Honneur following this, and in 1812 he was promoted to General de Brigade.

First Battalion

First Battalion in line behind its skirmish screen of voltigeurs

First battalion in attack column

Chef de Battalion Gleise commanded the second battalion during the 1809 campaign, and he was wounded at Essling.

Second Battalion with voltigeurs deployed

Second battalion in attack column

For each regiment, I have based the first battalions with a mounted officer and eagle, so they stand out. Subsequent battalions have officers on foot. At the moment I have each regiment with two battalions, but will be adding a third to some of the units, including the 57e.

I've also included skirmish bases for each battalion, as per the Napoleon at War basing but also used in the Lardies Napoleonic set.


That's it for now. Next i'll be posting some images of the next battalion and the Brigade command stand.

2013, Onwards and Upwards!

The gallant Premierlieutnant Istvan Nagy.

It's hard to believe it's been so long since my last posting. Since then, I've had a month long practicum teaching French at a local high school, which was quite an experience. That led into the silly season, when besides a rather impressive haul of Christmas and Birthday presents, I also got a dose of shingles which knocked me out for a few weeks. Add in some planning for a wedding which is VERY rapidly approaching, and the year simply flew past. It feels like I had blinked and then it was 2013! 

Sidney Roundwood, the man behind the superb Roundwood's World blog, recently posted a post which was a round up of 2012, which has prompted me (albeit belatedly) to do the same. 

On the whole, 2012 was a rather spectacular year for me. From January to July Laura and I were on our exchange to the University of Leeds. I had the opportunity to take some fascinating classes,  and managed to come through with a couple of 'firsts' (as fr as i can gather the equivalent of a High Distinction). I travelled down to Triples at Sheffield, where I met up with people i'd chatted to via email and forums but had not met in person. I even managed to get in a game of Dux Britanniarum run by Rich Clarke and Sid Roundwood. Besides visiting the excellent Royal Armouries at Leeds, I headed down to the RAF Muesum in the North of London, where wandering around the Spitfires, Hurricane, Messerschmitts and a plethora of other aircraft I felt like a kid again.

While travelling around Europe, I visited museums, castles and historical sites in Budapest, Andalucia, Tuscany, Stockholm, Berlin and Paris.

The consummate professional, Major Driant

I returned home inspired to get gaming and to crack on with some projects. I got back into gaming with the lads at the local gaming club, and my 20mm WW2 British army has now seen a lot of action. I also began digging out my 28mm Napoleonic figures and organising them into a force for Sharp Practice. Alongside this, I was pottering along with the commission work. 

University for the second half of the year seemed to swallow almost all of my time. I particularly struggled with French, as i'd missed a semester of a sequential course while I was in Leeds, so was forced to play catch-up. I ended up scraping through that course with a pass, which thankfully was balanced out by the HDs I got in the other subjects. 

Then prac, christmas, shingles and here we are. 

As I see it, 2012 has been a very successful year for gaming, but an absolute failure for this blog (three posts in 12 months!!) and for painting (it's not even worth mentioning the pitiful number of figures i've completed). However, I managed to get in more gaming than I have previously, met a bunch of people in the UK, visited a plethora of historical sights, museums etc, and even managed to get in a few games of Sharp Practice with the guys at the club. 

So, some New Years resolutions seem to be in order. 

1. More blog posts! I'm hoping to get at least two per month. These will track the process of projects i'm working on, as well as giving some AARs from solo and club games. Who knows, i might even throw in some book reviews and finally get around to posting some updates about the museums and sites i visited in Europe.

2. Paint more figures. I've set myself a few projects for this year, and want to limit myself to these as much as practicable. More on what these projects are next update. 

3. Keep up with the gaming. I've really enjoyed actually getting some gaming in, and am determined to keep on with this. 

So, pretty simple right? Lets see if I can stick to it!

And just because I want to keep this update pretty, and inspired by Alte Fritz (of Der Alte Fritz Blog i've included some pictures of my Sharp Practice troops on a New Years Parade.

Chat Soon!
Ben

The Kaiserliks on parade.  My gradually growing K.u.K Austrian force has now seen some action.

And the forces of l'Empreur. As with the Austrians, i've plans to expand these forces considerably.

The leading cast, Austrian Big Men.

And Les Grandes Hommes, the Emperor's finest. 

The elite companies of the first battalion, 3e Regiment de Ligne. 

Battle for the Farm - Sharp Practice AAR

First off, an apology for the paucity of blog updates in the last few months, but between travelling and then getting back into the swing of uni back in Australia, it's been difficult to find the time. What time i have had has been devoted to terrain making (trees, terrain boards, buildings, fields and more trees seen in the below pictures) and painting and basing up the remainder of my French and Austrian Napoleonic figures.

So, to get the ball rolling again, here is a quick after action report for a solo game I recently played of the Toofatlardies set Sharp Practice. I've now got enough figures painted up for a decent game, and so have been playing through the rules a few times before introducing them at the local club. Even solo, the rules are great fun and play through quickly as well. The ability to generate random personalities for the Big Men who control the action infuses the game with elements of role play, which adds a lot to the fun and flavour.