"How many flags in a British Flank company?" Topic

I know a Centre Company always carried two Standards: the Union Jack and the Regiment's colours (IIRC).

But how many standards does a Flank company fly? Also two, or only one, and if so, which?

None. The only Colours (flags) were the King's colour and the regimental colour as you say.
That is a battalion (10 companies) carried 2 flags in total.

Wasn't it two flags per battalion? Don't think a flank company carried any flags

So, how to represent this at the gaming table in 28mm?

I'm using both Victrix and the Perry sets. All these boxes come with flags, even the 'Flank Company' ones in the Victrix set. So, you're saying I shouldn't use these?

"So, you're saying I shouldn't use these?"

Correct. Just use them as officers, not colour-bearers.

Presumably, the 'flags' (do you mean standard bearers?) are included to allow you to model light infantry battalions such as the 51st, 52nd and 68th

Don't forget the 43rd!

Presumably, the 'flags' (do you mean standard bearers?) are included to allow you to model light infantry battalions such as the 51st, 52nd and 68th

Well, a Standard Bearer carries a 'flag', doesn't he? ;)

But thanks for the advice! I guess I'd be better of to make two smaller companies (of about 24 men each) out of the Victrix box, without colours, instead of a large 50 man company with colours?

Edit: by the way, the standards included with the Flank Company are from the 32nd and 91st…

Depends how you are going to use them. What rules will you play? Under most rules you'd use a number of figures to represent a battalion with about 20% for British being flank company figures. So 4 boxes centre coys plus 1 box flank coy gives 5 British bns and you use all the colour bearers.

What rules will you play?

Black Powder, which is indeed at Battalion level. Problem is, however, that, given the above exemple, there will be one batallion wearing the light companies 'wings'.

No, because you take figures from the flank company box to provide flank companies to the figures from the other 4 boxes.

Light Battalions all wore Flank Company wings. So all members of the DLI 68th would have winged shoulders.

In a regular line battalion only 2 of the 10 companies wore flank wings.

Hi Constantine,

The Perry set is a complete battalion as you would find on a
typical Black Powder game.Have a look at the inlay card that comes with the set, the light and grenadier companies(flank companies) have wings.
You could indeed use the Victrix box as a complete light battalion with colours.
In Black Powder you would be representing a company
(within a battalion) with only 3 or 4 figures.
Hope this helps clarify things

Paul

Thanks Paul, I figured so much but didn't really like it. I'll think about this set-up.

Guess I'll make a Light Battallion out of the Victrix set for now, and add them to Centre companies later to get the same setup as the Perry box.

But if it's a Light battalion you'll need to buy a separate pack of Light Infantry heads as they had different shakos.

Well, that's details. ;-)

If you're just starting out, having only 2-3 battalions a side, the Shakos won't be the biggest issue…

True, you could also use British troops for French then

Yes, you could… And you could use peices of paper, tokens, etc.

Please don't misunderstand me. Once I get around to actually building a Light Batallion, I will get this right. But as I intend to use them as 'light companies' from normal battallions, I will build them as such for now.

IIRC the British did use converged flank bns on occasion?

What do you mean by those?

What do you mean by those?

Grenadier companies of several battalions were split from their parent unit to form a grenadier battalion. Usually for something unpleasant and deadly.

The light companies weren't usually brigaded thus, they were too valuable as skirmishers in front of the main body.

Converged units were more common in the 18th century, but they were still used in this period

Yes…The Battle of Maida was a good example of converged units…

Indeed, and despite what I wrote up there, it had both converged light and grenadier battalions :)

And IIRC Swiss fighting on both sides

Battle of Maida…?

Got a link with more info?

There have been quite a few threads dealing with Maida (just put it in the box as a search term):

TMP link

I think Halkett's brigade at Waterloo [33rd,73rd,69th,30th]had light companies combined as an ad hoc unit--don't know if this was a common practice.Of course they wouldn't have been very far from their parent regiments.

Wellington's General Orders stipulated that ALL British Brigades form their individual Light Cos. into ad-hoc units for the duration of the campaign. These acted as the skirmisher 'cover' for their Brigade.
Not sure if the rest of the allied units did it as well.

Converged grenadier battalions in the British service were actually very rare in the Napoleonic Wars, as they had fallen out of favour by the end of the 18th Century. By 1800, such units tended to be formed only when a force was small – typically no more than 1 or 2 brigades – and there were no larger, unitary formations available to provide an elite reserve (eg a Guards Brigade). Maida and Barrosa were the two main exceptions in the European theatre, and even at the latter they were combined flank battalions composed of light and grenadier companies.

Along with the practice of forming "ad hoc" light battalions in each brigade, there was an increase in the formation of detachments of picked men (ie the best shots) from the centre companies, known as "flankers". This latter type of formation was seen at Maida, but a number of Peninsula battalions also formed these supplementary light companies – examples included the 1st Foot Guards and 79th Foot.