"How many figures in your Black Powder battalions / rgts?" Topic

How many figures do you have in your Black Powder infantry battalions and cavalry regiments? Is this standardised or does it vary?

I read somewhere that some manufacturers produced some plastic Napoleonic boxed sets with 36 foot figures to match BP. But perhaps I'm mistaken about that. I get the impression that most people have 24 man infantry units.

Depends. I have varied units.

Tiny 10 or under.
Small 12-18
Medium 20-24
Large 30-36

Well of course you can have as many or as few as you like. The number of figures is irrelevant to the game rules. It is only the ratio between the frontages of Standard, Large, Small and Tiny units that matters i.e. 1:1.5:0.5:0.25.

My 15mm Napoleonic armies are all based on a 32 figure Standard unit.

My planned 28mm Napoleonic armies will have a 24 figure Standard unit.

My 42mm Sudan army has a 12 figure Standard unit.

My 15mm ACW armies have an 18 figure Standard unit.

All unit sizes other than Standard are in the ratios stated above.

For infantry;
Small has 3 bases, Average 5 bases, Large 7 bases.
Each base is 40mm sq with 4 figures.
For cavalry the same with each base having 2 figures.

my local group uses 24 figures as a standard size battalion.Austrian/hungarian battalions are the large ones with 32 and 40.Cavalry are 12 figs(6 bases) for lights and 16 figs(8 bases) for heavies and mediums.

Runicus

Most are 24 figures.
The large Austrian ones=36
Cavalry=12
Batteries 2 guns

my ACW Black Powder standard units are 8 bases of three. My sudan are six of four.

Pat

same as Max. But double guns

John

Is this standardised or does it vary?

Not standardised at all. The rules actually say so (p10).

My standard units for Black Powder are either 8 figures in a single rank (for AWI) or 12 figures in 2 ranks (for SYW and War of 1812).

It is only the ratio between the frontages of Standard, Large, Small and Tiny units that matters i.e. 1:1.5:0.5:0.25.

Even that ratio is not essential as long as you clearly distinguish each size of unit.

Depends on which army really, all were raised long before BP appeared so..
WSS 16 figures battalio, 12 cavalry per regiment.
Napoleonic, 24 bttn, 12 regt,
AWI 20 per bttn, cavalry 8-10 for a small unit.

all in 15mm.
In 10mm I have 1866 armies, battalions of 12, cavalry of 9 figures.

infantry
32 large
24 standard
16 small
12 tiny

cavalry
18 large
12 standad
6 small

I go with 24 per Standard-sized infantry battalion – that way I don't have to paint up so many figures; also a box of Victrix will allow you to make two battalions – with a few spares. I use the Perry sets with 32 for Large. I also used two boxed-sets of OG 2nd Ed. – which come with 38 figs ea – and made three 24-man battalions.

For cav, 12-14 are my Standard-sized units – convenient for Perry sets which come with 14 (except for the dragoons). Dean

@Margard

Although there is no hard and fast rule it does have an effect on how many units can front up face to face against each other. If you pick certain ratios then one side gets an unfair advantage, particularly in hand to hand in respect of the number of dice the opposing units throw.

For my 15mm Napoleonics:

24 figure Infantry battalions
12 Figure Cavalry Regiments
1 Piece for every two actual pieces of artillery

This has worked well for French and Bavarians

Make them as many as you want to fit in with the people you play with.

I don't really understand why there are always people asking tthis sort of thing, its not hard.

Jaz
6sided.net

>I don't really understand why there are always people asking tthis sort of thing, its not hard.

1. Because they want to build armies without too much trouble finding an opponent
2. Because they are painting to resell (i.e. professionally or to subsidise their collection.)

Thanks for your responses. Seems like 24 for infantry and 12 for cavalry, with 2 guns and crew, are pretty common for Naps.

The rules are made to use lots of diffrently based armies.

Black powder is not my main rule set, but if I play it I simply use 24-32 for standard unit, 36+ for large, 16-18 for small, and tiny units are less then 12.

Cav is 9-12 standard, 16-18 large.

Less then 9 is small, I don't think I'll ever have tiny cav units.

Artillery is 1 or 2, depending on the game. For looks it's best with atleast 2 and even that is to small for my taste, but some times it's very nice to have many batteries, so then 1 is nice, since you basicly double the number of batteries in the game.

Depends on the rules used
And of course the numbers in the real battalions usually from 400 to 800.

So in my case from 12 to 16 figures, 4 on a base.

I've been thinking of using BP for ACW with 6mm figs. You fellas seem knowledgable. Any suggestions on number and size of bases? Will be using Baccus figs.

Although there is no hard and fast rule it does have an effect on how many units can front up face to face against each other. If you pick certain ratios then one side gets an unfair advantage, particularly in hand to hand in respect of the number of dice the opposing units throw.

A simple house rule that allows 2 small or 4 tiny units to fight 1 standard sized is all that is required. In my experience though you will rarely have that many small or tiny units anyway. Most will be standard sized and only a few exceptions will be bigger or smaller.

I've been thinking of using BP for ACW with 6mm figs. You fellas seem knowledgable. Any suggestions on number and size of bases? Will be using Baccus figs.

Baccus infantry are based four figures to a strip, facing forward, on a 20mm frontage.

I would therefore suggest 40mm wide bases with two strips on each and 4 or 6 bases to a unit.

24 in all my standard battalions .

I use four bases (40mm frontage) for a standard unit in 15mm. Six bases for large.

Dale

Pretty much all the infantry are 24 figs

The cavalry are all 12 figs

The artillery are 4 gunners per artillery piece

I am, perhaps as soon as this summer, going to build an ACW Union army using Baccus.

Peter, from Baccus, once suggested to me that placing one of his 20mm strips on a 20mm base was not ideal (and by extension 2 strips in line on a 40mm base). He did suggest that I look at giving his infantry strips 25mm base widths each.

Thus, my ACW bases will be 50mm wide, and probably 25mm deep, to give me a little extra room.

>Peter, from Baccus, once suggested to me that placing one of his 20mm strips on a 20mm base was not ideal (

I will have to respectfully disagree with the Baccus master. Have a look at these infantry, which we at Reinforcements by Post painted, on 20mm wide strips

link

Skip past the battalions in square to see the regular 20mm wide strips, one behind the other. I think this works because the bases are really accurately cut by Litko.

>I will have to respectfully disagree with the Baccus master. Have a look at these infantry, which we at Reinforcements by Post painted, on 20mm wide strips.

It may be partly in the eye of the beholder..and the holder. :)

While yes, those look nice and seem to work, I am not sure I want my figures so close to the base edge and would rather use some putty to hold down the flanks of the strips.

If I remember correctly, that was the gist of what Peter was telling me. Of course, this was about 7 years ago, or so and I didn't get younger…age, ya know.

The key thing with BP is to ensure that if making generic Bn for resale of to find opponents is to read the section in the rules about troop frontage, so that respective 'standard' size Bn's will occupy a similar frontage.

So if basing a 24 man unit, individual base width of 20mm, whereas if basing 36 man unit, a la Perry, a 15mm frontage.

FWIW, I base standard units at 36 figures, with 2 rows of 3 on a 45mm wide base which is 40mm deep, as supplied with Perry infantry.

However the other couple of dozen players at my FLGS base 24-32 man units on 4 to a 40mm square base…

And theres never any problems about compatability.

>However the other couple of dozen players at my FLGS base 24-32 man units on 4 to a 40mm square base…

That is an impressive FLGS. Where are you?

Sounds like I am good to go with my own preferred unit size of 36 for French & allies. I'll skip 24s. That way I can keep anything that doesn't sell for myself (I play In The Grand Manner.) I will only have a problem with things like Prussians, that come in 32s.

It is – Hall of Heroes, Campbelltown, NSW
thehallofheroes.com.au

Some of our BP games there are on my blog
link

So can I use the Black Powder rules set with Napoleonics figures that are organized and based, say, to "In the Grand Manner": With 36-figure French infantry battalions mounted on 6 bases, 32-figure Prussian infantry battalions mounted on 4 bases, 24-figure cavalry regiments on 12 bases, and artillery batteries comprised of of 4 model guns and 16 gunner figures on 4 bases?

Yes, But you should probebly divide that battert in two, so each battery is just 2 guns.

What you do is designate any battalion with 30-40 figures as "standard" The type of basing as absolutly no effect on the game.

So any battalions with over 40 figures are "large" any with less then 28 is Small.

24 cav is quite alot, but again, just say that all cav regiments with 20-26 figures as "standard" 28 or more as large and 18 and less as small.

For Nappies, we are using 15mm
for french two center companies 40x30 two flank companies 20x30

british, USUALLY 6 30mm square with 4 figs apiece

Less for rifles

I am thinking of using BP for my GWI 1821-1832 armies, how would I base Greek Irregulars who fought like Spanish guerrillas, their actual numbers ranged from 100 to 350 brigands.
Egyptian regulars were organised like French regulars as were latter Ottomans

I use large scale 28mm

Most players locally use 24 maj Infantry Battalions and 12 man Cavalry units, both with 20mm frontage. 4 infantry on 4Gmm square base. Looks ok.

But for me 36 man Infantry Battalions on 15mm frontage look so much cooler in my personal opinion. Yet similar size footprint so neither side gets much advantage/disadvantage.

BUT it does mean painting 50%more figures for each unit.

Hello Bob Hume & Justin Penwith!

Some people who use Baccus 6mm figures just use the standard basing 60mm x 30mm used for Polemos. That gives you a lot more or easier options should you ever want to play some of the more conventional 6mm rules such as Polemos, etc. It also allows you to base your figures as you buy them from Baccus. That is every bag is either four battalions of infantry or five regiments of cavalry.

To play BP you simply treat every 60x30 base as either two or four elements depending on how many bases you have or want to build. Formation changes are done by using markers or using the Polemos rule that "units are always in the best formation for the situation at hand", if so players simply declare what formation their in when asked.

It's generally not advisable to base your figures to match a single set of rules. BP basing will allow you to play other rule sets, but their a little more restrictive then Polemos basing.

Best regards,

Glenn

I'm currently putting together French battalions of 28 figures each. At my club, unit sizes vary between 24 to 36 figures. Those of us who play AWI in 6mm use 48 figure units based in 2 ranks.

Sorry, I should have said, we play Napoleonics with 28mm figures.

Hi,
Most members at the New Buckenham Historical Wargames Club of which I am a member all tend to use standard numbers of figures per base. This has, without much thought occurred because we all have a preferred set of rules and associated unit sizes. We just add or remove bases to suit the rules being used. Any minor difference in actual frontage is ignored as we are all adults. Gamey players or rulebook lawyers usually either conform to our relaxed style of club or find another outlet to game. Average inf btn 18 figs for Shako, 24 for Black Powder, Cav is 12 figs. Our AWI collection spread amongst numerous players uses a 1:10 figure ratio but on the standard-ish 6 figure bases. This makes for some huge units but fits nicely with most rules by removing bases to fit.
Steve.

In 28mm.,after careful calculation, I ended up with:
24 per standard batallion, GB or Fr / Fr allied, @ 6 bases of 4 figs, 2cm x 2 cm.
28 per Austrian 'German' btn @ 7 bases;
32 per Hungarian btn @ 8 bases;
Austrian Jager and Landwehr 24 per btn., 6 bases
Small unit:12figs Tiny: 4-6figs

Cavalry:
Standard units 12 per rgt., base width 2.5cm depth 4.5
Small units 8 per rgt
Tiny 4-6 figs.

Artillery:
2 model guns per battery, allows half battery if required!
Base size 6cm wide, 5cm deep (can be 7cm deep if you have reloading and traversing figures on the base..

Works well. I tried 36 figs for the French, but found this uneconomical, if visually imposing, and I agree that the bigger your batallion, the closer the figures have to be, i.e. 1.5 cm per fig, rather than the 'standard' 2 cm.