"24 fig Russian batallion... how?" Topic

Hi, I received my first batch of the new Perry Russians yesterday and I am assembling a battalion for pictures on my website right now. I am a bit at a loss on how to do this battalion so I am seeking some advice here. :-)

I know they had an elite company and 3 line companies, each of 2 platoons, in a battalion. If I translate that to my standard 24-figure battalion size that gives me 4 times 6 figures. That means that I should have 3 grenadiers, 3 lights and 18 musketeers and command.

My problem is that I'm not sure if it is a good idea to have 3 grenadiers. How do you base those? For people that base six figures to a base this will be ok, but what about gamers that put 4 figures on a base. They will have 3 grenadiers and 1 musketeer, won't that look stupid?

I really want to go with 24-figure battalions as those are my standard Ready Made, Painted battalions.

So what would be the best way to tackle this problem? How many grenadiers would you put in a Ready Made, Painted 24-figure battalion keeping in mind that people can buy extra figures to customize their battalions?

Any advice or opinion will be most appreciated.

Cheers,

Fons
MMPS

I've always had a quarter of the figures as grenadiers. In your set up, that means 6 men. I typically use 32 men per Russian battalion, yielding a base of 8 grenadiers. Not seen anyone do it differently in the 7 years I've been running Reinforcements by Post.

I'm talking about regular Russian line infantry above. Of course the situation is different for Grenadier/Jaeger/Combined Grenadier battalions.

in our home brew rules the russians always had converged grenadier battlions so their line units had no grenadiers not sure if russians had lights like the french and brits

It depends. If you base 3 deep, then a single file. If you base 2 deep, then go with 4 figures of grenadiers and ignore the lights (who may be detached anyway).

My basic principle is whatever looks and feels right – not necessarily the mathematically correct proportion. You can always defend a larger proportion in the elite companies because proportionately you would expect to lose fewer of your 'elite' soldiers to general campaign wastage than the line companies. Or a lower proportion because they may suffer heavier battle casualties…

Not sure about the Russians, but in other armies the flank companies tended to get first pick of replacement troops. Hence a grenadier company has more chance of being at or near full strength than a fusilier company.

With Naps infantry I base all battalions on 4 bases, regardless of number of companies. So for a unit of 24, I'd put 6 figures per base. One base would have 4 or 6 grenadiers on it, depending on how it looks.

For Russians after 1810 ….

The original question was really on target : the Russian Infantry (former Musketeer) regiments fought in 8 platoons, like this in line :
Marksmen / Center / Center / Center/ Flag /Center / Center / Center / Grenadier
So, for 24 figures, 3 figures per platoon works really well – by the arithmetic.

But, if you base with 4 figures, I think of something like this for 24 figures total :
marksmen / center / center / command / center / center / grenadiers
In most regiments, the elite distinctions are pretty minor (no mitres or French-style bearskins), so the overall impression will not be screaming "too many elites", I think. Command would be 2x flags+drummer+officer

But @Chortle really has it right. With 4-figure basing, 32 figures lets you use 1 base per platoon. And the overall impression of rather alot of men per battalion is really good, as Russians had many procedures in insure that batttalions fought rather near to full stength.

Grenadier battalions in Grenadier regiments are the same, as are Jäger. For Jäger, no flag with the command group, could use a hornist+drummer+officer.

Combined Grenadier battalions were smaller and of 6 platoons. 24 figures on 4-figure bases works :
marksmen / marksmen / marksmen / command / grenandier / grenadier / grenadier
The command has no flag, but it could be drummer+fifer/flutist+officer or 2x drummer+officer (having a fifer was a Grenadier and Marksmen platoon distinction)

2nd Battalions (which fought away from the main "regiment") were also of 6 platoons. 24 figures on 4-figure bases works :
center / center / center / command / center / center / center
There were flags, so the command group could be 2x flags+drummer+officer.

The Life-Grenadier regiment was a special case, with battalions formed of 4x Grenadier and 4x Markmen platoons.

in our home brew rules the russians always had converged grenadier battlions so their line units had no grenadiers

The elite company of the 1st and 3rd battalions of the grenadier, musketeer, and jager regiments fought with their parent battalions in the field. The elite company of the 2nd (or depot) battalion of each regiment were the ones that were converged into three-company grenadier battalions for field use. Seroga's description, above, is spot on.

Jim

Fonzie try this for your 24 fig battalion.I am figureing you will base them 6 figures to 4 bases….place 3 grenadier figs in the front rank of one base and the rest muskateers.You should be able to place your command in the front rank of a 6 man base as well.

For 4 bases of 6 figures
MMM MMM MMM MMM
JJJ OSD MMM GGG

For 6 bases of 4 figures
MM MM MD MM MM MM
JJ MM OS MM MM GG

M…muskateer
J..Jaeger
G…Grenadier
O…Officer
S….Standard Bearer
D….Drummer

This may not be perfect ,but should look nice.
Hope this helps.

Runicus

Thank you very much gentlemen for a lot of really good suggestions and advice.

I will go with this setup for my based demo/pictures battalion: 24 fig infantry battalion – 4 command, 16 "musketeers" – 4 grenadiers. 6 stands with 4 figures each.

My "production" battalions will have the same standard setup but since people can add figures or request a different setup, and most buy my Ready Painted units not based, it is not really a problem.

Too bad the Perry's did not include enough grenadier heads to do full grenadier battalions (there's 50% heads with thick plumes on 1809 shakos and 50% with thin plumes on 1812 shakos). Maybe I will also offer grenadier battalions later when my bit box contains hundreds of unused grenadier heads. :-)

Thanks again for the help!

Fons
MMPS