"Choice of Napoleonic Army" Topic

Did your height or lack thereof influence your choice of Napoleonic armies?
I'm 6 foot tall and have always liked the British and 1812 Americans.
There was a chap in L.A. named Mark G… quite short as I recall, who favored the French! He even had a period uniform.

So what is it?
1)Yes
2)No
3)I wear lifts to confuse the issue.

Discuss!

4) All of the above

I chose Bavarians first because as a newbie I figured I would start as a supporting player. Plus I liked the different uniform look. Now I am 6'2" so, I have a tall complex and now working on a French army.

5 11, Austrians & Prussians. Not sure if their is a correlation.

6'1", play British…

5'8" and I play French.

5'11" – Austrians and Prussians – 18mm and 28mm.

6'6" – Bavarian then Russian.

Obviously, all Freds are over 6' and have Bavarian armies….

6'4", collect all the armies (but have yet to paint any British in 40 years), but my favorites are 1) French and 2) Austrian. Don't think height has any correlation whatsoever!

6 foot. Portuguese.

I think the shorter you are, the easier it is to paint.

If I was 25mm tall … then Im sure I could do a pretty decent job of painting a 15mm figure.

You are only 6 foot tall, SMC? I am 196 cms so you should favour the French, Shorty. 87)

192cm. Have a French army (but want to get cracking on some Russians soon).

6'2" and I have all of them

185 cm. 6ft 1.

British is my first choice, for patriotic reasons.
Brunswickers 2nd because of the best uniforms. Neopolitans and Austrians also interest me, Neapolitans are underrated underdogs and the Austrian army has lots of regional character. I'd plump for Spanish next for much the same reasons as the above two followed by the Bavarians and Russians next. Early Prussians are okay ish.

French serve as only something for my units to shoot at. I've TRIED collecting them but just can't ever build up the motivation … Huge numbers of identically uniformed line.. No character to them just a number. Likewise 1809 Prussians….

French and Westphalians, then British and Portuguese to fight them. And now Austrians for the same reason.

I have a choice?
Nobody told me in my youth…. so I covered all bases.. nationalities that is. Including the Ottomans. Even have some HEIC sepoys.

WR

5'6" – French! Vive l'empereur!!

200 feet at the gaming table and French bein sure !!!

William

6'1" Vive la France!

Nothing to do with height – French, because their standards are easier to paint.

If you are trying to extrapolate a link based on the myth/propaganda that Bonaparte was 'short' then sorry to disappoint.

In 1821, his body was autopsied in France, and his height was noted as 5 foot 2 inches. This measurement was in French feet (pieds de roi) and was never correctly converted to standard English measure. In English feet, Napoleon stood 5 foot 6.5 inches tall. So the poor guy was shorted a full 4.5 inches in height.

In his day, 5'6.5" was a perfectly respectable, nothing-to-be-ashamed-of height for a man. In fact, Napoleon was actually slightly taller than the average Frenchman of 1800.

5' 7"

I have French and Anglo Portuguese. I like painting the French and their allies the most, I just seem to like the cut of their uniforms more than the British.

5'10" and 1813 Prussians are my army of choice, though happy with Saxons/Russians/Bavarians too.

5` 2" new to this i like British. Ottomans …wow never heard of them….must do some `search or can some one briefly fill in some details??

Sorry….couldn't resist.

This will get you started:
link

5'11": French, Austrian, Russian and Neapolitan.

Now I will admit my acquisition of Austrians is based on lazyness in the paint department.

My collection is the Peninsula, 28MM for GendBde. So its Brit/Portugese/Spanish and French/Confederation. Nice uniform color and flag variation on the table. I miss not gaming Curassiers, but the remainder are represented.

6'0.

It appears that there actually is a correlation of hight and army. It seems that those who are five eight and lower all have French, and those taller have colilition.

Is five eight short?

scene of humour hmmmmm that`s refreshing,lol.
thanks for the link Karpathian is 28mm the best or is 15mm better? Or dose size really matter?

6'3" here my first army was Bavarian……..cool uniforms.

Karpathian….that was funny!

My choice was predicated by which army wore kilts!

I am 6' 4" barefoot and I like the French. Vive la France! Today Europe, tomorrow the world! "You think Napoleon is short? You should see the British commander! My 11 year old could take him." Quote from anonymous highlander.

Yeah, odd really as when playing Napoelonic Naval I have to be the British.

Nelson was 5' 4" I think but unlike Napoleon he lead from the very front.

Von Richthofen was 5' 4" as well I think – and I like flying Dr1's in my games.

Charles 1 was small and I play Royalists in ECW.

I think there's something in your theory based on our tiny sample…

Baden. Because I can field the entire army.

Fredjg, we need to stick together, stossstrupen can join us for an invincible Bavarian army.

Karpathian, that was good I have to admit.

I chose French, British, Austrian, and Russian armies in 15mm not due to my perfect height and handsome good looks, but because baseballs don't have feathers.
Clear?

i'm 5'8' and i paint all the countries and and play which ever one the other guy does not.

6' 2.5"
After the furniture show…. For a gaming challenge, try Ottomans. Once you have played with an Ottoman army, all the europeans just look the same… :-)

Our group's Ottoman Empire character rules and some basic uniform information. Ottoman armies tend to have lots of cavalry… and lots of real second rate infantry to offset their Janissaries. Collection is 25/28mm with about 1900 miniatures.

PDF link

PDF link

Mehtar janissary band is still a live military unit today. Does world tours and the music… is different. link

Battle of Gaza 1799 game played using some Levant Ottomans vs French: link

WR

interesting colourful lot the Ottomans

5'-11" and change, Prussians, Russians, British/ Hanoverians and Bavarians. Don't see this going anywhere.

British – nothing to do with height but have a pair of Wellies!

5'-11" Let see:

Austrian,
Bavarians,
British + Portugese,
French,
Neapolitan,
Russian,
Spanish.

Prussians in the planning stage.

So it does not work.

I'm small – 5'5" – but it hasn't influenced my choice of armies.

However, as a victim of real life 'scale creep' – the tendency of humans today to revert to the stature of their pre-agrarian civilization hunter-gatherer ancestors, so that I seem to be even smaller relative to others than I was forty years ago – it is perhaps a contributory factor to my preference for small scale figures…

6'3" French, then British then Russians

6'2 Austrians pre 1810,Wesphalians, French pre 1812, Russians 1806, prussians 1806

I like garlic. Therefore, I play French.

I like samagon. Therefore I play Russians.
I like armagnac. Therefore I play French.
I like gin. Therefore I should buy some British, I suppose.

177cm (a little shy of five ten, I think).