"New Blog: Campaigns In Iberia (1808-1814)" Topic

We have set up a new blog for our Napoleonic campaign in Spain, 1808 to 1814.

barnapoleon.blogspot.com

Follow the adventures of Major General William Justinian Pettygree * as he defends the interests of Britainnia against the forces of the Corsican Ogre, Bones A Part, himself.

Major General Pettygree:

Our forces are built at a 1:10 ratio of figures to men, resulting in British battalions of 60 to 100 figures and French battalions of 72 figures. And its all in 28mm!

The 94th Regiment (72 figures strong):

The French:

So click on the link and travel back to Iberia, circa 1810 and read about Pettygree's latest adventures along the Coa River. While you are there, please become a "Follower" of our blog by clicking on the "follow this blog" button in the upper left corner of the page.

* the father of Major General Augustus Pettygree, hero of British Colonial adventures in the late 1890s.

Now those are what I call regiments (or battalions)! Well done, that man!

Victory goes to the big battalions

Good game. Look forward to following Pettygree's adventures.

Nothing could be finer than reading about the further adventures of the Pettygree family with my morning coffee!

Rick

Very impressive!

That is a great picture of a French battalion on column of double companies, two deep, with grenadiers in reserve behind, and 12 voltigeurs in skirmish order in front.

You can also put a French battalion in line, three deep, and show how much overlap there is by the British line.

Looks like you can do just a brigade or two, unless you keep bringing more on behind.

GdeP

@GdP: that is precisely the look that I was trying to achieve. We use 12 figures per company, so when you deploy the skirmishers from a regiment of 2-3 battalions, you have 24 to 36 skirmishers out front. Now you begin to see why France's opponents had a hard time dealing with them (at least until the other nations moved up the learning curve a bit).

We deploy our French in 3 ranks versus 2 ranks for the British, and as you say, the overlap is stunning. However, it also becomes clear that if you throw a mass of battalions at a British regiment in line, then this can negate the British advantage. Now it is the red coats who have to worry about all of those columns striking home.

In general, the French player will be a brigade commander with 2 regiments under his command (2 btns per regiment). Thus two players deploy a division and get to add a battery of 8 pounders. Since we have a 24ft long table with two parallel back tables, we have the space to deploy these large battalions.

We could probably play with a French corps of two divisions, each having two brigades, plus division and corps artillery and corps light cavalry. That would require about 6 players to command this lot. Anything larger than a corps is not feasible for us with these big battalions.

I have heard "someone" said "God is on the side of the bigger battalions".

DAF your armies look just as good in this period as they do with tricorns.

Stunning! Great write up on the blog too. Thanks for sharing!

Wow that 1:10 figure ratio sure looks great on the tabletop! Great eye candy thanks for posting.

DAF, what a great blog and game report! I have always loved the big battalions type games (although I have not broken the 1:20 barrier!). Nothing like a heroic grenadier company holding a bridge! It takes me back to my days of playing Charge! and especially Column, Line, and Square… although on a larger scale.

Thanks for the memories, DAF.