"Mounted Colonels - what to do with them?" Topic

In various game systems, folks often show a mounted infantry Colonel between regimental battalions (or sometimes in the middle of a battalion's front rank, which I understand is incorrect historically but looks nice)…

Then a Brigadier-General is often depicted by a 2-figure mounted command stand, and a Field-Marshall (C-in-C) by a 3-figure command stand.

But what about the Colonels of cavalry regiments? I don't tend to see them very often on the tabletop. This is possibly because most cavalry units are regiments rather than part-regiments or squadrons, and a mounted Colonel per cavalry unit would look excessive. Or because the cavalry Colonels are assumed to be in the cavalry regiment/unit and represented by the mounted officer figure there already. Either way, I don't usually see any single figure mounted Colonels getting around. Instead, I see the standard Brigadier-General 2-figure command stand for a cavalry brigade, and that's about it.

So who uses mounted Colonels in their armies and how? And specifically, do you bother with the cavalry Colonels – if so, how?

(Something I thought of was to use a cavalry Colonel of the most dominant regiment type in the cavalry brigade as the 2nd figure in a Brigadier-General's command stand. The same could be done with a Brigadier-General's command stand for an infantry brigade. This idea either limits the use of individual Colonels to infantry brigades, or subsumes them completely into the offsider figure for a Brigadier-General's command stand for infantry & cavalry brigades.)

Interested in people's approaches to this aspect of representing mounted commanders.

Cheers

What you describe in your last paragraph is exactly what I do. With over a half century of game experience, I remember integrating a mounted colonel once with the battalion as this was the fashion set by Peter Gilder.

As the number of battalions grew, I found it easier to add colonels as staff figures among the brigade and division command base.

Cheers,

Well that is encouraging. You have quite a head start on me, but I appear to have caught the correct train. My thanks. :)

My standard infantry battalion is 32 figures on four bases. The mounted colonel is placed on the far right of the first battalion. One British colonel for every three battalions or so. I also integrate into the battalion one foot officer, one drummer (tho' I know correct placement would be apart from the battalion ranks), a standard, and possibly a sapper.

My standard cavalry regiment is 16 figures (including standard-bearer) on four bases. The colonel and his trumpeter are on a separate round base.

I use round bases for my generals: two castings for a brigade commander, three for divisional, four for corps, five for army commanders.

Colonels serve no game purpose for me, but they look good. In fact, my organization is primarily for aesthetics.

Make them part of a command stand with flags, musicians, pioneers, debris, etc.

For each infantry battalion my colonels are mounted on a separate stand and placed to the rear of the colour company, which has two colours a drummer and a sergeant. The sergeant is sometimes replaced with a pioneer or an officer.

I use a similar method for the few cavalry units that I have.

Brigade stands are circles with the brigadier and a staff officer mounted and division stands are a larger rectangle to fit a mounted major-general, a colonel and staff officer.

It seems to depend to an extent on the size of your units. As I use large BAR style units, fitting in an extra figure isn't really a problem. Infantry ones are on separate bases, sited where appropriate for whatever the unit is doing; cavalry ones are also separate but if the figure pack gives me some extra musicians, these would be attached to the colonel for parade use only. The colonel is placed between the two squadrons that currently form a standardised regiment in my armies.

I base my mounted colonels and majors on there own bases, My battns are 32 to 48 figs depending upon the nation.

some of my colonels are also brigade commanders so they are on 50mm round bases and the majors on 25mm x 50mm.

Colonel O'Brien

major

The majors and colonels have various rolls when on the table, a few off the top of my head;

when both are on the table one is on either flank of the regt, giving a movement bonus to the regt.

Morale improvement depending upon the commanders state of health and personal leadership quality.

some can personally take charge of a btn and lead them when the btn fails a morale roll

Need to roll to see if they are injured, captured or killed when the enemy are within 6 inchs

cheers
matt

Great answers here. It certainly appears that folks like to have their Colonels and employ a range of techniques with them!

@Dan Beattie – are your mounted cavalry Colonels uniformed & equipped much like their regiment, as opposed to a staff officer's uniform? And do you not include a trumpeter within the cavalry regiment (so just an officer & standard)?

@John Clements – you say your Colonel is placed between the 2 squadrons of your standard cavalry regiments. Is this like having a 24-figure regiment (eg Austrian 6-squadron regiment at 1:40) and dividing them into 2 more maneuverable sub-units, and calling those 'squadrons'?

@bluewillow – what system do you use – your own?

Cheers

Snowcat -

I guess if a colonel was with a cavalry unit and not wearing their uniform, he would be an attached staff officer; and I imagine that rarely happened.

As I wrote, my command base for a cavalry regiment is a circular base with commanding officer and trumpeter.

Dan -

So apart from the rank & file figures in the cavalry regiment, there's a standard bearer and that's it? You separate the officer (upgraded to a Colonel) and trumpeter onto their own circular base – correct? I ask because I've not seen that done before. It's an interesting idea. :)

British Grenadier with some additions

Snowcat

The armies I am working on currently (for WAS) had small regiments composed of a small number of squadrons so 24 works on a 1:10 or 1:15 scale. If I was modelling the Austrian or Prussian armies, then the units would have to be at least twice as big, so would have perhaps 4 squadrons, in which case I would still put the colonel in the middle. Incidentally, each squadron has a command stand with officer, trumpeter and standard which does make them a bit over-officered compared to the infantry

Ah, I see. I understand the reluctance to leave out the shiny command figures per squadron too – somehow it feels a bit naked without them!

Do you distinguish your mounted Colonels from foot officers in any way? Other than the horse? Same goes for cavalry Colonels. My understanding is that mid-18thC Colonels did not receive extra gold galloon (than battalion or squadron officers) on their coats; this was for Brigadier-Generals and above. If I'm mistaken, perhaps someone could correct me.

Cheers
Paul