"Basing 6mm Napoleonics for Blücher" Topic

With Blucher having come out it's time to get into Napoleonics. Here's what I know about the period: Just enough to realize that I have NO bloody idea and even if I dedicate the next 40 years of my life on the topic I will only scratch the surface.

The plan is to get 6mm French (1813-ish, they're up against Prussians) from Baccus and that I'll put them on 40x20mm bases. 4 bases to a unit (which would be roughly a brigade in Blucher terms. Of course I'd use the fellas for other rules sets as well).

How should I set my Frenchies up? I was thinking three ranks of eight figures per base. Cavalry would be 7 models per base, 4 bases to a unit, again 40x20mm bases. Does that sound roughly right? I'm not about 100% historical accuracy because that's impossible within the boundaries of this basing system I have in mind and along with keeping them so I can play other games as well. But still, I would like to have something that looks proper.

Of course it would be fun to somehow model skirmisher screens as well, but I'm not sure about that. in terms of space this effectively would cost me at least one or rather two ranks and to be honest another factor is that my units should at least look as impressive and "weighty" as the Prussians who are based on the above fashion.

In this regard I would like to ask you if this basically three ranks setup sounds any good or maybe I should somehow go with some sort of attack column setup?

Oh, and what about flags and whatnot? one per base? One per "unit"? How the bloody heck were French brigades set up at the time?

I'll be happy about any input (apart from "it's your models, do whatever you like." ;-) ). Thanks very much, gentlemen.

I don't use 6mm, but I think many people use two units, each 2 ranks deep, one behind the other; On a 3" base, there is plenty of room for skirmishers deployed on the front of the base, plus a mounted officer and one gun and crew, representing a accompanying artillery It really doesn't matter with Blucher, where the unit is called a brigade. Or put two or three battalions in column. Formations don't matter in Blucher, Volley and Bayonet, or La Grande Armee. What matters is how they look to you. Remember that soldiers other than skirmishers moved and fought shoulder to shoulder.

One flag per base is sufficient.

French brigades at Waterloo usually had two regiments, each of two battalions. But elsewhere in the Napoleonic Wars, French brigades could have between two or three, even four. battalions per regiment, and as many as three to five regiments. There are many Orders of Battle on the Internet (e.g., Talavera, Borodino, Wagram, etc.) Almost every book on a particular battle includes an OB for both sides.

Many conventions have 6mm games. At a big one like Historicon there should be plenty of examples of basing.

Let me know if I can help further.

The French were comprised of 6 companies – One of grenadiers (lots of red trim), one of Voltigeuers (lots of green and yellow) and four center companies (plain janes).

Your basing would be 8 strips wide. To get "close" I'd go with something like:

VVVVCCCC CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC CCCCGGGG

So one strip of Volt, one of gren and then 6 of center. Not perfect but would look the part I think.

My 6mm figures are based for snappy nappy on 40x20 metal bases for infantry, 40x40 for cavalry, 40x40 for artillery. The infantry are in 3 ranks of 7 the cavalry in 2 ranks of 6, the artillery 3 guns per base. For Blucher i use 80x60 bases of magnetic material. Each base has a 80x20 strip at the back with the unit details printed thus leaving a space of 80 x 40. Therefore each Blucher base has 4 infantry, 2 cavalry or 2 artillery. You can see examples on my blog at flownlegions.blogspot.com.es

Thanks very much for the comments so far.

@Dan Beattie: Cheers. I have seen 6mm based like that and it looks great. I'm not sure if it's an option for me as I'll try to stay as flexible as possible with that and maybe play Lasalle some day or what ever comes up. ;)

@Extra Crispy: Ah, I see you explained the very basics of Napoleonics base setup to other newbies before. :D Thanks for the clear layout. This might very much be along the lines I have planned. How many ranks would you suggest per base? Your setup is for a Battalion, right? What would a brigade comprise then (approximately)?

@curlerman: Yes, that's pretty much what my mate does with his Prussians and what I'll do as well. We'll also possibly get the cards and just put the bases on the cards. I like your idea a lot too though. So the whole base is pretty much magnetic, you put your models on metal bases and the unit label is printed on "steel paper"? I assume that's a thin sheet of metal with paper on it which you can print on? The clear plastic foil is self-adhering and you cut it to fit? What do you use for units when they're hidden? Printed paper blinds?

I have a silly question about the Imperial Guard: Was the Guards (foot) battalion setup the same as line battalions? Or was each battalion either fully (ie all companies) grenadiers or chasseurs on foot?

Yes that is for a battalion. I use a single battalion to represent a brigade of multiple stands. So it does "double duty." A brigade would normally be 3 or more battalions and could be mixed infantry/cavalry in a few cases.

If you base on steel sheet magnet can be cut with scissors to size. I do this all the time. It has a glue backing so you can just print paper labels an affix, or for the ultimate flexibility print labels on sheet magnet too. New scenario? just print new labels.

In case it matters. After a lot of research I settled on 20mm wide bases for all of my horse & musket armies. For 6mm I use 20mm deep bases, for 15mm I use 15mm deep bases.

My 6mm are thus 3 ranks (for most nations) deep, one strip wide per base. Then I use sheet magnet movement trays to conform to the rules I'm playing that day. Have not yet settled on how to base the British – but 2 ranks for sure.

Close up infantry:

Cavalry:

@battle brush Yes it's pretty much as you describe. The steel paper is self adhesive and we stick the labels to the adhesive face. For blinds the magnetic sabot is also self adhesive and we stick national flags to the adhesive face much like the original cards. When a unit is discovered we simply flip the sabot and place the troops named on the label onto the sabot. The beauty of the system is you only need around 30-40 sabots for each side which are easily reusable for other scenarios. Also the troops can be reused for other rule systems

Hello Battle Brush Sigur!

Why reinvent the wheel? Baccus already packages and sells their figures for battalion or brigade games. All you have to do is decide which base size you like. The 60x60 for a bigger diorama look or the 60x30 for more flexibility. One bag of infantry fill four 60x30 bases and one of cavalry five bases. Every base has a command stand. Nothing else to do other then paint and mount the figures. Works with lots of other rules.

The 60x30 is a popular choice so if you meet other players there's a good chance they have the same bases. You can also often find these bases for sale on ebay if you want to speed up your collection.

Other then personal choice there is no need to mount your infantry three rows deep. Using only two rows is much more common in 6mm. That extra row will cost you time and money. Saving a third of your painting time is huge.

Best regards,

Glenn

Battle Brush Sigur,
Go with some of the suggestions above, the bigger bases gives the chance to do some nice scenic style bases. You can of course base in battalion style and use movement trays Blucher size so giving you the option of more 'tactical games' with other rules later on.
L

Hello Glen,
Thanks for the advertising……..as always lol

Thanks again for the input. The 40mm by 20mm bases are pretty much a given at this point.

The ideas with those magnetic things are very tempting. I have to admit that I haven't done much with magnetic bases so far, but maybe I'll give it a go with this project.

Keeping "units" as battalions representing brigades doesn't sound too bad either. 20mm by 20mm MIGHT be worth a look too if I go that route. So I'd have grenadiers, voltigeurs and line fusiliers on separate bases for much smaller-level games.

*sigh* decisions, decisions… Of course the choice of brand of minis i go for isn't set in stone yet either.. :p

With 6mm you could produce nice brigade formations on a large base (or magnetic sabot base), with distinct battalions depicted. Magnetic is a very good idea if you don't want too much fuss moving sabot units around.

Hullo, I'm back.

Extra Crispy, I reconsidered and I have to say that I'm kind of taken with the idea of using magnetic 20x20mm bases. Should be much easier to paint and arrange too.

So far my plan was to set up the formations depicting brigades as 4 bases of 40x20mm for a 80x40mm size in total. This of course is also perfectly doable with 20x20mm bases on a magnetic sheet. Now for the arrangement of Grenadiers and Voltigeurs. Put on the bases (each of 3 ranks), the layout of my unit would look as such (each letter being one figure):

VVVV CCCC CCCC GGGG
VVVV CCCC CCCC GGGG
VVVV CCCC CCCC GGGG
VVVV CCCC CCCC GGGG
VVVV CCCC CCCC GGGG
VVVV CCCC CCCC GGGG

Now that doesn't look quite right. What I could do is snip grenadiers and Voltigeurs strips in half (or paint them half and half)and have them look as such:

VVCC CCCC CCCC CCGG
VVCC CCCC CCCC CCGG
VVCC CCCC CCCC CCGG
VVCC CCCC CCCC CCGG
VVCC CCCC CCCC CCGG
VVCC CCCC CCCC CCGG

I think that this would make the V-C-G-ratio more appropriate, but of course would cost me in terms of flexibility. What do you think, sirs?

Wargamers have an image of what Napoleonic troops looked like which bears no relationship to reality

Napoleonic troops were organised by company and the company frontage did not change, so you would see long, thin lines of troops, whereas wargamers are happy with blocks

You are also representing a Brigade, which would have had 4-8 battalions, each organised with 6 companies. Brigades would have adopted any number of formations with individual battalions in line or column formations

So it really does not matter what you do, whatever you like the look of will work

I do advise you to base your figures in the same way as other local wargamers if you have such a rare and wonderful thing

Be warned that Napoleonics rules are "flavour of the year". In a couple of years time people will be playing something else and wondering why they ever enjoyed Blucher. So don't do anything too weird and exotic with the basing

Best of luck

John

I'm basing my 15mm so they can double for V&B as well

@John: Thanks for the comment! I'm in the lucky situation of pretty much having a regular gaming buddy. He's going for 2x2 40x20mm bases with three ranks of nasty Prussians on them. I'm rather set on the idea of doing it very similarly on smaller bases so I can mix and match for various ways of unit setups. As you probably know the "do what ever you like the look of" answer usually is the most correct and for the newbie the least satisfying answer. :D Thanks nonetheless. I will aim for something universally applicable in terms of basing.

@Guthroth: Thanks, that's what I try to do as well. Keep the basing flexible and all.

Returning to the original question, I've based my 6mm Austrians on 60 x 30mm bases. Infantry and cavalry in two ranks with the number of figures giving an indication of type and quality-

Veteran & Grenadiers Inf 2 x 9 plus a mounted officer
Conscript Inf 2 x 10 no Officer
Cuirassiers 2 ranks of 8
Hussars 2 ranks of 4
Lt Dragoons 2 ranks of 3
Av Gd 3 x Jager/Grenzers plus 4 x Infantry, plus 3 x Hussars or Lt dragoons
Artillery has 3 guns with the number of crew denoting the weight (6 for field, 9 for heavy)

This is good for Blucher, and if I use two bases per unit, I can play Polemos or V&B.

Yep, I second this general approach. Works for me. It's the flexibility of using them for Bluecher, VnB and Polemos that appeals.

Thanks very much for the input, Guthroth!

Very interesting and clever system for telling the units apart. For me the 80x40 pretty much is a given at this point, but I'll keep your suggestions in mind.

So, let me get this right; If you mount them (6mm troops)on 60mm magnetic bases, you can then put them on 3" bases for Blucher and V&B as needed?

I generally mount troops in two ranks and 12 across (24 figures) I also put a mounted officer on every other base, so they can be used as larger units for Polemos and V&B.
I usually have a few skirmishers up ahead of each line.

I hope that Phil Barker is able to publish his Horse, Foot and Gun rules; I don't believe it would be a problem using units on either 60mm or 3" frontages if both sides used them. Blucher is of course fairly flexible.

Pictures now :)

link