"Favorite Napoleonic Unit?" Topic

It's a very colorful (and colourful!) era, with lots of fancy units. Which is your favorite? Can be based on uniform, performance, or whatever stokes your fancy.

Formations below army-level only, so "Austrians iz da best!" may be your sentiment, but you gotta be more specific than that.

2nd Silesian Landwehr

I will admit I get all giddy about the Imperial Guard like WWII gamers get over Tigers. But come on, Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale knew how to dress.

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Hanseatic Legion.

HMS Indefatigable. :-)

^^^

Ships are fair game! Granted, didn't occur to me at the time, but why not?

The Paris Fire Brigade formation Bricoling team!

Highlanders!

Bataillon des Tirailleurs Corses
Austerlitz, Iéna, Lubeck, Eylau, Ratisbonne, Wagram….

Royal Corsican Rangers
Egypt, Maida.

French Cuirassier, all 12 regiments

Elite companies of any low-numbered French hussar regiment; besides having unmatched esprit-de-corps and battlefield prowess, there's just something about the colpack that strikes me as the perfect military headgear.

(I suppose the same could be said for the Guard Chasseurs a Cheval, but I'm an unreconstructed Republican and dislike Guard units, even Imperial Guard…)

Rick Wynn

King's German Legion. I always award points for people who just won't admit the war's over and their country lost--especially ones with sterling combat records, nice uniforms, and who win over the long term.

The Black Brunswickers in 1809 during their march across Germany to the coast. Cool as heck black uniforms, death head insignia, medium blue highlights…snazzy and they also performed decently well!

Marins of the Guard:

splendid uniform ("naval hussars") + as the Emperor said of them:

"What should we have done without them? … As sailors they have in no way deteriorated and they have shown themselves the best of soldiers. When occasion required they proved equally valuable, whether as sailors, soldiers, artillerymen or engineers; there was no duty they could not undertake."

French 1810 1st and 2nd Carabinier a Cheval
They looked pretty good in their earlier uniform too, but there's something about the copper/brass cuirasse, white coatee and red caterpillar crest.

For me they are the Battalion Neuchatel (the "Canaries"), the Pavlov Grenadiers, and the 42nd Royal Highlanders (the Black Watch).

Jim

Re the Carbiniers:

They looked pretty good in their earlier uniform too, but there's something about the copper/brass cuirasse, white coatee and red caterpillar crest.

Don't forget the sky-blue cloak which really set it all off. IMHO the most splendid uniform of the Napoleonic Wars, if not of all wars.

Horse Kilties

Hussars in general are my favourite types of most armies; Very specific the Legion Irlandaise (3e étranger) and the Swiss regiments of the French army.

Prussian Pommerainian Landwehr, Prussian blue with white collars and hat trim.

Love Cuirassiers, Carabineers and the Old Guard

But my favourite is French Line Infantry, 1807 pattern uniform

Polish lancers of the guard

Great colours

Irish Legion, highlanders in kilts, French dragoons, the Mancha (?) lancers.

Vistula legion, Irish legion, the canaries, highlanders, British Rifles, KGL lights, and Portuguese loyal lusitanians and cazadores, Spanish Grenadiers. And any 12lb battery on my side.

The one someone else buys, paints, and gives to me for free?!

;-)

Berg lancers

Dutch royal guard 1806-1810

2nd battalion 32 d'Ligne.

This nondescript French line unit has never let me down. In game after game they either triumph or die fighting.

4th Bavarian Infantry with the yellow facings/collars

Imperial Guard Grenadiers a Cheval; Artillerie a Cheval de la Garde.

Who can forget the British 103rd Foot with their nickname of the "Rum Corps," which refers to their illustrious history as the New South Wales Corps, before being taken into the line. They got the name because they mutinied against the Governor, none other than William "Bounty" Bligh, when he insisted on stopping their illicit trade selling booze to the convicts. This was, by the way, the third mutiny against Bligh, who also lost control of another ship during the widespread naval mutinies at Spithead and the Nore.

Loyal Lusitanian Legion.

Dutch red lancers of the guard.

This was, by the way, the third mutiny against Bligh, who also lost control of another ship during the widespread naval mutinies at Spithead and the Nore.

Actually, Bligh was one of captains who was NOT sent ashore by the mutineers, and his men specified that their grievances were with the Admiralty, not him.

Russian Dorpat Mounted Jagers

Cuirassiers. (The last remnant of the obsolete medieval knight. Their crested helmet with horse hair a nod to an even further distant past.)

Vistula Legion – infantry and cavalry
Polish Lancers of the Guard
Berg Lancers (in the "pink")
Empress Dragoons
95th Rifles

Russian Imperial Guard Cossacks. Saxon Garde du Corps cuirassiers.

Russian Tartar Uhlans – raspberry facings
92nd Highlanders

(Thought I was the only one who like Pommeranians, have a landwehr battalion of them I don't need)

Persian Guard zamburak camel-gunners, in their yellow hussar-style uniform.

db

The Baden army. The perfect little self contained force. Four regiments of line infantry of 2 battalions each, a battalion of green coated lights, a horse battery, a light battery, a light dragoon regiment, an hussar regiment, and guard foot and horse companies. What more could you ask for?

After going through these posts it came to me that there are just too many to pick one.

British 95th Rifles
French 9th Light Infantry

French: 13th Legere and 7th Hussars
British 23rd Fusiliers and 42nd Highlanders
Prussian: Dead Head Hussars

The Cumberland Hussars, a beautiful uniform, and if you can make them stay on the battlefield for any length of time, you get bragging rights for that too ;)

Grenz. Under-rated troops who always performed well when it came to fighting. Not so smart on the parade ground, but the 'red' cloaks always give an extra splash of colour.

Chevau- legere lanciers de Berg, especially in the 1807 to 1809 uniform, but the later green and pink is pretty cool too. But what else could you expect from a regiment raised by Murat?

French – 84eme Ligne

British – 90th Foot (Graham's Graybreeks)

Austrian – any Grenz unit

Russian – 3rd Musketeers

Spanish – none

Prussian – 1st Silesian Landwehr

Well, the Loyal Lusitanian Legion and the Legion irlandaise are very tempting, but for me it's the Spanish Guards:
Reales Guardias Espanoles (RGE) – 2 batts of with (under 1,300 men) held up the 5th Corps (c8,800 men) for over an hour at Albuera.
Actually, my wargames Spanish Guards get outperformed by my Wallonn Guards: Reales Guardias Walonas (RGW). Never put a foot wrong, throw 6s, perform amazing feats. Recently, in a refight of Mengibar (just before Baylen) they silenced a horse battery, and immediately resisted a flank attack defeating the two battalions concerned one after another. Historically the Walloons fought well – 4th battalion got wiped out two or three times and rebuilt – oddly enough with non-French deserters/prisoners from the imperial armies. Like the French Foreign Legion.

love my french, but this one austrian unit i have always stands out in my mind: O'Reilly' chevauxlegers.