"Next army suggestion?" Topic

Hello,

I have British, French, Prussians and Germans allies armies. Mostly geared towards Waterloo. In 15/18mm.

What army do you think is interesting to build next?
I'd define "interesting" by:
Very nice existing miniatures.
Variety of uniforms
Possibly not boring to play.

Thank you.

Hello,

I have British, French, Prussians and Germans allies armies. Mostly geared towards Waterloo. In 15/18mm.

What army do you think is interesting to build next?
I'd define "interesting" by:
Very nice existing miniatures.
Variety of uniforms
Possibly not boring to play.

Thank you.

How about Russians ?
link
You can use them both before and after 1815, not only with the French as opponent but also the Ottomans and the Persians (which also are nice armies – Irregular Miniatures has 15mm Persians), they have both regular and irregular troops (the Cossacks of course and the militia), and they are very steady. And at least 15/18mm Russians are available in abundance.

Bavarians? They can fight for either side.

Spanish?

They're pretty colourful & quite different to other Napoleonic armies.

It would help if you had masochistic tendencies, though as their track record is not great.

The German division in the Peninsular. Dutch, Frankfurt, Hessians and Baden. With cavalry and guns.

Bavarians is a good suggestion. Very colourful with the various facings.

How about Austrians? Fought almost everywhere. Uniforms not as 'white' as a lot of people think, what with Jagers, Grenz, Landwehr etc.

Danes and Swedes. A bit different

Jackson's Army, to support the French at Waterloo.

Grand Duchy of Warsaw. An entire army and the 2nd largest component of the French Army. Fought independently in 1813 and pretty much so during the Russian invasion as well as 1809.

As suggested, Spanish and the German Division in Spain. I like Russians, but they may fall under your boring category.

As suggested, Bavarians and Saxons can fight either way and there's plenty of coverage, and the Poles are great for 1812-13.

Speaking from experience, the Russians aren't exactly interesting to paint.

Austrians, They were Napoleons greatest enemy and they have plenty of color.

I agree with 79thPA and ochoin, have a look at the Peninsular War.

Your Brits and French are the basics, and you will probably have Brunswick and Nassau already as you mentioned Waterloo.

So you can add Spanish and Portuguese to your British army and Germans/Hanoverians/Parisiens/Poles to the French army.

And playing the Spanish army is never "boring", its always a challenge!!!!

Another vote for Austrians – if you do them up with shakoes you have an army that can fight from 1809 on, and while there is a lot of white they also have plenty of colour with grenzers, cavalry, Hungarians and landwehr

As noted, Napoleon's most consistent enemy

Italian and Polish.

Wild card: Americans.

You can line them up opposite British and German allies, and you can vary any painting tedium by adding in a few tribes, who can fight for either side. It could be fun for the British to face off against an enemy who also fights in two-deep lines and also has oodles of rifle-armed light infantry.

Imagi-Nation. It can be whatever you want it to be, AND, in the names and uniforms you can parody the real life counterparts.

Bavarians and/or Saxons………. the cavalry esp are very colourful. The Bavarian infantry would make a great variation on so much dark blue

Have you thought of Poles? In 28mm some great figures certainly….less sure about 15/18mm

Go for something completely different. Do the French in Egypt and use the new line of figures from Perry Miniatures.

Another vote for the Duchy of Warsaw. Lots of lancers and rock solid to play with. Also a vote for the "German" division that served in Spain.

Poles or Saxons are my vote.
murawskiminiatures.com Wurawski miniatures do excellent Poles and have a 20% off sale right now.
calpeminiatures.co.uk Calpe do excellent Saxons.

I do also say the German division in Spain – nine battalions in 1809 reduced to four by Vittoria.

Whilst on this subject can anybody recommend suitable AB figures for this formation especially the Baden battalions?

Were the Dutch the 123rd in white with pink facings or have I got muddled up?

Bavarians, Saxons, Duchy of Warsaw, actually you could do any of the other CoR forces, like Westphalians/Wurtembergers/Badeners as an independent all arms fighting force.
Or you could go nuts and do an early french army in bicorne for the years up to an including 1807, and Prussians for Jena/Auerstedt (very colorful and magnificent uniforms) to fight them;)

AB have very nice figures for all these options.

One thing worries me.

We are all suggesting some brilliant figures and ranges, but a line of 28mm Bavarians or Saxons would knock the stuffing out of most 15/18mm units as you were seeking!

AB are great from my limited experience of that scale

Lizardmen or space marines definitely :P

Has to be Russians.

I have Prussian, Russian, British and their German allies but a division of Bavarians just because I liked their uniforms. Can use them as said on either side that needs help.

Piedmontese (perhaps with some Austrian friends) who were doing a good job of keeping the French out for two (?) years until that Corsican chap turned up.

Maltese revolt against France – locally raised Brit trained units, some redcoat battalions, some Italian units, lotsa angry locals with bad weapons, a fair qty of guns and not many (none?) horses to paint.

Chinese – they had tigermen what else could you want? Also they fought some of the minor central Asian states that fought Afghanistan or Persia, and the Persians fought Russia.

Kingdom of Georgia – desperately trying to modernise their country and its feudal military, could use a few Russian units they sent from time to time.

Baluchistan – murderous riders two-to-a-camel, the rear man armed with lance the front man with some missile weapon + wild charging irregular swordsmen.

Swiss – didn't they once call their citizen army to arms but then decided the threat to the nation was over

db

I would choose Russians or Bavarians.
Russians could be used in a 1813 campaign and also 1814 in France.
I don't know much about 15/18mm Napoleonic figs, but guess that AB will fit perfectly.

If you want colour and an army that fights in most of the major campaigns and the main theatre of the wars then you should add Austrians. The AB range is complete for most major periods and major armies but their Austrian ranges cover 3 different periods of Austrians.

I'll ignore the rash, silly comment about "28mm knocking the stuffing out of 15/18mm" – obviously meant in jest.

Always liked Bavarians myself.

The Ottomans or Persians. Khurazan Miniatures will be producing some Ottomans soon and they already produce Persians.

Austrians,Bavarians and Wurttembergers.

thanks all for the great recommendations.

I was narrowing it down to Bavarians, Russians and Austrians. When I thought that Grand Duchy of Warsaw could be actually the army I was looking for.

Unfortunately, the figures and poses are only in limited numbers, so for the time being, I will go Austrians. Which is kind of second choice, but still a solid one I believe. Next will probably be Russians.

As a side project and smallish project, I will inquire at collecting an Army of Naples.

thanks again for all the pointers.

Austrians – either with helmet (early) or shako (late). They look really nice massed.

Well I have been asked specifically to do a 28mm French Imperial Guard army by our club members as surprisingly enough guard troops is something the existing French players don't have enough of.

I am a bit of a novice when it comes to Naps as WW2 is more my thing. But the Chairman of our club has described the French Imperial Guard as being an army within an army and most people just picture the Old Guard . However there is much more too it than that with yes the Old Guard ( 2 types) ,Middle Guard ,Young Guard ,Cavalry and artillery. Having borrowed some of his books it certainly opened my eyes as to the rich variety and very nice uniforms that are available.
Needless to say it didn't need much persuasion to start it!