"How many Landwehr battalions are in your Prussian army?" Topic

I am asking this because I'm getting annoyed about the whining going on about the "How many ….. tanks?" threads in WWII Discussion.
Pardon my intrusion.

However, this can be a serious discussion too. It speaks to whether you field a wargaming army, warts and all.

A fair enough annoyance!

From 1813 onwards, if not using a specific OOB, I usually have about 2 Landwehr bns to each line/reserve bn and 1 small Landwehr cavalry regiment for each line regiment.

Of course, that is just for looks, and as we get to 1814/1815 while they still look ragged, I tend to upgrade some of them from 'militia' status.

For my money, by 1814 a Prussian army should look terrible, but be reasonably competent in a fight.

Actually, as I understand it, but 1814 pretty much all the armies looked terrible, but that's another problem.

I like one for three -- one line, one reserve and one landwehr. That matches many brigades. And for the record, I agree -- completely unable to understand the "how many" questions on the WWII board. I have 8 bns of 28mm Prussian Landwehr -- which means that I am really cool or really stupid and I am not sure which.

18 LW of 24 total battalions

None. I don't have a Prussian army. But I do have 8 btns of Austrian landwehr. Fun to paint, very colorful units for the most part.

hahahaha! He said Battalions! I have REGIMENTS!

At 1:100 ratio miniatures, the WR 25/28mm collection has 18x Landwehr Kavalry regiments (18x4), 30x Landwehr regiments (mostly 3x battalions of 6 miniatures, some 8 miniatures.. East Prussian ones) and….. wait for it, 5x Landstrum "regiments" of two battalion (2x6) each.

Group games at 1:100 scale for their battles.

I have 23 battalions of Calpe and 2 of Perry plastic Landwehr infantry.
Also 11 regiments of Calpe Landwehr cavalry.

I have 6 battalions of regulars, 6 of reserve regiments, 9 battalions of landwehr, 1 of jagers usually fielded as half-battalions. 6 artillery batteries, 2 regiments of dragoons, 2 of hussars, 2 of landwehr cavalry. And Blucher, of course. Mostly AB figures.

It's an 1815 army, no guards, no cuirassiers.

None. All of my Prussians are from 1806/1807.

24, IIRC.

I don't play Prussians, I play Austrians and they too can have Landwehr. I try for 2 Landwehr in each Brigade.

20 Battalions of 1870 Prussian Landwehr.

They are 6mm Prussians. I usually point at the units without flag bearers and say they are Landwehr. Call it a third of them (which is the ratio I used when I did Waterloo and Warren as a paired battle).

AT LEAST a third, since among my army I have IV Korps 1815 which has a higher % of Landwehr.

Historical balance is important to me.

Am slowly replacing the mediocre Warlord plastics with better metals from Calpe and Perry (and probably some of Front Rank's newest, too).

Esquire's proportion reflects the composition of I, II, and III Corps in 1815.

Twelve at the moment, plus a couple battalions of Landsturm.

Whatever the OOB says to use. I've built the IV Corps from 1813 which, outside of 3 Reserve Battalions, is all Landwehr. Currently working on III Corps.

45 total inf battalions,
16 battalions (missing 6 replaced by extra Reserve battalions in I corp)
16 in II corp
12 Battalions in III corp
1 extra ( Pomeranians)

Alas all 1 = 60
I before I started to really build corps made all but 1 total reserve regiments, so 2 became supernumery.My reserve regiments are very close to Nash's makeup in uniforms so they are quite mismatched, not far from landwehr.

I did the same as Esquire.

8 each of line, reserve, and landwehr. Also 4 regiments of landwehr cavalry if I recall.

On paper the Prussians had 6 corps of mixed line/landwehr, one GD corp. and 1 fully landwehr corp. for 1815. I have them all based for Napoleons battles.

All of them 1812, 1813, 1814. Got all four Corps for 1815.

I have Yorck 1st Army from 1813, a specific OOB.

1 Jaeger Bn
4 Grenadier Bns
3 Reserve Bns
9 Line Bns
16 Landwehr Bns

3 Landwehr Cav Regiments
1 Uhlan Regiment
1 National Cav Regiment
2 Dragoon Regiments
3 Hussar Regiments

Based on 1815, roughly 1/3rd of the army so four brigades with one old regular regiment one reserve regiment and one landwehr regiment. Looks about right to me. Still considering some extra landwehr now that Front rank has released them in their new Prussian range.

It seems you ought to have a good chunk of them, and in larger scales the hats that miniatures makers put on Landwehr figures are very appealing.

Plus, beating the French with these guys is an extra feather in your cap!

Depends on the year, the corps and so on.

If you are doing the 1813 period here are some examples:

(abbrevations: Ldw/ldw = Landwehr, NKR = National Cav Regiment, LKR – Landwehr Cavalry Regiment)
1st Corps – Yorck at the Katzbach – only had Silesian Ldw. Infantry – the ldw cavalry was mixed

Adv Gd. – two battalions of Ldw, 1 Gren, 1 Line, Thuringian Bn, 2 Cos. Jagers, Brand. Uhlans, Silesian Ldw Kav

1st Brig – six bns ldw., 2 Line, 1 Gren, 1 Hussar regt

2nd Brig – four bns ldw., six line bns, 1 Hussar regt

7th Brig – six ldw bns., Leib IR8 (3 bns), Gd Jager (2 cos.), 2 Sqdns Sil. Ldw Cav, 3 sqdns Hussars

8th Brig – three bns. Ldw, 5 bns of Line/Reserve IR, 2 Hussar sqdns, 2 Sil. Ldw Kav sqdns

Corps Cav
1B – two line dragoon regiments (4 ea)
2B – E.Prus NKR (4)
3B – Neumark and Silesian LdwCav

2nd Corps – Kleist (at Dresden)
(same ldw types as for I Corps – only Silesian infantry but mixture of types for cavalry)

9th Brigade – 6 Line Bns, 2 cos. Silesian Schutzen, 4 Ldw bns., 2 Sqnds Dragoons, 2 Sqdns Sil. LKR

10th Brigade – 6 Line/RIR bns, 4 Ldw Bns, 2 Drag. sq, 2 Sil LKR sq.

11th Brigade – 6 Line Bns, 2 cos. Sil. Schutzen, 4 Ldw bns., 2 Hussar sq., 2 Sil. LKR sq.

12th Brigade – 6 Line/RIR bns, 4 Ldw Bns, 2 Hussar sq., 2 Sil. LKR sq.

Corps Cav.
1B – 3 regts. of Cuirassiers (12 Sqdns)
2B – Uhlan regiment (4), Hussar (2), Sil NKR (2)
3B – 2 regts. of Sil. LKR (8)

I will post 3rd and 4th Corps in a separate posting

Continuing the 1813 Prussian army:

3rd Corps – Bülow at Grossbeeren:
I love to fight using this corps the most… I feel it was the best in the army IMHO

3rd Brigade: 1 Gren Bn., 9 Line/RIR bns., 3 Ldw Bns., 2 E.Prus. Jager Cos., 1st Leib Hussars (4)

4th Brigade: 7 Line/RIR bns., 1 Elbe IR bn, 2 jager cos., Pomm. NKR (3 sq)

5th Brigade: Pomm Gren bn, 6 Line/RIR bns., 2 Kur Ldw bns., Pomm Hussars (4), W.Pruss Uhlans (4)

6th Brigade: 6 Line/RIR bns, v.Hellwig inf (2 Cos.), Jager Bn (2 Cos.), 4 Neumark Ldw bns, v.Hellwig Hussars (2 sq), Pomm Lkr (4)

Corps Cav:
1B – 3 Dragoon regts. (12 Sqdns)
2B – 2 Hussar Sqdns, 2 Kurmark LKRs (8 sqdns)

(note: in all of the Prussians corps you will also find the usual group of Frewillige jagers both for the infantry and cavalry .. fun to paint and add in to the cavalry regiments … I didnt list them here)

4th Corps – Tauentzien at Grossbeeren (basically a Landwehr corps) – it was organized into 3 large brigades.

I wont list this one out… here is the total count of battalions:

Infantry:
Reserve Infantry Regiments – 7 bns
Kurmark Ldw Inf. 20 bns
Neumark Ldw Inf. 4 bns
W.Prussian Ldw Inf. 10 bns (all in Woebeser's Brig)
Silesian Ldw Inf 3 Bns

Cavarly:
34 Sqnds of Landwehr Cavalry from Kurmark, W.Prussia, Pommeriania, Berlin (Brandenberg), E.Prussia

If you model the 1813 campaign go with either 1st or 3rd Corps. 2nd Corps has a nice brigade of Cuirassiers.

The Guard fought with the Army of Bohemia with the Russian Guard and mainly stayed out of the fighting for the most part.

Summerfield's books on the Prussian army have good information on the composition of each corps. Nafziger's OBs for the 1813 campaign and Summerfield is where I got most of my OB info.

Note: the Prussian brigades were split up into Treffes and you should model them on the battlefield the same way. Thus they didnt fight as regiments for the most part (unless the brigade was very small). A sample brigade would look like this:

1 Treffe: Fusilier Bn. – Line Bn. – Fusilier Bn. (or just the 2 Fus. Bns.)

2 Treffe: RIR or Line bn. – Ldw Bn – RIR or Line Bn. with a battery of guns

3. Treffe: Ldw Bn – Line Bn. Ldw Bn.

2-4 sqdns of cavalry on each flank

Hope that helps!

Great! Thank you! I have the 1815 OB but none of this.

I aim for 1:1:1 landweher:reserve:line

Currently some way off that, with three Airfix landwehr battalions (approx. 100 figs) done, similar reserve 9haT) and twice as many line (revel).

But I have a large order in with the HaT crowdfunded landwehr scheme, so that will change soon I hope.

love landwehr