| flashman2 | 15 Jun 2017 10:47 a.m. PST |
I'm planning on building an Austrian Army to use with Black Powder. What size units for infantry and cavalry?
Thanks |
| forwardmarchstudios | 15 Jun 2017 10:52 a.m. PST |
Big for the infantry. Double the size of French units would be a good baseline. Although in 1809 Davout's corps had some 700 man battalions. Austrian battalions would top out at 1000 men.. The Austrian cavalry regiments could be twice the size of French ones, but squadron size was the standard for the period. |
79thPA  | 15 Jun 2017 11:24 a.m. PST |
Wouldn't it depend on how large your standard size unit is? If your standard unit is four stands with 4 figures per stand, a large unit would be five or six stands with 4 figures per stand. |
| JimDuncanUK | 15 Jun 2017 12:29 p.m. PST |
Don't forget that large battalions would often operate as two manoeuvre units particularly if the tactical situation was complex or space was limited. |
| forwardmarchstudios | 15 Jun 2017 12:44 p.m. PST |
And don't forget the division mass!
Have fun with that one… |
| Frederick | 15 Jun 2017 1:19 p.m. PST |
Austrian units were pretty big For Black Powder we use two approaches; i) use 12-stand units for the Austrians (large units) versus 6 stand for the French or ii) use a lot more Austrian units Not exactly sure which is better but i) makes the Austrians a tough force to maneuver |
| Qurchi Bashi | 15 Jun 2017 4:08 p.m. PST |
Paper strengths of Austrian battalions are bigger, but were not always in practice. Check out some battlefield stats, like in Gill's Thunder on the Danube – Some are big, some not so much. So you can use a mix of big units and normal sized ones. We do 6-stand standard units, so I'm going for 9-stand large units, which is in line with the book suggestion, not double sized. |
| nickinsomerset | 15 Jun 2017 11:28 p.m. PST |
My Austrians, based 8 per base, are either 32 or 48 figures (4 or 6 base) based on the Thunder on the Danube book. Tally Ho! |
| Marc at work | 16 Jun 2017 1:31 a.m. PST |
Makes me wonder why they didn't beat the French more often. Playing massive units in BP may make them very successful on the table. Would be interested in how people achieve balance using them to get close to a realistic result |
| Trajanus | 16 Jun 2017 12:36 p.m. PST |
Could it be they were not playing Black Powder? |
| Marc at work | 16 Jun 2017 1:00 p.m. PST |
Funny. But the question of "balance" remains. And how to achieve it in BP |
| grecian1959 | 18 Jun 2017 1:00 a.m. PST |
What I'm planning to do is make the German Austrian units same as French when using BP but make the Hungarians large units as they were were more often the large ones. Either way it gives the more of a balance where only a portion of the total Austrian force is large not all of it. I'd reckon on campaign those large numbers would whittle down |
| Glencairn | 20 Jun 2017 4:28 a.m. PST |
grecian 1959 has a point, there.
my French are all 24 per btn, Austrians an extra 4-fig stand, making 28, and the Hungarians worked out ok @ 32, using another 4-figure stand.
Grenzers, jagers and landwehr I kept at manageable 24 -figure btns. It all means that after calculating my needs, I bought the appropriate victrix boxes for the old line roman helmeted austrians, plus a box each of their landwehr and grenadiers, plus a box of Perry for a more modern post-1809 look, and ended up with only 1 spare infantryman and 1 spare mounted commander..but thatś me, Scot to the core! |
| Glencairn | 20 Jun 2017 4:31 a.m. PST |
PS to the above – Front Rank Austrian artillery, properly painted, look brill on the table… |
