"French Unit suggestions?" Topic

Okay……..I have three armies, French, Russian & Austrian, 1812-1813 northern Europe, Russia area. I decided I rather expand the variety of my existing armies rather than try and take the time of building a new one, I.E the Prussians.
My question, to use all my collation battalions now, I need some more French. As many of you would hopefully agree with me, part of the appeal and fun of this period is all the cool, colorful uniforms, thus I love lots of variety. Besides French I have a Polish & Swiss brigades. I want to add another infantry brigade or two that has some new and different colors.
Any suggestions? Some units that used yellows, black or greys or some other combo would be great. I am not concerned if the unit actually fought just if it historically could have(it was in the area during the time) that is good enough. I assume my best option is gonna be some german allies but may be there is a French unit without the normal blue and red? Suggestions?

Thanks, Travis

Italians? Sucky troops, lovely uniforms in white and green.

Legion Irlandaise

Neat green uniforms, tough as nails

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Irish look cool, to bad I can't use the Swed's, I think they used yellow and light blue?

Neuchatel, in yellow I think.

I suggest Bavarians, cool cornflower blue uniforms and crested helmets.

Never regarded the northern Italians as 'sucky' troops. In some units the French were the majority and on average 40% of their units were reported as French. This is from research i did in the 1970s, so do not ask me to dig up the sources again.
Anyway, they had a reputation of steady troops unlike their southern counterparts. Some of their attached units like Balkan and other units were weak.
I do think they are a good balance in color to the French.
Back when I was doing demos, I had 30 battalions of virtually every army. The German Confederation of the Rhine has a nice mix of uniform colors and styles. The Danes are bright. The Pro-French Spanish can always be a variety of uniform colors in the same Corps.

Dans?-Dutch? The Bavarians do have some nice combos.

My French and allies:

French , Poles, Italians, Bavarians, Wurttembergers, Baden, Saxons

I'm adding Italians to mine, and the ones that fought in Russia performed well indeed, so don't worry about the "sucky troops" comment. ;)

I've also bought Bavarians, which give you some variation with a much lighter blue shade. And don't forget Saxons, their cavalry uniforms are beautiful.

The advantage to Bavarians is that they can fight on either side in 1813. The drawback is that they're another shade of blue.

Westphalians wore white but if you've got Austrians you're probably fed up with white.

Nice extra units for colour and flavour are Portugese in Frencg service and Croatians.

I'd add my vote for Italians – you could a brigade or two of these on their own and be historically correct, likewise Saxons.

Other options:

Joseph Napoleon Regiment
Croat Light Infantry
Garde de Paris
Krakus Lancers

Swiss in red uniforms and different facing colours

Bavarians – can play both sides

Neuchatel Battalion, yellow coats with red facings was at Leipzig and Hanau.

one thing unique to the 1813 campaign is the Marine Regiments. French sailors serving as line infanty in Marmont's (?) corps.

The Danish Auxiliary Corps fought alongside the French in Northern Germany in 1813. Very nice red and blue uniforms. Perry Miniatures have a nice range of both infantry and cavalry. The flags are quite nice as well, especially the mix of the Kings Color with the regimaental flag for the infantry.
Apart from the painted examples at the Perry's site, there are a lot of uniform sources online (Pinterest).

A facetious suggestions would be Swedes, in that with Bernadotte in command, there was no knowing whose side they were fighting on.

Northern Italians – always a good choice. They fought for France since 1796.

Swedes would never fight for Napoleon even in 1808 after he had defeated the Russians as their king absolutely hated the French. Once the king was overthrown they had already thrown in their lot with the British.

The Danes were enemies of Sweden and with Denmark "allied" with Napoleon the Swedes would not have allied with France.

Wurttemberg troops always a good choice. Hesse-Darmstadt as well.

A lot of these units I have not heard of, many I have. Lots of good suggestions and ideas. I love the French marines idea, just cause its something different. Should be enough to keep my painting time full for awhile:) Thanks everyone. I think the Bavarians in light blue and yellow for now, then may by that Neuchatel Battalion. I have some Swiss. Yes, I am tired of all white with my Austrians, even with the light blue paints:) Just as I am tired of green with my Russians, although the Cossacks(tan, brown, grey, etc) add variety on the table.
I also did some militia French with faded jackets and all manor of paints as some "rushed, poorly equipped/trained, trash troops". They also add some variety on the table!
To bad I don't have the time or money to either paint or by an Ottoman Empire army to fight the Russians, now that would be some color and a different taste of a Nappy game. Happy gaming all!

Travis,

For that time period and location, I'd suggest Saxons even though they wore white uniforms of a French cut. The infantry was good until after the armistice of summer 1813 then they went downhill until changing sides at Leipzig. The cavalry, especially the cuirassiers, were excellent.

Jim

Could always add a battalion or two in greatcoats with Shako covers and cased colors.

Lets you have some "emergency filler" troops in case you don't get the actual units involved finished before a scheduled game.