Pete Fry | 08 May 2019 9:12 p.m. PST |
I'm collecting Old School 25mm Minifigs with the aim of having enough to do Quatres Bras. Probably Black Powder or Over The Hills rules. My French Battalions are 24 figures – 6 stands representing battalions in the 400-600 range and I think I'll do 3 stands (12 figures) for the ones less than 300. With the cavalry regiments – what size would you make them? I was going to do 12 per regiment but maybe 18 or 24 would look better and closer to the ratio for infantry. The Guard Lancers had 880 men and the chasseurs and marmelukes nearly 1200 – should the latter be more like 50 figures to look right? |
C M DODSON | 08 May 2019 11:05 p.m. PST |
I would suggest that you use the same ratio for all your units. The field is very small and soon fills up with troops as the armies descend . I have used a 1 mm equals 1 metre ground scale my relight. The Guard cavalry apart from a skirmish at Frasnes the night before were ordered by the Emperor not to get involved. They were withdrawn when Guiton's 2nd Cavalry brigade turned up. The link shows my research, most of which is contradictory which I hope may be of help. link Happy battling. Chris |
Marcel1809 | 08 May 2019 11:11 p.m. PST |
12 figures works well as a unit for most line regiment, maybe the odd (stronger) one at 16 figures when they had 4 full squadrons. For the guard i would suggest thedouble size of regular cav. 24 figures, very impressive and yet still managable |
Jcfrog | 09 May 2019 1:23 a.m. PST |
Too big, they should be 25mm😋 |
4th Cuirassier | 09 May 2019 1:34 a.m. PST |
If 24 figures = ~500 men then one = 20 men. Most 1815 French cavalry regiments were about the 300 men mark, so the same ratio gives you 15 figures in three squadrons of 5. Personally I'd go for either 12 or 18 figures (which also jives with your approximate infantry ratio) because line French cavalry had two companies to a squadron, with one elite company per regiment. An 18-figure cavalry regiment is then three squadrons of six figures, three of whom are the elite company. The trouble is that in 28mm you'll have trouble fitting correct numbers into frontages. A 500-man French infantry battalion in three-deep line would have had a frontage of about 110 yards. A 300-man cavalry regiment in two-deep line would have had a frontage of about 150 yards. Your 12- to 18-figures cavalry regiment would thus need to occupy a frontage about 40% wider than your 24 infantry figures. Whether this is possible without looking silly depends on the scale and make of figure. If I were starting this again I think I'd start with the frontages and work up from there… |
Frederick | 09 May 2019 5:16 a.m. PST |
I use 12 figs per regiment – I agree that for some units adding six more would represent really strong units, but as 4th Cuirassier has noted frontage get to be a problem |
4th Cuirassier | 09 May 2019 7:06 a.m. PST |
My rule of thumb for 28mm infantry figures is that the tightest you can pack them together is three per 4cm wide base. If your 24-figure battalions are based in a single rank, then they're going to be at least 32cm wide. A cavalry unit likewise in a single rank would, per my previous calculation, be ~40% wider, which is 45cm. The question is then how many figures would go onto that 45cm frontage if keeping frontages in proportion matters to you. If you deem 12 figures to be a 300-man cavalry regiment, then they're on 4cm bases per figure. If you deem 15 figures to be 300 men then they're on bases 3cm wide per figure. And so on. If it were me, I'd probably put cavalry regiments on six bases each 7.5cm wide, populated with whatever number of figures looked best. In 28mm, this would probably be three figures per base. I'd then just consider that my models-to-reality ratio is necessarily different between infantry and cavalry units. It's 1:21 for foot, but 1:16 for horse. The rules abstract away any issues with this. If this is counter-intuitive, the ratio already is different among artillery pieces, because most rules say one or two pieces per battery regardless of whether batteries had six, eight or twelve actual guns. |
IronDuke596 | 09 May 2019 10:22 a.m. PST |
@Pete Fry; if you are still collecting old school 25mm MFs, I have a lot that I bought in the 70s and 80s that are going for about half price. Most were collected for the Waterloo campaign. If you are interested I can send you a list via email. |
Pete Fry | 09 May 2019 2:55 p.m. PST |
Thank you all. I've got the infantry on 30mmx40mm stands with 6 stands to a battalion. Each cavalry figure occupies 20x40mm – some are single, some are in twos some are in 3s. I've started just putting them in 3s with 12 per regiment. So if the regiment is in a one deep line it has a 240mm frotage to the infantry battalion's 180mm. That said they look better 2 deep. I like the idea of 18/24 for the large units – I just picked up a load of guard lancers so Napoleon is definitely not going to hold them back. Rod – thanks for the heads up. I checked the document and, if it wasn't for the cost of shipping lead internationally, there are some I'd definitely like. |
gounour | 09 May 2019 11:09 p.m. PST |
for the 1815 campaign, Cavalry regiments strength are very diverse. for example, the 2nd french cuirassier has only 222 men/224 horses and the 10th 371 men but only 214 horses. in the Duke of Brunswick's Freikorp the Uhlan squadron itself has 230 men, and the hussars are 730 in 3 squadrons. for 4 Bras, in Van Merlen brigade, the 5th light dragoon is 441 and the 6th hussards 641. so depending on your ruleset, you can either have your cavalry units vary in number of minis (for Black Powder, going for Tiny to Large if I remember well) or have their combat value reflect it IronDuke596>I'd like to know what you have in 25mm minifigs, I already have a 3000+ collection and am still getting more! (even if postage from Canada is certainly going to be high…) |
4th Cuirassier | 10 May 2019 1:27 a.m. PST |
The Brunswick cavalry contingent of 1815 was a constructive uhlan regiment. With the uhlan squadron up front and the hussar squadrons behind, what you had was much the same as one of those lancer regiments where only the front rank carried lances. |
Pete Fry | 10 May 2019 8:37 a.m. PST |
@gounor I had no idea about the lack of horses. I might have to just 3 stands of three mounted and then a stand of four or five on foot in sprinting (or exhausted) poses that track behind the regiment. If you're on the US west coast and ever fancy a clash of napoleonic minifigs… @4th cuirassier – thank you for that tidbit. I'll merge the tiny uhlan contingent with the hussars in future and call the whole unit lancers. |
IronDuke596 | 10 May 2019 10:34 a.m. PST |
@Pete Fry; my USD pricing is now $CAN so about a 25% reduction, which should help a lot to covering postage. @gounour; post your email address and I will send a MS Word Listing. |
companycmd | 10 May 2019 12:58 p.m. PST |
3-4 figs per cavalry regiment if based on one stand so the entire unit fits in one hex. If based as individual troops or companies, then 3-6 stands per battalion. |
French Wargame Holidays | 11 May 2019 11:07 a.m. PST |
24-32 depending upon regiment, 1/20 figure ratio |