"Best Campaign/Year to Collect" Topic

Hi,

I am looking at collecting 2 armies but undecided which to collect.

Most colourful units so the army is not all the same is fhe main thing, but also an interesting campaign.

Many Thanks

Rich.

Waterloo French and British allied army, and if you want more troops, you can do Prussians as well.

1809 Italian theater might work: usual French (excluding Guard and heavy cavalry) + Italians in green; Austrians in all their variety (including Landwehr) and you can add Hungarian Insurrection for refighting Raab.

I would suggest 1813 post-armistice in central Germany.

For the French, you'd have both Guard and line French troops as well as French allies such as Saxons, Polish, Wurttemburgers, Italians, etc.

For the Allies, each of the three major armies was multi-national -- Army of the North had Prussians, Russians, and Swedes; Army of Silesia had Prussians and Russians; and Army of Bohemia had Austrians, Prussians, Russians, and Prussian and Russian Guards.

There are a number of good books about the various campaigning options.

Jim

P.S. Disclosure -- This is the campaign I'm doing in 25mm featuring the Army of the North's Prussians and Russians versus the two slightly different French 'armies' that fought against them.

The Peninsula war! Nearly every unit from the French Empire shows up (Including Napolean at his height!) vs Spanish, Portuguese, Guerrillas, British, Scottish, Irish (on both sides!), Royal Americans and Militia in every type of uniform or lack there of and lasting years.

And you can start simple with 2 armies and work from there (with one of them being the French vs lots of choices).

The campaign goes back and forth with both sides winning and losing (even Wellington has multiple retreats and reverses!) with all sides winning and losing battles, campaigns and events. Heroes, Villains and Varied Terrain! EPIC sieges lasting months that are Stalingrad level of intensity to multi-corp army battles lasting several days to small skirmishers between small units on all sides that can be done on a 1-1 scale.

The battles vary from basic attack and defend to envelopment, mass cavalry charges, artillery barrages and the day being saved by reinforcements arriving just in the nick of time.

And of course there's Bernard Cornwall's series on Sharpe and his adventures that got made into two dozen movies, rather than OTHER campaigns that merely get a single movie about them.

Being the English get to play a big role there are masses of books and places to read about it on the Internet and many manufacturers have figures in every scale for any sizes game from 2mm up.

1809, you get Britain, Spain, Austria, France and her allies. Big battles and small!

OP, as you can see, two armies does not automatically equate to two countries. Everyone has 1 or 2 favorites. You need to decide what is interesting to you. Personally, I like the early Spanish campaign, Russians vs. the Ottoman Empire throughout the Napoleonic time period, Napoleon's German and Italian allies in Russia, and the 1809 Italian and Dalmatian campaign.

Like Col Campbell I like 1813/14 and I have French, a large Austrian army, a growing Russian army and a little teeny Prussian army

Depends on what you like though – lots of people like the Peninsula or 1807 – 1809

1809….great variety of armies and troops. You have the battles in Bavaria region, northern Italy, and Spain. Lots of variety.

Waterloo is waaay overdone and only three armies.

Choose the mainstream, not a side-show, go with a campaign in central europe where the main armies fought it out. Choose a period with balance between the opposing armies. Go with 1809 in the Danube Valley.

You've got a mixed French Army with some formations still at their peak and some starting to wane. You've got the extra variety of the Confederation of the Rhine forces. You've got an Austrian army just at its peak. All are colourful and full of variety.

Uniforms and TO&E for 1809 are sort of middle point so both the French and Austrian units you produce will be usable for other campaign both before and after.

I would agree with what nsolomon99 posted above. We enjoyed gaming the 1809 campaign against Austria for many years. And when we occasionally ventured into other campaigns, Spain for instance, we always ended up going back. Just an opinion of course.

John

So many excellent options, but I'd add a vote for 1809, mainly for the variety it adds to the French side. The main Danube campaign has French, Bavarians, and several main COTR contingents (e.g., corps of Saxons and Wurttembergers) while the sidebars add Italians, Poles, etc., as others have suggested. Austrians have lots of landwehr, Hungarians, Insurrection, etc., especially in the later stages, but also the Tyrolean revolt adds large numbers of irregulars.

For your French, maybe start with a couple of French units, then add Bavarians, then more French, then COTR or Poles, and so forth, building in the ratio of maybe 3:1 French and allies (unless, of course, you are headed for a specific battle's OB).

For the Austrians, maybe something similar, but in the ratio of German units (helmets), Hungarian units (shakos and blue pants), and reserve/irregulars (for more colour and variety). A ratio of something like 3:1:1 of Ger/Hung/other would pretty quickly give you balance and visual interest, unless (as noted) you have a particular battle in mind.

Final thought, there is plenty of tactical interest and variety in this campaign also, from river crossing and bridge actions, to brutal town fighting, to mountain passes, to open fields, and with both sides on the attack or defence – and sometimes (as at Aspern-Essling) shifting from one to the other in the same affair.

Lots of miniature fun, however you decide to proceed. Good luck!

My present project is 1809 and the battle of Wargram. But my old Minifigs armies were the 1812 Russian campaign and I was working on the Battle of Borodino, which I never finished.

I would go with 1813, that is what I am doing. To be fair I have always had a fascination with the "rebirth" of Prussia after the 1806 disaster. Also with 1813 there are a lot of non-French line units. In fact I have very little French Line, mostly Saxon, Wurt, and Marines.

Chris

Peninsula might be a good option as you can start small and actually get to play larger and larger sized games as you expand your collection.

1809 for all the reason stated above

Ottoman Turks v Wahhabist Arabs.

Peninsular war for me. Manageable size of armies, good range of different sized battles and varied uniforms. (But I have also got Russia 181213)

1812 Russians, 1813 Prussians

In model railroading* (US) there's a set of 'functions' called 'Givens and Druthers' that was assigned/ designated/ created by someone famous in the hobby back in the '40's- no I wasn't around then.

These are the criteria you set for yourself, or at least your 'creative' talents want to see in a model… anything really.
Go look them up and decide that way….
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[in case you don't get the joke, it a D-Doublecup__]