March is Napoleonic 6mm Month

Now then,

With getting all my Bolt Action stuff finished off, I thought id turn my attention once again to the 1809 campaign, and get some more of the Austrian army done.


First of all I've had a look at the basing, always a bloody problem, and decided to rebase the skirmishers, for no other reason than it makes them easier to store...

I have rebased some of my Jaeger's, so now have the unit in 2 different formations, formed up and in skirmish order.

So onto the basing. For some reason I always struggle with how to base stuff, be it Napoleonic or Ancient armies.  Black powder has made this a bit easier, as units are classed by their "general" size. So we have tiny units, small units, standard units and large units.  frontage sizes for the units are the only things that are important, depth doesn't matter.

From back to front - Large infantry unit, standard unit, small unit, tiny unit.

Tiny unit

The only tiny unit I have in the army is the Carneville Freikorps, a very small unit numbering 240 jaegers, and 120 or so Hussars. I have done the Infantry formed up and in skirmish order, depending on the situation. The Hussars are just 2 bases of Hussars, and are a separate tiny unit.

Small unit

Small units will be 4 bases strong, the only small units I have at present are the Rosenburg Chevauxledgers. A light cavalry unit.

Standard unit

The mainstay of the army, most units will be standard sized, consisting of 6 bases.

Large unit

The large units are more of a problem. For the infantry I have made the large Hungarian Bns large, but still with 6 bases. The bases however are sightly larger, with 8 figures per base instead of the normal 6.

The Cavalry large units will have 8 bases.

Artillery Batteries

All the artillery batteries will have 3 guns, and 3 limbers, although the guns may be different calibers or howitzers.

Why so many bases?
Infantry formations are the reason the units are made up of a variable number of bases, depending on their size. I considered basing whole units on 1 big base, but then how would the different formations be shown? I suppose counters could be used, but that doesn't do it for me. For me the whole point of gaming with miniatures is the look of the thing.

 Line

 Attack column

 Battalion Masse* ( A formation unique to the Austrians, a solid block of infantry able to withstand cavalry attacks, but horribly vulnerable to artillery fire). Rear 2 bases facing rear so as not to confuse it with an attack column.

 Square

March column

So whats next?

First of all I've got  all my light troops done, namely 2 battalions of Grenzers. They just need basing up, photos maybe tomorrow.
Then I'm going to get another large unit of Hussars done, ive been putting off doing them because to be honest they aren't the easiest of figures to paint, but are really worth the effort.

Next in the queue is infantry regiment 51, Splenyi, a large Hungarian regiment, but with only 2 Battalions, which im going to attach to the Advance Guard Division.

Still lots to do, including landwehr regiments, lots of artillery, and a heavy cavalry brigade!

The Austrian army can be seen in more detail here - Austrian 1809 Page

Cheers,
Steve