French Guard - Baccus 6mm figures organised for BBB rules

 My friend Mike and I have been gaming the BBB scenario book Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles, one common factor in all of these battles is Napoleon, the other is the French Guard, first called the Consular Guard, then the Imperial Guard.  

Over last winter/spring I took the time to create enough French Guard figures for most of the battles, in some cases making a summer and winter option.

The Old Guard started as two infantry regiments of Consular Guards (Grenadiers & Chasseurs) and two regiments of cavalry (Grenadiers & Chasseurs).  It went through a number of changes, mainly expansion, adding more infantry, dragoons, lancers, etc.  You probably already know this....  😊

The Infantry

Old Guard - summer

Here are the Old Guard in their summer uniform - the Grenadiers have red plumes and the Chassuers red over green plumes.  These three bases are enough for most of the scenarios in the book.  

As I wanted these troops to look their best, all Guard troops were painted with brass muzzles and firing mechanisms on their muskets (these are normally just steel, as per the gun barrels and the bayonets).

The Old Guard Chassuers have had plumes added to the side of the Bearskin (re-purposed bayonets)

Old Guard - Winter

In colder weather the Guard wore blue Greatcoats, a colour not used by most of the French army, so they stand out a little more....  Here the Middle Guard skirmishers are standing in for Old Guard Skirmishers in Greatcoats.

Middle Guard - Summer

The Middle Guard wore shakos, otherwise (and especially at this scale) they were identical to the Old Guard.  They had a number of different flag styles - I went for the gold "N" in a wreath on blue because it sets them apart from everyone else on the table.

Middle Guard - Winter

The Middle Guard also wore blue Greatcoats, so they are easy to tell from the rest of the army.  

Young Guard - Summer

I have only made Young Guard in Summer so far, here are the Young Guard Grenadiers.  I made the 1st & 2nd Tiralliers and the Flanquers Grenadiers, who wore Green Jackets as they were light infantry.  I could have made a skirmish base of these, but I decided to go with a base of formed infantry, partly because I only needed one skirmish base.

Tiralliers & Flanquer Grenadiers

I needed 6 bases of Young Guard, so the other three are 2 bases of Voltiguers and one of Flanquers, this time the Flanquers are based as Skirmishers. 

The Cavalry

Here's the Guard Cavalry made to date - you'll need 2 bases of Heavy Cavalry & two of Light.  

Guard Heavy Cavalry

The Heavies are the Horse Grenadiers - they get all the +1 bonuses - and the Empress Dragoons

The line Heavies were the Carabiniers - a similar uniform and using the same models

Guard Horse Grenadiers on the left, Line Carabiniers on the right

My other heavy unit is the Empress Dragoons, click on this link to see more.  Here's what the two Heavies look like together - suitably scary!

Guard Light Cavalry

The Light Cavalry are the Chassuers a Cheval (one of my favourite units), the Polish Lancers and the Dutch Lancers.  The Lancers are covered here in more detail.  Here are the Light Cavalry units together.

Here are the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard on their own.

Artillery

I really enjoyed painting these up.  As I wanted to show their using 12 pounders, I increased the crew figures to 5 per base.  

To move them around the battlefield I made this limber & gun.  As far as I can tell Guard Artillery transport uniforms were slightly different to those of the line artillery.

I also made a Horse Artillery battery (foreground) for the Waterloo game.

Guard General

As in my second Command & Control post  I have now made a General figure to lead these fine troops

Finally...

All figures are Baccus (though not necessarily as described on the tin).  I have enjoyed figuring out the conversions needed to get the look I wanted.  

Sources used were the Funken book, Pinterest & the Jemima Fawr website which has 8 detailed blogs on making the Guard in 15mm, I found this really inspirational.

What's next?  Horse Chasseurs & Grenadiers of the Guard with alternative flags, Polish Lancers (possibly with flag changes), Dutch Grenadier infantry, possibly more foot guns, possibly winter foot artillery in greatcoats, Young Guard Artillery, Guard Marines ......

Jolly Good Show! - Waterloo at Battleground, Middlesborough - Sat 29 Nov

 The third and final BBB rules Waterloo run by the Ilkley Irregulars was on Saturday 29th at the Battleground Show, Middlesborough, UK.  The show is run by Leon from Pendraken Miniatures and had a range of games - different periods, scales & genres.  We were pretty busy all day, so apart from trips to the loos, I didn't get a lot of time to look at the other games and gamers.

The Battleground show is held in the Middlesborough Sports Village, a large sports hall that featured heating and lots of lighting.  It's easy to get to (Motorway or Dual Carriageway pretty much door to door for me) and Google Maps got me there in good time.  It is also FREE

On the day the Irregulars (Mike and I) were joined by Charlie, who provided an excellent Wellington inpression.

I have described the games we put on at Joy of Six and Fiasco in previous posts, so check these out for more details of the scenario etc.

We found the organisers, traders, gamers and public to be really friendly and we had an early joiner in the form of Alan, who played till about 1pm as the British left flank.  He enjoyed his game and has already asked to be part of our Joy of Six Game (we've filled in the forms for Borodino....).

We also discovered several gamers in and around Ilkley - we hope to welcome these gentlemen at a later date to join us in battle.

The battle of Waterloo - participation game 3

Charlie was keen to be British (with Alan for the morning), so Mike commanded the French left and I was the French right.  As this was our fifth fight (you can see the practice games here - game 1 and here - game 2) we had finally mastered the scenario rules and the game went well.  We were also joined by another couple of players in the afternoon, keen to roll dice and try BBB.

I was busy gaming and talking, so only took 4 photos, as follows:

Set up  - troops deployed waiting orders....

Turn 4 - the Prussians arrive at the bottom of the photo - in the centre the Allied defenders of Papelotte hang on by the luckiest of die rolls and repel repeated French attacks.  

The view from the French baseline.  The French right has run out of steam, in the foreground the Guard heads right to repel the Prussians.  

On the French left Mike's massive left hook has fully developed and Charlie (thinking that this is different game) tries to phone a friend.  

In the end, the Allies held three objectives, so the battle was classed as an Allied win. 

All that remained was to pack up and head home....

Reflections:

It has been interesting to fight the same battle five times, we have certainly road tested the scenario.  It is tough for the French - they need early wins against the Anglo-Dutch, followed by a slow Prussian advance.  This did not happen at Middlesborough!

By the time of this game we had got setting up and packing down into quite a slick operation, so there was a small opportunity to look at the rest of the show.

We have enjoyed the games more with a greater number of participants, as one of us can Umpire and the other field questions.

Most of the participants had bought the rules and started to try them out - it is great to see how quickly gamers on the day become familiar with BBB - spending less time looking at the rules and more time planning ahead and interacting with other gamers.  

BBB combines simplicity with a high level of nuance.  It also makes both combat and movement variable - so you can never rely on your troops, or opponents, being always able to perform manoeuvres and assaults.  The more complicated the assault or more units involved, the more likely it is to unravel somewhere along the line...

As mentioned above, we are planning Borodino in the Summer at Joy of Six.  Book your seats early!

Leipzig, 16-18 October 1813, refought Sunday 5th October

 Mike has been keen to fight Leipzig ever since he got his hands on the BBB Napoleonic Scenarios Book , so the other week 3 of us went to the Mike's games room to fight this, the biggest Napoleonic battle.  

As an indicator of the numbers involved, Mark Smith's scenario uses a ratio of 3000 men/72 guns to a stand in order to fit this massive battle on a 6' x 4' table. 

Firstly, the map.  We had a French Commander and an Allied Commander on both the East & West sides of the table, I was French in the West.  All photos will be from the West.

Set up   The southern half of the table.

The northern half of the table.

Move 2 

On the southern front the Allies discovered that the terrain is not in their favour - the French hold the river crossings and have slowed the Allied right hook through the wood.

On the northern front the French under Ney attacked Blucher and checked his advance.  In the middle the garrison in Lindenau hold out against Gyulai.

Move 4  

By the end of move 4 (end of 16th October) the southern French were doing OK.  The Allied right hook had worked its way through the woods and then got stopped there.  The French still held the river crossings at Kannewitz (middle of picture), Krostewitz & Gulden Gossa (middle right of picture).  So long as they can keep the the Allies bottled up, they are in with a chance.

On the French left & middle it's also OK.  Ney has bottled up Blucher's forces and the defenders of Lindenau hold their own against Gyulai.  As night falls, the French hold the villages and all is well.

Move 6

At the end of move 6 things have taken a turn for the worse in the south.  The Allies have broken out of the woods and crossed the river,  The French still hold Kannewitz, but have lost Lieberwolkerwitz on the hill in the middle of the picture. 

In the north the French are under pressure.  In Lindenau (bottom of picture) Gyulai has managed to get his cannon up and extend his line.  Ney has retreated to cover Leipzig and to use a unit to cover the gap in the French lines, where an Allied hand is pushing assorted troops forward!

Move 8

In the south the French held on to Probstheida village, having evicted the Allies earlier.  The defenders of Kannewitz held out against the Allies, who found it hard to deploy enough troops to assault and push the defenders out.

In the north things went badly for the French.  The centre defensive line was just about holding, but Leipzig itself was now under threat.  More importantly, Gyulai had taken Lindenau, so there was no longer an escape route for any of the French.

It was at this point that the French decided to surrender.  It had taken 4 of us most of the day to game the battle, it had been intense and engaging to the end.

Thanks and thoughts

Firstly, thanks to Mike for hosting four of us and to Chris and Charlie for an excellent game.  It was a fun day, with the game in the balance until the end of move 8.

It's a big game, the French need 51 infantry, 8 cavalry and 7.5 gun stands.  The Allies need 90 infantry, 16 cavalry and 13.5 gun stands.  

It needs at least 4 players.  I had play-tested an earlier version with Mark, the scenario writer, with just two of us.  It took a much longer time to play on that occasion and a lot of maths!  Playing with 4 players speeded up play and made the battle manageable.  6 players would have been easy to accommodate.

So, I hope this inspires you to give the game a go.  Get 3 friends (or 5), lay out the table and go for it!

xxx