Command & Control - Napoleonic Marshal's Uniforms

 I regularly play BBB in 6mm, in this ruleset Generals are either represented - because their presence could positively influence a battle - or they are not on the battlefield.  As my regular opponent Mike and I work through the excellent "Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles" scenarios, so I need to field an impressive number of Marshals.

In Napoleonic battles the need to be seen and instantly recognised was important, especially for Commanders.  Which is why you get nice bright uniforms and lots of gold bling (this was true of other periods of history as well).  I saw a comment on a Facebook forum asking for information about French Marshals and their ADCs (Aide de Camp - assistants).  So, i did a bit of searching and found that some ADCs were in quite striking uniforms.  Bright, distinct colours were especially important for ADCs, who were used to transmit messages.  Napoleon, when looking at the ADCs from his Marshals, needed to instantly know which ADC to give which set of orders to.

ADC uniforms went through some transitions.  In the Revolutionary period Generals recruited protection escorts, often from hussar regiments, which meant that they have a lot of brightly coloured uniforms.  In the early Empire ADC uniforms were regulated, but Marshals could choose their own colour scheme - so they did!  It all got out of hand, so there was a reversion to less elaborate uniforms again, followed by a slow creep back towards flamboyance.....

If you play BBB your General, with one or two ADCs and an escort, is often almost 1:1 model:real life soldier ratio, unlike your units, who may represent over a thousand actual soldiers with 6 - 8 figures.....

Anyway, on with the pictures:

Overview of Marshals painted & labelled to date:

Davout

As far as I can tell, Davout and his staff wore the standard uniform for Marshals & ADCs.  For the ADC this was dark blue breeches & coat, light blue facings, white brassard on left arm, Bicorne with rank plume for ADC, Dark blue shabraque with yellow trim.  The Davout model is the Baccus figure from the French Generals set - he's going bald and has got glasses.

Davout wears the standard Marshal Uniform - Blue Coat with lace collar and cuffs, Bicorne with gold lace and white feather trim, white breeches, black boots, gold waist sash and most had the red sash of the "Legion d'honneur" worn over the right shoulder.  Red horse furniture with gold trim.  Figures are both Baccus "French Generals"

Lannes

Lannes wears the standard Marshal uniform and his ADC wears the Hussar uniform - with a blue pelisse, black fur Colpack hat with red bag.  His ADC wears the plume appropriate to his rank.  Figures are "French Generals" for Lannes & "French Elite light cavalry" for the ADC. 

Mortier

Mortier goes further - his ADC is dressed as a Hussar with a yellow Pelisse, Green Shabraque trimmed yellow, yellow/green sabretache and black compact with yellow bag that hangs to the left.  For this model I filed off the existing bag and built up a new one using plastic card.  Figures are "French Generals" for Mortier & "French Elite light cavalry" for the ADC. 

Murat

Murat was one of Napoleon's most flamboyant Marshals.  He redesigned his uniform on several occasions and his favourite colour was pink.  So my model tries to capture this in 1/300 scale.  I added a head to the back of the horse furniture and paper legs and a tail to make a tiger skin.  I painted Murat in his white uniform with pink boots and lashings of bling.  His ADC has a uniform that is mainly pink with a white pelisse.  Figures are Baccus "French Generals" & "Austrian Hussars"

Napoleon

Finally, here is my Napoleon command stand.  I altered the hat to make it more like Napoleon's and his ADCs are two troopers from the Guard Chasseurs, which has long been my favourite unit.  Napoleon is from the "Austrian Generals" set and the Chasseurs are from the "French Elite Light Cavalry" set.

So, with a little bit of converting you can make some really colourful command stands that will, hopefully, add a splash of colour to your war-games table.  I regularly use other nationalities Generals for the French in order to get the look that I want.  I hope that this inspires and encourages you to have a go!

Figures Baccus 6mm, Games Workshop & Revel paints, Warbases circular bases.  Sources were the Funken books and Pinterest - especially the plates by Plumet-Rigo.

  

Borodino, 7 September 1812, refought 4 & 18 October

 Borodino was one of the biggest battles of the Napoleonic wars, with over a quarter of a million troops battling for the road to Moscow.  The French were supported by Italian, Polish, Saxon and other allied nations.  The Russians had occupied defensive earthworks on the Smolensk to Moscow road, the previous day's battle had been to take the first of these.  

On the day the fighting was intense, with the the defences the scene of much close quarter fighting.  I have fought this battle using earlier versions of the scenario, this was Mike's first go.

Here's the map:

Set up - Eugene on the left, Ney left middle, Davout with 4 x 6 bases in the middle to do the heavy lifting and the Poles on the right flank.

Heavy cavalry and horse artillery

Move 2

On the right flank, the Poles and Junot attack in the woods.

On the left flank the Italians take Borodino and decide to advance up to the Russians.

In the centre Davout storms the Russian defences

Slightly later, Davout's left hand block and Ney's troops storm the Raevsky redoubt whilst the Italians move up against the Russians

Davout's troops move against the Fleches whilst the Poles and Junot take on the massed Opelchenie and Cossacks.  These Russian troops put up a good fight, taking several moves to get to break point and fleeing.

Move 4

In the centre, Davout takes the Fleches and drives the Russians down the hill.  The Russians now form a new defence line that proves hard to crack

On the left, the Italians are outnumbered by the Russians and fall back, piecemeal.  The Russians take Borodino.

On the right the Poles and Junot still cannot beat the large numbers of low-quality Russians, who manage to stave off assaults from the French & Allied heavy cavalry

Move 6

On the right the French & Allies keep trying to break the Cossack/Opolchenie block in the woods.  The French move off the Fleches to assault the new Russian position, but cannot break it.

On the left the Russians break the Italians and push them across the stream.  As the Russians now have surplus units, these are directed into the flank of Ney's troops, who are to the left of the Raevsky Redoubt.

In the centre the French have taken the Raevsky Redoubt but the cost means that the Russians can try to slip a cavalry unit into the gap between the redoubt and the Fleches

Move 8

On the left, the Italians got pushed back even further, whilst the Russians moved en masse against Ney

The destruction of the Italians meant that the French Imperial Guard, when it arrived, was diverted to the left flank to hold the line, rather than doing anything useful elsewhere.  The Guard is the "J" shaped column at the bottom of the photo

On the right flank the French finally broke the Russian defensive line and the Cossack/Opolchenie took the one casualty that led to them fleeing in disarray.  As this flank had made such slow progress, the French were now both running out of time and low on troops

Move 10  

By the end of move 10 the Russians were doing well.  Fresh troops had retaken the Raevsky redoubt and Ney's Corps was getting worn down

On the right the French were assaulting the next Russian defensive line but had failed to break it

On the left the Guard stabilised the left flank and stopped the Russians getting a victory point for one of the Smolensk road exits

This was the first outing for my Guard 12pdr, Artillery train and Marshal Murat

With the Russians holding more objectives than the French the game ended in a win for Mike.  

He had done well, building huge defensive blocks of line troops that took some time to whittle down.  Against all expectations the Cossack/Opolchenie in the forest held off the Poles.  My troops, especially those in the forests, struggled to move fast and launch co-ordinated attacks.  With hindsight, the Italians should have got to Borodino and then backed up Ney, rather than going for a frolic on the left wing.

Once again an enjoyable game - my thanks to Mike for hosting and to Dr Mark Smith for writing the scenario.  We had fought one of the biggest battles in history on a 6x4 foot table in a few hours - one of the reasons I like BBB for big battles!

If you haven't already got a copy of the Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles scenario book, do give it a go, it makes for entertaining and engaging games.

Wagram - 5,6 July 1809, refought 20 & 27 Sept 2024

 Mike and I continue to plough through Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles scenario book - this brought us to the battle of Wagram.  In real life Napoleon, having failed to break out at Aspern-Essling, regrouped, built up his forces on the Eastern bank of the Danube and launched a further assault on the Austrians.  The battle was fought on the Marchfeld, a flat plain that was used by the Austrian army for large manoeuvres.  Having been there, it's flat!

Firstly, for the game, here's the map.

The French objectives are the string of villages from Aspern to Rosen.  The village of Deutsch Wagram was where the Arch Duke Charles established his headquarters.  The building still exists and is an excellent museum.   See links to transport here and dioramas here.  I was playing the Austrians and Mike took the French & Allies.

The scenario starts with the Austrians deployed from Gross Enzersdsorf to Markgraf.  The French juggernaut comes on between Gross Enzersdorf and Rutzendorf.

Set up:

End of turn 2  The French advance across the Marchfeld whilst the Austrians, hampered by passivity (-1 on movement) and a lack of suitable generals, move to engage.

End of turn 4  on the left, Davout turns the flank.

Most of the fighting was in the middle, with the French slowly pushing the Austrian defensive line back.  Archduke Charles was under pressure on his right, so tried to deploy his heavy cavalry there.  The Austrian's passivity and lack of Generals meant that the French could move faster and further each go.

Turn 6 by this point, the Austrian left had been compromised and the centre was thinly spread, with a solid wave of French building up.  The Austrians could no longer win, perhaps they could hold on?  Perhaps Archduke John could arrive to save the day?

The pile of Austrian dead on the square hill.  In later years, bits of equipment left behind would go to a museum....

Turn 8  Mike got into his stride now - rolling up my left flank, threatening Wagram itself (bottom left of second picture) and grinding down my centre.

Turn 9 saw the plucky Austrian defenders of Wagram ejected and reduced to spent status.

Turn 10  saw the Austrians still occupying a couple of objectives, but Mike had destroyed a large part of the Austrian army and had gained enough objectives for a win.

The dead pile says it all.

A couple of post battle thoughts:  

• Mike had handled the French well, using his greater chance of moving to stretch my Austrian line.
• The Austrians could not launch (or at least my die throws were not high enough) to decisively break any part of the French line.
• Once Davout had turned my left flank I was fighting on two fronts - which was far from easy.

Once again, a big thank you to Mike - for table, troops and lunch, also a big thank you to Mark for publishing an excellent scenario.

So, that's the Danube Campaign of 1809 wrapped up by the "Ilkley irregulars".  I've not done so well....

But hey, in three year's time it's off to Russia for a Summer holiday and the campaign of 1812, I'll also be the French!!   What could go wrong???

Troops are Baccus 6mm, rules are BBB & the Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles Scenario book.