The Armies of the French Revolution are varied and colourful, as well as (mostly) successful. I started this army following a game in late 2019 at my local club. When I started researching the uniforms, I was struck by the really colourful uniforms and the wide variety of infantry flags. Once I was hooked, I ordered the troops and started painting...
Army overview - only the French, who had balloons and "air superiority"- would get to see this...
My army currently has enough bases to fight Chris Pringle's 1796 Italian scenarios.
Commanders - Napoleon & Augerau
At this time Napoleon was one of many Generals, though admittedly one whose star was rapidly ascending. Napoleon is escorted by two troopers from his Guides unit, Augerau similarly has escorts from his guide unit, distinctively uniformed in yellow pelises.
Napoleon's guides have plumes added, Augerau's guides have had sabretaches added. Napoleon's hat had a peak added to transform it from Bicorne to Tricorne.
Other Generals
The Generals are a mix of French, Austrian & Russians. They have had plumes added to their hats and small plastic beads to represent the red, white & blue feathers at the base of the plume. One is a SYW General in Tricorne, who has been painted to represent him wearing an overcoat.
Generals who had previously served in the Royal French Army often wore items of old style dress - gloves, Tricornes, powdered hair...
Each General is escorted by a "Guide d'Italie", who wore a Hussar style uniform with Mirliton hat.
The Infantry. BBB rules have 3 troop morale classifications - Veteran, Trained & Raw.
The army of Italy, under Napoleon, was a hard hitting and efficient military force, rated mainly as veterans. At OWS we use the convention of 0, 1 or 2 flags to show morale, so I asked Peter at Baccus* to provide more command stands and less "ordinary", so that more flag bearers were available. The first picture is of two "trained" stands
The second is of a veteran block - two flags.
Skirmishers were trained to fight in loose order, sniping at the enemies flag bearers, drummers, officers & ncos. Against enemies without skirmishers, especially those still using linear tactics, this worked well. The French army of the Napoleonic wars had skirmishers as part of the line (1:8, later 1:5 ratio) plus about 20% of the army consisted of units who were all skirmishers.
Light infantry in blue are bought and on the workbench as "work-in-progress". Light infantry in green uniforms are bought...
One of the challenges of this project has been how to get the "revolutionary" look. Wargamers in bigger scales often have specialist figures (soldier with loaf on bayonet, for example) and an ability to paint ragged trousers and non-standard items such as stripy trousers. I opted for the following:
- Lots of plumes (of many colours)
- Break up the strips of 4 so that I lost the "parade ground" look
- Ensure that most units have non-standard white, grey or brown trousers rather than the issue trousers and black gaiters.
I trust that the following illustrate this:
The Flags. The French revolutionary period was one of change. At the start of the revolution, the army had pre-revolution flags with the royalist symbol (flour-de-lys) obscured. As time went on, Regiments (or "demi-brigades", as they were known) designed their own flags. The issue of flags settled down to a system of 1st & 3rd battalion, DB flag. 2nd battalion, standard flag. All flags taken from the internet**.In 1804 flags were standardised and the kaleidoscope of colour and design ended...
The rearmost flag below is the 2nd battalion flag
The French Heavy cavalry arm was split into Carabiniers, Heavies and Dragoons. The carabiniers do not need to be modelled at this scale and the dragoon uniform was similar to that used in later periods. That just leaves the heavies:
At some point I will use the same models to make early Cuirassiers (armoured heavy cavalry).
The French Light cavalry were split into Chasseurs and Hussars. The early Chasseurs wore distinctive "Tarleton" helmets, I've not bought them yet. The Hussars are coming along nicely...
2nd & 5th Hussars
The Death's Head Hussars were raised as a volunteer unit, committed to dying to protect the revolution. There weren't that many of them, but the uniform appeals and so I made a base of them, in their "fifty shades of black" with fetching skull & crossbones motifs in silver and white. The models got sabretaches added (as they add to the look).
Notes
The Artillery
Resplendent in all blue, with red facings, the bicorne artillery are a game changer both on the board and in real life. Napoleon is credited with using the "grand battery" concept, whereby the artillery was concentrated to fire on one part of the enemy line, rather than being spread thinly across the whole army. Limbers & horses to follow...
Train & Baggage
Whilst not needed under the BBB ruleset, I like to add at least 1 or 2 pack mules to represent the logistics element.
Grenadiers
Some French Generals formed elite brigades of the line skirmishers and/or grenadiers. The skirmishers are already covered - here is the one unit, to date, of Grenadiers. I was going for the "tough, dishevelled elite look".
Finally...
At some point I will make the Consular Guard.
This project has been to model enough troops to fight BBB in Italy in 1796, 97, 99 &1800.
I'll be adding more troops - light infantry and cavalry, maybe some Horse Artillery, lots of raw command bases (no flag) so that they can also fight in Flanders & Germany. Massena also needs to make an appearance.
As French, they will never be short of opponents.
Figures are Baccus* French in Bicornes, with cavalry provided by Spanish & Prussian Heavies, Spanish Hussars in Mirliton. Generals were French, Austrian, Russian Napoleonic & SYW. You may want to add sabretaches, swords, plumes and feathers to get that "Revolutionary" look.
Bases are 1" square 2mm thick mdf (except cavalry, who get 1" x 1.25").
* Baccus - Sheffield based manufacturer of 6mm figures, excellent models and exemplary customer service. Other retailers/scales are available.
** Napflags / Warflags has DB 1-10 & 2nd battalion flags. The others I found on pinterest for 10 or 15mm figures, so I resized them.
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