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 ......

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.