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 ......

Hanau, 30 October 1813 - refight 14 February 2025

The next battle in the Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles book is Hanau, with the Austrians and Bavarians taking on the French on October 1813.  The Austro-Bavarian forces are deployed to catch the retreating French army (heading South West to France) - they expect stragglers and small forces, they get Napoleon and the Imperial Guard!

Here's the map:

Set up

Here's the table - starting with the Allied left

The town of Hanau, with forests at the top of the picture

The Allied right - the green strip marks the edge of the forest, not a strip of trees.  The troops in the forest are the French.

Turn 2

The Allied right flank.  

At the top of the photo the Allies have advanced into the wood to contain the French.  This negated the artillery (as you can only see 3" into a wood), so the combat was charging and countercharging, both sides getting disrupted, gaining cover from the woods and not winning hand to hand combat.  

At the bottom of the photo there are two units of Guard infantry who have burst out of the woods, causing redeployment of one Allied unit from the main battle and despatch of another unit to try to stop this!

Allied middle - all quiet at the moment

Turn 3

At the end of turn 3 events had progressed a little.  

At the top of the picture the Allied cavalry have forced the French cavalry to redeploy in the face of the Allied charges.  

The battle in the woods continues in a confused and inconclusive manner.  The Allied artillery, with no target to their front, turn 180 to fire on  the Guard.  

At the bottom of the picture the Guard continues its advance to Hanau.

Turn 4

On the right the battle in woods continued, with the Allied cavalry taking casualties from repeated charges against the French cavalry.  

The main Allied defensive line started to break up - to the left of the photo are disrupted cavalry and infantry, as well as two spent infantry.

At the bottom of the photo the Guard approach Hanau and a further 6 strong unit advances.

In the middle the Allies defend Hanau.

On the left Mike threatened my Cossacks, defending another two important villages, as this flank is wide open....

Turn 6

By turn 6 the Allies were in trouble on the right flank.  At the top of the picture the French cavalry are pushing the Allied cavalry back.  At the bottom of the picture the Bavarians have been pushed out of the woods and the Allied unit guarding the bridge objective (lower right) has been assaulted in the rear,

Here's the zoom shot - Bavarian line is crumbling.

On the left flank it's all wide open - the only factor slowing the French infantry is the speed of their March.

French Turn 7

By the end of Mike's turn 7 the Allied destruction was complete.  At the bottom of the picture I've lost the Bridge and the river.  At the top of the picture my cavalry is getting hammered.  In the middle are lots of Bavarians sporting "spent" counters (which are actually Bavarian blue) getting hammered by the French.

The Bavarians guarding the bridge/village got assaulted and lost - with no where else to go the survivors attempted to swim the river.....

On the Allied left / middle I still held Hanau, with the surrounding fields littered with the wiped out French attackers.

Out of troops and options, I conceded at this point.  

Closing thoughts

My strategy had been to hold the French up for as long as possible in the woods - this was an error on my part, I think.  It did take Mike time to deploy his troops and get momentum, but the woods hampered both sides, so the wood fighting turned into a battle of attrition and he had more troops of better quality.  I also kept the French bottled up so far in the woods that my Allied artillery could not see them - or shoot them.

My cavalry attack in the North did distract Mike and we had a big several turn cavalry scrap - which i eventually lost.

My concentration on keeping most of my troops in the woods meant Mike was able to send troops to threaten Hanau and to roll up my line.

Mike's numbers and quality did tell in the end - by turn 6 I had units at break point and by turn 7 it was all over.

A comprehensive Victory for Mike and an enjoyable game.  It goes quite quickly, we played it in 4 hours (having set up the previous time but allowing 1/2 to 3/4 hour for lunch).

Mike's French, my Allies all Baccus.