Basing 1/72 scale Napoleonics

The advantage of 24 man battalions is that by say 1813, most nations had below average sized battalions, except perhaps the Austrians. There seems to be huge debate as to what is historically right and what is wrong but what looks "good" often gets ignored.

Admittedly the 36 man French battalions do look great but those of us who have already committed to the 4 man base with a total of 24 figures should not worry.

Right or wrong the "effect" is what we are trying to create.

A game from 2106

Austrian Art miniaturen figures with 32 men battalions.

The Austrian and Hungarian Art Miniaturen infantry are based on laser cut mdf bases. 30mm x 30mm. The problem with many plastic figures is that the size of an individual base prevents squashing 4 men to a single base. 

French dragoons and Cuirassiers

The cavalry meanwhile are based in pairs and on 35mm x 40mm bases. 16 figures in a regiment.

Prussian horse artillery with two model guns

Prussian foot artillery with 3 model guns.

There seems to be a pre-occupation to have a designated number of guns represented by a specific number of models…i.e. a battery of 8 guns represented by 4 model guns. This seems to be an unnecessary detail. What is important is that the space occupied by a battery should be representative (especially the depth), and that is why introducing limbers (and caissons in some instances) is worthwhile. Also it helps the average war gamer distinguish between both horse and foot easily as well as certain calibres. Introducing caissons to represent 12lbs and Guard I think will be interesting.

Clearly there are other distinguishing marks for artillery. In this case, there are 4 figures for the horse battery and 5 for the foot while the bases are 40mm square for the horse and 50mm square for the foot.

15mm game in London on 12/13th March where we will be fighting Vitoria 1813 at Rob's place. Should be fun.