League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

Following the beautiful French figures of Victrix, Eureka and the new range of Brigade Games, I'm thinking to paint some units for "Napoleon in Italy 1796-1797" project using RtE or March of Eagle rules.
Can you help me?
What do you suggest for a French Batallion: how many figs. and how many stands (6 or ......)?
In this period French Batallion had a Grenadier and a Light company?
I like play games whit a little bit units but with a very great aesthetical result!!!!
Thanks for help and compliments from Italy.

Andrea

Andrea, the best thing to do is find an order of battle from a conflict that inspires your interest in the specific period. Convert the number men in a battalion to table-top strength by dividing by 20.

For example, at Marengo (1800, slightly later than your period, but the conflict I had thought about building forces from) Watrin's Division is listed as follows:

Brigade Gency
6e Legere (3 battalions, 1,114)
Brigade Mahler
22e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 1,255)
40e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 1,716)
artillery (3 guns and 1 howitzer)

Let's take the 6e Legere. Dividing 1,114 by 20 results in 55.7. Since there are three battalions, that works out to roughly 18 models per battalion.

Brigade Gency
6e Legere (3 battalions, 18 models each)
Brigade Mahler
22e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 20 models each)
40e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 28 models each)
artillery (2 guns)

Now for game purposes, we have a decision to make. For aesthetic purposes, you may find it best to make all of the units divisible by the number of models you want per stand. I suggest either four or six and follow this convention throughout the army. You then adjust the models per unit to match your choice...

At six model per stand you would have...

Brigade Gency
6e Legere (3 battalions, 18 models each)
Brigade Mahler
22e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 18 models each)
40e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 30 models each)
artillery (2 guns)

At four models per stand you might opt for...

Brigade Gency
6e Legere (3 battalions, 20 models each)
Brigade Mahler
22e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 20 models each)
40e demi-brigade (3 battalions, 28 models each)
artillery (2 guns)

In all of these cases, you'll see I ignored the howitzer. The artillery conversion in R2E is 1 model per two guns. Since we had three guns and only one howitzer, I decided to simply field two 6lb cannons.

You also need not slavish follow a single army list, simply choosing to build demi-brigades of standard sizes - say, three battalions of 24 models (in which you could choose either four or six models per base).

If you'd like to post an order of battle you were thinking about, I'd be happy to walk through the conversion with you.

Don't forget the wonderful figures that Elite Miniatures has for the French Revolutionary period in Italy. Plus he has flags as well.

Hi Quindia,
Thanks for the informations.
I think to choose simply build the demi brigades of standard size; three batallions of 24 models.
I don't know if is it better 4x6 figs or 6x4 figs because Grenadiers are different for fire and melee...what do you suggest?

Andrea

18th Century Guy wrote:Don't forget the wonderful figures that Elite Miniatures has for the French Revolutionary period in Italy. Plus he has flags as well.

GMB about to release French Revolutionary Wars flags as well.

quindia wrote: You also need not slavish follow a single army list, simply choosing to build demi-brigades of standard sizes - say, three battalions of 24 models (in which you could choose either four or six models per base).

I've been thinking about this. I started collecting my napoleonic forces to use with Black Powder (mainly because I couldn't convince my friend to paint units with more than 24 miniatures) so now I'm stuck with 24 model units, and have no plan to expand them. But after seeing some great review, pictures from the R2E weekend, reading the weekender guide etc, I've changed my mind. Obviously it's not a problem to play R2E with 24 models battalions, but is it fun? Or does generic units remove some aspects of the game?

Sorry about hijacking the thread by the way...

The more figures and flags available the better for all! Of course I'll give my normal plug for The Flag Dude as well if you want flags for this period.