Thank you all for the good wishes.
Martha's Dad: The storage units - of which I have four (two shown) - are from an industrial furniture supplier. I bought them over a decade ago so the exact model might not exist anymore. You can find a wide variety of shapes and designs with different drawer unit types. Look for "bin storage drawers" or similar terms.
Before I reveal the first Prussian unit, a few words on army organisation. I will of course use the same basing scheme as for the Anglo-Dutch with a standard battalion having 24 figures on 4 bases of 50x50mm each. Large battalions will have 6 bases for a total of 36 figures. For the Anglo-Dutch, there was a pretty clear line between the two size classes because most British/Hannoverian/Dutch units had around 400-500 troops while some of the Guards/Nassau battalions had over 1,000 men. For the Prussians, this is a bit trickier as virtually all their battalions have a target strength of 800 men with very little variation.
I found a scan of an old German book showing casualty figures for the battle at Ligny which I used to estimate unit sizes on June 18th when the Prussians arrive at Waterloo. As expected, this reduced the headcount of battalions in I and II Corps quite considerably since they bore the brunt of the fight at Ligny. That brings them closer to the 400-600 men range of "standard" size units and I have classed them accordingly. The regiments in IV Corps were not engaged at Ligny so they would have arrived at Waterloo with approximately their full strength. With the exception of organically smaller regiments - such as the under-strength Silesian Landwehr - I have classed such units as "large".
Appropriately, this gives me a dozen or so large battalions to lead the initial steamroller charge into Plancenoit, followed by regular units for the second wave. The units of IV Corps are also the most conventional in uniform and history, so they make an ideal choice for the plastic kits from Perry (Line) and Warlord (Landwehr). I am starting my painting effort on this front both to get some of the boring stuff out of the way first and to optimize my painting drill before arriving at the more exciting metal - mostly Calpe - in I and II Corps.
As a final note, I will from now on use German unit names because that's how I think of them (and have labelled them). Should be pretty straightforward...
With that out of the way, it's time to show the first Prussians. IV Korps arrived in reverse order on the field, so here we have I/15. Infanterie Regiment as the lead unit of 16. Brigade. The regiment was formed as 3. Reserve but had been refitted with regular uniforms before the battle. The figures are Perry plastics. I am forming - and photographing - large battalions in attack column. Swordknots show company designation which I have kept consistent per base (white front left and command, yellow front right, blue back left and center, red back right). This will be easier for standard-sized units with just one company per base.
05 November 2007, 10:05:10 PM