Diablo Jon goes Napoleonic for 2023 now with French Provisional Dragoon Regiment

[Helge]

Beautiful. I am facing a division of Brunswick troops on my shrinking "to do" list so this is great inspiration!

[Diablo Jon]

Warning if you are a button counter of Napoleonic uniforms you may want to skip this post.

I had to stop painting Brunswickers because either I was waiting on a few more miniatures for the 2nd infantry battalion (I now have them) or I’m waiting for Steve Barber to release the rest of his 1809 Brunswick miniatures range. In the mean time I re-visited my Victrix plastic Landwehr and built another battalion and a skirmisher unit to be painted up as Bohemian Landwehr to match the first battalion I have already painted.

That left me with enough miniatures for two more units. As I may have mentioned before I’m a bit of painting butterfly and I really don’t enjoy painting loads of miniatures who look the same. So while I was idlily flicking through a book I’d purchased on Austrian Landwehr and Grenz I came across the City of Prague Landwehr (see picture below they are the guys in the Shakos) they looked suitably different to other Bohemian Landwehr units to peak my interest.



The Prague Landwehr units weren’t involved in the Bohemia theatre but as far as I can work out were actually involved in the main campaign against Napoleon. Still I wasn’t going to let a little detail like that stop me. Much like the Bohemian Landwehr the Victrix set wasn’t exactly right in some details for the city of Prague Landwehr (only the officers seem to have had turnbacks for example) but modelled with Shakos instead of Corsehut and a paint job they kind of work. They certainly are not a perfect representation but close enough for me though more picky button counters might call them fantasy..

I should point out here in the UK we’ve been having some rather warm weather (up to 30 degrees Celsius 86 in old money I believe) the last couple of weeks. Now if you are reading this in a country which habitually has hot weather you’ll probably laugh at this but us Brits aren’t generally good with hot weather. We spend all winter moaning about the cold but after a couple of days of hot weather we’re done. My painting suffers because my hobby space is also my garage which with its flat, black, tar roof just soaks up heat like a sponge. My paint dries out to quickly to highlight and blend properly, I get tired really quickly (I actually fell asleep with miniature and paintbrush in hand one evening) and I really struggle to motivate myself in the heat. As such these miniatures took way longer than normal to paint and the paint job is a bit sub par. Still they are done now and hopefully the weather will break before I start my next unit.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looking good yet again mate!

[Diablo Jon]

Looking good yet again mate!

Thanks mate 👍

[has.been]

I don't normally like Brown uniforms, but they are nice.

[Diablo Jon]

I don't normally like Brown uniforms, but they are nice.

Thanks. Because I'm doing Bohemia 1809 the majority of the Austrian troops were Bohemian Landwehr who seemed to like Brown coats. On top of that of the four regular battalions available to the Austrians two were Grenz so more brown uniforms by the time I've finished I may have the brownest Napoleonic Austrian army ever 😆

[Matakakea]

Thanks. Because I'm doing Bohemia 1809 the majority of the Austrian troops were Bohemian Landwehr who seemed to like Brown coats. On top of that of the four regular battalions available to the Austrians two were Grenz so more brown uniforms by the time I've finished I may have the brownest Napoleonic Austrian army ever 😆/quote]

It's nice to see some of these less popular units getting some love. I look forward to the group shots of your completed brown army.

[Diablo Jon]

It's nice to see some of these less popular units getting some love. I look forward to the group shots of your completed brown army.

thanks

[CapnJim]

Those fellas look really good!

[Diablo Jon]

A slightly different, and very long (sorry), blog post this week. More of a state of play and where am I going post than a look at my pretty pictures post. In January I stated I was starting a Napoleonic Project, for 2023, based on the 1809 side theatre of Bohemia/Saxony. Halfway through the year I thought I’d take stock of what I managed to paint so far based on my chosen unit sizes of 16 infantry (battalion), 8 cavalry (regiment), 8 skirmishers (undetermined bunch of skirmishing infantry), 2 cannon and eight crew (battery), 2-3 officer command stand and single figure casualty stands

1 battalion Austrian Regular infantry

1 battalion Austrian Landwehr

3 battalions of Bavarian infantry

2 Bavarian Skirmishers

1 Bavarian Artillery battery

6 Bavarian command and casualty stands

1 battalion Brunswick infantry

1 regiment Brunswick cavalry

so including command base, casualty bases and mounted colonels that’s a total of a 124 infantry miniatures, 12 mounted miniatures and 2 cannon, built, painted, based and varnished in half year roughly that works out at 1.2 miniatures a day. Slower going than I’d like but in fairness I have at times been distracted by my Darkest Africa project and have used it to take a break from painting Napoleonic uniforms. The uniforms of Napoleonic troops are a boon and a curse it’s hard to not be attracted to all the bright colourful uniforms (Just try flicking through a Funcken uniform book and not get the urge to paint up Engineers of the Guard or Spanish infantry) and when painted they look great. On the downside I have never, in 35 years of painting, painted anything as fiddly and time consuming as Napoleonic uniforms.

I always had a plan, in my head, of what a finished version of this project would look like but I’ve never written it down so I thought it was time to commit it to paper(screen) so I could use it to measure my success (or lack of) in the future. Below I’ve listed each nation involved in the Bohemian area of operations including where I can what their real forces were in 1809 and then what I planned to paint up for gaming purposes. in general I never planned to paint a whole historical force for any of the nations unless, like for example the Brunswick contingent, they were very small. The reason for this is a combination of money, storage, my butterfly nature when it comes to painting and my chosen rules work best for about a brigade sized (6-10 units a side) forces.

I’ll give brief background for the 1809 Bohemia-Saxony campaign to give the protagonists below some context. With the main focus of the war between Austria and Napoleon focused further south and west of Bohemia, and with other side shows in Poland and Italy, initially the Austrians looked to defend the Bohemian border from French and their German allies with a force of mostly Landwehr and depot troops. In truth the French and their allies weren’t in much of a position to attack Bohemia either. Saxony’s army bar a few depots, garrison troops and a regiment of cuirassiers had departed to join Napoleon’s main army leaving the kingdom barely defended let alone capable of aggressive military action. Westphalia was a newly formed Kingdom still building its army. King Jerome’s position wasn’t totally secure as as not all his subjects were inclined to accept a French king and Westphalia saw several attempted uprisings in early 1809. Further North the Dutch and French troops garrisoning the Northern coast of Germany had recently had to deal with a more serious uprising when Major von Schill and his Prussian hussar regiment deserted the Prussian army and invaded Germany in attempt to stir up a rebellion against the French. Further south the Bavarians were fully engaged in Tyrol and with Napoleon’s main army and weren’t in any position to threaten Bohemia.

Initially there was some cross border Skirmishing the Duke of Brunswick’s men launched a small raid in to Saxony that caused the Saxons some panic but were were beaten off by Johan von Theilmen . Meanwhile Austrian forces crossed the border into Northern Bavaria in series of raids that had to be counter by local forces. After the Battle of Aspern-Essling in May. The Austrians decided to try and build on their success at the battle and worry Napoleon’s line of communications with diversionary attacks into Northern Germany from Bohemia. Am Ende lead a force into Saxony driving back Johan Von Theilmen’s command and going as far as to capture Dresden before King Jerome and his Westphalians arrived and linked up with the Saxons and chased Am Ende and his forces back into Bohemia. GM Radivojevich marched into Northern Bavaria capturing the town of Bayreuth before General Junot gathered the French reserve corps and a few Bavarians and launched a counter attack. The now outnumbered GM Radivojevich slowly fell back towards Bohemia. At this point General Kienmayer arrived in Bohemia to take command of XI Corps he ordered GM Radivojevich to hold his ground took some of Am Endes troops and ordered him to guard the border against an attack from the Saxon-Westphalian forces (who as it happened were enjoying the comforts of Dresden to much to threaten Bohemia). Kienmayer now now marched to GM Radivojevich’s aid and linked up with him at Gefrees turning to to fight the French on 8 July 1809. Defeating Junot’s French and Bavarians Kienmayer then turned and marched to fight Jerome’s forces. Jerome who now marching to support Junot panicked and retreated once he realised he was facing the Austrians alone. Jerome was saved from defeat and the Austrian’s denied further success as the main Austrian Army, defeated further south at the battle of Wagram on the 5-6th of July, was forced to sign the The Armistice of Znaim was  signed on the 12 July 1809 ending the war.

The Austrians had fought hard but had lost in every theatre they had faced the French in 1809 in southern Germany, Italy, Hungry, Poland even in the Balkans. Arguably the only theatre they were winning in when peace was signed was the Bohemian one. There was one final chapter in the story though. The Duke of Brunswick was outraged by the armistice and vowed to keep fighting. Taking his small army, now using the the moniker Schwarze Schar or Black Horde, he marched into Germany and seized the city of Brunswick perhaps hoping to spark a Germanic uprising. As the forces of King Jerome’s X corps closed in the Duke decided to abandoned Brunswick and March to the North sea coast and rescue by the Royal Navy. thus the black horde marched from Brunswick to the mouth of the Weser river fighting to pitched battles against Jerome’s forces before sailing to Britain to carry on the fight against Napoleon in Spain.

Austria

The Austrian XI Corps in Bohemia, at its strongest, under Michael von Kienmayer, consisted of

IR 10 / III
IR 42 / III
2nd to 5th Leitmeritz Landwehr
5th Koniggratz
6th Bunzlau Landwehr
1st Jager Btn / 5th comp.
Merveldt Uhlans
Schwarzenberg Uhlans
Klenau Chevaulegers / Res sqn (1 sqn)
8 x 3pdrs 2 x How

Deutsch-Banat Grenze IR 12
1st & 2nd Tabor Landwehr
4th Koniggratz Landwehr
2nd Crudim Landwehr
Merveldt Uhlan (1 sqn)
Res sqn /Schwarzenberg Uhlans
Res sqn / Rosenberg Chevaulegers
Res sqn / Blankenstein Hussars
4 x 3pdr
3rd Tschaslau Landwehr
5th Bunzlau Landwehr
Scwarzenberg Uhlan (1 sqn)

which gives 12 battalions of Bohemian Landwehr, 1 Jager company, 2 Regular 3rd infantry battalions, 2 battalions of Grenz, 5 Uhlans squadrons, 2 Chevaulegers squadrons and one hussar squadron and 14 guns in two batteries divided between two forces under Am Ende and GM Radivojevich. I don’t want to paint 12 units of Landwehr and for ease I’ll probably divided the cavalry down to a couple of units. I basically I want two Austrian commands so somewhere between 12-15 units divided up as follows

2 regular infantry battalions

2 Grenz battalions

3 skirmisher units (1 of Jagers, 2 of 3rd rank Landwehr men)

1 Chevaulegers regiment

1 Ulhan Regiment

2 artillery batteries

4 battalions of Landwehr (possibly up to 6 at a later date)

Quite a lot of stuff to paint but not beyond me. I already have all the miniatures in plastic for the Landwehr and regular battalions (some of which are on my painting table right now)

Brunswick, Kur-Hessian Legion and Franconian legion

Attached to the Austrian corps were these three Freikorps the biggest was the Duke of Brunswick’s forces that consisted of

2 (later 3) infantry battalion

1 regiment of Hussars (Later with an added squadron of Uhlans)

1 horse artillery battery

1 company of Jagers

the Kur-Hessian legion consisted of

1st Grenadier company
Jager company
Fusilier company
Leib Dragoons squadron
Hussars squadron

The Franconian Legion was raised by a Prussian officer, in Hessian service, uniformed as Austrians and consisted of

1 Jager company

1 Uhlan Squadron

From my point of view while the Kur-Hessians are interesting their numbers are to small to really form into units. The Franconian legion is the same. The Brunswick contingent makes a perfect sized force for my needs so I will include it in its entirety with the added benefit I could use to refight the Duke of Brunswick’s March to the sea. I’ve already painted a couple of units and have the miniatures I need for a couple more ready to go. at the moment I’m waiting on Steve Barber miniatures to release their 1809 uniformed artillerymen (that I’ve seen WIPs of) to finish the whole force.

Moving on to the French and Allies side we have

Saxony

Almost the entire Saxon Army was sent to join Napoleon’s main forces in Bavaria leaving Saxony almost undefended apart from a regiment Zastrow Cuirassiers. Luckily for the Saxons the energetic Johann von Thielmann managed to cobble together some sort of force from depot troops, garrisons and troops returning from Poland to defend Saxony from the Austrians. At their strongest the Saxons could defender their land with the following force in 1809.

Grenadier battalion von Einsiedel
Combined Bn (2 grenadier & 2 line co.)
Battalion I/von Oebschelwitz
Detachment of Burgsdorff Reg’t (101 men)
Two foot batteries — 14 guns
Zastrow Cuirassiers — 4 squadrons
OTL v Gablenz Hussars — 3 squadrons
von Polenz Chevauxlegers — 1 squadron
One horse battery — 8 guns

Realistically I’ll leave out Burgsdorff detachment, the Chevauxleger squadron and some of the Artillery and build a Saxon force of

3 Battalions of infantry

1 regiment of Hussars

1 regiment of Cuirassiers

1 artillery battery

Edit: thanks to a chance discussion on TMP I found today I found out the Saxons raised a number of new units of Schützen during 1809 to help with the defence of the kingdom so I will add a unit of Skirmishers to the above force as well now.

Kingdom of Westphalia and X corps

Napoleons younger brother had recently become king of the newly formed kingdom of Westphalia. King Jerome Bonaparte was commander of X corps which consisted of the army of Westphalia which was still in the process of expanding to its full size this was further hampered by some of its regiments (including its light battalion and regiment) being sent to fight in Spain. A Division from the Kingdom of Holland and detachments and garrisons spread across northern Germany that consisted of troops from France, Berg and Poland. On paper it looks a powerful force but in reality the whole corps was never mustered in one place. The Dutch troops played a part in putting down Major von Schill’s rebellion in Northern Germany. While the bulk of the 1809 Bohemia-Saxony campaign involved Westphalian troops. The Westphalians were also the main opponent of the Black Brunswickers in late 1809 and as they marched to the sea and into exile in Britain. leaving out all the minor garrisons and detachments of X corps the Westphalian’s could muster the following 1809

Westphalian Division:
lst Brigade:
Guard Grenadier Battalion (l)
Guard Jäger Battalion (l)
5th Line Regiment (3)
2nd Brigade:
lst Line Regiment (3)
6th Line Regiment (3)
Jäger-Karabinier Battalion (l)
Cavalry:
Guard Chevauleger Regiment (4)
lst Cuirassier Regiment (2)
Artillery:
4 Artillery Companies (l6 guns)

The biggest problem I have at the moment is a lack of 28mm Westphalian miniatures. Westphalian uniforms were just different enough to be hard to proxy with miniatures from another nation. Luckily Steve Barber has started a range so I can at least have Westphalian line infantry and Jäger-Karabinier miniatures so for know I will create a a stunted 2nd Brigade of

4 line infantry battalions

2 skirmishers (Voltigeur and Jäger-Karabinier)

1 artillery battery

Its a bit sparse but until I can find miniatures for the guard units of or Cavalry it will have to suffice. The short lived Kingdom of Holland also added a Division to X corps

Dutch Division: General Gratien
lst Brigade:
6th Line Regiment (2)
7th Line Regiment (2)
2nd Brigade:
8th Line Regiment (2)
9th Line Regiment (2)
Cavalry:
2nd Cuirassier Regiment (3)
Artillery:
3 Artillery Companies (l2 guns)

Their main contribution was the defeat of Major Von Schill’s uprising on the 31st of may 1809 at the battle of Stralsund. The Perry’s make some lovely Kingdom of Holland miniatures so while I don’t want to paint the whole division i will add a small brigade to support the Westphalians something like

3 infantry Battalions

1 Artillery battery

1 cavalry (cuirassier regiment)

Bavaria

In the Bohemia/Saxony/Westphalia campaign in 1809 the Bavarians had a very minor part to play contributing a scratch battalion made up of three depot companies from the three different regiments and a small battery of two guns. As I had so many Victrix plastic Bavarians and I felt it was a waste not to use them. I’ve ended up expanding the Bavarians into a small brigade of four battalions (the light battalion acting as skirmishers) and a artillery battery. Much stronger than their Historical counterparts but offset by me reducing the size of the French contingent below.

French

The main French contingent in this campaign was the reserve corps, under GD Junot consisting of lots of new recruits and depot troops they also incorporated the Bavarians above into their command

6 battalions of line infantry (all recently raised 4th battalions)

12 guns in two batteries (manned by a mixture of horse artillery and infantrymen)

2 provisional Dragoon regiments (maybe up of 4th/depot squadrons)

I already have a enough plastic Victrix dragoons and Artillery to make a battery of guns and two dragoon regiments and one box of Perry plastic French with a couple of extra command sprues will allow me to form four battalions of infantry giving me a French contingent to paint up consisting off

4 battalions of infantry

2 regiments of cavalry

1 skirmisher unit

1 gun battery

So were does all that leave me? Well with a lot of purchasing and painting ahead. At my current rate I’m not getting this project all wrapped up, with a neat little bow, by the end of 2023 I’ll certainly be moving into 2024 before I’m done. The plus sided is, maybe bar the Austrians, each of the forces is a self contained brigade size group and a manageable little project in itself so if I can just pick a nation at a time to work through it should be do-able. The Bavarians are already done, the Westphalians and Brunswickers I have all the miniatures for apart from sourcing artillerymen. I have quite a bit of Plastic to give me the bulk of the Austrians and French but more miniatures are required. while the Saxons and Dutch I haven’t even brought a miniature for yet. So there we go I think I’ve made a decent start to this project but there is a long way to go yet.

[Diablo Jon]

Less of a “ohh pretty pictures” post today’s blog post instead is a bit of a ramble and introspective look at my hobby sorry about that. A few weeks back I published a post called Assessing and Updating the Project Plan for 2023. The post mostly dealt with what I had collected, what I had painted and what other miniatures I wanted to add to my collection based on the theatre I had chosen for my Napoleonic project. I’d shared the post to a couple of wargames sites and received a few nice comments but one comment in particular gave me pause for thought.

“Well, if painting a figure or two a day is the objective, looks as though you’re set for many years to come. Congratulations! The finished castings look good. If this is for a game, I’d have expected to hear about rules, table size and intended battles. Possibly covered earlier on the blog? My entirely unsolicited advice would be to figure out what you need for a small game, and focus on getting two sides to that level. This is a long-term project, and a few games may keep up your enthusiasm.”

The commentator brought up a really interesting point. Playing the game is a big part of wargaming yet its also the part I rarely do. This meant the way I looked at the project was very much geared towards the painting and modelling side of it. I had some vague Idea I might play some solo games but in terms of the project it was all about the painting and collecting.

I have been in the hobby since I was 9 making it 40 years this year and during that time I have periods in my life were I gamed often and regularly either at clubs, hobby stores or with friends. These days however I practically never game there are a variety of reasons, some good, some probably just excuses on my part, as to why that is the case. Oddly when I gamed a lot I had very little interest in painting and modelling. Armies of grey lead and tan plastic over some green towels and a few model railway trees were a frequent site in my early gaming life it didn’t matter, to my friends and me, at the time we had fun. My secondary school and college years were filled with endless gaming both historical and fantasy including miniature gaming, board gaming and RPGs sadly after college in the early 90s our little group went their separate ways. Working for Games workshop in the late 90s increased my interest in the painting and modelling along side gaming. As red shirts we had to paint up and model stuff for the store. The guys I worked with were a talented bunch of painters and terrain makers and passed a lot of good knowledge on to me during my short career in GW retail. That period I also played a lot, exclusively GW stuff, but I could be playing two or three games a week. I was part of a club in the late 00s which was fun and good motivation to get stuff painted but in truth after a hard day at work coming home grabbing my armies and then humping them up the club on public transport (I’m one of those rare adults who doesn’t hold a driving licence) on a Tuesday night was exhausting. I guess in the end the chance to play a game was outweighed by an easier night at home and my attendance at the club just dwindled. Since then I’ve become more of a collector than a gamer in truth that hasn’t been a problem for me I enjoy painting and modelling a lot. The last decade or so has seen me acquire a lot of new hobby tools and try a myriad of different paints and painting techniques that younger me would have been gobsmacked by. Still there is a nagging doubt that if I’m a wargamer I should at least occasionally play a game.

A couple of weeks back I had to book a day’s leave off work, I had a tradesmen coming to fit a new garage door and wanted to be around in case of any issues. I also quickly realised I had the house to myself that day as the wife and kids were at work or college. I decided I was going to use the day to play a solo wargame (in the end I actually managed two games in one day). Looking through my Napoleonic collection I had 12 units painted up since January, when I started my Napoleonic project, 6 Bavarian and a 6 mixed Austrian/Brunswick units. I had planned to use Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames rules horse and musket version for my Napoleonic solo gaming and the rules recommend 6 units a side so I had what I needed.

I should discuss my rules choice here. Mr Thomas’s One Hour rules are very simple, they are not by any stretch of the imagination a simulation of warfare, in the book are offered several different period specific rulesets each around 3-4 sides of A5 in length. They are also what I would describe as old school using IGO-UGO, lacking morale rules, using D6 dice and sticking with fixed movement rates. They are very much in the mould of rules written by Don Featherstone or Stuart Asquith in the many “Beginner Guides to Wargaming” I had in my youth. The simplicity is deliberate, as the rules name suggests the idea is to get a wargame played in an hour, and this actually part of the appeal for me as I never seem to have enough time in my life for things these days. I also liked the simplicity of the rules I have played enough slow, complicated, maths heavy rules in my youth (I’m looking at you WRG 6th edition ancients, Newbury Fast play Medieval and Empire 3 rules) that I have no desire to play such games again. The simplicity also allows me to tinker, add and try out house rules. As I said above the rules suggest 6 units a side (though this can be modified by playing the extensive number of scenarios (30 in all) provided by the author in the book which is also a benefit, as I have to collect and paint all the miniatures, a smaller number of units is obviously easier on my budget and hobby time.

Having decided to go for it I looked around to see what else I needed to get a game on. Mr Thomas has a small two page section on Solo play at the back of his book where he suggests using chance cards as a way of giving solo games some unpredictability. I liked the idea so I popped on a few wargames sites and asked for examples of unusual things that had happened in Napoleonic battles. I got a big response and chose ten of the suggestions and made a deck of custom made chances cards using my wife’s laminator. I also wanted to try out some house command and control rules to try and make some friction to my solo games. My first idea was to basically to steal the tried and tested DBX style command dice and the other idea was to try a card driven movement system breaking up the ridge IGO-UGO. I made a custom movement card deck using national flags and my wife’s laminator (at this point she was giving me some odd looks). To go with the DBX rules I needed command bases so I had to quickly paint up a Duke of Brunswick command stand. I came up with with a simple scenario set on the 1809 Bohemian border. I felt I needed a few buildings so I knocked up three paper building (they weren’t great but they’d do a job)

On the day I got I set up a table. Where I realised my old gaming terrain could probably do with a bit of a face lift. I actually knocked out two games one using the DBX house rule and one using a card deck movement house rule. Both games were good fun and I hope to post up AARs for both games on the blog soon so I won’t go into details here. In the mean time I can’t finish off a blog post without at least a few nice photos so here is my Duke of Brunswick command stand I speed painted up for the first game.

[Grumpy Gnome]

I admire your many skills mate. Your thorough research and attention to detail. Your painting. And your ability to articulate your thoughts. I empathize with your hobby situation as it echoes my own.

[Roo]

Great thread!  Love the OHW rules for similar reasons, give a good fun wargame especially when using the scenarios most of which give a tight game.  Have doubled forces playing one scenario on each table but allowing troops to cross as required, works ok.  Have fun, that’s what it is all really about!

[Diablo Jon]

I admire your many skills mate. Your thorough research and attention to detail. Your painting. And your ability to articulate your thoughts. I empathize with your hobby situation as it echoes my own.

Thank you.

Great thread!  Love the OHW rules for similar reasons, give a good fun wargame especially when using the scenarios most of which give a tight game.  Have doubled forces playing one scenario on each table but allowing troops to cross as required, works ok.  Have fun, that’s what it is all really about!

Thanks

[Diablo Jon]

As I mentioned in my previous post in preparation for some solo games using Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames I prepared some chance cards based on suggestions I received on various wargames message boards. I typed these out in a word document, printed them off, cut them out and glued them on to some blank playing cards I brought off Amazon. Totally unnecessarily I also found a a painting of Marshal Jean Lannes being shot and printed that off as the rear side of the card for extra durability I then laminated the cards.

The 10 random events I came up with I’ve listed below

That’s the Enemy Fire! Whoops

In the smoke and confusion of battle one unit (chosen by random dice roll) is hit by friendly fire and takes d6 hits.

Who put that there?

A unit stumbles on a hidden drainage ditch. One unit (chosen by random dice roll) can’t move this turn and takes D3 hits due to confusion and injuries.

What Are My Orders Dammit!

A unit (chosen by random dice roll) hasn’t received any orders and can’t move this turn as messengers are sent to higher command. The unit can still shoot if a suitable target is available.

The General Wants Us to do What?

A unit (chosen by random dice roll) receives the wrong orders roll a D6.   

1-2 unit moves full move straight ahead.

 3-4 unit falls backs in a straight line a full move.   

 5–6 unit halts to redress ranks no movement or shooting this turn.

The Heavens Have Opened!

A sudden unexpected downpour turns the battlefield to mud and dampens powder. Next turn all units move at half speed and all firing damage is halved.

Vive le Vin!

 A Unit’s (chosen by random dice roll) officer is drunk. This turn the unit actions are randomised before the officer is replaced by a (sober) junior officer next turn. 

 1-3 shoot at the nearest eligible unit (friend or foe) cavalry no movement instead.

4-5 fallback unit makes a full move straight backwards.

6 Charge the unit makes a full move straight forward entering melee if they can.

All is Lost!

A unit (chosen by random dice roll) receives false news that the battle is lost. The unit automatically falls back a full move straight backwards.

The finest cavalry in Europe and the worst lead.

A unit of cavalry (chosen by random dice roll) goes into an uncontrolled charge. The unit charges the closest enemy unit doing double damage if it wipes out the target of its charge it makes an immediate second charge fighting normally this time. At the end of the turn the cavalry unit itself takes an additional 2d6 hits.

The Colonel is Dead! 

A unit (chosen by random dice roll) loses its commanding officer roll a D6.

1-3 confusion in the chain of command unit may do nothing this turn. 

4-5 Anger the unit tries to avenge his death unit makes a full move towards the nearest enemy unit if they can enter melee they will.

6 Panic the unit temporarily falls back this turn the unit makes a full move straight backwards.

Boom!

An ammunition wagon of one artillery unit (chosen by random dice roll) catches fire and explodes. That artillery unit cannot shoot or move this turn as it recovers from the confusion and lack of ammunition.

The way the cards worked was slightly different in the two games I played. As in each game I used a different command and control system and the Random event cards were tied into these systems in different ways I’ll explain more in the upcoming AARs.

Speaking of different command and control systems I also made up a set of cards for random unit activation I found some national flags (in this case Bavaria and Austria) printed them off and stuck them to the same blank cards as my random events. I added a Napoleonic battle scence to the back and laminated them for extra durability. In this case I made eight of each of the flags and a single random event card which when drawn triggers a ….err.. Random event. Below are a couple of (not great) photos the first is the activation cards the second is the random events card.