More camp followers

No, not you Kenneth...

One of the oddities of my collection, along with the shocking lack of Grenadiers of the Guard (sorry John), is that I'm very fond of camp followers, surgeons, vivandieres and all those other hanger on types. Admittedly, I have scaled that back somewhat as I have rather a lot of them at this stage.

The Drogheda Cossacks had a reputation for looting and pillaging, but lest we forget someone had to carry the loot, so allow me to present the official "hangers on" of the 18th Light Dragoons.

(click to embiggen)

A young chap leading some cows, stolen no doubt. I'm not au fait with the history of dairy farming in Spain, so I have no idea if the Freisian is appropriate for the Iberian peninsula. Figures from IMEX's American Pioneers set and painted by Mark Bevis and Graham Tormey.

(click to embiggen)

Another stolen piece of equipment, this time an Italeri French supply wagon accompanied by a metal figure that I think was made by Uwe Emke, but I'm not sure.

Civilians are often an interesting addition to the battlefield and often underused. Past uses have included -

1. As objectives, players have to attack/defend a wagon train, seize a particular person, etc. Seizing the French baggage train at Vittoria would be one example from the period.

2. As terrain, you can use civilians as a means of clogging up roads, complicating movement in urban areas and generally not doing what they are told.

3. As a source of intelligence. Players in my games have learned that I rarely place civilian figures on the table for no reason, they can be an invaluable source of information on local fords, where the enemy has been in the area, etc. Two examples of this sort of thing that I'm rather proud of.

a) A player observed that there was a hut on one side of the river and that there was a shepherd and some sheep on the other side. Divining correctly that a shepherd would be unlikely to traipse around to the bridge, he went looking for a ford between the shepherd and his house.

b) There were two built up areas on the board. One was populated with civilians and the other deserted. The player worked out that of the two built up areas, the ambush which he suspected had been set was most likely in or near the deserted town.

More camp followers

No, not you Kenneth...

One of the oddities of my collection, along with the shocking lack of Grenadiers of the Guard (sorry John), is that I'm very fond of camp followers, surgeons, vivandieres and all those other hanger on types. Admittedly, I have scaled that back somewhat as I have rather a lot of them at this stage.

The Drogheda Cossacks had a reputation for looting and pillaging, but lest we forget someone had to carry the loot, so allow me to present the official "hangers on" of the 18th Light Dragoons.

(click to embiggen)

A young chap leading some cows, stolen no doubt. I'm not au fait with the history of dairy farming in Spain, so I have no idea if the Freisian is appropriate for the Iberian peninsula. Figures from IMEX's American Pioneers set and painted by Mark Bevis and Graham Tormey.

(click to embiggen)

Another stolen piece of equipment, this time an Italeri French supply wagon accompanied by a metal figure that I think was made by Uwe Emke, but I'm not sure.

Civilians are often an interesting addition to the battlefield and often underused. Past uses have included -

1. As objectives, players have to attack/defend a wagon train, seize a particular person, etc. Seizing the French baggage train at Vittoria would be one example from the period.

2. As terrain, you can use civilians as a means of clogging up roads, complicating movement in urban areas and generally not doing what they are told.

3. As a source of intelligence. Players in my games have learned that I rarely place civilian figures on the table for no reason, they can be an invaluable source of information on local fords, where the enemy has been in the area, etc. Two examples of this sort of thing that I'm rather proud of.

a) A player observed that there was a hut on one side of the river and that there was a shepherd and some sheep on the other side. Divining correctly that a shepherd would be unlikely to traipse around to the bridge, he went looking for a ford between the shepherd and his house.

b) There were two built up areas on the board. One was populated with civilians and the other deserted. The player worked out that of the two built up areas, the ambush which he suspected had been set was most likely in or near the deserted town.

Hussars of Conflans - Tail, rather than teeth.

A HAT portable forge, modified by a headswap with a Zvesda hussar

Cavalry units have unsurprisingly enough a lot of horses and they place concomitant demands on supplies of horse shoes. While hussars are off dashing about sabring Austrians and bothering the local womenfolk, someone has to make sure that the beau sabreur's steed was capable of walking afterwards. I have a regiment of the Hussars de Conflans in my Napoleonic French army, organised on the Charge! model.

I have something a love affair with the tail units in my armies; I have a plethora of baggage animals, wagons, camp followers and the like. That they serve no earthly use in a wargaming context is largely irrelevant, though I should really settle down and work out some means of using them in CCN.

For those of you reaching for your copies of Digby Smiths Napoleon's Regiments you won't find them there. The Hussars of Conflans are from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard stories. Though on rereading the stories recently, apparently the Third Hussars are the Hussars of Conflans. Now as Molesworth would say, "...as ane foole no.." the Third Hussars were the Hussars De Esterhazy , but I think I prefer the historical Third Hussars uniforms which are rather fetching grey and red number.

This means of course, that my Hussars of Conflans with their invented uniform (assisted by that clever fellow that runs Not by Appointment) may have to transfer to my Ruritanian forces and that I will have to get a new regiment of hussars.

The crosses I bear.