Newline Royal Horse Artillery

An Officer type

I've been using Revell Foot Artillery figures with an ADC figure as a substitute for Horse Artillery for quite some time. However, sooner or later I was going to have to get the right chaps on the board and finally, he they are.

This fellow is a Newline British Light Dragoon, who has had sword-ectomy and is now serving as the officer in charge of this particular gun.

Gunners, they wore fancier hats back then

These are Newline chaps again, I only actually needed two per gun, but it would be a silly waste of figures not to have a full (ish) crew for each piece. They are nice little figures and they don't look too out of scale with the rest of my collection.

The ensemble

I only needed two units of Royal Horse Artillery, no doubt once my ambitions become fixed on another big game I'll hanker for some more, but in the mean time these will do.

With the addition of these guns, all that remains to complete my British collection (at least until I decide I need something more exotic) is some Lifeguards. I think I hear the Revell set calling.

French Horse Artillery

Newline Designs French Horse Artillery

I've been extemporising Horse artillery for the last while, using an ADC figure and two chaps from the foot batteries. As a stop gap, it sufficed and there was little doubt as to which were the horse batteries and which the foot. But it rankled, so I have just mustered two new gun crews into the French service. These are Newline Designs figures and are a touch small, but they do well in units on their own. I had toyed with HATs offering, but wasn't convinced by the sculpting. I also wanted each horse battery to have at least one mounted gunner so that the difference between horse and foot batteries would be clear.

Up close for a whiff of grapeshot

My readers are all no doubt familiar with horse artillery, but in case Tim Gow has had a sudden rush of blood to the head and momentarily forgotten anything that doesn't have a jet engine on it.

Horse artillery are simply put, batteries of artillery where the gun crews ride rather than walk. The idea behind them was that they would provide fast mobile firepower where it was needed. Foot batteries, which typically carried a greater weight of metal, were more powerful, but couldn't be relied upon to get to the key point quickly. Horse artillery, sometimes called "flying batteries", though I've only heard this used when referring to the American arm, were most numerous in French service. They were expensive to train and raise as they required more horses then a foot battery and men who could ride as well as shoot. The first batteries were raised in 1792 under General Mathieu Dumas.

Sadly, this is not Alexandra Dumas father, who was the rather more imposing Thomas Alexandre Dumas. But the French artillery and horse artillery especially certainly shared his aggression. Paddy Griffith covers the "artillery charge" in passing in his Osprey on French Napoleonic Infantry tactics, but essentially it boiled down to getting in close and shooting fast, delivering murderous close range fire to rupture the enemy line.




We will never see a horse artillery battery in action in earnest, but to give you some impression of the speed, precision and dash of these men, have a look at this footage from the Royal Tournament in 1985.

Stragglers

While Command & Colours Napoleonics gun crews (at least as I organise them) come with only three crewmen and a gun, that seemed a rather scanty number of gunners. The Newline Design packs came with more figures than I needed, so should I ever need more crewmen (I won't say a full crew), these fellows are waiting in the wings.

I suppose that these pictures are part of a larger project to document my collection of figures, for my own satisfaction and so that I can insure them. I posted (as I usually do) a link to my blog entry on the subject to The Miniatures Page recently and received some interesting and not so interesting responses.

The discussion spiralled out of the bounds of reason and decency shortly there after and considerable time and energy that could have been more profitably spent calculating how many angels may dance on the head of the pin or perhaps ironing the undersides of cats was expended on the subject of whether it is right or proper to murder someone who is burgling your home. For a variety of reasons, I shall not go into my position on the subject here. I can only steal another man's eloquence.

"It is a big step to take another human life. It is never to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. I can assure you they live with the Mark of Cain upon them."

Newline Designs Royal Horse Artillery

Loot!

I have been treating the Command & Colours: Napoleonics scenario bank as a shopping list for my Peninsular War armies and assiduously filling out the spots that I haven't filled. One thing that I have discovered is that my artillery units, which all come with caissons and gun teams, have absolutely no chance of fitting in a five inch hex.

The Foot Artillery units don't look too bad with just a gun and some crew, but I needed something to distinguish the Horse Artillery. I also needed some Horse Artillery.

Well needed is probably a rather strong word, I certainly wanted Horse Artillery. I eventually settled on a gun with crew and a mounted officer to help distinguish the Horse from the Foot batteries. This is not so tough for the British, who have the decency to wear a different sort of hat, but more of a difficulty for the French, whose horse artillery look very "footy" to my eyes. I'm not sure of the ability of inexperienced players to distinguish between the two in the heat of battle.

Enter Sean at Newline Designs stage left and I am now the proud owner of two complete sets of British and French Horse Artillery guns and crew with mounted officers to match. The British officers are actually Light Dragoons, who will have their swords trimmed and possible spy glasses or something similar added. They are nice figures and I'll post some pictures when they are painted, but I think I might try and find some officers with pelisses.

There's just something about pelisses, don't you think?

Observe the pelisse, gentlemen. Isn't there something about it that suggests that this fellow went to the right school, what?

Newline Designs Chasseurs

Little and large
Newline Designs Chasseur & Hat Marching Chasseur

Spending a very pleasant evening with Mrs. Kinch - who is engrossed in her Harry Potter Wii game. I've always liked the books, but Mrs. Kinch is obviously getting rather more from the experience than I am, seeing as she is leaping about the room using the motion sensitive controller as a "wand".

Meanwhile, I am (pardon the pun) pottering about with some of HATs very handsome Marching Chasseurs. I am very much of the opinion that marching figures are perfect for horse and musket wargaming. However, I have met a slight problem - I field battalions of 48 other ranks, HATs marching box holds 32 figures and buying a second box seemed like an extravagance. I bought some Newline Chasseurs to bulk out the unit - but as you can see Foy's reservations were well founded, they look rather weedy next to their HAT brethren.

Fortunately, another box of chasseurs isn't going to break the bank - I may have to find the Newline lads a new home though. I should hopefully finish these chaps this evening and get them off to Mark in the morning. They're destined to join the first Legere at Maida.

Of course, they will need a flag. Any recommendations from the mess?