AHPC15 - Ray & Lee's combined project round-up (and punch-up)

Me & Lee got together on Tuesday evening to bring both sides of our Retreat from Moscow project together in the Rejects Shed-o-War. Laid out on the table we are more than a little amazed at how much we have got done during the painting challenge. Once again this amazing event has stimulated our creative juices, whipped up our enthusiasm and kept our brushes whirling in a way we never normally manage to replicate at any other time of the year.

I beat Lee on points.........so we recreated that beating in front of our combined output from the Challenge!!

We've had a good long chat about our respective armies and have already made a list of extra units we want to add. We have already started making some of the terrain we want for this project and yesterday we agreed what to buy next and exchanged ideas of items we would like to see on a future battlefield. So while the frenetic pace of activity during the challenge will abate a little over the next few weeks, we are hoping to keep that enthusiasm burning throughout the year. I summed it up perfectly when I describe our efforts during the Challenge as "phase one of the project".

There will be more to come!

 

AHPC 15 - Retreat from Moscow - L'escadron sacré 101 pts

The Sacred Squadron (French L'escadron sacré) was an ad hoc cavalry unit which served briefly in the French Grande Armée during the final stage of the Emperor Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812. It was remarkable in that it consisted - out of military necessity - entirely of officers, with those below the rank of colonel serving as troopers.

The Sacred Squadron was formed on 23 November 1812, by the Bobr River (perhaps at Borisoff, in modern Belarus) to serve as Napoleon's bodyguard. It was disbanded on 10 December 1812, in Kowno (modern Kaunas, Lithuania). It therefore served during the crossing of the Berezina (26-29 November), and continued to exist for a few days after Napoleon's departure for Paris on 5 December.

Its existence is recorded in the 29th Bulletin of the Grande Armée, by which Napoleon hinted to the French people for the first time the scale of the disaster which had befallen the Grande Armée:

"Our cavalry was dismounted to such a degree, that it was necessary to collect the officers who had still a horse remaining, in order to form four companies of 150 men each. The Generals there performed the functions of captains, and the colonels of subalterns. This sacred squadron, commanded by General Grouchy, and under the orders of the King of Naples (Murat), did not lose sight of the Emperor in all these movements."

No written order establishing the unit has been found; it is possible that it was set up orally. No official record of those who served in it has survived; considering the circumstances, it is possible that none was ever made, or that the records of Marshal Berthier (Napoleon's Chief of Staff) were lost during the retreat. Other sources give lower numbers than Napoleon's 600: Chandler says 500.

In addition to its commander Général de division Grouchy, the following are said to have served with the Sacred Squadron:

Général de division de La Tour-Maubourg
Général de brigade de La Grange 
Colonel Rambourgt 
Colonel de Fernig 
Lieutenant-colonel de Castellane
Lieutenant-colonel de Lascours 
Chef d'escadron  de Gramont 
Chef d'escadron  de Potier 
Capitaine Aimé Benoît Delamalle
Lieutenant Le Bon Desmottes 
Lieutenant Claude-Xavier-Louis-François Martin
Lieutenant Saint-Geniès 
Sous-lieutenant Korte 

My 2 Commanders, both are from Front Rank miniatures. On my brand new Warbases sabot bases.

These 4 are all Casting Room Miniatures and all have had green stuff cloaks and a scarf to hold his bicorne on.

Four more figures from Front Rank, there was no need to add anything on these, I could have added a cape for the Guard figure, but didn't want to spoil his uniform.

So there we have it, Napoleon's Sacred Squadron, or 10 Mounted Commanders, if you don't want the Sacred Squadron in a game..

Points are easy, 10 figures at 10 points each, 100 pts, maybe Teemu would like to add some extra for the the cloaked commanders.

Teemu very generously gave me 1 extra bonus point, giving me 101 pts pushing me up into the top 10, in 10th place, for the first and probably only time this Challenge, on 988 points. Only 12 away from my target of 1000.

AHPC15 - Retreat from Moscow - French Cavalry Mixed unit no1

Perry Miniatures make a few packs of French and Allied Cavalry in various winter clothing, both uniform and non-uniform. I have bought these packs, which are still in the lead mountain of shame. So with my brain in overdrive I've searched every company I can think of who sell 25-28mm French Napoleonics Cavalry for figures with either greatcoats and or wet weather gear on.

There are NOT a lot, Front Rank to a few mounted command figures and that's about it really, So what to do????

Then I found these chaps, from Empress Miniatures Gwalior, Afghanistan, Punjaub and Scinde. range. Thinking " I might be able to uses these?", although they did break my heart and my wallet. £28.50 for 6 figures!!!

Originally I was going to use these figures as command models, but not now, although some may find their way into doing so????  Empress do sell more figures like these bad boys, that might have to join the collection at a later date???

As you know the Retreat from Moscow was a little haphazard. I've chosen not to have any formed units as such, I'm going for mixed adhoc units, made up from different regts. These figures can be mixed in with the Perry figures previously mentioned. The French cavalry lost many, many horses on the retreat, I expect most were slaughtered for their meat, or just died from the cold, so a lot of cavalry fought on foot, for this and many other reasons. Making them mixed units makes sense to me?

In the front row we have figures all from Empress representing the 2nd Cuirassiers, 4th Chasseurs and the 11th Hussars.

The two figures representing the 2nd Cuirassiers were originally going to be the Wuttemburg 1st Chevau Legere, as the helmet kind of match theirs, minus a plume, but after painting them, I found further info saying that the helmet changed to another kind in 1807, oh !!!!!!. So they became the 2nd Cuirassiers instead!

At the back we have figures from 10th Cuirassiers, the 4th Chasseurs and the 30th Dragoons. The two figures on the right are both the bravest of the brave, wearing no winter coats!! and are plastic figures from Victrix, (I think)

The Officer is a figure from Casting Room Miniatures, that I bought for my Haitian Revolution project that didn't get used,. Pack FN530

My favorite figure in the 11th Hussar, front row on the right, wearing a Father Christmas coat, firing his pistol over his shoulder.

Horses arse!

These poor souls all had their heads chopped off and replaced with a more suitable Napoleonic head apart from the commander on the left who's now wearing a nice warm and furry cloak.

As to the points...

9 x Mounted 25mm figures @ 10 pts each, gives me a total of 90, plus anything that Teemu gives me for the conversion work?

Haitian/St Domingue Revolution - Free Mulattoes

 

I should have sorted my game out for Broadside before the painting Challenge, but I never make things easy for myself. So after sorting out the terrain, (more on that later) I needed a few more figures painted up!

Here we have 2 units of 12 figures representing the Mulatto townsfolk of Croix-du-Bouquets

Nobody makes any Mulatto figures with muskets, so I had to de a bit of improvising.

The figures are a mixture of  Wargames Foundry Pirates Packs CU33 Kristos Raiders and CU34

Yellowboys Renegades

And some figures from several packs of Casting Room Miniatures Rebels & Rebels, Rioters or Civilians

My favorite figure is the chap waving the bicorne, who I'll be using as a standard bearer, he is actually from.Eureka Miniatures Paris Mob pack!

My Salute Loot 2024

 

Salute is well and truly over for another year and what a great show it was, thanks again to The Warlords and everyone involved in making the show a great experience.

So great infact, that my wallet was attacked by a bit of a spending spree, at the time I didn't think I bought too much, BUT now when I look at it..........well I'll let the pics do the talking.

My first purchase of the day wasn't planned at all, walking around I found Battlefield Accessories. Its not any wonder I'd not heard about them before as they're from Australia! The 3 buildings are made from MDF and were a fair price , between £16 and £24 each.

Next we have a set of rules BelloLudi, this time from the Netherlands!

I bought the complete set of rules, dice and cards. I saw these advertised somewhere recently, can't remember where? 

A pre order from those wonderful chaps at Warbases

Including some of their 2mm Strength & Honour figures.

Yes I'm going to do another 2mm period, even though I've not finished the last one and not had a game with the figures yet.

I phoned Casting Rooms Miniatures a few weeks ago, I wanted them to bring a few packs with them to the show so I could see how big or small they are, basically will they fit in with Trent Miniatures. For my Haitian Revolution game I plan to put on at Broadside Wargame Show in June, I need some Creole/Mulatto figures, so thought these might work. But the one thing I forgot to bring with me was a Trent mini so I had to guess, (never a good idea?) I picked out a few packs, but in the end just bought the bloody lot!!

Foudry Pirates...............no actually they're more Creole/Mulatto troops. I really only needed around 18 figures, I've now got a whole bloody army of them! Why do I do this to myself?

Re-designed Vallejo paints!

A little pressie from Steve at General Reeve blog

A sprue of French Napoleonics, these should come in handy, cheers Steve! 

What a great hobby community we have.

By the time I got to Debris of War, they'd sold out of a building I wanted!! No problem though, I've arranged to pick one up at Broadside in June.

A pack of French Revolutionary figures, Paris Mob from Eureka,  and my first ever purchase from 

Gringo 40's General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, he will make a perfect Haitian General.

Last but not least Basic Impetus rules along with Warbook 4.

It's all Jonathan Freitag's fault!

And that's the end of my Salute Loot!