Army Spotlight: Ken's Napoleonic British Army

Napoleonic British arrayed for battle.
“We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France”.

This month's army spotlight looks at Ken's 15mm Waterloo British. 

Regarding this army, Ken says, "My interest in Napoleonic gaming started, like a lot of old Grognards, in 1970 with the movie Waterloo.  I fell in love with the pageantry of large masses of school marching band members shooting at each other. It didn’t take long for me to buy a bunch of Airfix 1/72 scale minis, and with my cryptic “rules” taped to the walls of my garage my friends & I spent many hours re-fighting historical battles.

30+ years later I happened by a local hobby store called Game Vault and my love affair with historical minis was rekindled.  I tried a number of Napoleonic systems until I landed on Napoleon at War.  It’s a divisional level game, with a lot of flexibility in the list building mechanism.  I think the national doctrines/characteristics are reflected nicely in the rules: the Brits are very tough on defense, the French move fast & are all about sticking you with the bayonet, the Austrians are big but cumbersome, etc. I currently have 7 lists – French, Brits, Poles, Russians, Swedes, Austrians, and Prussians."

Ken built this army to match a list from Napoleon at War: The Hundred Days, duplicating British at Waterloo.  He's also used it to build a Peninsular list with Portuguese allies.

Asked about the scale, Ken says "Why 15mm? To me, the visual appeal of Napoleonic miniature gaming is in the movement & combat of large bodies of troops. I think 6mm is too small, 10mm works, but 15mm hits the sweet spot."

The list has also been used for Blackpowder games, but Napoleon at War, Ken says, "If anyone is interested in giving Napoleon at War a try, I would LOVE to host a demo game and can provide everything needed. The Napoleon at War Facebook page also has a ton of files for list building, rules clarifications, etc.

"Finally, on painting style, "Good enough to look good enough on the table! With Napoleonics it’s basically paint by numbers; get the major colors right and don’t sweat the details.  I think with any rank & file system with lots of figures the visual “wow” factor is in the numbers, not the details of any particular figure (at least in 15mm)."

3 Regiments of stalwart line infantry – “the scum of the earth”.

Two regiments of Highlanders, with a regiment of “Light Bobs” in front. 
Don’t let the skirts fool you – these guys TOUGH.
“Has Wellington nothing to offer me but these Amazons”?

A brigade of Allies:
2 regiments of Brunswickers, a Nassau regiment, and the Dutchies bringing up the rear.

An artillery battery under the watchful eye of “The Peer”.

Two regiments of Heavy Dragoons.
“Our officers of cavalry have acquired a habit of galloping at everything…
they never think of maneuvering before an enemy”.

Pandemic Painting VI

SAG members have continued painting during the pandemic. This is the work we've done through July and the first half of August.

Matt says, "9th edition has me all excited to play Chaos Marines and Daemons again"
I think he is refering to Warhammer, 40K.

Ed's "bunch of spearmen"

Jared's American armor for Bolt Action, weathered, in next few images. 

Jared's "German Bolt Action weathering"

Jared's 40k leader type. 

Chris' warriors. What system, you ask? 
"they are for every system I can play with 28mm guys carrying big axes."

Matt's "Venomcrawler (spider demon engine thingy)"

Some 10mm resin figures for Warmaster that Chris painted. 

Chris' knight afoot.

Chris' knight mounted.

Chris' samurai, mounted.

Below we have Wally's troops ready for Musket & Tomahawk.

Chris' tower of solitude.

Jeffrey "Finished Chesty For my Marines"

Jeffrey "The Corps is ready to roll"

Buck's Ursus troopers for Konflict '47.

Matt says, "Not too bad for at home prints - less than a dollar a tank. These had some minor print failures on the mud guards in the back but I never leave mud guards intact anyway as they are the first thing that goes (especially on German tanks which I prefer to do heavily weathered)."

Ren's WWI 28mm Germans are a work in progress. 
"The officers done and waiting for a wash and a few fixes."

A look at the tri-color helmet cam for REn's WWI Germans, a WIP.

From Matt, "3D printed Panzer III Es. If you look really closely you can see the layer lines in a few spots - still pretty darn good results for a dollar a tank and not noticeable at tabletop height"

Wally says, "The British are coming. Desert Rats that is 😎🤙"

Chris' mounted knights for jousting!

Chris' warriors a foot. 

Chris built some Dark Age terrain.

Matt's "beefy fellow" for 40K.

Jeffrey's chopper "7th Cav Airmobile"

Jeffery's rebels are "Ready to fight on Hoth printed by me."

Matt likes his new 3d printer"...quite happy with the quality of 3D prints from Thingverse. Very close to traditional resin casts when painted, decaled, and weathered. Also the short barrel PZ IV needs more love, it’s the slow moving support tank of Guderian’s dreams."

What if... Battle of Sandy Hook, July 1812

 

USS Constitution vs Guerriere by Michel Felice Corne.

An interesting Hypothetical historical scenario for Black Sails players. the Battle of Sandy Hook, July 1812.  Any Napoleonic sea battle rules should work but I had in my mind WarLord Games' Black Seas since some in our club play it. 

At the start of the War of 1812 Commodore John Rodgers and Commodore Stephen Decatur took two squadrons to sea. They hoped to wreck some damage on British shipping before knowledge of the war became widespread, especially they hoped to hit a large, rich convoy headed from Jamaica to England.

Rodgers commanded USS President (44), Decatur commanded USS United States (44). Also sailing with the squadron were the USS Congress (38), as well as the brigs USS Hornet (18) and USS Argus (18). In mid-July USS Constitution (44) commanded by Isaac Hull set sail to meet the squadron off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and instead ran into the British Halifax squadron, from which she escaped after a legendary chase.

But what if she had rendezvoused with Rodgers squadron and met the Halifax squadron, commanded by Commodore Philip Broke?  We might today study the Battle of Sandy Hook, July 1812, the first squadron encounter between the U.S and Royal navies.

The British squadron which chased USS Constitution consisted of four frigates and a ship of the line. How might an American squadron of all three "super-44s" done against them?

The British squadron was HMS Shannon, commanded by Commodore Philip Vere Broke, a 38-gun Leda-class frigate; HMS Aeolus, Captain James Townsend, a 32-gun Amphion-class fifth-rate frigate; HMS Africa, Captain John Bastard, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line; HMS Belvidera, Captain Richard Byron, a 36-gun Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate and finally HMS Guerriere, Captain Richard Dacres, a 38-gun frigate formerly of the French Navy.

edited addendum:

My friend Ken has written the scenario up for Black Seas, and down the points to make a "balanced" fight of it. 

The brigs were removed from the American squadron to keep the points even.
Player may choose to add them back in, if they add a brig and a sloop to the British squadron.

Some accounts mention a brig and/or sloop with the British squadron,
but I didn't include them as I haven't been able to confirm which ships they were.

The American "super-44s" had 'over-built' live oak hulls that enabled them to take more damage then British vessels of similar size. All three of the American heavy frigates together make for a powerful squadron, but they Americans have little or no experience or training with squadron tactics in this sort of battle, just some squadron shore bombardments during the Barbary War a decade earlier.  But they have large crews, often twice the size of a British frigates crew, and they are well trained and enthusiastic.  

The British have a great deal of experience and the best naval traditions in the world. Their officers are very familiar with squadron maneuvers. But they have had little time for training with the press of the Napoleonic Wars. The Shannon is known as a well-drilled vessel whose crew will prove very skilled at gunnery in future encounters, but other British ships may not fair so well. And their vessels are almost always under-crewed - Britain's policy of pressing sailors at sea from neutral vessels is one of the causes of the conflict.  

I don't know much about Black Seas, I haven't yet played it, but this seems like a reasonably balanced scenario. If anyone plays it out, please let me know. 

edit 2:  A very similar fight was played out and described by "The Fencing Frog" on his blog here.