Spotsylvania Area Gamers: Army Spotlight: La Grande Division Fictive

This army came about in an interesting manner, at least to me. I never really wanted to build a Napoleonic army, especially 28mm. Too much work, and I wasn't keen on the obsessive uniform study. And it wasn't a period or war I particularly favored. But my son was in his late teens and interested enough that he bought the Waterloo - Black Powder 2nd Edition Starter Set and insisted I take over the French so he would have an opponent. If you are a father you know that you cannot pass up the chance to wargame with your son!

I am not normally a fan of the French, but I knew I had to find a way to make a French army intriguing to me. And that was when I recalled Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard. I immediately began rereading the series and hunting for the stories I hadn't yet read. This foolish French officer gave me the spark I needed. I decided my French army would be "fictitious", it would be commanded only by French commanders taken from literature. Further, it would primarily be cavalry, especially light cavalry. I knew they would mostly perform poorly on the battlefield, but they should be fairly fun to have charge about - quick to advance and quick to withdraw, but always filled with élan!

I soon became as obsessed with uniform details as I had feared! Of course, my figures are far from museum quality, and I didn't get all the details right. I tried to set a good impression viewed from 2-4 feet away. It took me several years as I am a slow painter, but here is La Grande Division Fictive, fresh from their first (marginal) victory!

The generals first. Aside from Gerard, I didn't try to match General figures to their appearances - too difficult. The commander of the division is General Calvet, from Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe series.

I got these figures cheap at the Historicon flea market, they were a bit dented and bent. They looked familiar and some research revealed they were probably inspired by a painting of Marshal Joachim Murat - see the image below. I painted the figure to the left to match Murat as much as I could. The central figure on the black steed is based on another painting (see below) and the third I painted from imagination. Generally, during play, the brown horse represents Calvet, the black represents Feraud, and the white represents Chabert.

The Equestrian Portrait of Joachim Murat, King of Naples
by Antoine-Jean Gros likely inspired the sculptor
of the figures I use for some of my generals.

Death of Prince Poniatowski on October 19th. 1813 by Horace Vernet
I chose to model the colors for another of the general figures above.
Since one of my infantry lines is Polish (see below) I chose a Polish Marshal who
fought for Napoleon to base the paint job on But usually the figures represents Brigadier Feraud.

I tend to run the division with five small brigades now. first Brigadier Gerard's Brigade.

I have painted Brigadier Gerard as an officer in 2nd Hussars – the Hussars of Chamborant.

He commands a squadron of hussars and a squadron of chasseurs à cheval.

2nd Hussars led by Brigadier Gerard.

9th Chasseurs à Cheval

Next, another cavalry brigade. This one is commanded by Brigadier Gabriel Feraud from the movie The Duelists. He commands my heavy brigade, with a squadron of dragoons and another of chevaux leger lancer.

6th Chevaux Leger Lancers

French Dragoons

The final cavalry brigade comprises two squadrons of chasseurs à cheval (see above for their stat card).

It is commanded by Brigadier Armand d'Hubert, also from the movie The Duelists.

15th Chasseurs à Cheval

2nd Chasseurs à Cheval

I wanted to emulate Napoleon's Grande Batterie tactic, so I created an artillery brigade of 3 horse artillery batteries. It is commanded by Colonel Hyacinthe Chabert from Honoré de Balzac's novella of the same name.

Horse Artillery.

The final brigade is the only infantry brigade. It is commanded by Brigadier Guy Loup, also from from Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe series. He has a battalion of Light Line Infantry, and two line Battalions.