I have started to increase my Cavalry regiments to fit with Foundry's 'Napoleon' rules. They state that Light cavalry should fielded in regiments of 12 and Heavy cavalry in regiments of 16. Were the Heavy cavalry regiments bigger? I will have to research that and find out.
I was also pleased to find that my mixed Dragoon green I painted over five years ago matched exactly the Foundry Dragoon colour, a little thing but it made me happy. It means my new figures will match my old and cut down on repainting time. I find the new Foundry Napoleonic paint colours a God send in saving time.
Another thing of note Is that I found out that Napoleonic trumpeters were mounted on grey horses, so they could be easily found by their commanders and help in sounding out orders on the battlefield. So I quickly had to repaint my Dragoon musician who had been sitting on a Bay for five years. There is so much to learn with a period like this and I find it just as enjoyable as the painting itself. I will put up pictures soon.
Another great 'Iron Mitten' cartoon! On the regiment size for French heavy cav (including Dragoons if you like) saw roughly 600 per regiment in 4 squadrons in 1805 - so @ 50 per figure a unit of 12. In 1807 this was raised to 5 squadrons - each being of two companies of 100 (on paper anyway) - so another 4 figures. It should be pointed out that they rarely obtained this size and usually fielded four squadrons. The dragoons had it even worse. Nominally also 4 squadrons of two companies each with 64 mounted and the Etat Major with about 14 including the sappers & regt cmd - a total of 526 mounted. Of course in 1805 there were 36 dismounted per company (horse shortages) that were formed into Foot Dragoon units. These were done away with by 1809 but there would be very few (if any) Dragoon regiments that would have had a strength of 800 even on paper. So 12 figures per unit is about right (@ 1 figure = 50 men). The establishments for dragoons and chasseurs were the same (except for the possible addition of a 5th squadron) for the heavies. The sources for this are Emir Bukhari in the Osprey books. Hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Doc
http://docsartofwar.blogspot.com/
Good Post...I like it
ReplyDeleteThanks Doc, so what you are saying is that both heavies and lights should be the same in number...around 12 figures.
ReplyDeleteI never get tired of these illustrations! Your dragoon's helmet reminded me of a photo from my grandpa's WWII album. He visited Waterloo after Germany surrendered and eh took some shots of his friends wearing helmets from the museum. I'm no Napoleonic era expert. Could you ID the helmet?
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