Saka Light Cavalry

Saka Light Cavalry

Thursday 17 January 2013

Italian 6mm Baccus Napoleonic Infantry

These troops will pull double duty with my French Spanish Army and the ill fated Russian adventure. These look a lot like the Neapolitan's not just in that they were the same style as the French but coat colours facings and cuffs etc. Even the flags have similar attributes. However that is about as close as it gets, as soon as you talk about fighting ability and morale they are in another league.

Indeed both foe and friend held them in high regard and equal to any other regular line regiments. Napoleon made a wise move when he formed the Guard regiments in that you had to have a certain level of income to be able to join these regiments. This induced the sons of the rich to join up but Napoleon kept these regiments on ceremonial duties and away from the risks of the campaigns which earned the support of the rich who's sons were thus protected. So this lead to the typical lot getting the hot stuff, just how the ones in power liked it.

One elite regiment served in Spain being the Velite and have been illustrated wearing the bearskin such as the Grenadiers and as I have a number of these figures I jumped at the chance to use some here. However once painted and based up I found out this regiment did not actually have a standard. I was happy to ignore this fact and use one of the flags that would have been another Guard regiments colour.

The top of the bearskin was red cloth with a white cross on it. These should stand out on the battlefield  and will have a relatively high morale and cohesion.

Two regiments of Legere served in Spain, the 1st and 2nd and are shown here. These two regiments were a green base colour with different waste coats, facings etc. These will be given stats equal to French Light Regiments.

Five Legne regiments were serving in Spain in November 1808 and I have used the colours given in one of my sources to depict those regiments. I believe some of these were removed from Spain before the 1812 campaign and as such suffered the same fate as the rest of Napoleons infantry in the retreat. I have used on all the regiments flags originally given to the regiments and not those given them in 1813 to replace all the lost standards. The flags are all Baccus but be warned that no information comes with the flags to which are which. This could lead you into using 1813 flags by mistake. Not a big issue unless you wargame with some one who likes to point this sort of thing out. 

So one big step to finishing off the infantry in Spain and at the same time suitable for Russia. I have a few more regiments prepped and quite a few waiting in the wings, these will get used for the other allied troops whilst I wait for Baccus to bring out the new French figures. I may have to get some more before then but if so I think I will go with Baccus as some of these figures had lead between the legs and the detail is not that crisp.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks guys, I've spent all day working on the base for a single figure so not got as much done as hoped

    Ian

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