Russian Napoleonic cavalry

[Ochoin]

The re-vitalisation project of my Napoleonic armies has been a little glacial recently but after I finish the French Guard (not *that* much to do, there), I'll start in earnest with the Russians.

Their artillery & command is all in order & the cavalry is nearly there. A brigade of dragoons & chasseurs, a brigade of 3 cuirassier regiments, guard Cossacks and hussars (still to come from Kennington) in another brigade & a Cossack "horde" That'll be 8 regiments in total and a battery of horse artillery.

The infantry are a schmozzle, being in mid re-basing and a number of figures on the way to make up, eventually, 22 battalions.

This will make for a useful force for a night or weekend day's gaming. I'm hoping to get a game together (versus French Guard) sometime before March next year.












donald

[Bessiere]

Nice looking army. I'm finding Russians the hardest to paint being very unfamiliar with both their colors and gear. Are these all metal figures and is there a time period for their uniforms? I cheated on my Russians and did cossacks first, couldn't help myself. Post more pics when the czar's full force arrives.
Cheers,
Bessiere

[PaulRPetri]

That is a beautiful army Donald!!

[Minuteman]

A good-looking mass of Napoleonic Russian cavalry donald.

What make are your dragoons?

[Ochoin]

Thank you for the kind comments.

Mostly plastic - HaT Zvesda & Strelets. There are Kennington metals (great figures but, sadly, a narrow range) in some of the cuirassiers, and the hussars - the rest of the unit are in the post. Newline provided the dragoons & artillery.

Interesting thing about cossacks: in all the games I've had them, they've only done something concrete once in charging a broken unit & punching a hole in the line. However, my enemy is always wary of them, affording assets to watch them, "just in case". They do nothing but hover & are worth their weight.

donald

[Bessiere]

Cossacks drained a lot of resources from Napoleon both in Russia and Germany in 1813, dashing in whenever they caught messengers or small detachments riding alone. Napoleon eventually used 1,000 troops to guard everything valuable on the road he thought at risk - at a time he didn't have enough cavalry to capitalize on victories such as Lutzen and Bautzen. There were also at least 2 occasions when Napoleon himself was nearly captured by roving Cossacks, probably more. It may be impossible to replicate their importance in gaming but I'm convinced they were an essential part of Allied victory over the French and certainly deserve a spot in our collections and gaming armies.

[MABO]

Cool work, but I would like to see some close-ups!

[Peter]

Cool work, but I would like to see some close-ups!

I agree!