Unit Commander/ Strength Stands

 

For weeks I’ve been mulling over the best way to represent and track unit strengths and casualties in a way that is functional, but also doesn’t disrupt the look and feel of the table.

One day it struck me that the wooden blocks from the old Avalon Hill/ Columbia board game, ‘Napoleon’ might work well: The blocks have unit type symbols (Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery) as well as strength pips on each edge that represent the strength of the unit in the game.

These blocks have the advantages of dice, which are often used for this purpose, but also a little better feel for the period.

They can also be used standing to prevent your opponent from knowing the exact strength of a unit. This hidden information is one of the advantages of blocks vs. counters in block wargames.

So I decided to take the concept one step further and create specialized unit command stands with a ‘frame’ build specifically to hold the blocks. The added advantage is that I could also use the Unit Command Stand to also label the unit and the commander: In this case, the French 2nd Infantry Division in D’Erlon’s I Corps at Waterloo, commanded by Donzelot.

I constructed the stand/ frame using a Litko Base and craft sticks cut to size and wood-glued.

 

 

This divisional commander figure is an old, repainted Hinchliffe rider on a new Hinchliffe horse.

Hinchliffe are a bit outdated by today’s 28mm sculpting standards, but have many well animated figures, and are perfect for my current ‘toy soldier’ ‘shiny Napoleonic’ project. They are roughly 25mm in scale, and therefore work well with other classic 25mm lines that I want to use, like Minifigs, Del Prado, Connoisseur, Lamming, and Mirliton.

This figure is a bit odd looking, but actually resembled the portrait I found of General Donzelot.

GMB Flags Arrived!

 I’ve been a fan of GMB flags for almost 20 years now, but foolishly imagined that ‘simpler’ flags might be a better fit for my Shiny Napoleonic project. So I ordered all Waterloo flags from another flag producer.

When they arrived, I was shocked at the low quality of the graphics and print. Very disappointing…and costly.

Well, nothing I could do except sell them on ebay for a huge discount and order from GMB.

The GMB flags arrived yesterday, and boy they never disappoint!

I quickly assembled the flags for the bearers that I’ve finished so far: 3 Silesian Landwehr units, a Prussian Grenadier unit, and the French Dragoons.

Here they are (still on my painting table):

Quality always shows, and you just can’t beat GMB!

Shiny Prussian Landwehr

The next units in my 25mm Shiny Napoleonic project are:

1st, 2nd, 3rd Silesian Landwehr from Bülow’s IV Corps 1815.

Each Infantry stand in my armies will represent approximately 1,000 men, so each of these Prussian regiments will be 2 stands.

Most of the figures are Minifigs that I purchased on ebay and did some minor touch ups on. Compared to most older figs that I’ve acquired, these were well painted and in good shape. All I needed to focus on was the muskets, pants, and shoes (I did a few in bare feet).

One officer (hidden in the third rank here) was a new Lamming line officer figure. I’ve read that some Landwehr officers/ nco’s came from the regular line regiments and often kept their original uniforms. This was probably more common in 1813 than 1815, but I wanted a little more variety and a nod to this practice. 

I’m still waiting for my GMB flags to replace the original flags on the flag bearers that I’ve acquired from many various previous owners. The bearer in the third rank appears to be a conversion of a Minifigs Landwehr officer. Well done, and nice variety, so I gave him a fresh coat of paint (he was somewhat chipoed and had red collar and cuffs) and used him otherwise as  converted.