Landwher on the attack, Connoissuer and Elite figures
Having done two possible French lists, I suppose its only fair to do one for the Prussians (I would do one for the Russians and Austrians, but have no decent pictures to go with those)
In a way, the allies are a bit more fun. Smaller infantry btns, so a bit more flexible points wise, still the same range of troop types. The Prusskis can also have howitzer batteries which are pretty effective sometimes, plus 4 gun horse batteries. I didn't include any horse batteries for the French because they are very expensive, and 3 gun batteries are so very vulnerable, both to counter-battery fire and to being charged by cavalry. I've just seen so many ridden down over the years! 4 gun batteries are a different kettle of fish though, and they can REALLY dish it out sometimes. Few things frighten me as much on a ITGM battlefield as a well placed enemy 4 gun Horse battery, so I've put one in this list, despite the cost.
One thing you will notice is I havn't put in much landwher...Sacrilige I know in a Prussian army, but I just don't think they are worth the points saving...I'd rather have some good shooters. You could include more of them just to bulk out the infantry to get some more skirmishers,but I haven't done this.
Partly, the way I've chosen this list is from watching the way Herbert (probably the best ITGM player in the world) plays with Prussians. He tends to ignore the infantry up to a point, and utilise the ancillary stuff, doing most of the damage with skirmishers and artillery, while the cavalry just negates the French cavalry. Following that logic, I'd have only bought Landwher.
However, not all of us are quite as adept as Herbie, though its something I wish to try out in the future.
Calpe gunners on the march,painted by yours truly
(Apparently the corps commander is a freebie so the French lists should have an extra 50 points).
The basic infantry division is pretty simple, not disimilar to the French, but a bit weaker due to it being 32 man units rather than 36's
Div Co =50
1 x Landwher=32
4 x 2nd class line=192
3 x 1st class line= 192
1 x veteran= 96
24 x skirmishers= 120
6lber btty= 130
Total= 812
Much cheaper than the French divisions, but no cavalry, in Prussian styly I've kept them all brigaded together.
3 x infantry divisions = 2,436
The Extras:
1 x 12ber btty= 190
1 x Howitzer btty= 150
1 Cavalry commander=50
1 Staff officer= 25
4 x 24 Light cavalry=480
3 x 24 heavy cavalry=432
1 x 4 gun horse battery=240
Grand total= 4,003
Calpe Dragoons, again my paintjob (I really need some more of these)
So you end up with a force that is probably weaker in infantry than the French, but has plenty of cavalry and really excellent artillery
27 infantry btns
72 Skirmishers
6 artillery bttys
7 regts of cavalry
I agree about the landwehr, I couldn't justify large numbers of them in any Prussian force I had. Am I right in thinking you can have 40 man veteran battalions? I'm sure I remember having them at the WHC in the past, though it may have just been for a specific scenario. Also totally agree with the howitzer battery, invaluable for reducing villages.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd forgotten about Prussians in 40's...probably worth binning a landwher battalion (32) and upgrading a veteran to 40(24)..Ged has used them from time to time, the Ligny game has them IIRC..I actually posses 2 or 3.
ReplyDeleteOne thing did occur to me, which is the Austrians would be very pokey- expect to see the odd 48 man veteran unit,or maybe quite few...
Great Article Chris, plenty of food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI quite like the idea of hordes of Landwehr, battalion after battalion, you'd have so many standards it would resemble some huge renaissance milanese pike block!! Couple of Generals one being old Marshall Vorwarts! Nothing would stop them! (Except my dice rolls, or your hands doing the gurad cavalry steam roller impression).
Guard....not gurad....sounds like some fancy turkish light cavalry outfit!!
ReplyDeleteI get the impression I'm going to have to give you a literary poke every month or so. Get writing and put lots more pictures on as well. You can even do some of the khaki drivel if it makes you feel better.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise ITGM had a point system. Was this in the edition Gerry originally published?
ReplyDeleteI suppose we had brace ourselves for a Games Workshop migration.
"Platov, a level 7 wizard casts a fireball at your Cuirassier for 3D6 damage"
Neil
Hi
ReplyDeleteJust 1 point.
The Prussians didn't have Divisions, they had Brigades made up of between 8-9 battalions of infantry a couple of companies of riflemen a battery of artillery and a Regiment of cavalry.
Also each Regiment had a couple of companies of Volunteer Jagers attached.
Another Neil
The Osprey Men at War book on Prussian line troops has pictures of brigade formations in it.
Mr. Peter Gilder and his way of wargaming was my inspiration 20+ years ago, your blog help me refocus back to what inspired me in the first place, just dusted off my copy of ITGM and reading them again. I am not a fast painter, only got 8 French and 11 British battalions painted so far and a table 10'x6'. Thanks for posting your blog, it's very interesting and motivating. Cheers....Darek
ReplyDeleteThe Prussians didn't have divisions? but Brigades instead? No-shit-Sherlock!...actually its pretty much a question of poor translation... They were the same as all other Napoleonic armies.
ReplyDeleteThey could vary in strength from 6 to 16 btns and all the decent OB's I've found show they never had any entire regts of cavalry attached directly to the infantry,these being held at Corps level in their own BRIGADES. Artillery might be anything from 1 to 6 (!) batteries.