First Things First: But What Comes First?

What First?

As I sit at home, watching our nation's Capitol assaulted by insurrectionists and unable to do anything materially about it, I need some sort of distraction. So, I'm thinking about what wargame projects to start the year off with from my list of possibilities. Two spring to mind.

Et Sans Resultat

One member of the ESR Facebook group has invited the rest of us to a painting challenge. Set one goal for January 2020, whatever you like, and carry it through.

Seeing as I've had a pile of 6mm figures for the 1815 campaign waiting for my attention for some time, I decided to make a start on them with one discrete unit, the Brunswick Corps. This roughly divisional-sized unit consisted of troops from the Duchy Of Brunswick, a close ally of Great Britain. The corps was originally raised in 1809 as a frei-korps, a mixed-arms force, and served with the Austrian army against Napoleon until Austria was defeated. The corps marches across Germany to the coast and was evacuated by the British Royal Navy. Reorganized into two battalions of light troops, the Brunswickers then served in the Spanish Peninsula under Wellington and acquitted themselves well. In 1815, a much larger force was raised to serve with the British in the Low Countries. The horse, foot, and artillerymen of the corps were attired all in black, as they had been in 1809, in mourning for the duke's father, killed at the battle of Jena in 1806. Here's a nice selection of their infantry uniforms, borrowed from the Waterloo in 20mm blog.

The corps consisted of an advanced guard battalion of skirmishers and riflemen (who wore Austrian-jaeger-style uniforms of pike grey with "Corsican" hats instead of the other infantry's black uniforms and shakos), an infantry lifeguard battalion, three light infantry battalions, three line infantry battalions, two batteries of artillery, and units of hussars and uhlans. Here's a nice illustration of parts of the corps in action at Quatre Bras, also borrowed from Waterloo in 20mm.

Each of the battalions and batteries will get a unit in my ESR Brunswick formation. The cavalry will be represented by 3 stands of hussars and one of uhlans. And the duke will be there as formation commander. They get rounded out with a caisson to act as formation reserve area marker. Here's a shot of all the troops with their bases, with a white basecoat on.

Project Egypt: Naval Landing Forces

The new edition of the Black Powder rulebook has a pile of new scenarios in it, one of them the 1814 battle of North Point, on the outskirts of Baltimore, not far from where I live.

I know that one of my friends got a box of British Waterloo troops for Christmas, and I know that another has been finishing up some Maryland militia from just this very campaign. So, I'm hoping we can all pool our forces for a game, either via Zoom or, someday, in person. To that end, I looked at what else is needed for that scenario, and there's two battalions and several companies of Royal Marines and a Royal Navy landing party needed. I have Royal Marine and Royal Navy figures that I got for Project Egypt, so those will be my first contributions to the battle of North Point. Here's a sergeant of the Royal Marines, illustrated by master military artist Don Troani, image borrowed from the W Britain website, where Troiani's prints are sold.

In addition, the battle of North Point involves a company or more of the 2nd Corps of Colonial Marines. This interesting corps, like Dunmore's Ethiopians during the American Revolution, was raised in America by recruiting enslaved African people. They served along the Atlantic coast during the War of 1812; after the war, they were disbanded. The wise and/or fortunate members resettled in Bermuda; the less fortunate tried to set up a small town of free Black farmers in Spanish Florida but were later attacked and either killed or driven out by Americans. Here's a handsome Don Troiani illustration of a Colonial Marine, also from the W Britain website.