Warlord’s own David Matthews takes a look at our plastic Napoleonic French Line Lancers and delves into the background detail of Napoleons Light Horse – The Chevau-Legers Lanciers of the Line: “The Polish lancer, as well as the French lancer distinguished himself by his elegant appearance; but the looks of this last were softer and the colors…
A quick preview of the Peninsular Campaign 1809-1814 The Spanish Ulcer Napoleon turned to attack Britain where ‘the nation of shop keepers’ would feel it the most – trade. He believed an invasion would be possible once economic isolation had drained the blood from the ‘vampire of the north’ and caused economic collapse. Napoleon issued…
Born in 1764 into an aristocratic family, Craufurd had a privileged upbringing and education. He entered the British Army in 1779 as an Ensign in the 25th King’s Own Borderers Regiment of Foot. He quickly rose through the ranks, seeing action in India, with the Austrians in Europe, at New Ross in 1798 and serving on…
La Haye Sainte The cavalry had failed and the combined arms attack had come too late, but the Allies had also suffered terribly, units being decimated. Napoleon understood what must be done, La Haye Sainte had to be taken and taken at all costs, if it were then the French would have a secure station…
Cavalry Charge and Counter-Charge Lord Uxbridge, sensing the danger, unleashed the Household and Union heavy cavalry brigades commanded by Major General Edward Somerset and Major General William Ponsonby. The finest mounted cavalry in Europe pounced on the unsuspecting formations of the French. The Household Brigade led by Lord Uxbridge negotiated the sunken lane and moved…
Opening Moves Napoleon wanted the battle to start at 9am, but that was a pipe dream. The ground was sodden and his troops, especially the cannon, were struggling to get into position. The fields and farm tracks were in a poor state due to the rain-sodden conditions and the battle’s start time had to be…
The Field The battlefield of Waterloo was small by the standards of the day, being three miles long and a mile deep. Wellington had occupied an excellent position, the main feature being the ridge of Mont St. Jean that ran from east to west. The ridge’s front was fairly steep, but could be traversed by…
The Final Assault The fight for Plancenoit had taken the French attention away from Wellington’s army and bought him valuable time, during which he could reinforce his battered centre. Brunswickers, Belgians, Dutchmen and British plugged the gaps. However, the French artillery kept up their constant bombardment. Napoleon had steadied his right wing with the recapture…
“The Black Powder game is a ‘toy soldiers first’ type of game – we have tailored our rules of play to suit our collections of models. The object of the game rules is to allow us to utilise our armies. Let us not imagine for a moment that the armies are mere tokens in a…
With all the French Lancers and other cavalry charging about at present we didn’t want to forget the forces of mother Russia: A Campaign History Napoleon’s Russian campaign includes major battles such as when Napoleon’s Grande Armée crossed the Neman River in June 1812, the battle of Smolensk in August, or September at a small town called…
RichC
Graham Davey
Andy Hobday