Tuesday 28 December 2010

Post battle questions (I). The performance of the new units

In the battle of Sellerhausen I used several units painted for the occasion. This is a very unusual event because, after wargaming for near thirty years, I have amassed a large collection of wargaming figures belonging to most of the nations involved in the Napoleonic Wars, so almost always I can replace a given unit with other wearing a similar uniform (I am not a purist!).
However in many occasions, that substitution is not feasible so a new unit must be painted, or converted, because there is not a viable candidate. This was the case with two units of the battle of Sellerhausen, the
French Gardes d'Honneur and the Austrian Kaiser Franz Hussar Regiment No.1. I was very proud of these 'last painted' units, so I was very curious about their performance in battle. The results were not disappointing.
(a) The French Gardes d'Honneur squadrons, four figures in two bases, were attached to the Old Guard Cavalry. The 2nd Gardes d'Honneur Regiment to the Empress Dragoons and the 3rd Regiment to the Grenadiers a Cheval. I expected these new units would share the glory of their 'big brothers'... and truly that is how it was: both squadrons passed gloriously away sharing the crushing defeat of the Old Guard Cavalry!

(b) On the other side, the Austrian Hussars behave in a different way: they contributed strongly to the defeat of the Empress Dragoons watching their last fate at the hands of the Russian Light Cavalry.
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Other nearly new units also participated in the battle. The Russian Mounted Jagers took part in the cavalry battle, actually finishing both French Guard Cavalry regiments. The Austrian Grenzer had a symbolic and almost neglogible role.
The above pictures show all the cavalry units, French, Austrian and Russian, involved in this affaire.



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