I am now in middle of the painting of the first batch of French Infantry in Greatcoat. The first basic colours have applied for face and hands (flesh), trousers (grey) and boots (black and beige). The officers and eaglebearers will wear a blue greatcoat, while the common soldiers will carry several shades of grey and beige. 
The work is advancig slowly because of other demanding home and academic occupations!
15 months ago, june 2008, I posted a video from the Rene Betgen's site, showing the making of the new Rene's diorama about that battle.
I missed, the finishing of this new work, so I post the video of his masterpiece, that can be also found in his website Miniature Waterloo.
The battle of Waterloo in miniature by René Betgem
Enjoy it!
As it is said in its web site, First Empire is the International Magazine for the Napoleonic Enthusiast, Historian and Gamer. The magazine, 48 full colour pages, is edited by David Watkins (Bridgenorth, Shropshire, England) and always features contributions from well known Napoleonic scholars.
I own the magazine from the No.1 and I did always found some interesting information in each of its 108 issues. This is a worthwhile inversion for the Napoleonic fan!
Directly from the web page of Malcolm Mccallum, read some of his Maxims for Napoleon's Battles, devoted to Infantry:
XXI
Always leave 2-3" minimum between infantry formations front-rear to allow for possible combat withdrawals. Similarly, an infantry column should always have enough room on each flank to allow it to deploy from column to line as required.
XXII
If a firefight is sustainable, take the time to form line. Only if it is not, or speed is the prime concern, should a combat be attempted in column. Infantry columns are not an arm of decision but rather maneuver. For decision, use infantry lines, cavalry, or arty. If , on the other hand, a win in column can be fairly guaranteed and there is no serious counter-attack threat, it would be the preferred formation for attack since the unit would be properly deployed to take advantage of any gained breakthroughs.
XXIII
The addition of multiple infantry units into a melee mostly just provides more opportunities to get a good result. With two units, there will be two rounds at least. Therefore do not commit multiple units to a bad or excellent situation but only where the issue is in doubt and a win is more decisive than a loss or two.
Napoleon himself would endorse these sentences!
By the way, the Malcom's page is full of good material, not only about Napoleon's Battles (go to the 15 mmm Section) but also about campaigning in the Napoleonic era.
See a sample of his After Action Report of a refight of the battle of Talavera (with a surprising ending!) whose bicentenary we celebrated the 27-28th july.
I am posting an e-mail sent to me from Dale E. Blay
"Hello Rafael,
I wanted to let you know that I have been playing the NBd rules as posted on the NB Yahoo Group. Over the last six months our group has been primarily playing the One-Half Scale and we have been using the standard infantry unit as representing a regiment instead of a battalion. Hence, we doubled the combat and command ranges. We have been able to easily complete a game with 3-4 corps total, in a day of gaming.
Cavalry ends up being a regiment or brigade, depending on actual strength. With artillery, we left an artillery base as still representing a battery. We do include brigade and divisional guns. We ended up leaving out the skirmishers entirely as their effect on the game was minimal compared to the time it took to resolve their activity. We accepted the fact that the firing ranges still represent skirmish ability of the regiment.
Rather than mess with a descending order of artillery casualties, we have just decided that artillery can only inflict one casualty regardless if it has a "doubling" die roll. It cuts down on the effectiveness of the guns and makes them really only vulnerable to close combat instead of lucky die rolling from counter-battery fire as it still requires 2 hits to give 1 hit to a battery. Since artillery can't inflict more than one hit, counter-battery is pretty ineffective, at least as far as the game is concerned.
Our last game was an 1812 Russian Campaign scenario with 4 corps total. We completed the game in about 6 hours. We have found that only a few simple modifications are necessary to play at the One-Half Scale.
Thank you for providing the framework for this option.
Dale E Bley "
According to Dale: "The cadre of the overall group (anywhere from 4-12 players) are middle-aged men in their mid 50's to early 60's with 25 to 30 years of wargaming experience. Most of us have been friends for 30+ years and we play a wide variety of historical periods. We are located in southern Wisconsin (north of Chicago) and usually play our games at our homes instead of a "club site"
This is the first external report about the actual use of one-half NB. It is remarkable that they did not used any skirmish fire procedure (to speed up the game), and used a new option for artillery fire: only one casualty is inflicted regardless if it has a "doubling" die roll or not.
I must to confess that skirmish and artillery fire were the main troubles I found, when adapting Napoleon's Battles to one-half/divisional scales. Using my rules (See the pdf file) in the Scenarios played until now, the skirmish fire was almost ineffectual and required an excessive number of die rolls, so the Bley's approach is reasonable although the 'Napoleonic look' is somewaht lost. Maybe the best solution was to maintain the skirmsih fire as it is in NB, but only originating disorder, the main objectve of such fire.
With regard to artillery fire, the Bley's simplified option is very atractive, and I did not think anyway in something similar! They also maintain the NB modification for counter-battery fire, somewhat I changed, maybe without necessity. I must think about it, and test these new ways in an ad-hoc Scenario such as Lindenau:
The main conclusion is that one-half NB (and NBd) are viable options!I am again with the painting of the Newline French infantry in greatcoat . I have primed the figures with Citadel 'Black Chaos'. 
The figures are part of a bargain-pack (Reference FR19) of Newline Designs comprising 100 figures (actually 104!) of French Line Infantry in Greatcoat. The pack contains 12 Grenadiers Advancing (FR23/2), 12 Grenadiers March/Attack (FR23/5), 12 Line Command Advancing/Marching (FR23) and the rest are Fusiliers Advancing (FR23/1) and Fusiliers (March/Attack).
In this first batch I'll paint all the Elites (one half as Grenadiers and one half as Voltigeurs), all the Command figures (officers, drummers and eaglebearers) and some Fusiliers, making a total of around 50 figures.
I have discovered a bug in the design of the Elites. They are, correctly, carrying two crossbelts but, whereas the left belt is for the sabre-briquet and the bayonet scabbard, the right belt has an additional bayonet scabbard. Maybe this is a carry-over from the design of the Fusiliers (centre companies) which had only the right belt with the cartridge box and the bayonet scabbard. However, this is a minor bug not visible from above (using the 3 feet rule), so I'll try to hide this item with an adequate painting, whitout the use of surgical techniques!
The use of greatcoat hides many of the uniform details of the French infantry uniform. However, the main distinctions between elite and centre companies are still apparent.
Elites, grenadiers and voltigeurs, carried double crossbelts, one for the cartridge-box and other for the sabre-briquet and the bayonet, whereas the centre companies got a single crossbelt for both the cartridge-box and the bayonet scabbard.
The elite men also carried epaulettes (red or green respectively for grenadiers and voltigeurs) and tufted pompons (again red for grenadiers and yellow or yellow over green for voltigeurs). These same colours (red and green) were carried in the sabre-briquet cords. The four centre companies wore pompons of different colours: dark-green, sky-blue, aurore (orange-pink) and violet.
The shako was covered with a black oiled waterproofed fabric, and loose trousers, white, grey or blue, were carried under the greatcoat.
The following two Rousselot plates show a version of the 1813 campaign uniforms
I am also very grateful to the members of several yahoo groups and specially to Ximo and Lannes from ALKAID forums by their useful advices.
The next step will be, hopefully, the painting!
The painting of the Newline French infantry in greatcoat is slowly going on.
The figures have been fixed on wood bases (remaining from an old bricolage project) with white glue.
In a next entry, I'll post some pictures with French infantrymen in greatcoats.
Enola Gay by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD)
Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday
Aha words can't describe the feeling and the way you lied
These games you play, they're gonna end it more than tears someday
Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way
It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been
We got your message on the radio, conditions normal and you're coming home
Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today
Aha this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away
Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way
Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't fade in our dreams away
Never more!
I proudly present the last painting conversion of my Argentinian friend Armand d'Arc.
The batallion of Neufchatel was an unit raised by Alexander Berthier, Napoleon's Chief of Staff, in his Swiss feud. These troops were habitually known as the "canaries" by their disticntive yellow uniforms. They fought in Spain and Central Europe.
The Armand's unit is 250 strong and will play a main role in the next battle of Ganta, always within the context of the Armand's fictional African campaign.
Enjoy some of his pictures! 
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