David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Tuesday 27 September 2016

Clouds of Skirmishers?

Well, not quite as you can see, but I'm sure you get the general drift of my thinking. As you probably know, in Black Powder you do not need to deploy skirmisher figures to claim their benefits, but I just thought when developing my armies for the Wars of the French Revolution project that a French army without clouds of skirmishers just would n't look the part! I've never been convinced by the odd single figure deployed out to the front of more solid formations either, so I decided to make something of the skirmishers as a mini diorama base, opting after an abortive effort for large oval bases from Warbases, which I could augment with scenic effects from Irregular, tufts and general detritus, in the form of green stuff spent canon balls! I've shown odd examples of the skirmish bases before, but thought a grand revealing was now in order. Firstly, the French, in the persons of some 14th Legere ~
The most recent base of four Trent Miniatures figures.













The three completed bases which will screen the Legere Demi-Brigade










An earlier set of Legere skirmishers from the 4th Legere Demi-Brigade ~
Elites from Trent Miniatures acting as Legere skimishers








As you saw in a fairly recent post, I've started on similar bases for the British contingent of my Allied army ~
Figures from the Longford Militia Light Co as skirmishers for the British


















An earlier attempt at British skirmishers from the 42nd on irregularly shaped MDF bases ~
The 42nd's skirmishers take cover as they can














The Austrians of course have their skirmish bases too ~
A Hungarian battalion screened by its skirmishers














I hope to pick up the final figures I need for the remaining British battalions' skirmishers at Derby Worlds next weekend. Together with the French 4lb Battalion guns I have and the battalion on order from Brigade Games I hope that will round the project off nicely. We shall see, as they say...

10 comments:

  1. Very nice David. I do like the oval bases for skirmishers (and have pinched the idea as you know!) How are you organising your French demi-brigades?

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    1. Thank you Colin;I noticed you had borrowed the idea. Never reinvent the wheel is a good ploy isn't it? I organise my Demi-Brigades as you have, a Regular cadre with two battalions of enthusiastic volunteers. I've represented this in the Ligne battalions by having the Regulars in firing pose and the volunteers advancing. I don't allow them to form line and they only fire one Dx6 in BP. They are also 'freshly raised'. The Elite company I organise into composite battalions but only allow column formation. The volunteers may form a cloud of skirmishers but still only get one Dx6 firing and must evade if charged.

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  2. More cloudy than Darkest Rawnsley in fact.

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    1. Now that would be seriously cloudy wouldn't it?

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  3. A veritable fog in fact ....nice work😀

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    1. The very effect we should be aiming for too Matt!

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  4. David, I really like your skirmisher bases - what size are they please ? Thanks

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    1. Thanks for the comment. The oval bases are from Warbases and are 60mm I think.

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    1. Got one out to measure today! Oops, 10cmc across! Sorry!

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