An utter n00b who wants to sell some figurines

[khurasan_miniatures]

Hello all, I have happened upon some "15mm" (really 18mm, as per AB) French Ligne which are splendid models, 1807-12, and one thought was to market them in unit packs for FoGN, but the only problem there is, I know nothing about those rules!

I mean, not absolutely nothing -- I googled unit sizes and I see that there can be eight figures on the base and four or more bases. I also read a few forum posts here and realise there is nothing sacred about that, but i assume new groups giving it a go will probably follow the rules recommrndations.

From there, though, what sort of particulars are there? Is there an ideal unit size that many/most gamers will build? Does only one stand have command figures? One flag or two (since I think units are, at their smallest, regiments)?

How about elite companies? How are they handled in terms of gaming/basing?

Are casualty figures needed/helpful? Because I've got some! Do you need one (or more) per unit?

Thanks in advance for any feedback, especially from the rules writers/playtesters, and please do forgive my n00bosity.

[BrettPT]

Hi

Basically you 2 choices with 18mm line infantry, 6 per base or 8 per base. 8 per base look ok if they are march attack poses, otherwise IMO 6 lokos better in 18mm.

I would recommend packaging the units:

24 figures per unit:
1 officer, 1 standard bearer, 1 drummer, 4 Grenadiers, 4 Voltigeurs and 13 line.
You could go 3 each of grenadiers and volitgeurs, and 15 line if this fits your mix better.

Adding a bonus 1 or 2 dead guys per unit would be a good idea as well - useful for casualty markers.

Cheers
Brett

[edb1815]

Since I already based everything mostly in 8s for "LaSalle" I have stuck with it, except for light infantry and command bases. So for the most part I use units of 32 or 48 for the 6 base (large) units. Since I have Austrians I have alot of those!

In addition to the casualty markers if you have any extra figures in firing poses, voliteurs, etc. you could throw in several of those for skirmish bases/markers (units can have skirmished as an attachment or go into skirmish formation for light infantry.

[khurasan_miniatures]

Thanks to both of you, a bit of follow up--

if you have any extra figures in firing poses, voliteurs, etc. you could throw in several of those for skirmish bases/markers (units can have skirmished as an attachment or go into skirmish formation for light infantry.

I do as a matter of fact--three elite company poses in skirmish poses. How would those work in the game? Do you deploy them on coins or something around the unit to show it is in skirmish formation, or has sent its voltigeurs ahead?

1 officer, 1 standard bearer, 1 drummer, 4 Grenadiers, 4 Voltigeurs and 13 line.

I'll be packaging them as 8 to a base I think as the poses are march attack. How would that effect the numbers you proposed?

Do you have 4 of the grenadiers and four voltigeurs because you put them on the outside edges of the four bases (four grenadiers on the right flank edges, four voltigeurs on the left)? Or some other reason?

[edb1815]

Thanks to both of you, a bit of follow up--

if you have any extra figures in firing poses, voliteurs, etc. you could throw in several of those for skirmish bases/markers (units can have skirmished as an attachment or go into skirmish formation for light infantry.

I do as a matter of fact--three elite company poses in skirmish poses. How would those work in the game? Do you deploy them on coins or something around the unit to show it is in skirmish formation, or has sent its voltigeurs ahead?

For an extra skirmish "attachment" the rules suggest replacing one base with a base of skirmishers in loose order (3-4 figures). For a unit in skirmish order I believe you replace all bases with loose order skirmishing figures. Having said that I think people have different methods of representing this, using markers, etc. For the skirmisher attachment I have small bases with 2 skirmishing figures.

For elites in units I am sure there is also a lot of variation. Sometimes I base them on the command stand for grenadiers, and on skirmish stands for the light company. Remember the unit is a grouping of battalions, usually a regiment.

[shadowdragon]

What I have been doing isn't too relevant since I'm rebasing from forces organized along the old WRG rules. A scale of 1:50 scale with 4 figures in a single rank. So I've pretty much have ended up with the prior battalion's figures on two bases of 8 with FoGN unit of 4 or 6 bases depending on whether or not I had 2 or 3 of the WRG-type battalions.

After looking at several options, I've decided I like 8 figures per regular infantry base and 3 figures per skirmishing base.

Now, what would I do starting from scratch? For the French:

French LIgne: For a 6 base unit generally I'd have 1 command base, 1 base of grenadiers, 1 base of voltigeurs and 3 bases of fusiliers. However, I can see that I might, for example, have a command base of grenadiers, 1 base of voltigeurs and 4 of fusiliers. I'd have some extra voltigeurs for skirmishers but I don't think I'd build this into the basic units since you're unlikely to see a skirmisher attachment for every line regiment. I'm more likely to build a few extra voltigeur skirmishing bases.

For a 4 base unit, I'd probably do with half a base each of grenadiers or voltigeurs mixed with fusiliers.

French legere: For these half the bases will be normal infantry and half the bases will be in skirmisher order but if the whole regiment goes into skirmish formation the normal (close order) bases are replaced by skirmishing bases. So, for a 6 base unit, that would be 1 close order + 1 skirmish order command base, 1 close order + 1 skirmish order carabinier base, 1 close order + 3 skirmish order chasseur bases, 1 skirmish order voltigeur base (11 command base figures, 11 carabinier figures, 17 chasseur figures, 3 voltigeur figures). For a 4 base unit, I'd only have a half base of close order carabiniers but probably a full (3 figures) skirmishing base - totals would be 11 command base, 7 carabiniers, 7 chasseurs, 3 voltigeurs.

Command bases would be an appropriate number of command figures plus centre company figures unless I specifically wanted a grenadier or carabinier command base. I don't think I would have close order command base of voltigeurs but I would, in addition to the regular command base, also consider an officer and cornet on a skirmishing base - those figures are too cool to not include somewhere.

All of which is to say, it's very flexible and you're likely to see a lot of variety even from one player. But I hope that gives you some sense of my preferences.