Basics for basing French Ligne

[ravenflight]

Hi All,

In 1805-1807 the French Ligne Infatnry consisted of 1 voltigeur, 1 grenadier and 7 fusilier companies to the battalion. This of course being the basis of the army, it wouldn't matter whether a BG was a battalion or a regiment, the same proportions would be used.

This means that in a 4 base (8 to the base) infantry BG, you would have:

32 figures broken down as:

3-4 figures of Voltigeurs;
3-4 figures of Grenadiers; and,
24-25 figures of Fusiliers.

If you reduce that 32 (8 to a base) to 24 (6 to a base) you would have:

2-3 figures of Voltigeurs;
2-3 figures of Grenadiers; and,
18-19 figures of Fusiliers.


When you consider that the voltigeurs are likely to be 'outside' fo the base size doing their skirmishing duty, it seems almost pointless to consider the elite companies in your bases.

So, what I'm thinking of doing is the following (considering a four base unit):

2 figures of Voltigeurs in the middle front of each front rank bases (skirmishing, and the third one un-represented out further skirmishing);
then three ranks of 1 Grenadier and 7 Fusiliers making up the remainder of the base.

What do people think of that?

[MDH]

Given the wide range of numbers that a unit can represent almost any ratio/treatment of constituent elements can be justified if it is aesthetically pleasing. Certainly there is no need to mirror exactly the numbers of men in left and right flank companies in a given army and skirmish attachments can represent the left flankers.

A friend who is modelling the French in the 1790s has adopted a radical approach of not having exactly the same numbers on a base ( 7-10), and not having them always in two identical lines( this is in 15mm using his own brilliantly made and painted figures) .In a demi brigade of 4 bases he also has three flags one on each of three bases and he builds in any attachments alongside line infantry on a base. And he sometimes sets a drummer or other distinctive figure to one side of a base and in neither rank.

It does produce a glorious effect especially for the era of the demi brigade .It comes closest to my original vision for how these rules could represent the French in the 1790s', although my artistry is not up to his !

Next time he comes here I will take some pics of them and post them if he agrees .

As a result I am contemplating - ( slowly as there are rather a lot:lol: ) the rebasing of all my 28mm French and French allies from 4.5cm wide bases ( in sixes) to 6cm/ 8's for FoG(N) - the rules I used until recently have all the other nations save the Brits in the Peninsula in 6cm/8's so that they are not the same on both sides - so I will have to convert some Brits ( in 30's 5x6) too.

Don't ask why these daft retro rules do that - but I guess when you use a 1/20 figure scale a lot can happen to unit sizes but there is no historical justification for it ( or indeed to much of the rules' contents in other respects ). Now I have at last found a regular FOG(N) gamer to play I can confine them to the dustbin of history.

His approach is a tempting one to use as 8 into 36 does not go, and to have something like 200 spare figures is not ideal!

A problem can be figure size. My 15mm Vendeans ( from a French supplier- see Mad Axeman's site) are actually too big to set in 4x2 ranks on a 4cm base so I am mounting them in 5's and 6's which works as they all irregular anyway . But ii probably means I have too many of them!