French Heavy Dragoon Cavalry Command

 For Vimiero the French need to have some dragoons, so I set about getting a regiment updated which was featured in my last post.  Today I belatedly bring you the command figures, all painted originally by Richard Tennant with a little additional work by me.

Divisional and brigade level commanders with their aide de camps.

General de Division Louis-Pierre Montbrun with a Colonel of Dragoons

Aide de Camp to General de Brigade Cavrois

General de Brigade Cavrois

Aide de Camp to General de Division Montbrun

Up next: The legion du Midi.

And the painting begins.  Der Kriegspieler miniatures customized to more closely resemble the uniform worn by the Legion du Midi.

While preparing the French Cavalry Command and Legion du Midi, I had the chance to meet with a small group of gaming buddies this Saturday and get in a couple of nice games of DBN (De Bellis Napoleonicis - a DBA variant).

1806 Prussians vs the French

Note the splendid killing field in which the French cavalry are about to enter...

Prussian baggage train element

The octogenarians leading the Prussian army

Brave Carabiniers dashing into the mouth of the Prussian guns!

The French artillery tried in vain to position.

If only the French can reach the hill - they outnumber the Prussian cavalrymen 3-2.

Meanwhile Prussian jagers and light infantry fight to delay the deadly French Legere on the opposite flank from the cavalry attack.

The weight of the Prussian guns is too much for the French Dragoons, who flee the field.

The French heavies charge up the hill to confront Blucher's Red Hussars and the Von Beeren Kuirassiers, but they were to spent by the time they reached their foe.

This scene is actually from our second battle, which followed a more traditional firefight followed by an infantry attack.

The French infantry performed admirably, but on the flanks their forces were soundly defeated, leaving the infantry attack isolated and stalled.

Across the way was a beautiful 28mm ECW game.

On the Road to Vimiero

After holding the British as long as they could, what was left of the French force from the battle of Rolica fell back to Zambugeira, and from there on to Lisbon.  At the same time the French forces at Santarem were marching west to join Delaborde and Junot at Lisbon.  Outside of Lisbon some of the survivors from Rolica have gathered to watch the troops pour in from Santarem.

Gendarmes de Espagna (Hinton Hunt FN/314 on FNH/3) clear the road for the approaching cavalry, while the brave troopers of the 15th Chasseurs-a-Cheval, heroes of the retreat from Rolica, have lined up alongside the road to cheer on their fellow cavalrymen..

The Gendarmes de Espagna were greatly feared and operated not only as a police force, but also in the battle line.  Thanks to Aly for these Hinton Hunt originals!

The 16th Dragoons are one of four Dragoon regiments in the Tennant collection, each of twenty figures.

The trumpeter in white bearskin hat had to have been a glorious sight!  Likely a conversion of Hinton Hunt FN/313.

Here we have a Major of Dragoons and guidon bearer of the 16th.  The cavalry were pretty beaten up by their treatment across the ocean, no thanks to Fedex, and truthfully an inadequate packing job, but somehow the delicate foil flag of the 16th survived.  Several of the horses had broken ankles and there was a lot of chipped paintwork to repair, but in the end they came out better than ever.

Some survivors of the decimated 39th line battalion watch the arrival along with their fine looking Colonel.

The elite company (Hinton Hunt FN/313) of the 16th Dragoons.

The troopers file by.

As they pass by, the 6th light infantry survivors have formed into line to watch the spectacle, barely sneaking into the frame are the yellow and green plumes of the elite voltigeur company.

Helping to keep order, some more Gendarmes de Espagna file by, preceding a battery of horse artillery.

The artillery a cheval was probably the most damaged in transport, and putting such a delicate and complicated model back together was challenging to say the least, but once again, I felt like the end result was spectacular and a tribute to the original work by Mr. Tennant.

The collection includes two batteries of line horse artillery, which is pretty impressive considering Marcus Hinton never offered line horse artillery!

Mounted gunners

Colonel Grouvel of the 16th dragoons has pulled off the road to discuss a matter of some importance with the Gendarmes.

Since each of the regiments of dragoons in the Tennant collection has twenty figures, I am able to pull out the Colonel and mount individually while retaining the core unit of 18.  Having one extra trooper was a good thing in this case as one of the horses was simply irreparable without significant solder work.

Colonel Grouvel and the Gendarmes clear out of the way, making room the the artillerists to unlimber across the road and shoot of a salvo to honor the efforts of Delaborde's survivors from Rolica.

Since Line horse artillery is not part of the Hinton Hunt range of figures, Mr. Tennant used a variety of figures and a 20mm Hinchliffe canon.

I would love to know if anyone can ID these figures.  I'm guessing the one on the right is an SHQ figure, but the one on the left with the rammer has a tiny base.  So though the figures look very similar, I suspect they came from different ranges.

The trumpeter has a base that is very distinctly characteristic of Alberkan figures.  I suspect an elite horse artillery figure customized by Dick to include a trumpet.  FN40?  http://lazylimey.blogspot.com/2009/01/alberkenearly-minifig-20mm-fn40-line.html

Hinton Hunt - Artillery command FN/30?

Both SHQ figures?  Please leave a comment if you think you might be able to shed any light of the origin of these figures.