Salute 2011 and a Nomination??

By the Pike Divided

Just a quick post for this evening, have been to Salute with the usual pals Postie, Fran (the Lurker), Link,  also our other pal Surj came along, it was his first show in over 10 years. I'm absolutely knackered, we all must have walked about 8 mile, and with a belly like mine, that's some going!!
I met up with a three fellow bloggers and had a good chat with them, namely, Paul from Battles in Miniature, Dave from Saxon Dog & Darrell from la journey. Paul and Dave were both running the same game Miniature Militia presents By the Pike Divided, which was an ECW game set in 1644, beautiful figures on an very unusual board which was kind of a rounded diamond shape. Darrell and co were playing the Battle of Verneuil in 1424, once again the terrain and figures were superb. I'll be posting a few more photo's from both these games plus lots more in the next couple of days.

The Battle of Verneuil

I also had a chat with??, Alex, the author of the new Viking skirmish rules "Saga", these look very interesting and I'm surly gonna part with the £20-25 they'll cost when they come out in early May
I guess like most gamers I overspent at the show, but came away very happy with my purchases, I was a bit gutted I never got to Old Glory in time and they'd sold out on the new Bluemoon 15mm FIW figures I wanted, gggrrrr!!!. Now I'll have to wait until they get more in, in a couple of months!!! A great time was had by all, Fran bought some 20mm tanks and figures for his What if Operation Sealion, Posties bought some painted 100 Years Wars figures to add to his already massive collection, while Surj bought some books on tactics.
Fran, The Angry Lurker was nominated for a blog award a couple of days ago, (tut! bighead) and has also nominated my blog, which was very kind of him, I'm sure I'll have to pay the ginger whinger back some how, he did say that he only nominated me because, I said I wouldn't give him a lift to Salute??? Bloody right too!!!!!

Is that you???

Recently painted No 25 Napoleonic French Artillery Caissons

In 1800 Napoleon created the French artillery train. Before 1800 the men in artillery train were civilian contract drivers that were pretty unreliable during active service, infact at the Battle of Novi the civilian-drivers panicked and abandoned all wagons, caissons and guns
The Napoleonic soldiers-drivers were former cavalrymen, wounded or unfit for service in cavalry. Sometimes foreigners were accepted as drivers, especially if they were strong and knew horses. Among the foreigners were especially many Dutch and also some Prussian prisoners.

If necessary and possible the French doubled the amount of horses in artillery train. In 1813 at Dresden "The rain having prevented the infantry of both armies from using their muskets ... it was the artillery which, in spite of the difficulty of manoeuvring on the rain sodden ground, played a decisive role. In particular the French artillery, whose teams of horses Napoleon had doubled up, using animals from the headquarters wagons, which remained safely in Dresden."

The French train driver was armed with a carbine, a short infantry-type sabre, and a pistol. They were expected to take a hand in protecting themselves and their ammunition wagons if attacked by Cossacks, Spanish or Tyrolean guerrillas etc. The colour of the train troops coat was officially iron grey

In 1805 France had 10 battalions of artillery train
Each battalion consisted of 1 elite company and 4 centre companies. The elite company (best draft horses and best drivers) was assigned to a battery of horse artillery. The centre companies were assigned to foot batteries.

The  Artillery Train company in 1805-1807 consisted of
 2 officers
 7-10 NCOs
 2 trumpeters
 84 privates
There were also 2 blacksmiths and 2 harness makers.

While for the 100 Days war the Artillery Train company in 1815 consisted of,
1 sergeant major
4 sergeants
1 farrier
4 corporal
2 trumpeters
24 drivers of 1st Class
60 drivers of 2nd Class
There were also 2 blacksmiths and 2 harness makers.

The bulk of ammunition was carried in caissons, designed by Gribeauval to hold the new 'fixed' ammunition. The caisson was an 11-foot long, narrow-bodied wagon with a sloping lid hinged to open, the interior being divided into compartments for the assembled rounds. Powder and matches were also carried in the caisson, as were shovels and a pick (fastened to the sides), a detachable tool-box at the front and a spare wheel. The ammunition caissons and wagons were painted in olive-green, metal and wooden parts, including the wheels. The oil paint increased the resistance of the wood against the damp and bad weather

The ammunition was also kept in the small coffer attached to each gun's trail. The ammunition in the coffer consisted of’

12pdr - 9 cannonballs

8pdr - 15 cannonballs

4pdr - 18 cannonballs

6.4 inch howitzer - 4 canisters

5.5 inch howitzer – an unknown amount!

Once more the figure are for Posties grand Napoleonic collection, the figures are 15mm Essex

Recently Painted No 24 Russian 1st Jagers 1812

There were not many admirers of skirmish formation in Russia, one of the few were Suvorov and Kutusov. Kutusov wrote several sets of notes on light infantry already in the 1780s.
During the early campaigns the Russian skirmishers were rather poor  compared to their French counterparts. One Russian author wrote, "our grenadiers, of great height and with large plumes, were sent to skirmish: the weak and small French shot them from behind the rocks, as they wished." One of the few exceptions were the 1st Jagers. According to James Arnold this regiment, "had the best skirmish troops in the Russian army. They had trained hard in the Finnish forrests around Karelia and were comfortable fighting in broken terrain." (Arnold - "Crisis in the Snows" p 112)
They were trained to use terrain features, to fire from standing, kneeling or lying position, the skirmishers acted in pairs with 2 - 5 paces intervals between pairs, and were manoeuvred according to drum signals and moved at a run (150-200 paces per minute).
The troops were sent to skirmish by platoons or companies, who relieved each other in turn, or  by  battalion or regiment. For example a day before the Battle of Eylau, the Arkhangel Musketier Regiment was deployed as skirmishers to cover the withdrawal of the 4th Division. At Krasne in August 1812, the 49th Jäger Regiment was placed in front of the village in skirmish order. 
There were however disagreements about the use of large number of skirmishers. Published in 1811 "On Jäger Training" recommended the use of entire jäger battalion (4 companies of 2 platoons each) in skirmish order. The grenadier and strelki platoon were kept in reserve behind both flanks of the skirmish line formed by the remaining six jäger platoons.
Barclay de Tolly was against using large number of skirmishers. He wrote in 1812; "in the beginning of a battle one is to push out as few skirmishers as possible, but to keep small reserves, to refresh the men in the chain and [to keep] the rest behind formed in column. Heavy losses cannot be attributed to skillful actions of the enemy, but to excessive numbers of skirmishers confronted to the enemy fire." 
At Berezina in 1812, a large number of jagers and line infantry were thrown into skirmishing in the overgrown terrain. They were shattered by French cuirassiers and 1,500 were taken prisoners.
Once again, another of Posties Russian units, the figures are 15mm Essex, they're based up for Posties GdB rules and the rough grand base is made by  The Last Valley.