French Line Infantry

Finished my first unit of French Line Infantry. There was a small change of plans with my infantry units. Initially, I thought of doing 6 bases per standard unit, and 8 for large units, with 6 models per base. But turns out this lay out would be too big, and the army as a whole would end up using too much table space.

So I decided to go with a standard unit of 4 bases, 6 for large regiments. To help compensate for the lower model count, I chose to use 8 models per base, rather than 6. This not only helped keep a good number of models in a unit, but also gave it a tighter look, which feels better for this Historical Period.

The end result is that I reduced the space occupancy of each unit in 33% (from 6 bases to 4), while only diminishing the number of models by 11% (from 36 models to 32).

4 Bases is still enough to portray all the formations. Above, we see the Attack Column, and here we have the unit in March Column:

Line:

The Line was another reason why I decided to go with less bases. It would take too much table space to field a unit in line, and multiple units in line would definitely become problematic, even if using 2 tables (which is what I'm planning on).

Square:

I also rebased my French Imperial Guard on the new standards, and since it is going to be fielded as a large unit, it is going to have 6 bases, instead of 4. Too bad I forgot to take pictures of it, but it looks quite nice. The grenadiers are bulkier than those line infantry models, so the unit has got an even tighter look.

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Judge Dredd

A small pause from Napoleonics to concentrate on another project: Judge Dredd.

I've always been a fan of the character, and the recent Dredd movie rekindled my passion for that universe, so I figured that was more than enough reason to start yet another wargame.

These minis are produced by Mongoose and Warlord Games. For what I understand, the partnership between those two companies involve Mongoose producing the miniatures and Warlord designing the rules.

Now, I quite like Warlord Games' rules. I already play their excelent Black Powder, for Napoleonics and Musquet gaming in general, and also like their ruleset for Roman Period - Hail Caesar - which I might start playing next year, once I get my Napoleonics' gaming in good shape.

The Game Jugde Dredd is similarly well designed, though I have yet to play a game, in paper it seems to work very well.

The miniatures, on the other hand, are not so great. Quite honestly, those are among the poorlest sculpts I've ever collected, but lack of options determines that I either play them or don't play in Judge Dredd universe at all. The only other 28mm Judge Dredd minitaure I'm aware of is from Heroclix, and that sculpt scores just as low on my standards.

Precisely because the sculpts themselves are somewhat disapointing, I strugled to make them stand out with a careful and dedicated paint job. In the end, I think they look nicely enough, and I'm more pleased with them than I first thought I would be.

I purchased 2 kits to start playing the game. A Heroes of Mega City set and a Lawmaster Squadron set. These give me Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson both on foot and motorized, as well as 4 spare judges to lend to my gaming friends and/or include in play for larger actions against the savage criminals of the post-apocaliptic future.

I also gave careful attention to the bases. I put the bikes on street basings, and the judges on foot where based (pinned) on plastic bases representing the dirty and degraded urban sites of Mega City.

I intend on putting those tough fellows in action soon, and will probably be using some of my Deadzone rebels as proxies for gangsters/lawgivers-target-practice of Mega City. We will see.

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French Napoleonic - The Emperor Himself

Here we have yet more French Command bases. These are from the Italeri set, and include the Big Man himself. There are quite a few Chasseur models on the kit, so I could even come up with one base for a cavalry unit. Once I get to actually do a unit of Chasseurs a Cheval, these are going to be commissioned there.

Here I also used a couple models that I had left from the Zvezda kit: a Courier and an Aide de Camp, which I based next to a dismounted General.

I also made a base with a model to represent Marshall Murat, dressed as a Chasseur, talking to a Dragoon Commander.

And here we have the Emperor and a small retinue. I'm using 50mm bases for my commanders, but for Napoleon I used a 60mm one, to afford more room for his assistants. 

We can see here that he is accompanied by a General on foot, escorted by a Chasseur a Cheval and by his Mamluk bodyguard, Roustam Raza, as well as assisted by an Aide de Camp.

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