WoFun Miniatures Peninsular War Starter Set Part 1: The Anglo-Portuguese Army

Okay, here is the solution to the problem I laid out in my last post about getting back to Napoleonic Gaming: WoFun Miniatures. When Peter Dennis started coming out with his illustrated paper armies that could be reproduced, I thought that was a great concept. Then I read an article about his partnership with WoFun Miniatures in Wargames Illustrated. WoFun is based in Romanian and they have patented a process to take take Peter's figures, already colored, and print them in plexiglass available in 18mm and 28mm. Huzzah! Instant armies! And the savings in price!

The box. From the time I placed my order it was 12 calendar days for my order to arrive from Romania and delivered in the United States.

What I plan to do is break down my order in several posts so you have an opportunity to see these great miniatures and the cost savings involved. Now don't get me wrong, the most enjoyable part of the hobby for me is researching and painting figures. But this option allows me to start gaming at an extremely reasonable price.

What they look like out of the box.

I decided to go with the 18mm option and here is what I ordered:

1. Peninsular War Starter Pack.

2. Dutch Infantry.

3. Hesse-Darmstadt Infantry.

4. Nassau Infantry.

5. Portuguese Line Infantry.

6. British Dragoons.

7. British Infantry Center Companies Blue Facings (it is really white facings, a typo on the website.).

8. Swiss Infantry.

9. French Chasseurs a Cheval.

Subtotal: $260.85 US

Shipping: $16.65 US

Total: $275.50 US

That's right folks: approximately 1,055 painted figures, with bases for $275.50. When ordering you have the option of selecting the "WoFun" standard bases which for 18mm Infantry is an additional $3.05. You can also select the "No bases" option and then go to their base products and select the bases you want in order to base them how you want depending on your ruleset, how you like your figures to look, etc. The last option is to get bases from another source. I'm lazy, I went with the "WoFun" standard bases.

So what do you get from the Peninsular War Starter Pack? Here is the description straight from the WoFun website and is based on the WoFun standard bases option:

The Peninsular War 18 mm Starter Pack in 18mm contains 387 characters on 5 sprues and a PDF set of wargaming rules for battles written by Andy Callan. The PDF rules will be available on your site account in the download section right after you place the order. No paints, no glue – all the hard work has already been done for you!

PDF Rules in color! Pretty cool with basic and advanced rules. (Photo courtesy of WoFun Games)

The Allied Army has seven units:

3 battalions of Infantry (two British, one Portuguese) of 5 companies (4 for the Portuguese) plus a

Command company (a Command strip including a flag, with 2-3 figurines in the rear rank).

A detachment of Skirmishers (6 companies) (British Riflemen (Greenjackets) and Light Infantry)

A Regiment of Cavalry, of 5 companies

2 Foot artillery companies.

The Army has 30 companies plus one mounted General giving a total Army Strength of 31.

The Army strength number is used later in the game to measure Victory in the rules provided.

The French Army is organized in the same way except all three battalions have 6 companies and

the skirmishers are 6 companies of Voltigeurs (muskets), for a total Army Strength of 32.

A Company (base) of Infantry has 2 ranks of 4 figurines

A Company of Skirmishers has 3 figurines, in 2 ranks

A Company of Cavalry has 2 ranks of 3 figurines

A Company of Artillery has a cannon and a crew of 4 figurines

First up the Allied Army and I will cover the French in the next post:

The Duke of Wellington would be so proud.

Generic yellow faced British Infantry Unit.

Above you can see the standard organization of the units I put together. They literally took me about 3 or 4 minutes to put together. My recommendation when placing the figures in the slot is to hold them firmly on both sides when inserting and start with the bank rank of the base. I learned the hard way, because I wasn't careful that the muskets can snap off when put the figures in the slot. Fortunately I only did this once, and since they are Plexiglas, I easily glued the top of the musket back on with superglue.

Highlanders! What a treat. By the way, the line in the center of the base is to help you measure from the center of the unit which is needed for some of the shooting and fighting in the provided rules.

The Portuguese unit is the Loyal Lusitanian Regiment.

British Light Dragoon unit.

British Light Infantry skirmish unit.

British Rifles skirmish unit.

Okay. The artillery. They are MDF and take your time. I'm not a great modeler and I broke several support pieces; fortunately they come with extra support pieces. WoFun also has an MP4 file which I wish I had seen earlier on how to assemble the guns. The gun and crew on the left are Portuguese; but oddly, the gun on the right has a mixture of Royal Artillery crewman with Royal Horse artillery. I'll be able to correct this in the future when I buy more artillery and swap out the crew. Needless to say the guns are out of proportion to the crew - but hey, it's okay for gaming.

Now the general for the Allied force is odd as it appears to me to be a French Cavalry General or some other French General or possible Aide de camp. I need to pull out my uniform references as I'm pretty sure that it is not British or Portuguese. Later I will be buying the Allied Generals and Officer pack so this will be corrected.

18mm Flat size comparison with Battle Honours Flames of War WW II 15mm American Rangers.

18mm Flat size comparison with a Copplestone 28mm figure from the Back of Beyond Range. The other scale WoFun produces is in 28mm.

Next: The French Army from the WoFun Miniatures Peninsular War Starter Set.