WoFun Dutch Infantry: The Heroes of French Allied Conversions

Confederation of the Rhine Battalion Number 3 (Frankfurt)

The kind folks at WoFun Games once again (!) sent me another free pack with my latest order. This time they sent me the Dutch Infantry; however, I already had two battalions for my Composite Dutch Infantry Regiment that was part of the German Division in Napoleon's Peninsular Army. Earlier I had decided not to add the Frankfurt Battalion to the German Division as it was a one battalion organization and there were no figures for the battalion available from WoFun. About two weeks ago it dawned on me - the Dutch wore white uniforms based on French uniforms and most of France's allies adopted French uniforms. Time to convert!

Frankfurt troops by Richard Knötel.

I'm organizing the German Division based on their organization at the Battle of Talavera. The Frankfurt Battalion, organized along French lines (4 Fusilier companies, 1 grenadier company and 1 voltiguer company) deployed to Spain wearing white uniforms with red facings. After a year of campaigning their uniforms were wearing out; fortunately for them they captured large quantities of blue cloth and suddenly, they were now dressed in blue.

Dutch Infantry.

I wanted the jackets to be a slightly lighter shade of blue than the French troops and Vallejo Dark Blue worked perfectly. For the red facings I used Vallejo flat red. Though their are some minor details in the uniform that is incorrect, at 18mm scale and at gaming distance it looks great.

Just stay in the lines and instant Frankfurt infantry (don't worry, the figures look better than the photo as I did not adjust the lighting correctly!).

Getting the flag correct was a challenge in research; there contradictory descriptions of their flag and no known illustrations. Based on the descriptions, Malcom O'Conner from the Facebook group Napoleonic 15mm Wargamer designed a beautiful representation of the flag.

Beautiful conjectural flag by Malcom O'Conner.

Dutch Command Group.

Ta Dah! Frankfurt Command Group.

Command Group mounted.

Fusilier Company.

Grenadiers to the front! (Whoops, forgot to paint the epaulettes red on the figure on the left)

One last look in Attack Column before the battle.

Now I have to figure out what unit the other Dutch unit will become - you get two units in 18mm.

Next: WoFun Games British and Allied Officers.

 

WoFun Miniatures: Baden Center Companies, 4th Regiment

Yep. When you order the "add on packs" in 18mm you get twice the number of troops.

As I mentioned previously, I'm doing General of Division Jean-Francois, Baron Leval's German Division to best of my ability. As I am still doing my research, I'll go into the history in a later blog once I am finished doing my research. Two battalions of the Baden Infantry Regiment Gross-Herzog Number 4 were in the 1st Brigade (so says one source, I'll discuss uniform nand Order of Battle discrepancies later) and WoFun has the 4th Regiment as they appeared at the Battle of Talavera. And yes, I will make the bases "pretty" eventually!

Truth in advertising! What you see above is the Baden Center companies with the exception of the mounted officer. You can purchased the flank companies along with the Nassau grenadiers here: Baden Flank Companies and Nassau Grenadiers. The mounted officer is from the Mounted French Officers pack (future post) and the figure I chose is close enough at gaming distance for a senior Baden Officer.

The figures wear the Bavarian style black leather helmet, called the "kasket" which was worn at the time of the Battle of Talavera. They would later switch to the French shako.

The Baden units at the Battle of Talavera.

I added an dismounted officer from the British and Allied Officers pack for more variety which looks great at gaming distance.  I'm going to repaint the sash. As I type this I noticed that the 3 figures in the front rank on the right hand side have the green epaulettes of a flank light company.

My sources that I have seen have the drummer in a blue jacket so I'll repaint it later before I do the bases.

From my initial research the 4th Regiment had white facings but there may have been troops from another unit that had red facings. Maybe battalion distinctions?

A homework assignment! Now I need to research the flank companies!

Well, back to research and working the bases. More to come!

WoFun Miniatures Peninsular War Unit "Add-ons": The Confederation of the Rhine

 

How can you fight the Peninsular War without the French Allies? You can of course, but I like having all of those extra units to add some extra variety for the French Army when they deploy. I did the German Division in 28mm, which in real life consisted mainly of units from the Confederation of the Rhine. Here is the order of battle I'm going to use based on the Battle of Talavera:

Division Commander: General of Division Jean Francois, Baron Leval.

Units:

Nassau Infantry Regiment, two battalions

Baden Infantry Regiment, two battalions

Hesse-Darmstadt Infantry Regiment, two battalions

Holland Infantry Regiment, two battalions

Frankfurt Infantry Regiment, one battalion

Foot Artillery Battery (8 guns)

Here is my Hesse-Darmstadt two battalion Regiment once again showing the advantage of buying an 18mm add-on as it gives you two units.

I once again did the "one rank" command stand to have extra skirmishers depending on what rule set I am using at the time.

The Hessians!

The Kingdom of Holland was ruled by one of Napoleon's brothers and was not part of the Confederation of the Rhine. Later Holland would be absorbed into France and the units would join the French Army.

Here is my Nassau unit. I forgot to mention earlier that you can buy add-ons for the Grenadiers, etc.

I will be ordering the Baden Infantry Regiment soon but I have not decided if I'm going to get a separate battalion for the Frankfurt Infantry Regiment - but after I do research if they have a cool uniform and/or flag I just might or convert and existing unit. For the artillery battery I need to also research and see if it was a French battery or a Confederation battery. WoFun does sell Confederation of the Rhine artillery.