I have always been interested in the Wars of the First and Second Coalitions, especially the the chaotic early years that upended the Bourbon King. I’m obviously a big fan of 10mm so when I saw an eBay auction for some French and Austrians, I jumped on the opportunity and bought them at a very good price.
I painted up a Demi Brigade featuring 2 battalions of Les Bleus and a battalion of Les Blancs. The bases are 40mm squares.
I added dice trays in the back of the bases to denote unit status. I started this project with the idea that I wanted a base to be a battalion and then looked for an appropriate ruleset that appealed to me. I found a set called “For King or Empress” which is designed for the Seven Years War. I thought a SYW set would be best for the War of the First Coalition, as the armies of the Ancien Regime still fought in old linear tactics. I would then tweak the French Army rules and stats to give them their unique tactics and characteristics. I downloaded the FKoE rules and liked them so much that I bought the print version.
I still have a ways to go on this project but I have a clear plan and a ruleset (and one Demi Brigade) going forward. In the meantime, here are some closeups of the figures:
The Pendraken figures are some interesting sculpts and I absolutely love them. Not everyone’s cup of tea with their cartoonish, anatomically incorrect proportions but they are right up my alley. I mixed in a lot of phrigian caps and barrack caps in with the bicornes. There are also some striped pants, French Revolutionary Armies need striped pants for the Sans Culottes!
Another picture of Les Bleus.
Here are some Les Blancs. They are sporting the flag of the 9th Demi Brigade’s 2nd battalion. In hindsight, I forgot to see what this unit’s proper facing color was. Oh well!
I took some liberties with the flags, facings and other uniform items but this is more of a fun project than a serious one. I enjoyed painting up the figures and look forward to more. I will add some Magister Militum figures in for cavalry and allies for the Austrians. Any thoughts who I should use as allies? Dutch? German states of the HRE? Sardinians?
