Sunday, 24 August 2025

Gunning for Glory

The Emperor is reviewing his newly reinforced artillery:

While waiting for His Majesty to show up, the newly-joined 3rd and 4th line batteries go through their paces:



The Imperial Retinue finally arrives:


The batteries come into action:

Fire!:

The Emperor is content!

Napoleon: Take a deep breath, Gentlemen. It is the scent of Victory!

Apologies for the delay in posting these. The guns are Claytons which had been woefully miscast and took a lot of recarving to make them presentable. I think it was worth it, however, as the French gun line is looking quite respectable at last.

The 3rd and 4th Batteries go into action next week at the Wellington Warlords Call to Arms 2025 event. There'll be quie a few troops on the table. A report will follow.

Have a good weekend everyone
WM

12 comments :

  1. They look splendid, the artillery uniform is really rather elegant with that dark blue with red trim. Also, that's a much better ratio of Guard to Line, in terms of batteries / companies.
    Now we'll see if they can actually hit anything and overturn the curse of the newly painted unit.

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    1. Cheers Rob. It'll be my opponents at CTA 2025 who'll be fielding them, so we shall see!

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  2. Two lovely looking batteries, they look quite superb, great work on them.

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    1. Thanks Donnie. There's an almost overwhelming temptation to keep painting more and more of them. Fortunately this is tempered by the rather dreary buusiness of painting thei guns.

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  3. Wonderful Matt and a glorious way to do a post about newly painted figures (and guns). Superb!
    Best wishes, James

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    1. Cheers James. It is ever so slightly silly but great fun to play with them like this.

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  4. Ooof, that is a lot of firepower. 6 batteries! That is more than I have for my 36 or so infantry battalions! Of course, all of mine are not so spectacularly clad and shiny as yours (but I'm getting there...) What a spectacle they will make on the battlefield at Wellington Warlords. I love that you have stuck with the Hintonesque artillery for the majority of your batteries. While I do love the Hinchliffe guns, there is something to be said for the low menacing appearance of the Hinton Hunt guns. Napoleons and his Marshals making an appearance was also a delighful treat!

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    1. *Laughter*. Yes, those HH guns do have a rather crouchingly sinister quality! The aim is to have at least one battery per division (which are only 3-4 battalions each in my armies), plus a couple in Corps reserve (which will have 12 battalions when I finally get there). The Guard batteries, of course, will be Napoleon's personal stash.

      Only the two new batteries will be making it into the French forces at CTA 2025, however, as we're using the Neil Thomas rules. These are quite stingy when it comes to artillery, but the rules promise to work really well when staging a large game with only very limited time available.

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  5. That is a very serious looking gun-line Matthew and Napoleon and his friends are looking at their glittering best - excellent!

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    1. They certainly scare me. I still have PTSD from when we played Lewis Gunner and he brought out that absolutely humungous Russian grand battery. It was like PasschendaeIe.

      Having said that, I yearn for more horse artillery, but the Guard cavalry will need a bit of a boost first before that happens.

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  6. Beautifully done Matthew…
    I’ve always liked the French artillery uniforms… Workmanlike but elegant.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. They really look the part, don't they. Sombre executioners.

      The first Napoleonics I ever saw, c.1972, when I was 6, was the Airfix French Napoleonic Artillery set. I was absolutely captivated by the box art. I've been obsessed by them ever since.

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