Monday, September 12, 2011

4th Cavalry Division punished for poor performance

As some of you may be aware my Russian Dragoons of the 4th Division have accumulated a less than stellar record on the battlefield. In the 3 games they’ve participated in they’ve only managed to keep 1 of their 4 Regiments on the table in one game, in 2 games they all routed by games end. In their defense, in all of their actions they have been used in a very aggressive manner, and have even achieved limited success, before routing like a bunch of scared little school girls. And I was only commanding them in one battle, so it can’t all be my fault. Clearly, the Czar is not impressed.


The offending units have been threatened with E-bay, but they still continue to rout of the table. Since that had no effect on their performance (clearly it’s the troops, not the commanders that are at fault) I’ve settled upon the most sever punishment I can think of for Cavalry… they have been unhorsed, and will be forced to fight dismounted!  (Admit it, you know the figures have a mind of their own)

I know the above, is a long way to go to justify buying dismounted Dragoon figures, but I like the narrative. Plus I couldn’t resist the Steve Barber Models figures (available thru http://www.triangleminiatures.com/ ). I really don’t need these; in fact I’m not sure if I’ll ever actually use them. But I like the sculpts, and they painted up very easily.

In addition to the below, I’ve also completed the Czar (Emperor) Cuirassier and will post photos once I finish the bases on them.  Hopefully there will actually be a Historicon 2012 for us to run our Borodino game at.

Now, my question for you readers, how should I base these dismounted Dragoons? Should I base them on my standard Infantry bases? Or should I base them on my standard Cavalry bases?



Command figures (sorry about the slightly out of focus photo) 


Dismounted Dragoons Firing 


Dismounted Dragoons Loading
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5 comments:

  1. pancerniSeptember 12, 2011 at 8:02 PM

    Oooooh shiny! What a great idea! Mount them as cavalry, as they would be at best 'sortof' skirmishing on foot.

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  2. Ray RousellSeptember 13, 2011 at 6:38 AM

    Great looking figures Barry, I didn't even know you could buy these dis-mounted. If they were mine I'd base then in 2's, or however you base your skirmishers.
    Ray

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  3. GonsalvoSeptember 13, 2011 at 5:45 PM

    I'd base them in twos or threes (Barry uses 4's for his Infantry) on Infantry Size bases. Kinda of like the... Opolchenie, heh, heh! If nothing else, if you're ever sort of Russian Infantry for a game, you can throw in the Dismounted Dragoons!

    BTW, much like the French, I suspect a lot of Russian cavalry was at least temporarily dismounted by the end of the 1812 campaign!

    I also didn't know you could even get DM Russian Dragoons; Dismounted French are generally available as they definitely did fight dismounted esp in 1805 when there were insufficient horses to mount all 4 squadrons of each regiment.

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  4. Czar BarrySeptember 13, 2011 at 9:10 PM

    Thanks for the feed back guys.

    As far as I know Steve Barber Models is the only company that makes 28mm Dismounted Russian Dragoons. They make several figures that that most lines don’t carry, most notably the Russian Cossack Artillery Gunners. Unfortunately their site doesn’t have a lot of photos, so you can’t always be sure what you’re getting.

    I first saw these dismounted Dragoons about 6 months ago when I ordered my Cossack Gunners, but the price shown on Triangle Miniatures web site scared me off. But the figures kept calling to me, so I contacted Buddy at Triangle Miniatures to verify the cost and it turned out it was a typo (sometimes it pays to ask).

    I’m thinking I can work these into the 1809 Imagi-Nation campaign our local group is running.

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  5. GonsalvoSeptember 14, 2011 at 10:20 PM

    Barry, when you're finished, a post specifically dealing with the Steve Barber models might be worthwhile, as I don't think that many people are aware of the company in general, and these unique figures (Cossack artillery, dismounted dragoons) in specific.

    Peter

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