Peninsular War 6 - Warrior Miniatures 25mm British Line Infantry

A recently painted British line infantry regiment. This is the fourth British infantry unit. I have some highlanders on the go and will be painting some rifles, which will give me six or seven battalions in total.

Here is the British contingent as painted so far:

Peninsular War 5 - Black Bob's Boys - Warrior Miniatures British

My Peninsular force will consist of 6-8 British Battalions and a similar number of Spanish. They will be supported by four artilley batteries and 3-4 regiments of cavalry. That should give me enough figures to fight some interesting actions.  The French will have a similar number of troops.

To begin the British I have renovated these two battalions from Major General 'Black Bob' Crauford's Light Division - British Light Infantry:

Peninsular Warriors 4 - Warrior Miniatures Brunswickers

Forming part of my British Peninsular contingent is this battalion of Brunswick infantry.  These are old figures from my original coleection and they have not seen the light of day for several decades. I have simply rebased them and dusted them off:

Peninsular Warriors 3 - Warrior Miniatures 25mm Napoleonic French Voltigeurs

I bought these figures unpainted on ebay for £2 - they needed a good home. I am pleased with the way they look after a spot of paint has been applied. The ebay lot included four Hinchliffe French and a Warrior Cuirassier. The mounted general in the picture is from my original 1980s collection:

Peninsular Warriors 2 - Warrior Miniatures Spanish Napoleonics

Following on from my earlier post here are the other spanish troops:

Line infantry in the later blue uniform: 

Spanish Militia - Regiment Muerte:

Another line infantry regiment in bicornes:

The Spanish army so far:

Peninsular Warriors and the Spanish Ulcer

I have had a plan to recreate some of the battles fought during the Peninsula War for many years, but have never had the troops to do so. All of my Napoleonics, until recently, have been painted and uniformed for the 1815, 100 days campaign period. I could have used them with some wargaming license, but I don't like doing that.  Two things have inspired me to have a go at this fascinating campaign, or series of campaigns. Firstly, I purchased a Spanish Napoleonic Army from that very nice man John at Warrior Miniatures. I went down this road as I did not want to spend a fortune on this project and he sells 25mm infantry for 50p and 100 piece armies for around £35.  The second trigger for this project was the article by Conrad Kinch in a recent copy of Miniature Wargames. He fought an action using 20mm soldiers and command and colors rules. I took the bait and out came the paintbrush. So far I have painted four Spanish infantry units and a couple of batteries of guns.

I also have painted a unit of French infantry and discovered several British infantry and cavalry units that had been sitting unused in boxes since the 1980s. The same search revealed some French cavalry too. All of these are by Warrior Miniatures.  I started to dust them down, touch them up and re-base them.

Warrior f25mm Napoleonic figures do not seem to have a very big fan base; however, I like them, being a sucker for the old school style toy soldiers!

Here are the first of the Spanish; first artillery and the first line regiment:

I will post some more pictures shortly and as the collection grows.

Battle Report - Valley of Death

The Light Brigade, with Lord Cardigan at its head begins to trot down the North Valley towards the Cossack Battery, of 12 guns. Initially the stunned Russians simply stare at the spectacle, but it is not long before they realise the intent of the British light cavalry. Guns on both flanks and the Cossack Battery begin to pour shot and cannister into the the ranks of the five British regiments:

The Cossack battery does little damage; however the guns the right flank bring down 10 men and horses. The Light brigade continues to trot down the valley.

The next salvos are more effective as 50 men from the 11th Hussars and 17th Lancers fall.

The British Cavalry break into a charge and hurtle towards the Russian guns, which are now blasting from all sides and another 70 men are brought down. Already the Light brigade has lost 130 from a total of 600. Somehow Cardigan at the very front survives the hailstorm.

On the fourth turn the Light Brigade reaches the Cossack Battery, although another 20 men are lost. The action now breaks into a series of smaller battles. Behind the guns and to the right and left are three regiments of cossacks and a regiment of hussars. They are tested to see if they stand. They do except one of the cossack units, which turns tail. In the centre the 17th Lancers and the 8th Hussars, which piles into the fray begin to batter the cossack gunners; the 13th Light Dragoons peel off to the right to engage the Russian hussars and the 11th Hussars and 4th Light Dragoons swing left to engage the cossacks. The flanking guns continue to fire into the British rear.

Meanwhile on the Fedioukine Hills the French Chasseurs d' Afrique charge into the Russian battery that had done so much damage to the 11th Hussars:

The battery is destroyed, but the Russian infantry, now in square pour fire into the French horsemen, who break off the attack:

Around the Cossack Battery a bitter fight continues, with the Russian gunners doing surprisingly well. For two whole turns they fight off the British cavalry, before finally being overwhelmed, but the damage is done, the remainder of the Light Brigade is fighting against ever increasing odds:

Having taken the cossack guns the 17th Lancers and 8th Hussars attempt to reform. However, two fresh regiments of Russian lancers appear from behind the hill:

The 17th Lancers Turn to support the 13th Light dragoons, who are locked in a losing skirmish with the Russian Hussars

On the left, the 11th Hussars, badly mauled by the artillery are now smashed into by the Don Cossack lancers, suffering severe casualties and they break and turn away from the fight:

The 8th Hussars, still sorting themselves out beyond the guns see a new regiment of cossacks bearing down on them:

And, the 4th Light Dragoons beat off their cossack lancers, only to be attacked by fresh Russian lancers:

Over on the right, the remnants of the 17th Lancers and 13th Light Dragoons finally rout the Russian Hussars and they look for an exit, turning to head back down the valley, but they come under more shell fire from the Causeway Heights and on their right flank they can see a Regiment of Russian lancers bearing down on them:

On the left the remains of the 4th Light Dragoons and the 8th Hussars are now outnumbered and almost surrounded; they attempt to break out, losing more men and once more coming under artillery fire. In the background the 17th Lancers bash through the Don Cosssacks, but are reduced to less than 50% strength:

It is over, the tattered remnants of the Light Brigade trot back to their starting positions. Out of their original 600, just 210 men remain. Cardigan trots back to his tent for a bath to clean off the dust:

Meanwhile at the Russian end the cossack cavalry and lancers regroup behind the destroyed cossack battery.

Who won? Well the Light brigade completed their objective and reached the guns, but were seriously mauled in the process, as were the French. The Russians lost the guns. However, the guns were not the intended objective, so the action was somewhat pointess