League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

Greystreak wrote:...These seem to be quite large battalions; how many
'men' is each figure representing in these units?

Hi Bryce,

The Battalions are 36 Figures, each figure stays for 20 men after RtE. On Paper the units would have 832 men each but I made 720 men to show some kind of consumption. 4 companies of 180 instead of 208 men.

Thanks for the comment.

Best Wishes,

Günter

That's a splendid looking collection Günter.

Duke of Plaza-Toro wrote:That's a splendid looking collection Günter.

John,

It is steadily growing, the next Regiment, a blue one, is ready to be based.

A fast update on what's going on with the Saxons:

Currently the greens of the Chevaux Legers are ready to get molded. All figures come with seperate arms as one of these Regiments was a Ulan-Regiment the attached arms let two choises for fitting a lance.
Four Horse Artillery men are molded. Three Hussars are in the sculpting process.

Next on the list may be the Heavies, the Light Infantry and eventually the Leib Grenadier Guard.

Thanks for all your kind words.
All comments are (still) welcome

Günter

Good Lord, how did I miss the parade? The Saxons look splendid!

Superb work!

Who made the French?

Figures are from Steve Barber, painted by my good friend Neil Wilson.

http://www.sbarber-models.clara.net/main.html

http://www.wilsonsminiatures.co.uk/index.html

They look great, if a little on the expensive side for us US buyers. Keep up the good work.

Dear Friends,

The situation is the following: The recent months have been busy ones as Steve Barber used this time for sculping away on the growing Saxon Range. A major step has been made with finishing the production moulds of the Chevaux Legers. The First cast should be ready next week. As soon as I get pictures I will show them here.

The next Troops in the Line are the Hussars. The 3 Figures of them are to be made with seperate arms, an Officer, Trumpeter and Troopers.

After some argueing the decission was made to start the Light Infantry after the Hussars, most of them in some kind of fighting or skirmishing poses.

Thanks for following.
All comments and suggestions are welcome

Best Wishes,

Günter

Dear Friends,

For those who are following my efforts on the Saxons of 1810-1813 and didnt visit Steve Barbers Website so far may here see a list of the now available figures:

Line Infantry - full dress
NS1 Musketeer marching
NS2 Musketeer officer
NS3 Musketeer drummer
NS4 Musketeer standard bearer
NS5 Musketeer sapper
NS6 Grenadier marching
NS7 Grenadier officer
NS8 Grenadier drummer
NS9 Grenadier sapper
NS10 Mounted officer

Artillery Crews - full dress
NSA1 Foot artillery officer
NSA2 Foot artilleryman with rammer
NSA3 Foot artilleryman with port fire
NSA4 Foot artilleryman carrying cannon ball

Today I got the information that the long waited Cavalry are finaly ready to be ordered:
Cavalry (coming with appropriate horse):
NSC1 Cheveaux leger charging
NSC2 Cheveaux leger officer
NSC3 Cheveaux leger trumpeter
NSC4 Cheveaux leger standard bearer
NSC5 Prinz Clemens Uhlan charging
NSC6 Prinz Clemens Uhlan officer
NSC7 Prinz Clemens Uhlan trumpeter
NSC8 Prinz Clemens Uhlan standard bearer

The Skirmisher, a mounted Cheveaux Leger firing his Carbine from the saddle, will take a bit longer as he has to be sculpted from scratch.
Pictures, as written in previous Posts, will follow soon.

Thanks for following
All comments and suggestions are welcome

Günter

Dear Friends,

The following news have arrived:
The Hussars are in the state of getting finished, also the mainstay of the Saxon Artillery, the 6pdr Cannon is almost ready for moulding.
Today I sent my sculptor the scans of the 4pdr Regimental gun for inspect and sculpting later this month.
After finishing the above the Light Infantry will be started. Current thoughts are to sculpt them without their backpacks and/or postures like musket at trail and not in march attack position.
For my 'personal' Army the Saxon Light Infantry will be made as formed batallions AND skirmisher order. That doubles the numbers but who cares

Thanks for following
All comments and suggestions are welcome

Best Wishes,
Günter

Dear Friends,

within the next time I will bring you on this thread the story behind the history of the new modernized Saxon Army. The Story will include the precarious political Situation the Saxon State was in and how it made a walk on eggshells preventing to become extinct from the face of Europe by its warmongering neighbours. Further I go to outline the background of the why and when the reforms were made.

Stay tuned

All the Best

Günter

Dear Friends and followers of this threads,

Part I.
The Saxon Army stood in his 120th Year of its existence when, moved by events on the battlefield, vocals were heared that the System needed a reformation. The last reorganization layed almost 40 years back in the Year 1766. The same old style, the inflexible formations, the same "Gamaschendienst"(gaiter service) in which also the other german states were captured, including Saxony, could be seen since the 7YW and the BWS until the year 1806
Since that time only minor changes has come and gone so the Army stood at the time of the Revolutionary wars as follows:

Infantry:
Leib Grenadiere, 2 Battalions with 10 Companies
12 Infantry Regiments of 2 Musketeer Battalions with 4 Comp. each and 2 Grenadier Companies.

Cavalry:
4 Heavy Regiments - Guarde du Corps, Karabiniers, Kurfürst- and Kochtitsky-Kürassiere
5 Light Regiments - Prinz Clemens-, Prinz Johann-, Prinz Albrecht- and v. Polenz Chevauxlegers and the Hussar Regiment.

Artillery:
2 Battalions with 12 Companies with (heavy and light)
4 pdrs(Regimental Guns), 8pdrs, 12 pdrs, 10 and 7 pdr Howitzers.

Curious detail:
There were also 7379 femals and 12378 infants belonging to the army of about 30.000 men.

Part II - A Political View:

The Elector, Friedrich August III.(the later King of Saxony), tried allways to keep his Country out of troubles. As the War against the Revolutionary France was to be declared by Austria and Prussia he didnt sign on. But as the French crossed the Rhine he was obliged to react as the 'Reichskrieg' was declared and he as one of the leading 'Reichsfürst's' has to take up arms in defence of the Empire. So the cataclysmic Year 1806 was coming up in which Saxony since 1763 - 43 Years Saxon soil wasn't war-torn - was going to make the most harmful experiences possible.

Incidents at the Battle of Jena 1806 that leads to questioning the current Saxon Army were as follows:
.) The Linear Tactic to inflexible against the French coloumns
.) No Cover against the Tirailleur-Swarms of the French
.) The Artillery to cumbersome to keep up with the Infantry
.) The slow marching pace of the Saxon Troops

Most of the points above were written down and brought before the Elector who approved the need for change but couldn't do it because of the forthgoing war. While the battle of Jena destroyed allmost the complete Saxon Army and with French Troops in Saxony he was forced to sue for peace with France. On December 11th 1806 he signed the treaty.

The next Part 1807 - 1810.

Thanks for following.
Please ask if something seems unclear, I' ll try to answer it.

Günter

The lonely writer types again... It looks like if I writing this for myself or the audience has fallen asleep while reading it

Part III. 1807 - 1810:

After the disaster of 1806 and the acension to Kingdom Saxony was drawn into the war against Russia towards the battle of Friedland.
6000 men, 8 Battalions of about 640 men each, 5 Squadrons and 2 Batteries. They saw action at the Siege of Danzig and a the Battle of Friedland where the König Kürassiers fought with distinction. As approval the Saxon King elevated them for their bravery 'Guard' and renamed them to Leibkürassiergarde.

Some Changes in the Army:

1808 New Colours and Standarten were delivered to the Army, for the Chevauxlegers Hungarian Horse equipages, new Sidearms and longer Bajonettes for the Infantry and some kind of general staff for the Divisions were established.

1809 the War against Austria
Motivated by their Ruler Saxon Officers wrote down all what happened on this Campaign in memorandums to be brought to the attention of the their Sovereign.
Saxon mobilized 16,302 men arround Dresden. 23 Battalions, 20 Squadrons and 24 cannons in 4 Batteries(excluding 46 Regimental guns).
May 8th 1809, on the first Rest the "Schützen" of each Brigade were pulled together to form Light Battalions.
Explanation: The Schützen were 14 men of each Musketeer Company who were used as some kind of Screen for their Battalion consisting of the 'sharpshooters' of their unit.
Funny detail: To be called a sharpshooter was defined by hitting the bulls eye with the first shot
May 31st 1809 a new Horse Battery is raised; consisting of men from the foot artillery and 4 'light' 8pdr cannons.
June 8th 1809 While encamped near St.Pölten and by order of Napoleon the depleted Saxon Battalion were fused together to form 1 Battalion out of two of each Regiment. The small 'Schützen-Battalions' have to be filled up to strenghten their ranks so that any company has to contain 174 men.

I prefer not to go into the details of the Campaign because that would extremly lenghten this thread. All I like to say about the spirit of the Saxon troops that fought and died in this War that they ALL stood their ground and followed the orders of their leaders whatever it was. What was written by infamous french writers about the Saxons at Wagram was to blame them and to glorify the French because they were Gods on the Battlefield and the others the Scapegoats.

Next Part the Reorganisation of the Army 1810

Thanks for following.

Günter

Friedrich August I. wrote:The lonely writer types again... It looks like if I writing this for myself or the audience has fallen asleep while reading it Günter

Gunter, I'm sure everyone is thoroughly engrossed in your history of the Saxon Army, I know I am and can't wait until you get up to 1866 and the Franco Prussian War.
Cheers
Dave

obriendavid wrote:...... I am and can't wait until you get up to 1866 and the Franco Prussian War.
Cheers
Dave

Dave, I'm currently reading that part so stay tuned