Basing Prussians

[custosarmorum]

I was just wondering what the basing convention is for those doing Prussians. I am thinking of doing my battalions at either 32 or 40. Personally, I like to retain the company as the unit for each base -- this goes back to the early 70s playing a 1:20 set of rules entitled Column, Line, and Square -- although in some cases it used a base to represent a half company (e.g., French were on bases of six except for the grenadier and voltigeur companies which were two bases of three). Since switching to RtE I have also added some split bases to accommodate skirmishers. So, for my British I have based a 30 figure unit on eight bases of three and two companies as individual figures (the light and one center company) to deploy as skirmishers.

I have looked at the gallery (obviously at Ligny) and it looks as if four figure bases seem common. Would it be odd for an eight figure base instead to keep the company intact? Although I could easily do two bases per company. What about a ten figure base for a 40 figure battalion? I know it is a large base, but I do not think it would look too odd to me since in the CLS rules this was the size of Austrian companies... so yes 60 figure battalions!).

I look forward to hearing from the Prussian veterans on the forum.

Cheers,

Mike

[Friedrich August I.]

Mike,

I hate to disappoint you but I am not a veteran Prussian Player but Your Enemie .

I faced the same thoughts as you, but most of it went into thin air as soon as you know which time frame you like to do. I take it you have the Befreiungskriege 1813-1815 in mind. The normal unit strength dropped at this time under the 800 men paper strenght. Mostly because they needed the cadres of the standing Army to form up new units. They had enough officers in peacetime but the lower ranks were a bit empty.
"ORTENBURG:Waffe und Waffengebrauch" says:
A prussian company has 5 Officers, 12 Sergeants, 3 Drummers and 135 enlisted men = 155 men. In the reality of warfare the strenght of a company reached rarely 150, 200 or even 250(paper war strenght).

If you ask yourself why I, as a Saxon, know that much about Prussians I say: "Know thy enemie"

For basing I suggest you use something Jim(O'Neill) and others suggested.
6x6 figure bases giving 720 men, but marking on the Rooster-Sheet that they are 40 figures / 800 men. I have a 4 company formation and as soon as I form them in a 2 base deep x 3 base wide formation it looks great
Saxon Infantry Regiments, when reorganized 1810, got a paperstrength of 2073 men in TWO batallions while Prussians, under the Paris Convention, had 2100 men in THREE batallions, 2 Musketeer and 1 Fusileer. Its that 2100 men from which the company strength above is coming from.

So, I hope that helps a bit.

Best Wishes

Günter

[Rob Herrick]

My suggestion is to go with the greatest flexibility.

From the rules on march columns, the troops will look best (no need for shims or odd facings) if they're based 3 or 4 to a stand. Thus, I suggest you base them that way, so they will look equally splendid in line, columns of attack, company columns or march columns.

[custosarmorum]

Hi, Günter, and thanks for the reply. I appreciate your thoughts, even as a Saxon , and especially the Sun-Tzu quote about know the enemy (and, of course, know yourself)!

I am indeed thinking of the period of the Befreiungskriege from 1813-1815. As to the size of the battalions, I am perfectly happy to work with 32 figures per battalion (about 650 as an average on campaign). I was thinking of eight hundred and thus 40 figures for two reasons. First, my recollection is that the size of company starting in January 1813 (sometime in the middle of the month) was raised to something over 200 men (I seem to remember this from a visit to GSA in Dahlem while "officially working on conscription in Westfalen). Of course this might vary during campaign. Having said that, at Waterloo, a number of battalions seem to have averaged more than 800 men, sometimes approaching 900 (the 26th/1st Elbe comes to mind).

I am not keen on the 6 bases of 6 figures since I will then lose the look of 4 companies. I would prefer either 4 of 8 figures or 8 of 4 figures (I am leaning towards the latter so I can split one or two stands in case I would like to deploy skirmishers from the Schützen-Züge of the third rank).

I guess my only concern is if I do a larger 40 figure battalion. I am planning on doing GM Krafft's Brigade for the fall of 1813 (I.R. 9 and R.I.R. 9 with a regiment of Newmark Landwehr) and for Waterloo (I.R. 9 and I. R. 26 with a regiment of Elbe Landwehr). The Colberg'sche Regiment I will do at 32. I will probably do the same for R.I.R. 9's three battalions and the Neumark Landwehr. But, as noted above I.R. 26 is large (900 per battalion at Waterloo) as is the Elbe Landwehr (at 800), so for these I will do at 40. I am still faced with bases of 10 or perhaps 4 bases of 4 and 4 bases of 6.

Well, I am still quite away from the basing stage, but thought I would collect some opinions.

Thanks for yours, Günter. I wonder if Martin of Befreiungskriege fame has any ideas?

Mike

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, fröhliche Weinachten, and joyeux Noël to all!

[custosarmorum]

Thanks, Rob. Sounds like a vote for 8 bases of 4...

Mike

[msk]

Well, I go for four bases of eight figures - mainly because I like to follow a convention of one base represents one company. But other variants already mentioned in this thread are perfectly valid and workable in R2E.

[custosarmorum]

Martin,

Thanks for your thoughts. As I mentioned in the initial post, I also like to have the company reflected in the basing. My Prussians (25mm Der Kriegspielers) way back in '70s were mounted on bases on four bases of eight (4x2) for Musketeers and Grenadiers and eight bases of four for Fusiliers ( so they could skirmish).

I am more and more thinking of doing the same for RtE although I will likely split one company base into a base of four bases of two so I can remove six and deploy four skirmishers. For the Fusiliers, I will probably do that for at least two companies.

Thanks again for the advice!

Mike

PS -- I am looking forward to photos of the Prussians from the upcoming RtE weekender in March.