1st West Prussian - Dresden 1813

Regiment of the Day

Today we look at the impressive 1st West Prussian Infantrie Regiment, who fought with the 9th Brigade under Von Kleist's Corps at the battle of Dresden, 1813.


A Full Unit History can be found here :

http://www.scott-ludwig.com/NWC/Prussia/archives/6IRHis.htm

4 Bases of regular infantry (rated Green !!), and 1 skirmisher base. Figures by Warrior miniatures.

A little on the small side as figures go - these are 'true 15s', noticeably smaller than the ABs, but great value. Quick and easy to paint up and get them on the table.

Prussian uniforms of this period are very simple to work out and put together - facing colours being restricted to collars and cuffs (all the turnbacks are red, regardless of the regiment).

In this case, all of the West Prussian regiments have red facings ... simple.

To distinguish the individual regiments, the flags are thankfully distinctive for each regiment.

Like all of my other units, this flag is hand painted on canvas. Nice shade of green for this one - I found that Vallejo 'Park Green' is a very unusual shade is would have few uses in military modelling, but makes for a perfect shade of green for the Napoleonic period.  It also appears to be a pretty decent match for the background green for this particular flag.

1st West Prussian, shown here brigaded together with the 6th Reserve Infantry Regiment (in the 2nd Rank). In this case, the combined skirmisher bases can serve as a screen for both regiments.

For combat purposes, this combined brigade can count as a single unit of 8 bases ... even though this large force is rated 'Green' for the Dresden scenario .... 8 combat bases plus the 2 skirmishers still makes it quite a formidable force that can overwhelm a smaller unit with sheer numbers alone.

And again with the 9th Brigade Landwehr Troops (7th Silesian Landwehr), sitting to their rear as a reserve force.

Comparing these forces with the earlier 1806 Jena/Auerstadt Prussian forces ... you can see the tendancy for the battles to be larger affairs, involving much larger masses of troops, all of which are operating on the Corps command system and French manoeuvre system to various levels of efficiency.

These later period Napoleonic battles certainly have a different feel to them than the earlier battles.