Regiment of the Day
Today we have another French Guard unit - although not the bearskin clad Les Grognards ... instead we have the Middle Guard.
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| French 'line grenadiers' from Warrior miniatures, hacked around with the paintbrush to represent generic 'Middle Guard' for the French Grande Armee. Being Guard, I also use bearskin figures for the command group. (I have so many spare command figures with bearskins, that I use these for veteran line units as well) |
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| To distinguish these as Guard, I have gone for white gaiters (as all my French Guard are stood out from the other troops this way), as well as a Guard specific flag. The Guard flags are slightly different to the line in that they have a gold eagle in the centre of the flag on one side. Blue collars, white cuff tabs, and red turnbacks with a white N complete the representation of Guard infantry. |
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| Another Guard unit for my French Grande Armee - safely protecting the rear areas, whilst the line troops get to do the dirty work :) |
The Middle Guard aren't seen nearly as often as the Old Guard, but the Fusilier-Grenadiers and Fusilier-Chasseurs probably saw more action, and being younger but still very much hardened veterans (unlike the Young Guard), may even have been better troops. I enjoyed painting them myself as part of our Wagram project back in 2008-9.
ReplyDeleteAh yes - the Guard, and the Middle Guard would have been the backbone of the whole Corps, doing most of the work.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere, buried away in the rules we are using, there is mention of 'committing the guard' ... an action that once you enter into, there is no turning back. It has some morale effect on the opposing Corps, but if the attack falters for any reason, then the French pretty much lose the scenario.
For that reason, these chaps spend most battles sitting in reserve, looking pretty.