When a rare opportunity for a game presented itself a couple of weeks ago, I had a quick trawl of potential Seven Years War battles to find one that would be small enough to serve as a simple introductory ‘Tricorn’ game for my old mate Andy (who hasn’t played SYW or ‘Shako’-based rules since our last game together in 1997!). It also needed to be a historical action and which suited my collection of models. The Combat of Zinna (a.k.a. The First Battle of Torgau), fought on 8th September 1759, seemed to fit the bill and as an added bonus, featured my favourite army; the bloody awful Reichsarmee! 🙂
As recently discussed here, I’ve painted a couple of Prussian Frei-Battalions and the cavalry of the Reichsarmee over the last couple of months and these would be needed for Zinna. I already had quite a few Reichsarmee infantry battalions, plus generals and artillery in my collection, but with a few days spare before the game, I was able to paint a few of the necessary Reichsarmee regiments: the Alt-Württemberg Regiment, the Baden-Baden Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the Pfalz Garde zu Fuss Regiment. I also managed to do the single-battalion Baden-Durlach Regiment, which wasn’t at the battle, but I used them to fill in for the similarly-uniformed 1st Battalion of the Ernestisch-Sachsen Regiment.
The Combat of Zinna was a remarkable little action, not least because it saw a force of only 5,000 Prussians (none of them from particularly distinguished regiments) attack and defeat a theoretically superior Austro-Imperial force of 12,000 men!
Historical Background
In August 1759, King Frederick II of Prussia was having a hard time. His glorious victories at Leuthen and Rossbach seemed a very long time ago as he attempted to contain the Russian invasion in the East (an invasion that would lead on 12th August to the cataclysmic Battle of Kunersdorf). He had pulled Prince Henry’s troops out of Saxony to shore up the defences of Brandenburg and the Austro-Imperial army had consequently taken advantage of the reduced Prussian presence to launch an invasion, quickly capturing Leipzig, Wittenberg and Torgau and threatening the Saxon capital city of Dresden.
The Battle of Kunersdorf
However, although Kunersdorf had been a victory for the Austro-Russian alliance, it had been a Pyrrhic one and the horrific casualties suffered by the Russian army had terminally stalled their invasion. Frederick therefore felt confident enough to send what few forces he had in Brandenburg (many of whom had just only arrived from Saxony) back to recapture his Saxon possessions and lift the siege of Dresden. One such force was a small brigade of light troops led by the newly-promoted Generalmajor Johann Jakob von Wunsch.
Wunsch
The 41 year-old Wunsch was very much a rising star in the Royal Prussian Army, despite not being Prussian! Born in Württemberg, he served as an officer with a Württemberg auxiliary regiment supplied to the Austrian army, seeing action during the Austro-Turkish War of the 1730s. Transferring to Bavarian service as an officer of hussars, he served in the Low Countries during the War of Austrian Succession of the 1740s and finished that war in Dutch service (his regiment having been transferred wholesale from Bavaria to the Netherlands).
In 1756 Wunsch transferred once again, this time to Prussian service, and soon found employment in the newly-raised Frei-Bataillon d’Angelelli, as the oldest Captain in the Prussian Army. Nevertheless, he soon made his mark and was promoted to Major. His improvements to the unit brought him to the attention of Prince Henry and in January 1758 Wunsch was invited to raise his own Frei-Bataillon. In June 1759 this was expanded to a full regiment and his superb service during the campaigns of the previous year won him accolades from the King and promotion in July 1759 to Oberst. However, this was little compensation for the loss of his only son, who had been killed in Prussian service during April of that year.
Wunsch’s meteoric career-path continued to accelerate, as within a month he was given his first independent command, promotion to Generalmajor and orders to root the enemy out of Saxony. Within a few weeks, Wunsch’s tiny force (consisting of two grenadier battalions, four fusilier battalions, three garrison battalions, two Frei-battalions, three squadrons of hussars and five squadrons of dragoons) had recaptured Wittenberg and Torgau and was marching to relieve Dresden. However, Wunsch was too late and Dresden fell to Maquire’s Austrians on the evening of 4th September, with Wunsch only a day’s march away. A further crisis then erupted, as Wunsch received word from Torgau that the small garrison he’d placed there was now once again under threat. Wunsch turned his column about and marched back to Torgau.
Saint-André
Following two hard forced-marches, Wunsch arrived at Torgau on the afternoon of 7th September, to find that the city was threatened by a far superior force of 14,000 men commanded by Feldzeugmeister Friedrich Daniel, Freiherr von Saint-André. Further Prussian detachments gathered up by Oberst von Wolfersdorff arrived early on 8th September, but these additional troops only brought Wunsch’s strength up to 5,000 men! In the meantime, Saint-André had called upon Wunsch to meet him to discuss terms. Wunsch decided that he would meet him… and attack!
Saint-André’s army was camped a little way to the west of Torgau in the lee of the Ratsweinberg hill, its flanks anchored on the marsh of the Grosser-Teich and the village of Zinna. The main part of the army was formed by twelve battalions of Reichsarmee infantry; the Kurmainz Regiment (4 Bns), the Baden-Baden Regiment (2 Bns), the Ernestinisch-Sachsen Regiment (2 Bns), the Hessen-Darmstädt Regiment (1 Bn), the Alt-Württemberg Regiment (1 Bn), the 1st Battalion of the Franconian ‘Hohenlohe’ Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the Pfalz ‘Garde zu Fuss’ Regiment. Some sources say ten battalions, but it’s not clear which battalions were missing from this list. On the left stood the Imperial ‘Kurpfalz’ Cuirassier Regiment and on the right was a cavalry brigade of four regiments; the Austrian ‘Trautmansdorff Cuirassiers and the Imperial ‘Hohenzollern’ Cuirassiers , ‘Bayreuth’ Cuirassiers and ‘Ansbach’ Dragoons. An advance-guard consisting of nine companies of Reichsarmee grenadiers and two battalions of Grenzer were stationed on the Ratsweinberg, while the Szechény Hussar Regiment covered the far right flank on the Wildenhainsche Heath. The only artillery elements were the light regimental gun detachments assigned to the infantry.
Following a brief refreshment break to fortify themselves in the western suburbs of Torgau (Wunsch had given each battalion a barrel of wine from a local winery), Wunsch’s force emerged from Torgau. His artillery quickly deployed and brought a heavy fire down upon the grenadiers and Grenzer on the Ratswein. This bombardment was followed up with a swift bayonet-charge by the ‘Willemy’ Grenadier Battalion and I./’Wunsch’ Frei-Regiment and the enemy was quickly put to flight. With the enemy outpost routed, Wunsch wasted no time in occupying the high ground, establishing a thin line of infantry and all of his heavy guns (ten 12-pounders) on the crest.
All of the Imperial grenadiers and most of the Grenzer had already fled the field pursued by Prussian hussars, though some Grenzer remained around Zinna, so the Jäger detachment of Wunsch’s own regiment moved forward to engage them. The rest of the infantry started to move forward in oblique order, with the right flank leading and the left flank refused, trying to maintain its distance from the dangerous mass of Austro-Imperial cavalry on the southern flank.
However, Oberst von Pogrell of the ‘Plettenberg’ Dragoons had a plan to deal with the enemy cavalry. He had only three squadrons against fifteen, but nevertheless led his dragoons forward in a feint, before rapidly turning about in an attempt to entice the Imperial cavalry to pursue. As Pogrell had hoped, the Imperial horsemen took the bait and charged straight into the sights of the 12-pounders now positioned on the Ratsweinberg. Shocked by this sudden, devastating bombardment, the Imperial horse milled about in confusion as Pogrell turned his dragoons about and charged! The Imperial cavalry broke and fled straight through the lines of Imperial infantry, causing much dismay among the footsloggers.
At this moment, the Prussian right wing began trading volleys with the Imperial left flank. The Prussian left wing remained refused, allowing the guns to now switch their fire to the Imperial right wing. With the Prussians now gaining fire-superiority over the Imperial infantry, Major Lossberg, commanding three squadrons of hussars and two of dragoons, now applied the coup de grace; having advanced in column on the right flank, using the ridge and town of Zinna to mask his movements, Lossberg now fell upon the flank and rear of the Imperial left flank, completely routing the Kurpfalz Cuirassiers and rolling up the Imperial infantry!
With the Imperial army now completely routed, the fugitives fled into a convenient forest to the rear, thus preventing any further pursuit by the Prussians, who had already taken hundreds of prisoners. Astonishingly, most of the Prussian infantry had not even fired a shot! One notable exception to the Imperial rout was the Hessen-Darmstädt Infantry Regiment, who retired in good order from the field, firing disciplined volleys to discourage pursuit, just as they had done at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757.
It would perhaps be easy to pass off this incredible victory as a mere fluke against low-quality opponents, but Wunsch followed it up by driving a French force out of Leipzig and on 29th October won another astonishing victory, this time against Austrian regulars, at the Combat of Pretzsch, for which the King awarded him the Pour le Mérite. However, these remarkable successes in Saxony had attracted a lot of attention and Feldmarschall Leopold von Daun, the victor of Kolin, was sent to deal with the problem.
Wunsch’s astonishing military career therefore came to an abrupt pause on 21st November 1759 when in the immediate aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Maxen, he led a successful breakout of six cavalry regiments from Friedrich August von Finck’s encircled Prussian army. As Finck negotiated the surrender of his remaining forces, Daun found out about the breakout and demanded that the escaped cavalry be included in the surrender! His hands tied by the fate of his remaining men, the reluctant Finck sent orders for Wunsch to return with the six regiments. To his credit, Wunsch did as he was ordered and went into captivity for the rest of the war.
Following Wunsch’s release from captivity at the end of the war, King Frederick (who had never forgiven many other officers for the Maxen debacle) still held him in high esteem and with Finck’s arrest and dismissal from Prussian service, rewarded Wunsch with the title of Chef of the former ‘Finck’ Infantry Regiment (IR 12). This was followed some years later by promotion to Generallieutenant, an independent military command, the Order of the Black Eagle and finally another promotion to General der Infanterie shortly before his death in 1788.
The Scenario
This scenario lasts 12 turns, or until one army breaks. The Prussians have the first turn.
To claim victory, the Prussian army needs to break the Austro-Imperial army, thus ending the threat to Torgau. The Austrians win if they are not broken by the end of their Turn 12.
All divisions of the Austro-Imperial army start the game with enforced Defend orders. The Prussians may assign any orders they see fit.
Prussian Corps of Generalmajor Johann Jakob von Wunsch
(Excellent – 2 ADCs)
Right Wing Cavalry (Lossberg) (Good)
1 Sqn/‘Szekely’ Hussars (HR 1) (elite) } Large Unit [5/2]
1 Sqn/‘Ruesch’ Hussars (HR 5) (elite) }
1 Sqn/’Malachowsky’ Hussars (HR 7) }
2 Sqns/’Plettenberg’ Dragoons (DR 7) }
Right Wing Infantry (Wunsch) (Good)
Jäger Companies, Frei-Infanterie Regiment ‘Wunsch’ (F7) 2x Skirmishers [3/0]
I. Bn/Frei-Infanterie Regiment ‘Wunsch’ (F7) (elite) [4/1]
Grenadier Battalion ‘Willemy’ (4/16) [5/2]
I. Bn/‘Hessen-Kassel’ Fusiliers (IR 45) (elite) [5/2]
II. Bn/‘Hessen-Kassel’ Fusiliers (IR 45) (elite) [5/2]
Battalion Guns [2/0]
Left Wing Infantry (Wolfersdorff) (Average)
I. Bn/‘Salmuth’ Fusiliers (IR 48) [4/1]
II. Bn/‘Hoffmann’ Fusiliers (IR 41) [4/1]
Grenadier Battalion ‘Burgsdorff’ (38/43) [5/2]
II. Bn/Frei-Infanterie Regiment ‘Wunsch’ (F7) (elite) [4/1]
Battalion Guns [2/0]
Left Wing Cavalry (Pogrell) (Good)
3 Sqns/’Plettenberg’ Dragoons (DR 7) [5/2]
Artillery Reserve
Heavy Battery [3/0]
Heavy Battery [3/0]
Prussian Breakpoints
Division FMR ⅓ ½ ¾
Right Wing Cavalry (Lossberg) 5 – – –
Right Wing Infantry (Wunsch) 24 8 12 18
Left Wing Infantry (Wolfersdorff) 19 7 10 15
Left Wing Cavalry (Pogrell) 5 – – –
Army FMR ¼ ⅓ ½
59 16 20 30
Prussian Notes
1. Units marked as ‘elite’ are rated one MR level higher than their normal MR class. Some of these choices might be quite surprising (e.g. the ‘Hessen-Kassel’ Fusiliers and Frei-Regiment ‘Wunsch’), but I think their performance during this campaign warrants it and the Prussians have little chance of winning without some significant advantage in both leadership and troop-quality.
2. The heavy Foot Batteries may start the game unlimbered or limbered and are classed as Army Guns.
3. All Battalion guns start the game limbered.
4. Lossberg’s mixed cavalry command is combined into a single 16-figure (large) unit, classed as Elite Light Cavalry (MR 5/2).
5. One or both battalions of the Frei-Regiment ‘Wunsch’ may be deployed as skirmishers (2x skirmisher stands per battalion). This must be decided before the start of the game and they may not deploy into skirmish order once the game has begun. Nor may they re-form into close order. If deployed as skirmishers, each battalion will count as MR 3 and the divisional and army breakpoints will need to be recalculated (you can do that!).
6. Rather unusually, there are a couple of very small, single-unit cavalry wings here. If they are broken there is clearly no need therefore, to roll for division morale. They each instantly count as a broken division with regards to the army breakpoint.
7. The Artillery Reserve is independent and not assigned to any division, but their MR counts toward the army breakpoint.
8. Each pair of skirmisher stands lost counts as MR 3 when calculating divisional breakpoints. they don’t need to be from the same battalion. ‘Odd’ skirmisher stands are not counted.
Austro-Imperial Corps of Generalfeldzeugmeister Friedrich Daniel, Freiherr von Saint-André
(Poor – 2 ADCs)
Left Wing Cavalry (Poor)
3 Sqns/’Kurpfalz’ Cuirassier Regiment (Unreliable Heavy Horse) [3/0]
Infantry First Line (Average)
I. Bn/Kurmainz Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
II. Bn/Kurmainz Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
III. Bn/Kurmainz Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
IV. Bn/Kurmainz Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
II. Bn/Pfalz ‘Garde zu Fuss’ Regiment [4/1]
Hessen-Darmstädt Infantry Regiment [4/1]
I. Bn/Franconian ’Hohenlohe’ Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
Unidentified Grenzer Battalion 2x Skirmishers [3/0]
Battalion Guns [2/0]
Battalion Guns [2/0]
Infantry Second Line (Poor)
I. Bn/Ernestinisches-Sachsen Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
II. Bn/Ernestinisches-Sachsen Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
I. Bn/Baden-Baden Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
II. Bn/Baden-Baden Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
Alt-Württemberg Infantry Regiment (Poor) [3/0]
Battalion Guns [2/0]
Right Wing Cavalry (Poor)
3 Sqns/’Bayreuth’ Cuirassiers (Unreliable Cuirassiers) [3/0]
5 Sqns/Austrian ’Trautmansdorff’ Cuirassiers (C21) Large Unit [6/2]
4 Sqns/’Hohenzollern’ Cuirassiers (Unreliable Cuirassiers) [3/0]
3 Sqns/’Ansbach’ Dragoons (Unreliable Dragoons) [3/0]
Austro-Imperial Breakpoints
Division FMR ⅓ ½ ¾
Left Wing Cavalry 3 – – –
First Line 30 10 15 23
Second Line 17 6 9 13
Right Wing Cavalry 15 5 8 12
Army FMR ¼ ⅓ ½
65 17 22 33
Austro-Imperial Notes
1. All artillery starts the game unlimbered.
2. All Imperial formations start the game on Defend orders. New orders may not be transmitted until the Orders Phase of Turn 2.
3. Grenzer skirmishers count toward their formation breakpoints. Count two skirmisher stands as 3 morale points.
4. The villages are not prepared for defence and provide no benefit to a defender.
5. The Reichsarmee cavalry were truly bloody awful and well beyond simply dropping them by one MR notch. They are all therefore classed as Unreliable Cavalry with MR 3. They move at the rate of their ‘weight class’ (Heavy or Dragoons). If you’re feeling generous, let the Kurpfalz Cuirassiers move as Dragoons.
6. The Reichsarmee grenadiers and most of the Grenzer had already disappeared before the scenario start-point, so aren’t counted. The Szechény Hussars also didn’t get involved in the battle, so aren’t included here.
7. Rather unusually, the Kurpfalz Cuirassiers form a very small, single-unit cavalry wing. If they are broken there is clearly no need therefore, to roll for division morale. They will instantly count as a broken division with regards to the army breakpoint.
Terrain
The stream and associated marsh running through the Röhr-Grund are crossed as per the movement rates shown on the ‘Tricorn’ QRS, though may be crossed at full speed by units in column at the marked river-crossings.
Any unit defending up-slope of a charging attacker gains a +1 bonus in mêlée.
The town of Zinna is not prepared for defence and confers no defensive benefit.
Next Time…
In the next thrilling instalment, find out if my Prussians managed to repeat Wunsch’s remarkable victory over Andy’s Reichsarmee rabble…
We’ve also just started a campaign based on Frederick’s invasion of Bohemia in 1757 (the campaign that included the Battles of Prague and Kolin), so a lot more of that to come, plus some more Reichsarmee units, my British and Hanoverian cavalry and my expanded notes on ‘Tricorn’.
Well it’s taken a while, but here is the first draft of Tricorn, being my adaptation of Shako Napoleonic rules for the wars of the mid-18th Century. 
Tricorn has actually been around since the mid-1990s, when the 
Although these rules are aimed initially at the Seven Years War, they’re also eminently suitable for the War of Austrian Succession, the War of Polish Succession and the Silesian Wars in the European Theatre. I will expand these to include North America, India, the Turkish Wars and the ’45 Jacobite Rebellion and I’ll also add army lists for pick-up games.
[QRS Page 1 (above) edited 4 Mar 26 to v1.5: 
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Designer’s Notes
Last month I played a small historical refight of the 
Note that there was no official numbering system for these units. The historian Hans Bleckwenn gave them an arbitrary numbering system based on their date of formation and this has continued to be used by many other historians such as Christopher Duffy and the contributors to the 
Frei-Bataillon ‘Le Noble’ (F1 under Bleckwenn’s classification system) was raised in June 1756 by the former Pfalz Lieutenant Colonel Franciscus de le Noble, who continued to command the unit throughout the war until disbandment in 1763. The unit initially consisted of five companies, each of 100 men taken from the districts of the Holy Roman Empire, ten of whom were rifle-armed (and differently-uniformed) Jäger, for a total of 500 men, plus a headquarters detachment and a battalion gun detachment consisting of two 1pdr guns (which were probably replaced by 3pdr guns later in the war, in common with most other such units). This increased during the winter of 1758/58 to a little over 800 men (presumably with a commensurate increase in Jäger?).
For models I’ve used standard Old Glory 15s Prussian Musketeers, with the Firing Line pack used for the skirmishers. In Shako/Tricorn a light infantry battalion may either fight as a formed unit or may break down into to skirmisher stands, so the whole lot wouldn’t be deployed on table as shown here. If there was a sufficiently large Jäger Detachment (150 men or more) they might also create an additional, permanently-detached skirmisher stand, but Le Noble’s Jäger Detachment was very weak (which is a good job, as I can’t find any suitable figures with the required headgear).
F1 ‘Le Noble’ had a reasonably colourful coat, with light blue cuffs, lapels, collar and shoulder-strap and white metal buttons, though without lace. One mistake I made was that the pompoms should be light blue over dark blue, but I mistakenly painted them plain light blue. That said, it’s not very noticeable, so I’m not going to correct it.
Frei-Bataillon F3 ‘Von Kalben’ was raised in September 1756 by the Prussian officer Heinrich Detlev von Kalben, consisting of five companies, each of 100 men, plus a headquarters detachment and a battalion gun detachment of two 1pdr guns, which were replaced by 3pdr guns during the winder of 1758/59. There was no Jäger Detachment. The unit was increased to 800 men during the winter of 1757/58 thanks largely to a draft of conscripted PoWs and in 1760 a tiny Hussar Detachment of just twelve men was added.
The uniform of Frei-Bataillon F2 ‘Von Kalben’ was the plainest of all the Frei-Infanterie units. The coat was plain dark blue, without lapels or collar. However, a splash of colour was provided by the standard red coat-linings and light blue small-clothes. The metal colour was yellow and the unlaced hates were decorated with light blue pompoms. These figures are again by Old Glory 15s.
As mentioned above, I did already have one painted Frei-Bataillon from the 90s and this is it. Frei-Bataillon F8 ‘Du Verger’ was raised in March 1758 in Saxony from French deserters and comprised five companies, totaling just over 800 men, including 50 Jäger (10 in each company) and two 1pdr battalion guns (upgraded to 3pdrs in 1759). 
My apologies to those of you who have seen this all before on my blog, but I think it’s worth mentioning that this week marks the 225th anniversary of the surrender on 24th February 1797 of the French Légion Noir (‘Black Legion’) to an outnumbered and rag-tag force of Welsh Yeomanry, Militia, Royal Navy, Volunteers and armed civilians on Goodwick Sands, near the port of Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Later immortalised as the only Battle Honour to be won by the British Army on British soil, the ‘Battle’ was in fact a relatively bloodless comic-opera.
Having flipped to painting Napoleonics for a few weeks, I’ve now flopped back to painting my Seven Years War armies, starting with some cavalry regiments for the Imperial 
The Electoral Rhenish District (Kurrheinischen Kreis)
The 
The two contingents forming the Kurpfalz Cuirassiers had different uniforms, though I’ve used 
The 
Upon his appointment to command the Reichsarmee in 1758, Prince Friedrich Michael of Pfalz-Zweibrücken reinforced the Reichsarmee cavalry arm with the Pfalz 
Franconian District (Fränkischen Kreis)
The 
Trumpeters are recorded as wearing reversed colours of red coats with white facings, all richly decorated with golden lace (the county of Bamberg is recorded as complaining about the expense of the trumpeters’ lace).
Descriptions of the standards are very vague, though the squadron standards seem to have been red and probably featured the black Imperial eagle on the obverse and county heraldry on the reverse. The regimental standard was probably similar, though in white. I confess to having again used a spare Austrian cuirassier standard here.
The 
Officers of the regiment wore silver lace instead of white and had red sashes striped with black. Drummers are known to have worn reversed colours of light blue coats, faced white, probably decorated in mixed light blue & white lace.
The 
Swabian District (Schwäbischen Kreis)
The Swabian District raised two cavalry regiments; the 
I did actually discuss the 
The uniform of the Hohenzollern Cuirassiers was very similar to that of the Bayreuth Cuirassiers described above, with white coats, red facings and horse furniture. However, they had white ‘metal’ and white lace edging to hats and horse furniture and straw breeches. It is also not known for certain if they actually wore cuirasses. Nevertheless, I’ve used 
My painting since November has been a bit random, consisting mostly of Napoleonic bits and pieces that I’ve been wanting to paint for a while, but kept getting knocked back while the big Seven Years War and American Civil War projects got in the way. Chief among these are some new figures that were released by 
The Saxon Zastrow Cuirassier Regiment has been sitting in my lead-dungeon for about 20 years, having once again been taken from the very first spin of the mould, along with some Saxon Garde du Corps and Chevauxlégers (my lead addiction was quite severe in those days). 
In 1812, the Garde du Corps and Zastrow Cuirassiers, along with the 
After being effectively destroyed in Russia, the Garde du Corps and Zastrow Cuirassiers were re-formed and fought again at Dresden and Leipzig, before defecting to the Allies.
Tony Barton’s sculpting has certainly done these superb horsemen justice and in my opinion they’re among the very best of his models, which is probably why I now have far more than I need! As previously discussed, most of my Napoleonic wargaming is ‘grand tactical’ using Napoleon’s Battles rules, where each unit represents a brigade. Age of Eagles rules are set at the same command-level and we’ll be using AoE for our forthcoming Dresden game. Consequently, I only really need a single unit of 12-16 figures to represent the whole Saxon cuirassier brigade, but what the hell…?
Officers had silver epaulettes, lace and shabraque edging. They also had a gold plate, chain and picker on the cross-belt and golden laurel decoration running around the turban of the helmet. 
Horses were ‘dark-coloured’, though the most black were apparently picked out for the Garde du Korps. Trumpeters rode the same colour horses as the rank-and-file. Officers’ horses could be any colour and according to anecdote, greys were a common affectation, as they were in the Garde du Corps (and which I got wrong when I painted that regiment!).
As mentioned above, the second brigade of Lorge’s 7th Cuirassier Division in 1812 was formed by Von Lepel’s Westphalian Cuirassier Brigade, consisting mainly of the 1st & 2nd Westphalian Cuirassier Regiments. This time I was a little more restrained in my figure-buying and only bought the 12 figures I really need to represent the brigade on the tabletop! However, the two regiments had markedly different uniform colourings; the 1st Regiment wore white uniforms with pink facings, while the 2nd Regiment wore blue uniforms with orange facings.
As mentioned above, the coat was white with pink collar, cuffs, tail-turnbacks and lapels. The cuffs would normally be hidden by white leather gauntlets. Buttons were white metal and the tail-turnbacks were decorated with white grenade badges. The shoulders were adorned with scarlet fringed epaulettes in the style of French cuirassiers. The cuirass was also of French style, being a full back-and-breast plate of polished steel with brass fittings and having a red cloth lining, edged with fine white piping. However, some sources show only a black-enameled breast plate being worn (perhaps captured Austrian items?). Breeches were white for full dress, but on campaign would be pale buff deerskin or grey wool with a pink stripe down the outside seam. 
Helmets were very similar to the French, having a steel bowl with a black leather visor edged with brass, brass chin-scales, brass ‘comb’ and a black fur ‘turban’. In full dress a red plume would be added to the left side. Instead of the French-style horsehair mane, Westphalian helmets were topped with a black woollen ‘roach’ or ‘raupe’ crest and the front was decorated with a shield-shaped brass badge. 
Shabraques were pink, edged white with a white grenade badge at the rear corner. The saddle and holsters were normally covered with a black sheepskin, edged in pink vandycking. Belts were white with brass fittings and scabbards were steel. Officers wore silver epaulettes, had silver lace shabraque-edging and often had additional gilded decoration on the breast plate.
Again, Tony for some reason hasn’t modelled a standard-bearer for the Westphalian cuirassiers, so I’ve used a French Late Carabinier Eaglebearer, cut off the eagle (which will no doubt come in handy for a French unit needing one) and then drilled out his hand to take a new stave of brass wire. The standard itself is by Fighting 15s.
The trumpeters initially wore reversed colours, which for the 1st Regiment consisted of pink coats with white facings and white epaulettes. The facings were edged with lace, which was white with a thin central stripe of blue. There were also nine bars of lace across the chest, extending from the buttons and buttonholes. Trumpets were brass with cords of mixed blue & white. The trumpeters’ uniform changed in 1812 to dark blue coats for both regiments, faced in the regimental facing colour and laced as before, though this coat probably wasn’t worn until 1813. 
In terms of headgear, the trumpeters initially wore helmets crested and plumed in white, with a brown fur turban. The headgear seems to have changed sometime around 1812 a black colpack with bag in the regimental facing colour and white cords, plume and lace, plus the national cockade of blue & white. However, there are depictions of trumpeters in the early uniform wearing colpacks and trumpeters in the late uniform wearing helmets, so perhaps the colpacks were for parade dress? AB make both types, so I arbitrarily decided to go with a pink coat and colpack combination.
That’s it for now. I had another small playtest game of Tricorn last week (below), so the scenario and game report will be up soon, along with my first draft of the Tricorn quick-reference sheets and conversion notes for Shako.
As the surviving readers of this blog will know, I often get stuff wrong and this blog mostly exists as a warning to other wargamers, being a record of where I went wrong and how to avoid such schoolboy errors… However, it’s not often that I get a unit wrong even before I start painting… 
I think it’s fair to say that almost every wargamer with a Russian Napoleonic army will have the Pavlov Grenadiers/Guards somewhere in their collection and most will look like these fellas; splendid in their tall grenadier mitre-caps… Which of course, is where the story goes horribly wrong…
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia opened up to the West (that worked out well…) and with the advent of the internet, a wealth of archival material and historical research flooded out of Russia, including stacks of new information about the composition and dress of the Russian Army of the Napoleonic Wars. Thanks to the first wave of this new research, Tony was able to sculpt his Early Russian Napoleonic figures, which included the Fusilier Battalions of the Grenadier Regiments, with their distinctive short mitre caps in the style of 18th Century Prussian Fusilier Regiments (until October 1810, the Grenadier Regiments had a single Grenadier Battalion and two Fusilier Battalions, but then changed to three Grenadier Battalions). 
Officers apparently had mitre-caps for parade, but wore shakos in the field. These were of Grenadier style, with tall black plume, three-flamed gold grenade badge, silver cords (changing in 1812 to cheaper white) and a silver pompom with orange centre and ‘A’ cypher in gold.
These figures are depicted in the long white Summer ‘gaiter-trousers’. In winter they wore heavier white wool trousers with false black leather ‘booting’ on the lower leg (the difference being clearly shown on the plate above). Belts were white and backpacks were black, though musket-slings were deep red leather. The black ammunition pouches were decorated with the brass three-flamed grenade badge of the Russian Grenadiers. The colour of greatcoats is variously described as ‘grey’, ‘brown’, ‘grey-brown’, ‘drab’… I’ve painted them the same khaki-brown colour I’ve always painted them.
In April 1813 the regiment became the Pavlovski Life Guard Regiment, which in turn led to a further change of uniform. The regiment was ordered to add a pair of ‘Guards’ lace bars to each side of the collar, as well as three lace buttonholes to each cuff-flap. However, they were ordered to use the white lace used by the drummers and not the golden-yellow lace normally used by Guards regiments. This was probably a temporary measure, as the Pavlovs were on campaign and white drummers’ lace would have been readily available to them. It’s not clear how quickly this uniform change came into place, but is recorded as being worn by Pavlovski Guardsmen in Paris during the peace of 1814 (the collar colour had also apparently changed to green with red piping). 
While I was photographing the Imperial Guard cavalry last week, it occurred to me that I’d never properly photographed my Napoleon model. He’s a rather unusual and possibly unique figure, sculpted by 
I acquired my Napoleon in 1995, when I was organising a big demo game of the Battle of Bautzen. My old Battle Honours Napoleon and most of his Guard were getting very tired and battered by ten years of abuse, so I called up Mike Hickling, then the UK producer of AB Figures, to find out if he had any new models of that ilk. 
As far as I know, my Napoleon is therefore one of a kind, but I’d be very interested to know if anyone else has one. He is VERY similar to the final production AB Figures Napoleon, except that the production figure is very slightly slimmer, has a breast-star on his left lapel and has his head turned very slightly to the left, whereas mine is undecorated and is staring straight ahead. Mine also has a retracted telescope in his left hand, whereas the AB Napoleon’s hand is empty. [Edited to add that my Napoleon has the coat pulled back to reveal the sword-hilt, whereas the AB Napoleon’s coat is covering the sword]
I painted these fellas over half a lifetime ago, which is rather terrifying. 🙁 I also gloss-varnished them (as was my custom in those days). I did give everything a spray with matt varnish a few years ago, but these are still quite glossy, so I’ll have to do them again.
As regular readers of this blog might remember, in April 2020 I declared my French Imperial Guard to be finally finished! Hurrah! Vive l’Empereur! etc…
“WTF?!” I hear you cry… Well in my defence (and in order to justify it to myself), I had already completed most of the significant 
In a desperate attempt to justify my indulgence, here are some example orders of battle from 1813 and 1814 to illustrate the tactical groupings of the squadrons of the Young Guard:
The Young Guard Squadrons of the Chasseurs à Cheval of the Guard
The uniform of the Young Guard Chasseurs à Cheval differed from that of the Old Guard squadrons in several areas, though did wear some matching items of dress. The dolman jacket was the same, being dark green with green collar and scarlet cuffs, decorated in hussar style with aurore braid and brass buttons (gold braid and buttons for officers). This was worn with the same green & scarlet barrel-sash. They also wore the same undress green breeches with aurore braid as the Old Guard squadrons and on campaign wore the same green campaign overalls with aurore side-stripes (some sources show red stripes and even grey overalls with red stripes).
The classic bell-topped shako soon gave way to the slightly taller, cylindrical shako-rouleau, which was probably the main type of shako worn by 1814. The shako-rouleau retained the scarlet colouring, again decorated with bands of aurore lace and brass fittings. However, it only had a pompom instead of the full dress plume and cords. Instead of the brass eagle badge was a large national cockade, secured by an aurore strap and brass button. At the rear was a false rear peak of black leather. The top was waterproofed with black oilskin or leather and this might also have been true of the earlier shako. The AB Figures Young Guard Chasseurs are modelled wearing the later shako-rouleau.
Belts were of whitened leather and sabretaches were of plain black leather, decorated with the brass eagle and crown badge of the Young Guard. Some artistic depictions do show more ornately-decorated sabretaches, but these seem to have been officers’ items and perhaps belonged to officers seconded from the Old Guard and/or saved for parade best?
In contrast to the distinctive brass sabre scabbards of the Old Guard, the squadrons of the Young Guard were only issued with plain steel scabbards. However, again it would seem that officers and trumpeters seconded from the Old Guard continued to wear their old brass scabbards.
Shabraques were in ‘reversed colours’ when compared to those of the squadrons of the Old Guard, being scarlet with plain green edging. They also lacked ornamentation. The round valise fixed behind the saddle matched those colours, being scarlet with green lace rings at the ends. Unusually, officers were meant to use exactly the same pattern of shabraque and valise, though there are depictions of officers adding at least a little gold lace to the edging and even using ostentatious animal-skin shabraques in the style of the Old Guard Chasseurs. Again, this may have been an affectation used by seconded Old Guard officers.
White sheepskin saddle-covers could also be used but as with all Guard cavalry regiments, the full shabraque seems to have been universally used, even when on campaign. Line cavalry regiments by contrast, often dispensed with the shabraque and just used the sheepskin saddle-cover on campaign. The full shabraque is therefore one of the key features marking the figures out as Young Guard. The AB Figures French Hussars (which I used for 
Trumpeters wore a sky-blue dolman with deep crimson-pink collar and cuffs and braiding in mixed crimson/gold-yellow. Campaign coveralls were in matching sky-blue with a crimson-pink stripe (or double-stripe). Barrel-sashes were gold-yellow with deep crimson-pink barrels. Some Young Guard trumpeters are depicted wearing the deep crimson-pink pelisse of the Old Guard trumpeters, decorated with mixed sky-blue and gold-yellow braid, though these may again be seconded trumpeters from the Old Guard.
The Young Guard Squadrons of the 2nd (‘Red’) Light Horse Lancers of the Guard
Do not adjust your set… Yes, the Young Guard squadrons of the Red Lancers wore BLUE coats!
[Factoid: The 2nd (‘Red’) Lancers of the Guard were initially classed as Middle Guard, but on 17th March 1813 were elevated to the Old Guard by Imperial decree. Someone recently tried to correct my ‘mistake’ in calling them Old Guard…]
The dark blue Polish-style kurtka jacket had a plain scarlet collar, lapels, pointed cuffs and turnbacks, as well as scarlet piping on the back-seams, which continued down the back of the arms. Instead of the elaborate yellow epaulette and aiguillette worn by the Old Guard, the Young Guard just wore simple blue shoulder-straps, piped scarlet. However, NCOs wore the Old Guard-style epaulette and aiguillette in mixed crimson and gold cords (as shown on the right). Buttons were brass.
The czapka cap followed the colouring of the Old Guard ‘Red’ Lancers, being a black leather cap with a black leather peak trimmed in brass, with brass chinscales and a scarlet cloth ‘box’ piped yellow, with a wide yellow band of lace separating the ‘box’ from the black leather cap. Yellow cords and a white plume were worn in full dress. Sources vary re the front-plate; most depictions show the Old Guard-style ‘sunburst’ plate, while some show just a simple brass ‘N’. There is actually a surviving example of a Young Guard czapka of the 2nd Lancers with the simple brass ‘N’ badge, which adds considerable weight to that depiction of the uniform. It is of course possible that both types were worn and the ‘N’ badge might have been a late-war ‘austerity’ item. In my case this is all academic, as my lads are wearing black oilskin czapka-covers.
Belts were whitened leather and the waist-belt had a large brass buckle-plate. Scabbards were plain steel, though again some brass scabbards appear in art and may have been worn by personnel seconded from the Old Guard. Cloaks were white with a red collar.
The details of officers’ uniforms for the Young Guard squadrons of the 2nd Lancers seems to be lost to history, though if a specific uniform existed it was probably much the same, except with the addition of a gold epaulette and aiguillette, plus gold lace on the czapka and shabraque. However, I’ve opted to use an officer seconded from the Old Guard squadrons, wearing his scarlet kurtka.
Evidence for trumpeters’ uniforms is fragmentary, but they seem to have worn a sky-blue kurtka with scarlet collar, cuffs and turnbacks, edged in mixed crimson/gold-yellow lace. The back-seams were also edged in this lace. The lapels are invariably depicted as plain sky-blue without edging, though its possible that in full dress these were reversed to show scarlet and lace. The shoulders were decorated with an epaulette and aiguillette in mixed crimson/gold-yellow lace and the trumpet had matching cords. Full-dress trousers were scarlet, but on campaign they wore the same dark blue campaign coveralls as the rank-and-file. The czapka had a white ‘box’, edged scarlet with cords matching the aiguillette.
AB Figures don’t produce any specific figures for the Young Guard Lancers. Their Guard Lancer figures have the epaulette and aiguillette, so are only suitable for officers, NCOs and trumpeters. However, their Vistula Legion Lancer figures are spot-on, having full shabraques and shoulder-straps. That said, these figures are a touch on the small side, having been originally designed for the Battle Honours range. Cue the usual internet wailing and gnashing of teeth about ‘incompatibility’, ‘scale-creep’, ’18mm’, etc, but I’m willing to bet that hardly anyone noticed until I pointed it out… 😉
Other Squadrons of the Young Guard
As I play Napoleonics at a high command-level, where each unit represents a brigade (using Napoleon’s Battles rules), I don’t really need to paint any more Young Guard. This is fortunate in the case of the Young Guard squadrons of the 1st (Polish) Lancers, as there seems to be nothing known about their uniforms.
The Young Guard squadrons of the Empress’ Dragoons seem to have worn exactly the same uniform as the Old Guard squadrons, though again replacing the aurore aiguillette of the Old Guard with a second contre-epaulette.
This regiment was initially raised at the start of the Seven Years War in 1756 as a German ‘Free Corps’ of only 300 men in two squadrons. Titled the ‘Volontaires de Nassau-Saarbruck’, the regiment was rated by the Prince de Soubise as ‘poor’. However, it survived the catastrophe of 
The regiment was dressed in the typical Hungarian Hussar style; the dolman jacket was royal blue, with standing collar and pointed cuffs faced in ventre de biche (pale yellow-buff), white braid (silver for officers) and white metal buttons. The pelisse was red with black fur edging, white braid and white metal buttons. Officers has white fur and silver braid. The barrel-sash was coloured white and aurore. Breeches were yellow deerskin and were usually worn with chashkiry (leggings) in royal blue edged with white lace and boots cut in Hungarian style, edged with white lace and tassels. Cross-belts were white, with a black leather cartridge-box.
The sabretache was red, displaying the arms of Nassau (a gold lion rampant on a gold-edged blue oval scattered with gold ‘billets’) and edged in aurore and white lace. The scabbard was black leather with iron fittings and the sabre had a steel hilt. The sabretache and scabbard were hung from red leather belts, but I mistakenly painted them white, like the cross-belts.
Shabraques were red, edged in aurore and white lace and decorated with a white fleur-de-lys at the front and rear corners. 