It's Fun & Games Until The Netherlands Get Involved

Oh, but the Napoleonic virus is in my veins as I feared. And so I must stoically accept my fate like a doomed albino prince.

Now, I am going to take a somewhat altered position on my previous statement about avoiding Waterloo like the plague, so sit back, grab the popcorn and watch me weasel my way out a sticky situation like a politician caught with their trousers down in a Soho basement.

 I have been opposed to Waterloo per se, as it's been 'done to death' like a Bangkok lady of negotiable affection in the tourist season.

But, I accept that it does have some interesting orders of battle to allow the use of armies other than  British, French or Prussian.

I have developed an interest in the Allied contingents involved and to this end my new project will hopefully be to represent the 1st and 2nd Netherlands Divisions, the Brunswick Contingent and 3 Netherlands Cavalry Brigades present at Quatres Bras and/or Waterloo. I'm not scaling units to the OOBs, but the constituent units do make a useful template for building a nice collection.

It should look something like this:

CAVALRY

 

Carabiniers

 

The Dutch Carabiniers are 20 figure units 

 1st Dutch Carabiniers

3rd Dutch Carabiniers

 The Belgian Carabiniers are 20 figures 

 2nd Belgian Carbiniers 

 

Hussars

 

6th Dutch Hussars 32 figures

8th Belgian Hussars 24 figures

 

Light Dragoons

 

The Dutch Light Dragoons are 32 figures

4th Dutch Light Dragoons

The Belgian Light Dragoons are 24 figures 

 5th Belgian Light Dragoons

 

Brunswick Uhlans

6 figures using 

 

Brunswick Hussars

24 figures using 

 

INFANTRY

 

Brunswick Light Infantry

 

3 x 32 figure units 

 1st Light Infantry

2nd Light Infantry

3rd Light Infantry

 

Brunswick Line Infantry

 

3 x 32 figure units 

 1st Line Infantry

2nd Line Infantry

3rd Line Infantry

 

Brunswick Leib Regiment

1 x 36 figures

Leib-Battalion

 

Brunswick Avant Garde

12 Light Infantry

18 Jager 

 

2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment

 

3 x 36 figure battalions

1/2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment

2/2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment

3/2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment

 

Orange-Nassau Regiment

 

2 x 36 figure battalions

1/Orange-Nassau Regiment

2/Orange-Nassau Regiment

 

Nassau Jager Company

1x6 figures

Nassau Jager

 

Belgian Line Regiments

3 x 36 figure units 

1st Belgian Line 

4th Belgian Line

7th Belgian Line

 

Dutch Line Regiment

 

1 x 36 Dutch line regiment,

16th Dutch Line

 

Dutch Jager Regiment

 

1 x 36 figure Dutch Line/Jager regiment

27th Line (Jager) Regiment

 

Dutch Chasseur Regiment

1 x 36 figure Dutch Line/Chasseur regiment

18th Dutch Chasseurs

 

Dutch Militia Regiments

 

10 x 32 figure Militia battalions

1st Dutch Militia

2nd Dutch Militia

5th Dutch Militia

6th Dutch Militia

7th Dutch Militia

8th Dutch Militia

9th Dutch Militia

14th Dutch Militia

15th Dutch Militia

18th Dutch Militia

 

Then of course there will be the artillery  and limbers.

 

I think that this will be a fun force to play with, being varied both in colour and quality. I may add the 3rd Netherlands Division at a later date, just for the sake of completion.

 

I'll be basing for In The Grand Manner, but intend to play the Valour & Fortitude rules. I'm sure that the two terrain modules I purchased last week from the esteemed Jerry Miller will be getting some serious use.

 

 

These are large modules, custom built from Hovel components and the pics here don't do them justice, with their warm, mellow hues and great detail.

 

Kayte also managed to get the basing done on the first of the vintage ECW units, and I think it's goin to look really nice when all are like this, giving an obviously much used and much loved colection a whole new lease of life.

 

 

I'm currently trying to put together a chronology of the 4 years I ran and owned Dungeons & Starships, and as soon as I do, I'll begin to tell that hair raising tale, unless I see fit to actually add it to my second book. It was the best and worst of times, but I'm truly glad that was able to experience it. Making a living playing and selling games was an 80s youth's dreams come true and being able to do so under the guiding hand of one of the UK's founding fathers of the gaming retail world was priceless. OK, it nearly finished me off but the non-PC stories would be worthy of a podcast or other chat show.

Well, if you will excuse me, I want to get a couple of fantasy characters painted and then relax in a hot bath with a reassuringly expensive uniform book.

TTFN