How to start Napoleonic French 

Thanks kindly just taking the plunge into Napoleonics

I've been Board-wargaming since the age of 10. Miniature wargaming since the age of 18. Now at 54 I find myself planning to put together my first Napoleonic army in 28mm. I appreciate the useful videos!

I have a small recommendation which i applied. To fill the waterloo regiment commands you can buy a victrix french box set which is cheap and adds 2 more inf regiments plus it brings with 4 infantry commands so you can make the 4 regiments with command.

I like the idea of this series. Thank you!

18mm AB miniatures FTW. Metal boys, METAL!

Thanks for this! My son and I just got the Waterloo starter, so this is of immense help for us.

Two ideas for future vids: 1. How to start with the Warlord French (not waterloo) starter army 2. What to do with all the odds and sods (French band, French Regimental Sappers, etc) units from various companies that don't really have units in Black Powder

Great overview. Really useful for someone new to the period. 👍

A good video explaining the process nice and simply. I was worried you missed p&p then you said about it. What a rollercoaster ride!!!! I hope you will do some of the smaller forces after the biguns

Another excellent video and a great idea for a series

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Really enjoyed your post and looking forward to seeing the others. I am playing the new osprey rules Absolute Emperor and avoided getting the Waterloo set but invested in two french starter sets which Dice and Decks are selling for less than £60! I also managed to get a box of metal Old Guard for just under £20.Cheers.

Just found your channel - really useful thanks - as just decided to return to wargaming after a break of over 4 decades - it's a long time since I last was involved in a drafty hall in Sheffield in the 1970s!

This has been an excellent series. Well done. I did think it might be worth doing some of these again considering the new companies appearing - Eagle Minis and Piano Minis. Right, back to your last one again, as I’m going to watch them all again. LOL!!

Thank you for your great content. It gave me some very good ideas to expand my Waterloo Set armies.

Great video to get started.

Love the channel which I've been following since returning to Napoleonics after some 40 years! Apart from selecting a period and appropriate army my biggest headache has been deciding on unit and basing sizes. This becomes more difficult if wanting to use different rulesets so retaining some flexibility.

I'm putting together a French force for Sharp Practice, and this is very, very useful.

Morning Tim. The British Peninsular War how to start was fantastic and I have followed your recommendations more or less, I mostly went Victrix. I was wondering will you do a French Peninsular War video?

You carry on with your suggestions, personally I find them very sound.

Nice guide, thank you for this video.

Thanks for the tips

thanks a great help for me

I was just thinking, " should look into painting those little soldiers ". Here i am for to be overwhelmed. Thanks

Great vid, super series! Personally I'm interested in a Brit and also a Russian army but have plenty to work on for now!

Interesting, as more of a collector now a day I've been looking into Sharpe practice for the smaller unit sizes (28mm). I only played LoTR in the past where I made acquaintance with the Perry brothers sculpting.

I would honestly recommend (for french) buy either old garde chasseurs and make 4 regiments of about 16 (without command groups) or buy i think 58 middle garde infantry with command and make 4 (or 3 going off of memory) regular infantry off of victrix (30 usd for both)

Awesome video. It almost seems easy:) Looking forward to the video on the Russians.

I just did an extensive research of all manufacturers and found close to 20 doing 28mm Napoleaonic of all nations . I will have to get it out on a Excel for everyone to see . Hows that ! Good video . I found a box of Victrix and Perry to give me 4 battalions ,gives me enough command out of the Victrix . But each to their own . I hope this vid helps a lot of people out .

Good video. Will u be looking to do a step by step guide/play through explaining the rules for us newbies 👍🏼

In my opinion, and the way I build army's, is to select from history, say a French division from the your chosen period and use that to build on. For instance, I'm putting together the French army that fought at the battle of "Albuera" in Spain. The first Division consisted of 2 brigades that totalled 8 Battalions of line infantry and 2 batteries of guns. Therefore for an expenditure of just over £200 you can get an accurate Division with Command figures to then build your second division on and follow that with the Cavalry Division. As for figures. Warlords are a great start, along with Perry, but also look at "Front Rank", Again, in my opinion they are better sculps for personality figures. Just my opinion.

Hi, this one is for the Waterloo campaign, how would you start French for the early years or the campaign in Spain?

You mentioned Perry metals, which I love .. but for a beginner you can also buy single command sprues from their plastic sets. French Inf Comd sprue (14 models, inc two light coy skirmishers) is £8, and the Chasseur a Cheval Comd plastic sprue (2 models) is £4. You could probably get away with the 1808-14 Fr Infantry sprue, which is 6 models for £6 but no skirmishers.

keep in mind how flipping long some of this stuff takes to paint, or can do, and a desire not to be overwhelmed by it.. good to also get a skirmish game to play alongside with the same models

Looking to start 18012ish French, would either of the warlord late war French or the Perrys FN 250 French Napoleonic Infantry Battalion 1807-14 work?

A big thing here 😅 what size bases would you recommend? I do like the look of 6 models on a 45x40mm base.

I refuse to belive there is someone who paints 100£ worth of minis in a month :P

Well mate my recommendation would be perry d20 french army deal if we say I only got the french half from the box , so it would give me the rule book ,- 3 plastic box sets of French Napoleonic Infantry (126 infantry) ,1 plastic box set of heavy cavalry,1plastic box set of dragoons, 1 plastic box set of hussars (41 cavalry, 8 dismounted dragoons), 1 pack of Line foot artillery, 1 pack of Line horse artillery, 1 pack of generals. For 130 pound

The bases always confuse me so this is a great video explaining. To summarise - you suggest; 40mm x 40mm (2mm) for Infantry - 4 to a base 50mm x 50mm (2mm) for Cavalry - 2 to a base 60mm circle or oval?? for Command (2mm) 75mm x 100mm for Artillery (2mm)

As I expand my Napoleonic forces both British and French from playing Sharp Practice to Black Powder which Im very new to, just was looking at clarification on size and the amount of troops on a base for the French?

Should I go with Perry or Foundry?

I want to start Black powder, and I had the idea of making an imperial guard themed army. I thought of 2 sets of old guard grenadiers (victrix), a box of imperial guard lancers (victrix) and the old guard artillery set. (also victrix) And of course some officers. What do you think? Is there anything that I should/ have to add to the army? Thanks!

Hey Napoleonic Wargaming, I'm looking to get into Black Powder French. I was wonderinf if you could help a newbie like me with a few questions. I was looking to do an Army around Borodino, so do you know any good books for colours, and which army/units/range would you recommend I start with? I'm not so keep on the Waterloo box set as the French are hidden under great coats

WELL BLACK POWDER SHOULD HELP YOU OUT I AND THREE OTHERS , BOUGHT SOME BLACK POWDER AND HEY IT GREAT .....Thank you , BUDDY ...SEPT, IS HERE AT LAST YES WE ARE WAITING ......

Aren't Perry miniatures noticeably smaller than Warlord?

Sheffield is particularly well served with outpost and wargames emporium..

France moment

A very helpful video, thank you. I'm still in talks with people from club regarding Napoleonic era wargaming and admittedly I'm hoping that we'll go down the Peninsular route as opposed to Waterloo. Admittedly I was hoping to go with British forces for myself, however, it is looking as though I'll be going French. Out of curiosity would your advice vary much between the video relating to starting out with the Waterloo period versus the Peninsular?

Could you do a video for Russian army too please , good video by the way

Good luck painting all these blokes in 2 months. Not to discourage anyone but you will have to be disciplined to paint every spare moment if you want to finish a task like this. That is unless you just want a slap on paint job (shudder the thought!)

I. Want. Cuirassiers. Please.

How blasphemous is it to mix the peninsular campaign units with the waterloor campaign units? the greatcoats with the uniformed?

A wargamer going over budget? .... whatever next! .... and then you claw it back !!