The first in a new series exploring all there is to know about the Imperial Guard, both in hostory and most importantly, on the tabletop. I'm starting with the Young Guard and will work my way up!
Voltiguers are lights in the sense that can vault fences, climb obstacles i.e vault and are therefore nimble at swarming over unfamiliar territory and getting where they shouldn't be to snipe.
Listening to the entire playlist while painting my 1870 Prussians, sorta related. Although it is said that in the Franco Prussian war the Prussians followed in Napoleon’s footsteps better than the French.
The young guard had done well at aspern essling where they fought and repelled multiple Austrian attacks but had also suffered heavily like at krasny where they formed a sacrificial but doomed rearguard and were annihilated by the Russians while the rest of the army and also were among the imperial guard units that routed other than the old guard
It is called: Ti - ra - yeur. Ti like English "tree"without r, ra like the sun god and yeur like English "sir" only with y like in "year" ("sir" - yir). Ti - ra - yeur. The stress is on the last syllable: Ti-ra-YEUR. Very simple really. Next: You always slaughter the name of the French heavy cavalry, making my ears bleed. It's: Cu - ras - sier. You always stress the second syllable (like CuRAzier) but you should stress the last: It is Cu - ras - SIER, not Cu - RAs - sier. The breast plate is pronounced: Curass with sharp S not with a soft z. So it's "curassss" not "curazzz". Cu (about the french u (ü) there is nothing like it in English but you might get away emulating it by pronouncing the Cu like English Q) -Rasss, with stress on the second syllable: CüRASS. However in the 3 syllable word Curassier the last syllable is stressed like: Cu - rass - SIER. Last syllable, sier: The R in the end is mute. Now say: "yes", say: "syes" say: "sye". Now you have emulated the French "sier" ending. "Qu - ras - SIER". Having put this out of the way I have to say I love your channel and your work and am a Napoleonic enthusiast and collector since my early childhood days. I don't know what my parents were thinking telling me about Napoleonic life, time and personalities as bed time stories.... Please keep the good work up, always looking forward to new videos from you ( now with new proper pronunciation feature 😋) Cheers good lad!
I have to say you did a great job of explaining how to pronounce those words well - always difficult when the learner can't actually hear you say them. Good effort mate.
The young guard are my favorite French infantry. They were elite and they were used often. They fought well and I think the shako looked good with the rest of the guard uniform. Voltigeurs young guard would be more specific. Also the tirailleurs were another favorite.
@D Anemon If you don’t want to consider them elite, they were very good. You couldn’t be a fresh recruit and be part of the young guards. Like he said they were taken from the cream of the crop. He explains the rest in this video. They had to have fought before and often he got distinguish themselves first. Also serve a certain amount of time. A guard voltigeur would have to be quick, agile and a good shot as they were often skirmishes. They were part of his imperial guard. So the ones that were conscripts, were the best. They also were used more often, as Napoleon didn’t like using his old guard. So they would see more action. Rather the sitting back getting rusty.
A lot off the officers came from the old guard to fill out the young guard as it was destined to be a cadre for replacements into the old guard as places opened up, a lot of these officers kept their old guard uniform whilst commanding in the young guard to show they had been old guard
The French made men with the ability to command officers. Where as the British for example, only gave the gentry or someone from gentlemanly backround that uppertunity. The bigger your purse, the better your rank. Maybe a fairly rare battlefield commission (like Sharpe) would somebody from a common backround give the chance, but it was mainly reserverd for the upperclass. It really shows Napoleon kept the fruits (Liberté, Fraternité, egalité) from the revolution during his reign.
Thanks again Napoleonic Warg (that's how Napoleonic Wargaming shows up in my channel list and I have to say I like it that way) I have a far better idea how to handle the YG than I did before watching this; good vid mate.
Napoléonic Wargaming.Ce que vous dites au sujet des soldats français"qui n'étaient pas aussi bons que dans d'autres nations comme l'Angleterre,l'Autriche et la Russie"est d'une lamentable stupidité typiquement anglo-saxonne! Notre infanterie a balayé les russes et les autrichiens à Austerlitz en tenant un village pendant suffisamment longtemps pour permettre à la cavalerie de fondre sur l'aile droite des russes pendant que l'artillerie pilonnait les autres alliés. L'entraînement des conscrits était à la hauteur de ce que les officiers attendaient d'eux. Si nous avions été aussi nuls que les autres pays,nos troupes ne seraient jamais arrivées en Russie. Ce que les anglais n'ont jamais osé faire!Pour une fois dans votre vie,essayez d'être objectif avec nos soldats et notre grand pays!!
Thanks for putting these videos together. I really enjoy them, learn a lot, and appreciate that you relate them to Black Powder. Great stuff and look forward to the next one!
The main problem of Young Guard 1813+ was lack of stamina of the young soldiers. Intensive marches take more man from ranks than actual combat. That's why there should be not large battalions in Black Powder for that formation.
I’m new to Napoleonics. I got the Warlord Waterloo starter. I’ve made 3 line BNs and a BN of Chasseurs. The line BNs have line grenadiers and Voltiguers in them. I also have two regiments of lancers. I’d like a more elite unit to go along with my Army. Any recommendations? The Young Guard is appealing but I can’t seem to find a box set of models (or similar ones) that I could buy and play as such. Thanks!
There's no plastic young guard at the moment. Victrix do a set of middle guard in plastic, or you could get metal YG from the Perry's. I've done a start collecting on thr Imperial Guard, that might give you some ideas
As an observation, the Guard infantry seems to be the only French infantry to have red turnbacks. The line would have been white (with the standard blue "habit" coat) and the light infantry with dark blue as for the coat. This picture of 7 figures seen full-front, is of the middle-guard, the 2 Fusilier regiments: Fusilier Grenadiers and Fusilier Chasseurs. The were not Young Guard troops. The wore long-tailed coats as did the Old Guard Grenadiers and Chasseurs (with bearskins), but with shakos. White, non-edged lapels as for the Old Guard regiments. White epaulettes with red crescents are unique to the Fusilier Grenadiers (instead of solid red - or scarlet - for the Grenadiers).
Also I think they only sported such massive plumes and bright cockades whilst on parade, most likely whilst in action they eschewed these for field caps and military drabs.
The 1/2 scale figures look soo unrealistic and...frankly...ridiculous. They honestly look like little dwarfs with oversized muskets....laughable. I ALWAYS stick with my 1/32 scale because they at least look like men instead of tiny, stocky dwarfs.
