What's on your workbench?

[valleyboy]

Hey Mark, how do you paint up Austrian Grenadier battalions
Are they just knocked together from 3 separate grenadier companies like in Napoleonic times?
My 28mm Austrians are based in 4 x 6 figures, I'm not sure what to do for Grenadiers
I planned 4 x 24 battalions, 2 German and the other 2 Hungarian

[grizzlymc]

Wasn't that the way it was done?

[RMD]

Hey Mark, how do you paint up Austrian Grenadier battalions
Are they just knocked together from 3 separate grenadier companies like in Napoleonic times?
My 28mm Austrians are based in 4 x 6 figures, I'm not sure what to do for Grenadiers
I planned 4 x 24 battalions, 2 German and the other 2 Hungarian

Every battalion took a single company of grenadiers with it to war. If you have a look at the map below, you'll see each Austrian corps with its number of battalions, squadrons and grenadier companies listed and in most cases the number of grenadier companies exactly matches the number of battalions, though a couple of corps have a few extra grenadier companies (belonging to regiments that were in garrisons). However, there were no permanently-established grenadier battalions like in the Napoleonic Wars. That theoretically means roughly one battalion of grenadiers for roughly every 3-4 regiments present.

However, the Austrians had the irritating habit of using grenadier companies to guard the baggage train, so they frequently turn up in battle in only small numbers. For example, Daun's army at Kolin had only TWO grenadier battalions present and they were used to beef up the Grenze skirmishers... Daun was no wargamer...

Note also that grenadier companies were around 25% weaker than fusilier companies - 97 men at full strength, compared to 133 men in a fusilier company.

I should add that the Wurzburg Red Regiment's grenadiers above should probably be detached and grouped with the Austrian grenadiers, though I've no evidence to prove that this was the case. I've also got an absolutely heap of spare Austrian grenadier figures, so I thought I'd include them in the line!

The Wurttembergers were just like the Prussians in terms of organisation as well as dress. Like the Prussians, they formed a permanent grenadier battalion from the grenadiers of each pair of regiments, though in the case of the Leib Regiment they had a full battalion of grenadiers just from that one regiment. In 1758 they expanded this further into a full Guard Grenadier Regiment.

Two more things I should own up to: At Leuthen the Wurttemberg grenadiers wore white pillow-cases over their mitre caps in an effort to prevent friendly-fire. Secondly, the officers should be wearing hats, not mitres, but I've got a stack of (wrong) Old Glory Prussian grenadier officers wearing mitres to use up...

[RMD]

Oh and Bavarian grenadier usually companies remained formed with the line and were not detached, except in the case of the two regiments detached to the Reichsarmee, who detached theirs.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Wasn't this the war in which the Bavarians wore Prussian-style dark blue, instead of the more expensive cornflower shade?

Possibly one for the Count to sort out for us....

[RMD]

Wasn't this the war in which the Bavarians wore Prussian-style dark blue, instead of the more expensive cornflower shade?

Possibly one for the Count to sort out for us....

Yes, they wore dark blue coats with simple facings and no lace as an economy measure after being ruined during the War of Austrian Succession. Their cavalry also spent most of the war without horses for the same reason. The only reason they managed to put ten battalions into the field (in addition to their minimum Reichsarmee obligation of four battalions) was because the Austrians were paying for them (along with the Wurttembergers and Wurzburgers). Cornflower blue and buttonhole lace did start to reappear for the Leib Regt in 1761 or thereabouts.

[Peeler]

Nice paint job, liking the 12 figure bases too

[RMD]

Nice paint job, liking the 12 figure bases too

Cheers! Yeah, as mentioned here before, my late mate Doug decided to base his units on single bases, as they never did anything except fight in line. If he wanted to form a column to flank, he just put an arrow marker to show the direction of travel. Pure simplicity.

[RMD]

Hey Mark, how do you paint up Austrian Grenadier battalions
Are they just knocked together from 3 separate grenadier companies like in Napoleonic times?
My 28mm Austrians are based in 4 x 6 figures, I'm not sure what to do for Grenadiers
I planned 4 x 24 battalions, 2 German and the other 2 Hungarian

I forgot to mention that the same was true of the elite cavalry companies - Horse Grenadiers for the Dragoons and Carabiniers for the Cuirassiers. Each regiment would bring its elite company along and these would be massed as 'elite regiments'. Note that a lot of wargames rules describe these as elite 'squadrons', but they were only companies (i.e. half-squadrons). So you'd need 8-10 cavalry regiments to be present in order to collect enough elites together to make an elite regiment.

[grizzlymc]

There is something new I have learned. Never knew the cavalry had converged grenadiers.

Silly idea.