Franco-Prussian War - 28mm Prussian Brigade Commanders

After so many years without command stands for my Prussian Army, I finally decided to get to work.

 Brigade Command Stand 1

I think one reason why I went so long without commanders was that I used to use the 'They Died For Glory' rule-set, which was great fun and perfect to get me into the period over 20 years ago.  There was not really any focus on command (other than in the optional rules as I recall).  These days I am much more command and control focused, so I prefer rules which reflect this.

What is clear from the Franco-Prussian War histories is the decisive element of the command and control over all other factors. It could be argued, that command and control had greater effect than the differences in army sizes or differences in weapons. French failures in command and control lead to greater numbers of Prussians running rings around French armies. With this in mind, moving to a rule set which would allow me to use more command and control and 'tweak' elements to make it more period specific became very desirable.  So to Black Powder rules I turned, and thus the need for Brigade and Divisional commanders.

The figures are by Wargames Foundry and are a lovely range.  They are though hamstrung by a lack of a range of command figures and weird packaging.  The mounted general is sold in a packet of identical mounted generals and is the only mounted Prussian commander produced. So unless conversion work is your thing, having the mounted commanders on the same base is going to be weird (or appear very disciplined!).

The officers on foot are sold in Infantry command bags, which include rather animated infantry officers and drummers and standard bearers. One tends to want an infantry command set to have one officer, and not a number of them.  However, this is the way that Foundry have packaged them so it's a good job that I needed lots of infantry command...this way I got senior officers on foot too.

That was the first base of a Brigade Command stand.  I now had to vary the mix a little!

 Brigade Command Stand 2

 

The same type of General figure casting but painted with a different coloured horse and new comrades.

Great sculpts and still some of the Foundry's best, but they really deserved to be in a dedicated senior command pack.  It is a small moan though.  I really do like these figures.

So on to the third and final command stand for now.

Brigade Command Stand 3

To add some more variety, one of the more animated infantry officers was added to the base. This time vocally passing orders from the Brigade Commander on  with some urgency!

 Wide eyed and giving plenty of verbal instruction over the noise of battle!

The mounted commander is not a teutonic blonde in this instance!

I could have made one post for each one of these three stands but I thought I would hit them all at once as I painted them together.  It's rare enough for me to sit down and make a blog post, and there are other things that I would like to post next time.  More Franco-Prussian War next time I think.