A little DBN advice required

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Well, possibly quite a lot of DBN advice, if I'm honest......

I am about to order some of the new Brunswick 15/18mm figures from Eureka, to be collected at Salute. I have decided to go with Perry 28mm for my Sharp Practice forces, but would like to use the Eureka/AB figures for a DBN army. However, I know absolutely nothing about DBN, other than what I have read on here (and that mostly covering Peeler's farts) and I would be interested in the hive mind's view on how many figures I would need to represent the "Black Horde" at Waterloo, and how to base them up (I'm considering 25/28mm sized bases packed with 15/18mm figures, as I'd like them to look like more than a set of glorified colour parties); I've included an order of battle, with numbers, to help those more familiar with the rules than with the Brunswick forces. A mate has loads of 15mm French and can be persuaded to base them similarly.

Thanks.

All infantry battalions had 672 all ranks in 4 companies. The hussar regiment had 690 a/r in 4 squadrons; the uhlans 232 a/r in 1 squadron. The horse and foot artillery units each had 8 guns and 294 and 216 a/r, respectively.

Advance Guard
Avante-Garde Battalion - 2 coys musket-armed light infantry, 2 coys riflemen
Hussars; Lancers
Light Brigade
Leib Battalion; 1st, 2nd & 3rd Light Battalions
Line Brigade
1st, 2nd & 3rd Line Battalions
Artillery
1 horse troop, 1 foot battery

[Count Belisarius]

Have Eureka modelled the Avante-Garde Battalion in black berets?

[Paul]

DBN scales well so it's probably a case of how big you want the force to be. I don't know their actions at Waterloo well but judging from your list if you did one element per battalion it would create a pretty small size DBN army of maybe ten elements. If they weren't used in isolation you could beef up the army with some allied regiments to the almost standard basic 12 element army.

Even if you used the 'big battallion' option that would be in the region of 12 avant garde Figures, 12 Rifles, 3 Lancers, 36 Leib Lights, 48 Line, 1 gun and crew.
If you wanted to go standard just halve the number of foot.

Peeler and/or Alex will be along soon to tell me i'm wrong about 90% of that

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Actually, one element per unit would give a 12-element army, which is pretty much the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'll wait for the "regular"* players to chip in, but I think you've given me the basics.

(* and yes, I do realise that's a dangerous word to use with Peeler's bum being introduced into the equation....)

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Have Eureka modelled the Avante-Garde Battalion in black berets?

No, but they've done the hussars without pelisses for some strange reason. Not sure if the original ones (with pelisse) are still available though.

[Paul]

Actually, one element per unit would give a 12-element army, which is pretty much the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'll wait for the "regular"* players to chip in, but I think you've given me the basics.

(* and yes, I do realise that's a dangerous word to use with Peeler's bum being introduced into the equation....)

I thought that fielding a Coy of lights as an element might be pushing it a bit
I forgot that the rifles should probably be down as 'Jager' so only 3 figs an element there.


Yes i've probably only played a dozen games of DBN, (although i've built a thousand armies in my head )

[Alex T]

Hi Baron
In DBN one unit is one base, that's a fundamental. So in tactical terms that means either battalions or brigades. The standard DBN game is 12 points (1 point = 1 unit) however Poor units are half a point. My advice would be to have them as part of a 'Allied Army' this is covered in the DBN Army Lists. However if you decide to 'highly rate' your troops you could get to the 12 points, you could say "its your army you can do what you want". So If you rate your Brunswickers as good troops with one Elite unit (Lieb regt) as an idea you can get to the 12 points for your Brunswickers. So 2 units of 'Regular Class' Infantry 1st & 2nd Bn Light Inf), 4 units of 'Poor Class' and 1 'Elite Class'(all at ave 650 - 700 men), 2 units of Jagers (the Advanced Guard Regiment of 2 units of 300men) 2 units of Light Cavalry (450 -500 to each unit with 1 Hussar, 1 Lancers) 1 Horse Gun, 1 Foot Gun, 1 Commander, 1 Baggage = 12 points. Food for thought.
P.S. As Paul suggests, fielding Companies is not standard DBN, However for specific scenarios then yes no probs, but not for any standard game.

[Paul]

Just to clarify number of 15/18mm figures per element/unit:

Muskets 8 figures for the deeper basing (4 for standard basing)
Light 6 (3)
Jager 3(2)
Light Cavalry 3
Foot Artillery 4
Horse Artillery 3

[Purple]

I’m quite partial to a little Brunswicker.
I’m going to be collecting for the DBN Quatre Bras scenario post Ayton.

[goat major]

top man. Pendraken range is very nice for that campaign