From RayR: Retreat from Moscow - L'escadron sacré (101 points)

 

The Sacred Squadron (French L'escadron sacré) was an ad hoc cavalry unit which served briefly in the French Grande Armée during the final stage of the Emperor Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812. It was remarkable in that it consisted - out of military necessity - entirely of officers, with those below the rank of colonel serving as troopers.

The Sacred Squadron was formed on 23 November 1812, by the Bobr River (perhaps at Borisoff, in modern Belarus) to serve as Napoleon's bodyguard. It was disbanded on 10 December 1812, in Kowno (modern Kaunas, Lithuania). It therefore served during the crossing of the Berezina (26-29 November), and continued to exist for a few days after Napoleon's departure for Paris on 5 December.

Its existence is recorded in the 29th Bulletin of the Grande Armée, by which Napoleon hinted to the French people for the first time the scale of the disaster which had befallen the Grande Armée:

"Our cavalry was dismounted to such a degree, that it was necessary to collect the officers who had still a horse remaining, in order to form four companies of 150 men each. The Generals there performed the functions of captains, and the colonels of subalterns. This sacred squadron, commanded by General Grouchy, and under the orders of the King of Naples (Murat), did not lose sight of the Emperor in all these movements."

No written order establishing the unit has been found; it is possible that it was set up orally. No official record of those who served in it has survived; considering the circumstances, it is possible that none was ever made, or that the records of Marshal Berthier (Napoleon's Chief of Staff) were lost during the retreat. Other sources give lower numbers than Napoleon's 600: Chandler says 500.

In addition to its commander Général de division Grouchy, the following are said to have served with the Sacred Squadron:

Général de division de La Tour-Maubourg
Général de brigade de La Grange 
Colonel Rambourgt 
Colonel de Fernig 
Lieutenant-colonel de Castellane
Lieutenant-colonel de Lascours 
Chef d'escadron  de Gramont 
Chef d'escadron  de Potier 
Capitaine Aimé Benoît Delamalle
Lieutenant Le Bon Desmottes 
Lieutenant Claude-Xavier-Louis-François Martin
Lieutenant Saint-Geniès 
Sous-lieutenant Korte 

My 2 Commanders, both are from Front Rank miniatures. On my brand new Warbases sabot bases.

These 4 are all Casting Room Miniatures and all have had green stuff cloaks and a scarf to hold his bicorne on.

Four more figures from Front Rank, there was no need to add anything on these, I could have added a cape for the Guard figure, but didn't want to spoil his uniform.

So there we have it, Napoleon's Sacred Squadron, or 10 Mounted Commanders, if you don't want the Sacred Squadron in a game..

Points are easy, 10 figures at 10 points each, 100 pts, maybe Teemu would like to add some extra for the the cloaked commanders.

TeemuL: It would have been wrong to expect nothing less than a weekly Retreat from Moscow entry from Ray in addition to bonus points grab! Good to see some mounted additions to your force, at least some have enough food to feed the horses and make their travel a bit more comfortable. As the bestest of Minions, I'll give you a bonus point for the cloaked commanders.

From RayR: Retreat from Moscow - French Mixed Cavalry unit no1 (92 points)

 

Perry Miniatures make a few packs of French and Allied Cavalry in various winter clothing, both uniform and non-uniform. I have bought these packs, which are still in the lead mountain of shame. So with my brain in overdrive I've searched every company I can think of who sell 25-28mm French Napoleonics Cavalry for figures with either greatcoats and or wet weather gear on.

There are NOT a lot, Front Rank to a few mounted command figures and that's about it really, So what to do????

Then I found these chaps, from Empress Miniatures Gwalior, Afghanistan, Punjaub and Scinde. range. Thinking "I might be able to uses these?", although they did break my heart and my wallet. £28.50 for 6 figures!!!

Originally I was going to use these figures as command models, but not now, although some may find their way into doing so???? Empress do sell more figures like these bad boys, that might have to join the collection at a later date???

As you know the Retreat from Moscow was a little haphazard. I've chosen not to have any formed units as such, I'm going for mixed adhoc units, made up from different regts. These figures can be mixed in with the Perry figures previously mentioned. The French cavalry lost many, many horses on the retreat, I expect most were slaughtered for their meat, or just died from the cold, so a lot of cavalry fought on foot, for this and many other reasons. Making them mixed units makes sense to me?

In the front row we have figures all from Empress representing the 2nd Cuirassiers, 4th Chasseurs and the 11th Hussars. 

The two figures representing the 2nd Cuirassiers were originally going to be the Wuttemburg 1st Chevau Legere, as the helmet kind of match theirs, minus a plume, but after painting them, I found further info saying that the helmet changed to another kind in 1807, oh !!!!!!. So they became the 2nd Cuirassiers instead!

At the back we have figures from 10th Cuirassiers, the 4th Chasseurs and the 30th Dragoons. The two figures on the right are both the bravest of the brave, wearing no winter coats!! and are plastic figures from Victrix, (I think)

The Officer is a figure from Casting Room Miniatures, that I bought for my Haitian Revolution project that didn't get used,. Pack FN530

My favorite figure in the 11th Hussar, front row on the right, wearing a Father Christmas coat, firing his pistol over his shoulder.

Horses arse!

These poor souls all had their heads chopped off and replaced with a more suitable Napoleonic head apart from the commander on the left who's now wearing a nice warm and furry cloak.

As to the points...

9 x Mounted 25mm figures @ 10 pts each, gives me a total of 90, plus anything that Teemu gives me for the conversion work?

TeemuL: And continuing the age old fashion of tightly focused Thursday crew, we have more of the same! :) Excellent entry Ray, great that you have found nice cavalry models to create this informal unit retreating together. In this project, I think there are no button counters, if someone from the Wuttemburg 1st found a nice and warm helmet of 2nd Cuirassiers, then he might have taken it and still be part of the original unit. I wouldn't blame. They look cool, in many ways, and are usable as one unit or as separated to other units. I'll give you two bonus points for your troubles.

From Kerry T: A final post -Do you hear that thunder? (405 points)

 Morning, afternoon & evening all....

"Hey Luigi, isa gonna raina - I can heara thunder ana I feel it ina my bones".....

"Heya, Marco, look there - thata noisa is nota thunda".......

With apologies to my Italian friends!

Flags by Pete's flags and Maverick Models

Wargames Foundry Gendarmes

Casting Room Gendarmes/Knights

Not as gaudy as their French counterparts

They are on opposing sides as it happens

Based in 3s on 60x60mm on 2mm warbases

I hadn't originally planned to add these to my challenge entries but they somehow leap frogged others in the painting queue. I can't in all conscience take part in the AHPC and not enter some gendarmes.

I do have a few more and had decided on a bigger entry but I ran out of steam and couldn't face painting more! After a while it gets hard not to repeat colour combinations. I've half completed a pile of Perry plastic knights that will eventually bulk up my Italian Wars cavalry. They took the place of a planned entry of First Corps knights and Claymore castings & Antediluvian Scots for 100YW.

Quite a few planned entries didn't make the cut this year, probably because I didn't allow for a realistic painting time allocation for my entries and decided that this year I'd try and complete units and not chase squirrels.

One plan was to paint up quite a few female figures but that fell by the wayside in the end. Having bought a selection of females from the Burrows & Badgers range for the joy of painting I confess I have most left

This leaves me then with my final figure  the Cat Huntress

So in summary then

36 x 28mm cavalry at 10 points = 360 points

1 x 30mm figure @ 5 points

Lady Sarah's library cart @ 20 points

I'm going to claim a Literature bonus from the Rotunda as you can't get anything more "snooty and high brow" than French gendarmes - 20 points

Total 405 points

Finally a big thank you especially to Curt and Sarah for hosting the challenge and allowing me to take part. Taking part in the challenge is the highlight of my painting year. Enormous thanks to all the minions, especially Millsy for the time you all spend toiling on our behalf. Last but not least a heartfelt thank you to my fellow challengers whose own entries are inspirational and whose kindness, encouragement and support makes taking part so much fun.

Thank you

Kerry

Out with a bang, as they say. I can definitely hear that thunder, what a great cavalcade to end your Challenge, Kerry. Fabulous work, I really like how you achieve such variety while somehow still binding these units together. They look absolutely resplendent with their flags and banners flying high, surely a grace for any wargames army. As such, well I am not going to begrudge you your Literature bonus, French gendarmes are indeed pretty high brow. The cat hunter is an amazing figure, you managed to capture the cat face really well. Is it just my imagination or is she seriously staring down on us mere humans? Anyway, she is a very fine figure to conclude your Challenge with. Thanks for all your great contributions and see you again in XV!

Martijn

From Kerry T- Clippety clop, more hooves and arrows (300 points)

Morning, afternoon & evening all

One of my AHPC goals this year was to paint some horseflesh and thankfully I've managed to do his in the past week. In the next few weeks I hope to knock off a few more units for my Italian wars project

First up though, more Welsh, this time some archers. Finishing these meant that I had painted all of my Welsh figures from Footsore. That sounds great, but as we all know no army is really ever finished and thus some more unpainted figures arrived in the post this week. I see myself using these in skirmish type Lion Rampant/ Baron's war games against Normans and Saxons I think. I figured these should be painted in muted colours

Footsore Miniatures later Medieval Welsh

Not running away, just going to the woods to cut more sticks for arrows

The bulk of the army was painted during the challenge, but here is the complete force (not faction!) including the cavalry, all but four of which were painted up before the challenge

Next up more Perry Plastics, again from the Light cavalry 1450 - 1500 box but this time made up as mounted longbowmen

This box allows so much versatility

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with these but I think I'll definitely use them for 100YW Welsh bowmen, so I set out to paint them in the green of Cheshire but at a push I wonder if I can get away with using them as Mounted Italian Longbowmen for the early Italian Wars

As you can see I didn't quite press hard enough when gluing the horse halves together!

Finally my third unit - some heavies for the Italian wars

Casting Room Miniatures

Now these are proper heavy cavalry, they really do have some serious heft, I don't think I've ever come across figures that weigh as much as this!

The poses are limited but turn out ok

On the website they are listed as Gendarmes but I figure they aren't flashy or dandy enough to be French Gendarmes so have kept the painting simple with horse armour mainly in metal and no Barber pole lances. This will also make it easier to distinguish them from the French on the table

A Perry miniature s flag depicting an Imperialist unit 

These were surprisingly quick to paint given the simplicity of the paint job so perhaps I'll manage a few more before the end of the challenge.

Regrettably no time to get bonus figures painted up this week, maybe next week

In summary

12 x 28mm Welsh foot archers @ 5 points = 60 points

12 x 28mm Mounted Longbowmen @ 10 points = 120 points

12 x 28mm Heavy cavalry @ 10 points = 120 points

Total 300 points 

(Millsy check my maths please if I make another mistake I'll never live it down!)

2 Squirrels

Thanks or looking, see you next week I hope

From Millsy: Another absolutely wonderful submission Kerry, which is only improved by the quality of your table and photography. I really like your choice of colours for the horse furniture and barding which I'm often tempted to scoot over myself. Your math looks good to me so that's another 300 points for your total mate. Smashing brushwork!

From Kerry T - Italian Wars Spanish Jinetes (140 points)

 Morning, afternoon and evening all

I didn't think I'd manage an entry this week but have managed to finish one thankfully.  The idea of painting a  large batch of horses in readiness over the Christmas period when I had quite a bit of time turned out to have been a good investment time-wise. 

These 36 are left, 24 completed now and 12 half finished

I had a really nice evening on Tuesday painting and chatting online with Millsy and the rest of the Antipodean crowd, though I did get a minor scolding from my wife when I rolled into bed at 11.30pm. That's one of the problems in living in the most advanced place on earth, its always late here while its early for you lot. (ok point taken NZ is only the most advanced place in terms of time and nothing else!)

I've managed to knock off 12 more cavalry getting sidetracked from painting more Normans by these Jinetes

Spanish light cavalry for the Italian wars

Casting Room Miniatures - Wargames Foundry

Flag from Maverick Models this time

I was happily snapping photos an hour ago having only just finished the bases and only realised when editing that I hadn't finished one of the shields so dumped those pictures, added paint to the shield and then took fresh photos. It's amazing what you miss when you're in a hurry

I wasn't that enamoured with the castings when I started out but they've grown on me and look better with paint and when together as a group. Again the fiddly bits took more time than I'd allotted - adding the spears and shields with epoxy and the hateful basing

As I'm still in the library entranceway, these will count as my "overdue & returns" as I bought them  for last years challenge but never got to them. I hope to finish some Andalusian horse next and then make a start on some Footsore Welsh, unless of course I get sidetracked by something else shiny

Many thanks for your support and encouragement to date and "up the Antipodeans"

In summary 

12 x 28mm Cavalry @10 points = 120

Overdue & return bonus 20 points = 140 total

1 squirrel

From Millsy: I reckon a scolding from Mrs KerryT is well worth it when this is the result mate. These are absolutely glorious and I am sure will look every bit as good in game as they do here. Despite your feelings about the castings they have come up a treat and your choice of colours really does lift them up. The dominant red/yellow pairing sets them firmly in the Spanish camp and everything else just adds to the visual interest.

Looking forward to the Normans now you have set the bar with these! 140 well deserved points.