(Originally posted on the Home Page Feb 1, 2012)
A few months ago I began to play around with developing unit / casualty stands for my Napoleonic collection. I wanted something that could pack as much information into one spot and would still look okay on the tabletop.
I came up with a concept based around a 50mm circular base that would incorporate a 'fin' to mount a unit name card, a couple 'sockets' for 7mm dice to track a unit's status and enough room leftover to make a small vignette with a couple figures.
These have worked out pretty well with the only interm change being that I've added an third dice 'socket'. (In our 'Food for Powder' rules the dice help track the status of 'Fatigue', 'Friction' and 'Esprit de Corps' - basically hit points). I'm in the midst of making enough for all twelve of my current French infantry battalions and so thought I should do-up a few for my cavalry as well.
Ever since I first saw the 28mm Perry cuirassier casualty set a few years ago I have been keen to work on them. Its funny as I don't even have a cuirassier unit yet, but I couldn't resist using one of the figures as the basis of a unit stand. I've painted him as a trooper of the 3rd Cuirassiers, who served with the 12th and the Carabiniers in Nansouty's Division at Aspern-Essling and Wagram where they saw some pretty hard action.
The second figure is a Perry Miniatures French Aide-de-Camp madly galloping to issue orders to an awaiting brigade. In our rules these ADC figures carry 'impetus' dice from higher level commanders down to their subordinates to facilitate more complex brigade orders. They also can carry 'Friction' dice if the ADC is serving a particularly incompetent commander - thereby chaos can ensue from botched/misinterpreted orders.
Next will be an knocked-out artillery marker for my French collection.
