I completed these three pioneer combat stands for the 'When Things go Boom' scenario that I put on for the guys recently. Two are French and one is British with a mish-mash of figures from Foundry, Victrix, Perry and Sash and Saber.
In 'Republic to Empire' a brigade's pioneers can be commandeered together to form specialized assault teams to aid in defending or seizing built-up objectives. These hard nuts are quite the terror in close combat but the downside, of course, is that they are amongst the first to take casualties in a pitched fight. 'Lasalle' also features Engineer bases so these boys will serve for future games in that system as well. I quite like the inclusion of these elements to a game as it builds the excitement when players have to 'ante up' their forces for close combat.
As you can see I didn't have enough pioneer castings to fill all the stands so I included a selection of grenadiers to back them up. This seemed reasonable as I would think grenadiers would be a common choice for leading these kind of assaults. If I hadn't been in such a hurry to get these done for the game I would have modeled them on cobblestone bases with some of the figures carrying ladders, pickaxes, etc. - well, maybe for the next group.
These brawlers will count for 12 points in the Spring-Thaw Painting Challenge.
Very nice Curt, it was a great idea to build up the stands with support troops
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm currently trying to find evidence that grenades were used during the Napoleonic period. They certainly were prevalent during the 17th and 18th century (thus the official designation of 'grenadiers') so I find it odd that they would lapse completely from service. I would think that in assaults on built up areas that grenades would be a very effective weapon. Nonetheless, it has little mention except in naval combat. I was just thinking that it would be a fun modeling project for these types of bases.
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