The Model Soldiers – What is available

18mm and 28mm figures and scenery

The number and type of model soldiers you already have, or are prepared to obtain, will determine how you will plan your wargame system.

Having decided what you want to achieve you must now list what figures you have available to achieve it.  

6x6 foot wargames table

Again I will use what I did to illustrate what I mean.

First I made a list of what figures I had available.   I found that I had 1296 infantry, 120 cavalry, 26 guns manned by 104 gunners.   And of course they are duplicated in 28mm, 18mm and 6mm.

I have a comprehensive collection which represents most of the armies of the Napoleonic Wars.   The infantry were organised in units of 36, the cavalry in units of 8 and the artillery one gun and 4 crew.

The breakdown of figures by nationality and numbers was as follows

French          288 infantry   32 cavalry     6 guns 24 gunners

Austrian        144 infantry   16 cavalry     4 guns 16 gunners

British           144 infantry   16 cavalry     4 guns 16 gunners

Prussian       144 infantry   16 cavalry     4 guns 16 gunners

Russian        144 infantry   16 cavalry     4 guns 16 gunners

Spanish        144 infantry    8 cavalry      4 guns 16 gunners

Bavarian       108 infantry   8 cavalry     

Polish             72 infantry   8 cavalry

Baden             36 infantry  

Italian              36 infantry

Westphalian    36 infantry

28mm battle of Talavera

The good news was that the ratio of cavalry to infantry was reasonable at roughly 1 cavalry to 10 infantry.

The main problem was that they were organised and painted as 36 figure infantry battalions and 8 figure cavalry squadrons.