Thought on collecting the minor states

[@BootsontheTable]

It is the ‘minor’ nations which fascinated me for the Napoleonic period. I have almost more of them than the major nations!

[@scabbarae]

1:72 collector here. Since the start of covid I've painted up about 6 infantry battalions each of French and Austrians as well as some artillery and cavalry. The prospect of painting smaller allies is what's kept me slogging along-- my rule is one allied battalion per 4-6 major power battalions. To that end, I've completed 2 battalions of Brunswickers, easily my favorite faction of the period, and I soon plan to get some Bavarians. Can't wait for those!

[@davidcollins2648]

Another 1/72 collector and like you I have followed in a similar vein. Making Swiss or Italian units is easy as they wear French uniforms. I had to convert Polish lancers to make Austrian Uhlans (before strelets released their set). Despite the large variety of figures available there are still big gaps in the hobby and this is where conversions become the only avenue. HaT could sell sets of heads and arms just for that purpose. Almost forgot to mention I have limited myself to French and Austrian armies as well. 4 years of painting and a few Swiss, Bavarians and Cossacks are the only exceptions thus far. Russia is next but my French still need Marins d'le guarde and Carabiners both of which are made in metal but very expensive.

[@tabletoptemplar2486]

1/72 collector as well. Bavarians are my favorite "minor" nation but because 1/72 figures are so cheap, one can theoretically collect as many nations as you want to paint.

[@basement1908]

I'm painting 4 battalions from the Kingdom of Italy right now. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@VonBek2009]

You apologised for rambling...please feel free to, as it's part my interest in your Videos. Currently painting some Prussian Uhlans whilst listening. Love you vids, love the channel. 😀

[@stewartnicolson9139]

As I was listening to this, I was test painting some Danes. I have Bavarians, Wurttemburgers and Brunswickers complete. Middle of painting a Polish army. Best scale though, 10mm Pendraken.

[@bruceschmidt3404]

I agree with many of the other comments regarding the interest of the minor nations. Those nationalities really make it interesting and colorful for this period in my opinion. I have large collections of the 1/72 plastic and 15mm Old Glory in almost all the minor nations (my favorite are the Bavarians) as well as the major powers. Now I have started the EPIC Waterloo Start Sets and look forward to the Netherlands/Dutch/Nassau troops, either through the existing figures modified via paint schemes or possibly through future releases by Warhammer. Thanks for the video.

[@merlin4084]

Favourite minor army of mine is the Swedish army. Their 1810 uniform just speaks to me, so much so that I commissioned Steve Barber Miniatures to make their 1810 regulation infantry uniforms. Its about as accurate as the Swedish Army Museum (in fact the same guy who helped the Perry brothers with their line of Swedes) is concerned as I emailed them about some specific details. So, if you wanted to build an 1813 Swedish army its more than doable. You can even mix in the Perry minis in some units as, while the Swedes had three years to implement the new regulations, those who had an order in for the 1807 regulation uniform just used those. Though, one interesting detail is that in 1812 (I think) the regulation was modified so that the infantry were to wear the Kiwer Shako, but by the 1813 only two regiments got them. So during the campaign a lot of Swedish troops scavenged Shakos off the dead and wounded French. So in the model I got commissioned, I made it that you can swap the heads between one head with the Top Hat, one head with a Kiwer Shako or one with the French Shako. Eagle Figures do a very good line of Swedish troops and recently released a new sculpt of marching pose minis (though the coat is a bit wrong for the period they list it as). Then of course there's Elite Miniatures. I wasn't a big fan of their minis. They look their age and the sculpts are rather poor in comparison to many others out there. But beggars can't be choosers and if you want variety of sculpts in your army they'll do the job. I do hope an 1813 campaign book comes out with stats for the Swedes soon. I just want to see how Warlord portray them in the game. I'm about to start into a Neapolitan army as I want to have an army that fought the British (as anyone I ask if they play BP they will always say they have the British) but I just do not want to play with a French army. I don't like being 'one of many' and just want to do things differently (I played Imperial Guard in 40k because everyone else played Space Marines, and that was back when they were a terrible army to play with). Additionally, after painting blue uniforms for my Swedes, painting more blue on the French minis I'm getting just doesn't appeal to me (the Neapolitan army wore uniforms almost identical to the French, so a box of plastic French will do the job nicely).

[@durzod2052]

An option for Russia would be the Russo-Prussian Legion, Prussian "survivors" of 1807 who fought for the Russians. All the Frieikorps for the Prussians are also a trip. In my case, I made a "French" division for Napoleon at War that had but a single French unit. We used 20mm plastics (HaT, Italeiri, Airfix, etc), so I had the 2nd Carabiniers. My infantry was Swiss,Legion Hanoverienne, Irish Legion, Neuchatel, and my box of Old Guard Grenadiers painted up an Neapolitan Guards (equivalent to everybody else'sLine). My Cav support included Berg Lancers, Saxon Kuirassiers and Westphalian Hussars. It was fun finding out what non-French uniforms I could paint using existing sculpts. Serves them right for forcing me to collect French! (Everybody else mede their selections while I was unavailable, and French was all that was left.)

[@Rusty_Gold85]

I dropped a Regiment of Swiss into my 1812 French Brigades. Yet to be painted Saxon Guard with the Imperial Guard .Plus added Polish and Bavarian Brigades

[@jackchisnall9316]

i've a unit of Sepoys that fight on the eastern front in the peninsular, lent to Wellington by a friend in The East India Company as the British are having problems with the heat! These are assisted by a unit of Greek Light Infantry that just wandered along the Med. They raise a few eyebrows on the table.

[@michaelnewton5873]

Hat, there are umlauts over the a, covers many of the minor states. Also French troops can be painted to be many of the French allies. The KGL are just British uniforms on German troops.

[@campbell1871]

On of my 1813 projects is to do Curial's Old Guard Division at Leipzig. A battalion each of Saxons, Poles and Westphalian guards in one brigade. Then the Italian Velites and the Fusilier Grenadiers / Chasseurs in the other. Can't think of a better Division that really captures the international and hodge podge nature of the Grand Armee in 1813 and I'm really looking forward to it.

[@smooth_sundaes5172]

Bavarians use to be popular as an also army espescially for 1809. Maybe the trickiest in finding suitable figures is Turkey

[@hosumaija]

I personally am a great fan of the minor Rhine nations, especially the Ernestine Duchies, and I'm currently assembling the 4th Rhine Regiment of 3 Battalions from the various Saxon/Ernestine Duchies. Something which I especially enjoy about it is the variety in uniforms as of course most different nations had unique uniforms, which combined with the fact that most of these small nations could only supply a few companies, if that, leads to a lot of variety in even just one battalion! And while it goes without saying: your videos are great, and this one was no exception!

[@wc9109]

Very nice video, I have set out on the mammoth task of collecting the allied contingents for the Grande Armee of 1812. Obviously a slow burn massive project. But I have done Baden, all the Italians except the light infantry regiments, most of the Neapolitan, so,e of the smaller contingents of the Confederatin of the Rhine and a brigade plus of Westphalians. The Dutch of Warsaw, Bavarians and Wurttemberg next

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

Wow! that's a phenomenal effort so far! Bravo!

[@andreasolsoon3643]

Thank you for an interesting episode! I collect the 24th Saxon division for the 1813 campaign. There is a lot of variety in the first brigade with two light battalions in green, two line battalions in white and yellow and a leibgrenadier guard battalion in red and yellow. In total it is ten battalions and two batteries. I have added two cuirassier regiments, the hussar regiment and a chevaux Léger lancer regiment as well as a heavy battery. They are inthe uniform that changed in 1810. So they would work for the 1812 campaign as well. Costed a fortune though 😁 In the UK you have Calpe, but they cost a bit too much for me since Brexit and Black Hussar Miniatures are sculpted by one of my favourite sculpters, Paul Hicks, so the absolute majority of my division comes from Black Hussar. I use a 1:20 ratio so each battalion is 32 figures, the cavalry regiments are 24 and the batteries are four guns.

[@andyalton1649]

Many thanks for the great video on the minor napoleonic nations as they tend to get over looked. I have started working on some Nassau brigades so they can fight for or against my French infantry from the new warlord games epic battles waterloo starter army..

[@philennis1545]

In my 10mm Napoleonic armies I have several minor states represented. My Peninsular army has the 5th Division that includes Sry's Portuguese brigade, and the Right brigade of the light division including the 1st Cacadores. My Franco-German corps for the 1809 campaign has a German division that has a Wurttemberg Brigade and a brigade containing Baden, Hessian and Italian units. The second brigade in the German division can also be used alongside the french division in the Peninsular which is handy.

[@philRminiatures]

Nice video, always happy to see minor states on the Nap' tables!

[@BrushQuill]

Was great to see this video. I dived straight in with the Kingdom of Holland troops. Another army that is very collectable. In fact don't think I've painted a single Frenchman for myself lol. Baden are quite collectible in plastic, repainting Bavarians. Hesse-Darmstadt and Frankfurt repainted French, though all 3 are in blue coats :( Loved painting my 6mm sepoys, though only seen Bombay in 28mm and I think the Madras and Bengal sepoys had different hats and shorts (I forgot the proper name for the shorts!)

[@AS-qy1zl]

American army of this period would be interesting because there are the amateurs who went to Canada and had no idea what they were doing, and also there is Andrew Jackson and his swamp hooligans. Also a Tokugawa Bafuku army for the memes.

[@Ridmasta]

I have about 500pts of Portuguese as my main force, and a Duchy of Berg army waiting to be worked on 😎

[@pbloomy9792]

I started with a Minor power. I have the entire Saxon field army of 1812. And now a French Corp + Cav Corp + a good chunk of the Guard, and a British Corp, and a Prussian Corp…. Thankfully in 6mm😁😁

[@jonathanowen9917]

United States, Bavaria, Brunswick, Hanover (King’s German Legion and Légion Hanovrienne), Hesse, Saxony, Westphalia, Kleve-Berg, Württemberg, Nassau, and Oldenburg are interesting to me. Now to pick a scale and faction to start with.

[@TheSgruby]

So i have recently finished my small Spanish division. Now its time for Saxons (1809 year version), but it will brigade that fought at Raszyn.

[@zorkwhouse8125]

Great video topic! (sorry for the length of this response) It may not be as big an issue now, but when I was in the hey day of my collecting, painting and building armies (round abouts 2000 - 2005) it could be difficult to find miniature manufacturers who released sets of some of the minor powers - particularly depending on the scale you were running. Mine were/are (unfortunately haven't gotten to fight any of them in probably 10 years at least for various reasons, though they are still mustered :-) ) 1/72 scale and the company at the time that made some of widest variety was called HaT (I believe). But even they were still limited (*ahh, you've come round to mentioning this in the video, but I'm going to post this anyway to second that) in the variety they produced. There were some more expensive manufacturers like Zveda (again, I'm probably going to spell these wrong) and Strella that produced some harder to collect nations or specific units. But again, that was nearly 20 years ago and it actually seems to me that miniature wargaming is more popular now than it was then, so its very possible that this dearth of availability may have been alleviated by new miniature manufacturers or older companies continuing to expand their lines. Even back then I had to order them online (which was really just getting off the ground for some companies at the time) because where I live in the US there isn't a gaming store for 100 miles at least and I think the nearest ones wouldn't have had these types of miniatures regardless (if they had any it would have been the beginnings of warlord games' lines or games workshop figures, but they were primarily geared toward magic the gathering cards and some RPG books and pretty light on miniature gaming unfortunately). Today, I still don't have a gaming store any closer, though I'd bet there are some in that distance range that might carry napoleonic era miniatures today, or could at least order them online for you - but if you're going that route you might as well order them yourself.

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

Yeah, they minor nations are easier to get hold of now, but i agree, it definitely it wasn't always the case! Great point about the Internet allowing access to all manufacturers out there, not just the ones you can get locally, one I'd not really thought of!

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

Or I guess in your case...not so locally 🤣

[@midshipman8654]

I dont know if this makes sense to you, but i always deliniated the napoleonic period stats into 3 general groups Great powers: france, russia etc middling powers (would say regional, but some where colonial empires): spain, sweden, ottomans Lesser powers: Bavaria Napals because in the treaties of paris some nations where considered due enough to be in the talks like spain or sweden and had some messure of autonomy and power, and they were obviously more important and powerful individually then a bavaria or a naples.

[@robmccord2583]

I must confess, my son is very keen on a Swedish army!

[@michaelnewton5873]

The Swedes were neutral at this time. They did fight in the 30 years war though.

[@clive3490]

@@michaelnewton5873 Leipzig 1813. Swedish Army of the North under Bernadotte. The Swedes also had under their command a company of the British Rocket Brigade armed with Congreve rockets, led by Captain Richard Bogue.

[@gustav331]

@@clive3490 The Swedish Army did virtually not see any action at Leipzig, however. Bernadotte made sure to keep his troops back throughout the 1813 campaign. The Swedish Army therefore did not really play a part.

[@clive3490]

@@gustav331 Did you mean to correct my post or Michaels?

[@gustav331]

@@clive3490 Yours. You're correct that Sweden was involved in the Napoleonic Wars, but as I said, it would be very generous to say that Bernadotte's troops took part in the Battle of Leipzig - or in the rest of the 1813 campaign, for that matter. Bernadotte wanted to conserve his own troops for the campaign against Denmark, and he therefore let the Russians and Prussians do the heavy lifting - even in Holstein against Denmark.

[@mesmocurioso]

Hi there! Great video and provocative ideas. May I put in a word for another one? I am returning to the hobby after retirement and I am quite baffled by the 3D printing process. I even bought a small printer to see what I can do with it! Could you elaborate on the available Napoleonics, "producers", pros and cons, etc? I am sure I wouldn't be the only one thanking you for it...

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

I can see you commented to my video on printing, so I'll answer this question there, keep it in one place!

[@spierig4488]

i am painting the Rhineland bns 3rd 4th 5th and 6 confederation regts for black powder

[@imrahilvondolamroth4205]

*me, paiting the regimet of the saxon duchies* that means 1 regiment consisting of soldiers from 5 "nations"

[@martinradcliffe4798]

I've always wanted to do a Duchy of Warsaw army. Maybe one day....

[@clive3490]

Doing those at the moment. pro tip, don't try too hard to get the colours right. I can't find two sources that agree on all the colours for collars, cuffs, turnbacks, lapels, and then and piping of each of those, and grenadiers and voltigeures on top of that too. Find one source that you like and stick with it

[@martinradcliffe4798]

@@clive3490 Yes, I've found that too in the bit of reading and research I've done. As you say, stick with one and go with it. Difficult to be proved wrong.

[@Rusty_Gold85]

Don't forget to Order them from Murawski Miniatures . Really good sculpts that compare well with all the others

[@martinradcliffe4798]

@@Rusty_Gold85 They're definitely the ones I was thinking of, they do look very nice indeed.

[@blairscartoonshistory7477]

Thoughts on creating a homebrew army in black powder/Napoleonic wargamming?

[@charlesentrekin140]

What are the very first minor powers I collected was Saxony, after that just for a joke it went to the Swiss.

[@generalsmite7167]

the us is a good thing to collect for minor as you can play war of 1812 as its the same time and units and tactics but with major us vs Britain battles

[@Rusty_Gold85]

Man the image at 11:55 is pixel hell unviewable. Must be a problem with YT resolutions settings

[@jangradon6677]

Brunswick is great „minor force”, as you can make an entire army for any of the periods, especially as PM released them in the 1809 uniforms as well.

[@robwright5034]

Very interesting

[@donaldsettle990]

I did Westphalia and B:avaria working on Poland now all 1809 time frame asd Wurtenburg is looking good

[@LittleLouieLagazza]

United States, Spain, Portugal, KGL and Brunswick here

[@archieharris1533]

Bavaria just finished the army in 10mm. 18 battalion 4 cav and nine guns.

[@donaldsettle990]

Bernadette's Sweds might be an option against France or Russia

[@catroger1722]

I made a few minor nation regiments in 1/72 1809 ish all german

[@blecao]

If i ever do an army it would be an Austrian/HRE army of the 1798 with a babarian contingent so white and blue united

[@donaldsettle990]

I chose Russia 1805-07 facings are many colors not just green and red like my Prussians are 1806 lots of variety

[@Mrbird-pw2mg]

What miniatures do you use for your portugese legion?

[@majorclanger6974]

A question , please if you have the time, 3D printing , the cost of each figuer to print , what printer do you use? How long does it take to print 6 figuers ,for example, basecily (i,m dyslexic ) a review of your 3D printing experiances . I,m thinking of when I can save my pennies, i,m going to get a printer resin, . I,ve seen a site for 28mm Duchy Of Warsaw chaps , to buy the files to print of a Army of these chaps. I,m hoping to tune into your paint long this evening.

[@pyry1948]

Thoughts on the Brunswickers? Did they have their own artillery?

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

I'm doing a series on them, so I think they're super cool! We're only up to their exploits in Spain so far, but you should deffo check it out! Artillery wise, Spain, no, but I believe they did at Waterloo (I'm certainly no expert though!)

[@richiehall3042]

Just a thought, maybe a rebrand to the Blackpowder Era Wargamer ?

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

Ah, I'd have to talk about the Seven Years War then, and I know more about quantum physics than I do then thr SYW 🤣

[@schiltno.3bis]

@@NapoleonicWargaming That would be awesome! I love the Seven Years’ War, although I’m a American normie who is fascinated with the minuscule Skirmishes of North America :(

[@iainfuller5083]

Or, the Black Powder Rules Napoleonic wargamer

[@donaldsettle990]

the Hungarian insurection troops are an option fo the Austrians like at Raab

[@tonk8395]

I think ima do croats, does somebody know where can i get them?

[@Martial21396]

Somebody know where i could get some croats?

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

I think you can just use standard French line with a different paint scheme?

[@Martial21396]

@@NapoleonicWargaming I could try.

[@patrickparsons2378]

Bavaria was certainly not a minor power. It was one of the most important military states in Germany with one of the finest armies. Saxony likewise. A very British condescension towards other European armies.

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

I don't think it is at all I'm afraid. Bavaria, and Saxony for that matter, we're entirely unable to project their military will on other countries. Tbis makes them a minor power. It has nothing to do with 'British condescension', I suppose my regarding of Austria and Prussia as major powers is condescension too is it?

[@dangregory4217]

I think your answer has pretty much summed it up, they were one of the major players in the germanic sphere, Bavaria for example was only really second to Prussia amongst the German states. But throughout the bulk of the Napoleonic wars Bavaria was a french Ally/fief and it’s military contributed to the french campaigns. There were a few exceptions when fighting the Austrians, but for the most part they lacked an independent narrative that would make them a major player in the wars so to speak. Perhaps after they switched sides in 1813 there is some argument for them having more significance, but whether it is enough to define them as a major power in the 6th coalition is open to interpretation. Similar could be said for Saxony and Wurttemberg.