The 2nd Regiment of the Gardes d' Honneur was raised from the 2nd (Mézières), 3rd (Metz), 4th (Nancy), 5th (Strasbourg), 17th ( Amsterdam ), 18th (Dijon ), 25th (Wesel), 26th (Mainz), 28th (Genoa) Military Divisions.
Thus it can be seen that a fair number of recruits, while citizens of the Empire, were not part of the main body of France. The loyalty of these men, and of some of the nobility (as potential Royalist supporters) was suspect, thus as well as a source of troops, so in some ways these troops were hostages as well. Indeed, their nickname in the Army was "The Hostages"!
The Guards of Honor were complimented on their conduct at Hanau by Napoleon and a number of its soldiers were awarded the Legion of Honor. By December morale in the Gardes remained high, though it was notably lower among the troopers of foreign origin.
It saw action at Leipzig, Worms, and Mayence.
The 2nd Regiment was disbanded on July, 15, 1814. About 900 men of the Gardes d' Honneur from the French Departments were taken into the the Bodyguard of King Louis XVIII, the Gardes du Corps.
Here's the next line infantry unit for "Project Portugal", in the 1806 uniform.
The 9th Regiment was termed "Viana", and recruited in Minho providence. These are once again Old Glory 2nd edition British painted as Portuguese, with the wonderful flags by Adolfo Ramos.
It belong administratively to the "Northern" Division, although this had little effect on the organization of the army in the field.
However, units of the Northern Division had yellow piping on the collars, cuffs, shoulder straps, etc., and yellow turnbacks.
Each Portuguese Line Infantry regiment had 10 companies, divided into 2 battalions. The Grenadiers formed the elite company of the first battalion, and had white plumes like the center companies, and fringed shoulder wings of dark blue mixed with the Division color, here yellow.
The Light Company was the elite company of the 2nd battalion, and was uniformed as the Grenadiers, except with green plumes. The grenadiers had grenade emblems, the light companies hunting horns, and the Sappers crossed axes on the shakos. The cords on the 1806 Barrentina shako were dark blue mixed with the Division color, here again, yellow.
The Royal standard was in the Gyronny pattern seen here (interestingly, all the Portuguese flags you see are based upon the warrant describing them and later reproductions, there being no surviving illustrations of same, and only scant fragments of original flags surviving). The regimental color was much simpler, with the field in the Divisional color, here Yellow once again. The cravats on the flags were in the color of the collars and cuffs, so for this regiment would have been mixed dark blue (collar color) and yellow (cuff color). No comment is made as to the color of the flagpoles. I allowed myself a flight of fancy, painting the staves of the sergeant's halberds in the Divisional color, based upon no evidence whatsoever!
Aside from the broad goals for painting, posting, gaming, and expenditures (ahem!), it's time to think about more specific plans for 2025. That was made a bit easier recently, when HMGS revealed their theme for Historicon 2025, The Us Army. As I have no Americans (at present), that will have no impact upon my Historicon planning this year!
Histioricon
1) Games with To the Strongest
I'm definitely thinking Chariot Wars theming this year - Egypt, Hittites, Sea Peoples, Libyans, Assyrians, Babylonians. I have a number of friends considering TTS! games, and those would all probably be set in later eras. This will require a modest expansion of my Sea Peoples and Libyans; the Lead for those is already in hand, as well as some terrain additions, some of which are ordered and some must be built.
2) Big Napoleonic Game with Field of Battle
The plan is for this one to be Peninsular, perhaps Bussaco or Fuentes de Onoro? That will require chiefly more Portuguese troops, the lead for which is all in hand, and painting of which is well under way.
3) Avoid over booking - yeah, right! :-) Run no more than 1 game per day, so that I have some time to shop and play in other games for once! We'll see!
HAVOC
I'm considering attending HAVOC (in Massachusetts, early April) again this year, especially if Thomas will go so that we can share a room and the car drive. If so, plan would be to perhaps run a Hussite or Punic Wars battle with To the Strongest!, and perhaps a Napoleonic Battle with simple rules (Waterloo in Two would work, as would a variant on Eagles Cheaper than Brain Cells, for a little more depth and a slightly longer game (HAVOC slots are usually 4 hours).
New Period(s)?
I have 2 new Periods in mind to start, probably later in the year:
1) 1066 and all that - i.e., Vikings, Anglo Saxons, and Normans - blame The Last Kingdom, as well as the upcoming Bretwalda KS game.
A great series. watched it 2 years ago.
and that lead to supporting this project in 2023; delivery due (hopefully!) May 2025.
2) American Revolutionary War (it's about time I had some American troops!)
Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga; living in Southern New England, focus would likely be on actions in New England and the Mid Atlantic.
Both would be 25/30 mm scale for figures, but I am very uncertain as to what manufacturer(s) to use. Old Glory has a decent range, and I'm thinking about using Crusader Miniatures. Once again, I am sure there are a great many other options I haven't even considered. Organization for the 1066 project would be straightforward as I'll use To The Strongest! for rules, 60mm bases, 2 bases for light infantry and all cavalry, 4 for formed infantry, and 6 for Warbands.
For the American War of Independence, though, rules and organization are yet to be determined, and I'm undecided as to what manufacturers to use... Perry, Brigade Games, and Fife and Drum all have pretty good ranges. I am sure there are a number of other s as well! Obviously determining the rules to be used is key to determining organization, etc.
So here's where I'd really appreciate some input from my readers as to manufacturers and also rules for the AWI!
Non Wargaming:
My long range plan was to probably retire, or at least cut way back on my hours at age 70 1/2 (which used to be the age that one had to start withdrawing funds from retirement accounts, but that is now up to 73+). However, as I have been explaining to my patients the past few months, "I found myself a new job"! I have been teaching medical students from about my second year in practice, so nearly 40 years, and am presently Clerkship Director for Family Medicine for my employer of the past 8 years, Nuvance Health Network in CT and NY states. Nuvance itself is set to merge with the much larger Northwell Health later this year once the state of CT gives us approval (NY state already has). Anyway, "Clerkship" is the rather archaic term for the clinical rotations that medical students do, traditionally in their 3rd and 4th years, and most last 4 to 6 weeks each. I really enjoy teaching, and usually have a medical student with me most of the time.
I practice in New Milford, CT, the birthplace of Roger Sherman, the only man to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and the author of the Connecticut Compromise (which is why we have the House of Representatives, with number of Congresspersons for each state determined by population, and the Senate, with 2 senators for each state regardless of population). New Milford Hospital merged first with nearby Danbury Hospital in 2010, then became part of the new Western Connecticut Health Network when we were joined by Norwalk Hospital in 2014. My office moved into the hospital itself when I became employed in 2017. WCHN in turn merged with the 4 hospital Health Quest network in Western NY and Sharon, CT in 2019, just in time for the Pandemic! This pattern of mergers and acquisitions (and a rapid transition form self employment to employment by large entities by physicians) has been widespread across the US the past 15 years or so, for a variety of reasons, mostly the Law of Unintended Consequences, bought on by the US Government's well intentioned but ill advised and ever more extensive meddling in the US health care non-system.
In any event, since we joined with Danbury Hospital, which has quite a number of Residency programs, I have been nudging them to establish a residency program in Family Medicine. Last year, they started serious efforts to plan for doing just that, and in October 2024, we got preliminary approval to start the program, with the inaugural group of up to 4 Residents to start in July 2025; final approval is due by the end of this month. As a part of this, I agreed to become one of the three Core Faculty members of the program; my primary responsibility will be teaching, supervising, and evaluating Residents, especially in the office setting. They will use the office space in the Hospital where I am presently practicing, which had a major expansion in 2023. I will still treat some of my own patients, although that will dimmish gradually over time, as the 3 year program grows to a maximum of 8 Residents in July 2026, and 12 Residents in July 2027 (and the 2nd and 3rd year Residents spend increasingly more time in the Family Medicine office). I figure that's going to keep me working at least 3 days a week for another 3-5 years! We have assembled a pretty impressive core and supporting faculty for the program, and have already started recruiting and interviewing for July; the rather odd "Match" system for allocating candidates to Residency training programs finalizes in late March.
The program has a recruiting video - probably much more than anyone here wants to know about! :-)
The Gardes d'honneur were ordered to be formed on 3 April 1813 and established by decree on 5 April. Four regiments were ordered: the 1st Regiment was based at Versailles, the 2nd at Metz, the 3rd at Tours, the 4th at Lyon. A regiment had a staff of 65 men and 156 horses and 20 companies (paired into 10 squadrons), each of 122 men and 127 horses, totaling 2,505 men and 2,696 horses. Therefore the Gardes d' Honneur added 10,000 cavalrymen to the Grande Armée.
NCOs were selected from among the enlisted members,.The officers were drawn from those already serving. The regimental colonels were existing generals and the unit's majors were existing line cavalry colonels; other officers transferred into the unit with their existing ranks. Regimental commanders were selected from leading members of the nobility in an effort to attract others of that class.
The lack of experienced NCO's was acutely felt, and therefore the Regiments were associated with existing Cavalry regiments of the Imperial Guard. Although they were thus closely associated with the Imperial Guard cavalry (and often served with them in the field) they were not officially part of that force, though many members of the Gardes d' Honneur considered themselves as such. The Guards of Honour were paid on the same scales as the Chasseurs à Cheval of the Imperial Guard, and the regimental trumpeters wore the sky blue uniforms of the Imperial Guard. They were therefore "in the Guard, but not of it".
The four regiments were distinguished only by the color of the tips of their plumes - red for the first regiment as above, light blue for the second, yellow for the third, and white for the fourth. These are Perry figures.
The 1e Regiment fought at Leipzig, Epernay, Reims, and Coutrtrai.
Scots Covenanter Forlorn Hope and foot officers (60 pts), Major General Holburn's Regt of Foote (100 pts), Sir John Grey's Regt of Foote (100 pts), Austrian Dragoon Regt #4 (80 pts), Austrian Officer (45 pts), Bavarian foot Officer (5)
December 2024
Alexander Leslie's Regt of Foote (100 pts), Marquess Argyll Regt of Foote (100 pts), Scots Artillery Crew and Swordsmen (105 pts), Loyal Lusitanian Legion (90 pts), 1st Portuguese Line Regt (90 pts), 5th Cacadores (90 pts)
4th Quarter Total: 935 points
2024 Total: Q1 = 920 points Q2 = 895 points Q3 = 780 points; Grand Total 3,530 points
Breakdown of the past 4 years:
2024 - 3,530 points
2024 - 3,530
Army
Infantry
Cavalry
Artillery
Command
Points
Napoleonic British
135
135
Napoleonic Wurttemberg
180
105
285
Napoleonic Bavarians
90
80
165
35
370
Dutch-Belgian-Nassau
270
30
300
Napoleonic French
320
320
Napoleonic Austrian
450
160
45
655
Sassanid Persians
120
120
ECW (Scots)
470
75
60
605
Portuguese
270
270
Late Medieval (refurb*)
180
210*
390
2023 - 3,507 points
Army
Infantry
Cavalry
Artillery
Command
Points
Napoleonic Spanish
40
40
Napoleonic Wurttemberg
630
320
160
1110
Napoleonic Bavarians
360
360
Napoleonic Hessians
90
55
35
180
Napoleonic French
80
80
Napoleonic Austrian
65
65
Napoleonic Duchy Warsaw
80
80
ECW (Scots)
360
120
35
515
Renaissance
30
30
Wars of the Roses
540
120
40
700
Late Medieval (refurb)
112
135
247
Macedonians
120
15
135
2022 - 3,542.5 points
Army
Infantry
Cavalry
Artillery
Command
Points
Napoleonic Spanish
180
160
20
360
Napoleonic Hessians
270
270
Renaissance
40
40
ECW (Scots)
480
480
Wars Roses/Late Mediev
1260
20
120
1400
Mauryan Indian
430
240
240*
50
960
2021 - 3890 points
Army
Infantry
Cavalry
Artillery
Command
Points
Napoleonic French
540
540
Napoleonic Austrian
990
990
Napoleonic British
270
270
Great Italian Wars
120
120
ECW (~ 50/50 K or P)
200
200
Ancient Egyptians
200
20
220
Ancient Sea Peoples
475
330
10
815
Ancient Hittite
140
35
175
Ancient Indian
120
120
Ancient Assyrian
40
50
30
120
Ancient Libyans
200
20
220
Games:
October 2024
Snappy Nappy 1813Spring Campaign in Germany
November 2024
Rio Gevora with FoB3 hand of cards variant
December 2024
Hannibal at the Gate with To the Strongest!
4th Quarter Totals: 3
2024 Total: Q1 = 2 Q2 = 4Q3 = 11; Grand Total = 19 games
A cute and inexpensive game from a KS this year
Simple game intended for play with Family/grandsons.
Colorful, cute cards
Animal spirits ("Summoners"), and markers.
Blogging
104 posts
Rules
New rules tried - Martin Rapier's Napoleonic One Hour Wargames variant
Terrain
Set of Five 10mm buildings for the Waterloo Project
So, how was the 2024 performance compared with the goals set forth in January 2024?
Expenses:
Projection:Stay at $3,000 or less for 2024. Lucas will surely have at least 2 more Kickstarters in 2024! Other than those, major lead purchases seem unlikely, bar a new project arising...
Result: $4,340.54, way over the (very generous) budget. Biggest driver was unexpected expenses related to The Waterloo Project! I wound up working MUCH more than planned (or desired - new hires that didn't work out for various reasons) in 2024, thus I got a huge productivity bonus this year, so at least I could easily afford it!
Goal: Try to stay to $3,000 or less.
Painting:
Projection:Aim for 3,000 points again; finish Wurttembergers and Bavarians, Make a dent in the remaining Austrian Napoleonics, add to ECW Scotts, refurb the remainder of the 25 mm Late Medieval figures. Maybe start of the expansion of my Napoleonic Portuguese forces (most lead already on hand). Possible reorganization and some updates to my Assyrian army, possible additions to Macedonians/Thracians. Maybe add to the Tyrolians (Lead on hand already).
Results: Pretty much right on target, and a bit above goal at 3,530 points. Scots and Württembergers done, many Austrians added, Portuguese started, and more. No additions to Macedonians, Tyrolians, or Assyrians.
Goal: Finish Portuguese Napoleonic expansion, additional Napoleonics from Lucas' kickstarters, add to existing Sea Peoples and Libyan armies, minor additions and major reorganization of Assyrian army. Possible new project?
Games:
Projection: Aim for 18 games
Results: 19 games, more or less on target.
Goal: Aim for 18 games again
Blogging:
Projection: At least 100 posts for 2024.
Results: 104 posts, on target
Goal: stay at 100 or more posts for the year
Rules:
Projection: I'm pretty content with the rules I play - I will likely use V&F 2nd edition at HAVOC in April, getting some Naval and Sci-Fi games on the table remains a goal, odds only fair. Hopefully get around to trying 123 Napoleonics.
Results: New rules played - OHW variant for Waterloo Project
Goal: Lots of rules to try for Napoleonics, Sci Fi, and Age of Sail Naval; boardgames. Likely will be as unsuccessful as in the past! Do at least one game for my grandsons this year.
The Scoring
(From the Analogue Painting Challenge)
6mm foot figure = 0.5 point 6mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 1 point 6mm vehicle = 2 points
10mm foot figure = 1 point 10mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 2 points 10mm vehicle = 3 points
