Elessar2590's Grande Armee Project

Mixing it up a bit with Civil War. Band is mostly formed from former Sabaton members.

Just finished a very good biography on Admiral Collingwood and that I highly recommend for anyone who has an interest in Naval Warfare in the Napoleonic Period. “Admirl Collingwood: Nelson’s Hero” not sold on the title, Nelson and Collingwood were good friends but Nelson didn’t really see him as a hero and the book makes that very clear, they’re equals and Collingwood technically had Seniority (Collingwood was a Lieutenant about 2 years before Nelson but was also 10 Years older born, 10 years and 3 days apart) although Nelson outranked him.

Big 3 Take Aways

1. Nelson did nothing innovative at Trafalgar. The tactic of attacking in columns and winning by either firepower or boarding was not new and had been done at least twice in the half decade before Trafalgar.
2. Combat training is vital to a navy. The British routinely practiced Gunnery and Combat maneuvers whereas the French and Spanish (this is before Napoleon put his brother on the Spanish throne and betrayed his ally) spent most of their time bottled up in port and couldn’t practice. The British had about a 3-1 rate of fire advantage over their opponents which is huge. Admiral Collingwood was probably the best Gunnery Focused Officer in the entire Royal Navy at the time.
3. You can’t give the Spanish Navy anything. The British give the Spanish Navy (who have now been betrayed by the French and are British Allies) a huge amount of Powder to refit their Navy. The Spanish then proceed to fire almost all of it in celebration of a Spanish Holiday. Collingwood was not impressed.

Hope you enjoyed the tangent.

Here’s the First battalion ready to base up plus a few other small details like weathering and minor touch ups.

Thanks to everyone for the support for the project. I’m going to make sure I post updates far more often (every 2-3 days) mixing up some Wargaming Rule from Naw, Pics of the minis themselves and some banter/historical information.