Change of mind

In a rare moment of decisiveness, and an even rarer change of direction, I decided to paint not the Württemberg  Auxilliary Corps but more French! I don't know where the thought came from, but I took a look at what I had already. 21 bases of mounted, 44 bases of unmounted and 6 of artillery. Clearly not enough. Or more specifically, not enough Swiss/Irish, guards and Germans. When I first decided to do the French I was doing a loot of 'proxying'. Redcoats could double-up as Swiss OR Irish and bluecoats as guards or Germans*. Since I went full on megalomaniac, such a woeful state of affairs could no longer be tolerated. The Württembergers would have to wait. For now Prussians will be their proxies.

The first batch of French I painted a couple of years ago.

* Specifically the 'German' regiments on the French establishment (e.g. Royal Bavière and, oddly, Royal Pologne) and not the various auxiliary contingents (Palatinate, Württemberg). Even more specifically, the blue-coated German regiments - Kronoskaf has Deux Ponts down as white-coated.

There followed a consultation of the orders of battle for the big SYW engagements, and I worked out the maximum of each regimental type required. The conclusions, in terms of bases, were as follows:

• Gardes Francaises - 2
• Gardes Suisses - 1
• Irish** - 3
• Swiss - 6
• Germans - 6
• French line - 34

As my current redcoats units are in blue breeches, I'll nominate these as the Swiss. Only 1 Irish regiment were in blue breeches. I have 2 bluecoated bases and 32 white-coated ones. The decision then was to paint up the 3 Gardes and 3 Irish. There's a couple left over which will probably be the 'missing' 2 French line. That makes me short of Germans (4 bases). And the Württembergers of course. And perhaps Palatines. Which means another order for H&R. But I'd better check my cavalry stocks. I have enough 'spares' for 3 bases.

** I think Regiment Lally was in India for much of the SYW, but was around in the WAS. However, the Royal Écossais (blue-coats) were sometimes brigaded with the Irish. The Scots carried a rather natty saltire based flag, so I'm tempted to do them.

I got most of the way through the Gardes and the Irish whilst listening to the footie, which surprisingly wasn't called off with the storm striking western Britain and Ireland. Surprising given it was by the Lancashire coast. Also surprising was the result: Morecambe 0 Grimsby 3. Coming on top of a 5-2 home win on Tuesday. Despite still having a negative goal difference, Town are within a couple of points of the automatic promotion places. Or, trying to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, 15 points from safety with 27 games to go.