Back in the late 70’s, WR painted up his Westphalian 1809-1813 era army. Westphalia was the first “Corps level” army completely finished in WR’s napoleonic era collection. The paint work has stood the tests of time while the miniatures have won & lost many tabletop actions. Mostly 25mm Minifigs and Hinchcliffe since they were the miniatures readily available back then during the 70’s.
Headquarters: Corp commander (Jerome) and his headquarter base with three ADC’s, three divisional level commanders, and a pioneer (sapper) detachment (1×3) with engineer officer.
Infantry: The Westphalian guard infantry has the Garde Grenadier btn. (1×8), the Garde Jager-Karabinier btn. (1×5) and Garde Chasseur btn. (1×7). Lastly, the Garde brigade has the Fusilier regiment (2×6) raised in 1812.
Line regiments are painted in two uniform time periods, 1809 and 1812. WR liked the different facing colors of the 1809 era, before the uniform change of all dark blue facing for 1812 era uniforms. All eight line regiments are present for tabletop duty, each having three battalions and attached regimental artillery marker (3×6+1). Three Legere battalions, painted in their dark green uniforms (3×6) plus two National guard battalions (2×4) complete the regular infantry.
Cavalry: Jerome’s “pets”, the Garde du Korps squadron, has attached the Westphalian Gendarmerie squadron (1×2). Military police to keep in check the palace rowdies. Jerome’s Hussars of ex-Frenchmen (1×5, later the 13th French hussars) and the Garde Chevau-legers (1×4) complete the Westphalian guard cavalry.
Line cavalry regiments include: 1st and 2nd Kuirassier regiments, 1st and 2nd Hussar regiments, and finally the two chevau-leger regiments which WR painted with the 1811 era lances. All regiments have five miniatures on strength.
Artillery: Reserve 12lb battery, four 6lb foot artillery batteries, garde 6lb horse battery, and a 4lb line horse battery. All batteries are six cannon each except for the reserve 12lb with 8 cannon.
Westphalian napoleonic army paraded for review by Jerome.
Right flank view of the two kuirassier regiments, 1st Legere battalion in open order formation, 4lb HA battery, two 6lb FA batteries, and the massed ranks of 1st to 4th line regiments (l to r). Note the attached regimental artillery miniature marker at rear of each line regiment column. The Westphalian army during 1811-1812 had attached regimental artillery companies for each line regiment. These battalion cannon were lost in the snow and mud Russian campaign and didn’t make the mustered 1813 Westphalian army.
Right flank of paraded Westphalian army. Heavy cavalry kuirassiers, legere btn., and line regiments.
Left flank view of 2nd Legere btn, the 1st & 2nd Hussar regiments, the 1st & 2nd Chevau-leger regiments, the massed ranks of 5th to 8th line regiments (l to r) and their attached regimental artillery markers. WR painted his chevau-legers with lances (looking cool) but most of the time they had only sword and carbines.
Left flank view of Westphalian army parade. Light cavalry, legere btn., and more line regiments.
Frontal view of the massed Westphalian line regiments with supportive artillery batteries. 1st Regiment on far left, the 8th Regiment on the far right, in numerical order (l to r).
Frontal view of the massed Westphalian line regiments and artillery batteries.
Jerome’s Hussars (become the 13th French Hussars in 1813), Garde Chevau-leger regiment, the Garde 6lb HA battery, headquarters staff with Jerome, the shiny Garde du Korps squadron with attached Gendarmerie, and the sapper detachment.
Jerome’s Hussars (13th), Garde Chevau-legers, and the Westphalian Corps headquarters with staff and Jerome.
Westphalian foot guards (l to r) from roadway; the Garde Grenadier btn, the Jager-Karabinier btn., the Chasseur btn., and the Fusilier regiment. In foreground is the skirmishing 3rd Legere btn. and two small battalions of National guards. Someone has to guard Jerome’s palace when he is away with Napoleon.
Westphalian Garde Grenadier, Jager-karabinier, and Chasseur btns. plus Fusilier regiment. The 3rd Legere in skirmisher formation with nearby National guard btns.
Westphalian army parades as Jerome watches.
These Westphalian units have seen 36 years of active service with the WR (since 1977), the longest of all my corps sized napoleonic armies. Basic tabletop army with the variety of different units and average CMR strengths. A good “beginner army” and easy to paint with white uniforms and splash of color. Many more years of gaming left in them, either as French allies or turncoats against the Emperor, depending on the whim of head “rabbit”, and not that pansy Jerome.
Westphalian army in their storage box 1. Former apple box with double cardboard layer bottom and vertical grids. Each gridded area names the occupying unit for easy storage location.
Westphalian guard and commanders. Box 2 also contains WR’s 1809 Insurrection army (see post).
Recently seen in action for this friendly warren game: Imperial France vs. Westphalia
WR notes it has been almost two full years since my last Army of the Month post (H.E.I.C). How time fly’s past when busy with other details, painting miniatures, and development of the Wargamerabbit site.
Basic source books on the Westphalian army. Lots of material on the Web too.
Cheers from the warren. German beer time yet? Danish army up next this weekend.
Wargamerabbit 
A great job for a great looking army….good luck to Jérome!
Thank you Phil. Westphalian army has been hot or cold for me. Depends on the weather outside it seems. Next up are the Danes, then my 1809 insurrection units.
M aka WR
A fine looking army, even after so many years.The Westphalian Army in our group was initially the province of one of the other guys, back when all our figures were Cruby. Perhaps a bit like Jerome, he did the Guard Grenadiers, the Cuirassiers, and the Chevau-Leger Lanciers… then stopped. A decade later I added 4 Line and one Light Infantry unit, using Minifigs. I suppose that’s another project to consider – at least red-doing the Cavalry with modern figures!
When last I knew, Sam Mustafa was working on a biography of Jerome, who if no military commander, was evidently a pretty decent sort. as a person.
Thank you Peter,
‘Cruby? Must be a portly Scruby miniature. I have them too, generally in my Army of Conde’ royalist brunch. Everyone needs Westphalian units… they can fill in for other white coat units in a pinch for the tabletop.
Danes are next…. M aka WR