Great stuff! Lancers do look really cool on the table top. The effectiveness of the lance was a hotly debated topic by the British army during the period with the argument that it was ‘easy to turn the lance point with the sword / sabre, and then have the lancer at your mercy’ winning through. However, it is interesting that immediately after the wars the British converted several regiments to Lancers and continued to use the lance through to end of the horse mounted arm.

Just in time for my Duchy of Warsaw Cavalry division of 6 regiments!

They also had smaller 15 hand Horses . more nimble and fast sideways movements . Mind you they were well skilled with a rein in one hand and a long thick Lance in the other. Then to juggle that while staying on a fast moving Horse amongst hundreds of themselves.

French army had lancera since the creation of vistula legion or even earlier ( polish legions ). If we are talking about famous polish regiment of Imperial guard they got their lances during battle of Wagram 1809 when they stole lances from austrian uhlans. And the main disadvantage of such unit is that you need a lot of time to train them because it is very hard to fight with lance in close combat but a veteran unit is basically unstoppable as a example we can talk about Leipzig battle where few regiments of lancers attack infantry and right after that fight off hords of allied cuirassiers ( if I remember correctly it was 8 regiments + some help from Cossack of the guard).

In the rule system I use, the lancer is one of the most dangerous cav units. They move as light cav & hit as heavy cav - very nasty to be on the receiving end of an attack by them.

Great commentary and tactical hints for using these "Specialist" troop types! Well done and thanks for sharing it with us!

How have I not discovered this channel earlier

⭐️ really enjoyed this - on a couple of occasions Polish Uhlans were documented as dismounting and attacking on foot using their lances ⭐️

You note at one point that there were no French cuirassier regiments in the Peninsula, but that isn't entirely true. Suchet's command in Catalonia included the 13th Cuirassier Regiment, sometimes nicknamed 'the wineskins' for their unusual brown-coloured uniforms.

love those Historex uniform cards

Great topic and video. Definitely grabbing the Victrix Lancers...

Russian uhlan jager-flankers were armed with rifles that were accurate far beyond the range of smoothbore musketry, and were thus ideal as picket or skirmishing troops. In close order, the first, more prestigious rank would charge home with lances while the second rank would charge with sabers drawn. This mirrors the deployment of traditional Polish uhlans, upon which the Russian uhlans were based and whom the first levies of Russian uhlan regiments were drawn from.

People often talk about the "momentum of the charge" but I've never really understood how this would work. The rider would have to bring his mount to a complete stop in order to start stabbing with the lance. He can't just gallop through the defensive line, impaling the enemy like cheese and pineapple on a cocktail stick!

In the peninsular campaign Suchet had a brigade consisting of the 4e Hussards, 13e cuirassiers and for a short time also a small unit of vistula lancers. Thats my current project, only the lancers to go. (ill make them wirh a normal unit size though) so, your video is perfect!

slash backards the shaft of the spear can be used to attack and defend and there is a second rank of lancers coming if the legionary manages to come behind the tip

28*Centigrade, HA ! Its near 43* C here in Texas today, basically, if you can't get it done before 10 am it doesn't get done. To be honest, I can't even sleep under a fan at 28*C. Lancers are my favorite style of troops so loved this video. Bit of joy to hear you were also an artillerist. There was an incident, reported in Osprey's Elite-196 "Napoleonic Light Cavalry Tactics" p.34 (great illustration p.35) of an action at Katzback in Aug. 1813, in the rain, where the Austrians were drawn up in square, unable to fire and Marbot's 24e French Chasseurs unable to reach them with Sabres. The famous Marbot recalls the 6e Legier Lancier being brought up (red not pink facings, mores the pity) . The lancers were able to stab a breach in the square which the Chasseurs followed up to the destruction of the square. In the same month, Gen. Latour Maubourg at Dresden, the Austrian squares were holding off his Cuirassers, so he ordered up a unit of just 50 Lancers who once again punched a hole in the square that the cuirassiers followed up. One can imagine the slaughter. You forgot to inject the rule that a unit must take a moral check with a minus 1 or 2 if Lancers declare a charge on them, which is understandable when considering long pointy sticks. I do hope your ideas on the subject of moral vs. lancers will be in your upcoming book (which I hope will be available for pre-order?) as I wasn't able to quite see the mathematical consequences of the differences you were pointing out. Well, your long vacation is less than good news for your video fans but I'm sure is well deserved. Do have a great time and stay safe.

Very good in the rain.

Whilst not quite in the Napoleonic wars, an example of lancers beating a square would be at the battle of Aliwal in 1846. The British 16th lancers charged down & destroyed a large square of Sikh infantry that had been organised & trained in the European fashion by a Neapolitan mercenary. They still took nearly 50% casualties doing so though! Of note, the battle was led by Sir Harry Smith who is often believed to be an inspiration for Sharpe and became a good friend of the Duke of Wellington.

+2 cavalry armor penetration. +1 to lowering infantry defense. The Lancers in Black Powder are an anti-cavalry unit. Basically at the level of the Dragons. 7 dices + 2AP vs 8 dices and D1. At the same time, they have the feature of "marauders". Lancers will destroy any light cavalry and should also win against dragoons. Their very presence means that the enemy must use his cavalry very carefully. Only cuirassiers are better than them ... but such a clash will not come out unscathed. Regarding the ratio of lances to sabers. Originally all riders in the squadron had lances, but when they were in position they were easy targets for enemy riders with carabiners (e.g. chasseurs a cheval). This problem did not exist in the Polish brigades of lancers that fought in the war of 1792. Half of the riders had carabiners at the time.

as always very interesting

Nice one. I'll have to actually watch that movie.

A squadron formed in two ranks, where the first rank had the lance, the second rank with the sabre. It is often incorrectly stated that the front squadron or squadrons were only equipped with the lance.

I have long awaited the infamous Smurf lancers! Blue death awaits Gargamel! As for actual history Lancers were useful for guarding prisoners on the march - a task often assigned to Cossacks. French gendarme were also armed with lances quite often. Austrian Uhlans are consistently under-rated imo. These Galicians and Hungarian horsemen were among the best in Europe.

Britain did have lancers in the Napoleonic period - during the Spanish campaign the British had Brunswick Lancers - it was only a couple of squadrons, but they did have them. Not beyond that and Britain certainly did not have them in the Waterloo campaign.

That may be!!

3:18 Indeed, I plan to add the Dutch Red Lancers from Victrix to my French army. I could also paint them as Poles, but you gotta go for the home team...

Actually, it was the French light horse that picked up the lances of the Austrian Uhlans.

How to use Lancers.....stick the pointy end in the enemy.

The British expanded the use of the lance immediately after the Napoleonic war and continued their use into the First World War. Napoleon converted 6 regiments of Dragoons to lancers due to their effectiveness.

Very #strange #peculiar that the Napoleonic Wars would see the truly awesome rise of Cavalry as a Weapon in a time of revolutionary use of musket and canon absolutely...horses that would be used right up until World War 2 amazingly!

Great video! Two things: First, video suggestion (shouldnt be too hard due to your start collecting videos) what if I buy the Waterloo starter set and want to expand both armies equally because Im the only one interested in collecting? How do I expand both factions in a fair way to whoever is gonna play each side? Two, do you have any other social media like Instagram? Keep up the good work!

In a recent video you mentioned using transfers, decals, I think it was for Spanish grenadiers' flames, who makes these? i've often thought there was a market in Napoleonics for these, for fine details, like emblems on cartridge pouches,back packs, water bottles sabretaches, shabraques etc

Very interesting. Think the Kingdom of Holland lancers went on to become the "Red Lancers" didnt they? (Being lazy and not digging the book out lol). Also I think the irregular/native horse in India used by EIC would use lances too (plus lots of other stuff lol), not sure if they count as "British"?

So I recently "read" (Audible) Sharpe's Gold, it really made me want to wargame some peninsular war skirmishes. As you say in this vid Lancers were excellent for skirmishing. You said before you use a modified version of the Middle-Earth rules for skirmish games. Do you have a version in a Google doc?

Just in case. 15:32 depicts a (most likely) Prussian cuirassier (note "F." on the shabraque). The uniform colours look a bit like those of 5. Kürassier-Regiment. The image itself, however, is a bit bizarre: if it indeed depicts a Prussian cuirassier, it must pertain to 1815 (the year when the cuirasses were re-issued). But I don't remember any Prussian cuirassier regiment participating in battles that year, nor do I have any information of them having lances in 1815.

Great video. One minor point, the British did have Lancers during this period. The 17th Lancers were established from 1759. So they might not have seen action during the Napoleonic Wars, the British did have them. Like I said a minor point. Excellent video. Cheers 🍻

The British army did have lancers in the 1800 they were not present in Europe so were missing from the napoleonic wars I believe they were in India but could be wrong.

What was the film the clip was used from?

Static res? From heavy cavalry? What is that my good sir?

every commander needs more pikemen.

In the off chance you're free to respond and give advice a buddy of mine's dming a game inspired by the Napoleonic era. My character, a hussar, just led the hussars to victory against a force of lancers after a flanking maneuvor he'd planned with the cuirassiers failed and ended with the heavy cav being slaughtered. After that he went on a mad ride, mustering the remaining hussars under his leadership since the superior officers are dead and the only other officer is wounded, leading them to destroy the enemy lancers, the enemy artillery, the enemy light infantry and rifles, and forcing the enemy into infantry squares so friendly artillery can slaughter them. Assuming he isn't killed for the cuirassiers what would you think I should have him take from the enemy lancer's uniform to dab on them, the way Lasalle dabbed on the Mamlukes by wearing mamluke pants?

first

tHE pOLISH ULANS HAD THE LONGEST ONES AND CHANGED FOR BAMBOO WHICH WHERE LIGHTER uLANS WHERE pOLES,

the British dropped the use of Lancers, cuss they was usless. They where great against disordered troops. but against Block infantry or other Sword armed Cav' they got Desemated.

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C5%82an