Grenades were considered to be just as dangerous to the grenadier and his comrades as to the enemy and so were phased out. The grenadier as a type of soldier first appears in the army of Louis XIV in the 1670s and the grenade was used on the battlefield but very quickly became a weapon for sieges only. A good example of this is the siege of the Schellenberg in 1704. They were not used very often by the 1750s and they had been removed altogether by the time of the American War of Independence. As you say, the grenadiers were often the biggest and strongest men of the battalion although they could also be older, veteran soldiers who were known to steady. As a consequence of this the rest of the battalion sometimes referred to them as ‘grannies’!

33rd Regiment of Foot, "The Havercake's", Richard Sharpe's, and also Sir Arthur Wellesley's old Regiment back in India

Thanks for the interesting videos! About batallions and regiments: there is an important distinction for the Napoleonic time - a batallion is like the company and the brigade a unit on the combat unit. The regiment on the other hand is an administrative unit (also in the French army). Even when the French deployed more batallions of the same regiment in the field they didn´t often or necessarily in the same brigade. So the first batallion of a French regiment could be part of a brigade in Spain while the second batallion was part of a brigade stationed in Germany. When it came to tactics no Napoleonic general would talk about regiments. Grenadiers: in the 18th century step by step the grenade was abandoned. In the AWI is should have been gone. The fighting/tactics changed. In the 17th century there were still blocks of pikemen. It was easier and more effective to throw grenades in this kind of slow and packed formations. In the 18th century this kind of formations were gone and so the grenade was abandoned.

What a great, helpful video! Thanks so much for putting all this info together, and popping on some visuals to boot. Awesome.

Hey man, great video. Liked it a lot. Just starting B.P myself, so I learned a lot. Looking forward to you covering the French. Keep up the good work.

Very interesting chat, always something to learn. The centre column at the beginning of the Zulu war had both battalions of the 24th foot interestingly, I can't quite remember why they were all sent out (and to the same theatre). Keep up the great work.

I've always been interested in the Napoleonic genre, and all of this tabletop stuff in general is new to me, but it seems like something i'd enjoy, great video.

They look awesome, excellent job!

Great video, good explanation. Thanks for this series.

Well done! I've Liked and Subscribed. Just in this first video I've watched you have cleared up many of the questions that I had about the organization of the Napoleonic British Army. I just finished watching the video on the Russians and will be watching the lot! Again, well done!

worth Redding the Waterloo companion. A few regiments (Guards) paraded with over a 1,000 men

Nice video! Very informative.

Fantastic set of videos and great channel. I've always wanted to get into Napoleonic wargaming and have actually started. Rule set I've chosen is Sharp Practice from too fat lardies but that being said, the history and facts you talk about is fascinating and I very much look forward to see the video on light infantry, 95th Rifles. Keep up the good work

Great video - very useful. Just getting started with BP in a Napoleonic setting. With regards to the issue of why grenadiers were called grenadiers, I understand the issue as follows (although I might be very wrong). In the 17th and 18th centuries Grenadiers were armed with grenades and tended to be the tallest and physically strongest soldiers who had the ability to throw grenades the furthest. From mid / late 17th century grenadiers gradually stopped using grenades, but the name was kept out of habit and for morale / propaganda / psychological warfare reasons to indicate that a particular unit were physically stronger and so on. Must stress, I'm not 100% about this- it's just one of those bits of info that I picked up ages ago and I can't even remember the source, never mind vouch for its legitimacy.

Just started in Napolenics with the Black Powder set and the most confusing thing to me is unit structure & the sheer amount of units to choose from. The armies if you play historicial reenactments are huge so condensing this down to building your own can be daunting. I've ordered the companion scenarios & army lists to go with it.

I really like those dynamic poses. What brand of models are those in the beginning?

Except for the Light Division, Portuguese Line were not brigaded with British Infantry. Portuguese Line regiments were two battalions to a regiment, they served together. A typical "British" division in the Peninsula was made up of two or three British brigades and one Portuguese brigade.

nice paint job.

This is really helpful. Just getting started and am having difficulty getting my head around numbers to use and military organization of the time but this cleared everything up for GB forces. I have seen your Austrian videos but is there any chance you might do a similar video to this one to help understand how to represent their brigades on the table top? In particular I'm not sure about number of companies to use, how or how many of the light and grenadier companies fit into their regiments or would they be separate? Thanks for all your hard work on these videos and please keep doing them!

Very good information thank you, Brill video, Your painting to great

Hi, I'm just editing some stats for a Napoleonic genre game, a bit different from table-top type but still a warfare oriented. In this regard, I wonder what, in your opinion, would be the most adequate army organization that can be set as a standard for all armies of that age - that could be used as a Unify template each player can use no matter the Nation he chooses (Historical accuracy have to be partially neglected for the applicability of these base mechanics). I know that each nation applies its own structure and that it is radically different from that of others and that there have been at least two serious reorganizations of the military in the wars of the coalition in each country, but in this case I need a basic framework. I need the most popular model of division of units in the armed forces during the Coalition Wars, so whatever order a player choose he can not get out of this frame. The numbers I represent are relatively restrictive and closer to what the European armies were during the sixth and seven coalition, but I do not want to impose excessive numbers on the hierarchy and to get drastic differences in the size of the divisions each player could compose. At the moment, I have chosen a division to be able to support 2 or 3 main brigades (light / line infantry or cavalry brigades) and to have the option of adding a support artillery brigade (rather a pair of batteries) and support battalion of skirmishers / grenadiers assembled from the main units. Each infantry brigade contains 2 regiments (but also 1 is a possibility), each regiment - 2 battalions (made up of 6 companies each). Which means that an infantry brigade would consist of between 2 and 4 battalions. For the British Army it is characteristic of 4 regiments to make 1 brigade, but since each regiment in battle is present with only 1 battalion this actually means that their brigades were usually composed of up to 4 battalions during campaign, and the late French infantry brigade was formed from 2 regiments 2 field battalions each - again 4 in total. I can see that this is typical for the late Austrian (except they attached artillery directly to each Brigade and not under divisional command) and partially late Russian armies (1812 onward). Only the Prussian brigades were larger, but they are rather substitutes for divisions. The cavalry brigades are rather similar, composed of 1 or 2 regiments, the regiment is of 2 wings with 2 squadrons each (4 sqd. per reg. in total). The depot battalions of the regiments are not taken into consideration (as if they did not exist).

Interesting.Greetings

you slightly mistaken dueling the Napoleonic wars many British Regiments had 3 to 4 battalion in that period with . some posted to the West Indies and Australia. India, in fact the 95th rifles the Green jackets end up with 7 or 8 battalions at the end of the war with quite a few 2nd battalions served in Spain

They were still in use with the Royal Navy

Great Video!! Really informative. I find it curious the great deviation on numbers between the papers and reality. I'm working on the 88th foot and 43rd light as well. Wouldn't mind some extra photos, are they available on the Facebook page? I spotted something that I believe you might have gotten wrong. I believe that the 43rd light infantry wouldn't have a drummer. The regiment would have a bugler instead. I'm almost certain that this is the case at least at 1810. Nevertheless they are all excellently painted!! Cheers Miguel Correia

Hello @Napoleonic Basics, at 2:20 you say 6 Companies make a Battalion, but then at 7:17 you say its 10 Companies to a Battalion; just wondering which is correct? Sorry, this is all new to me

when your playing black powder, is it important to do company's with flank companies or make them for example, all guard, all light or all regulars and still be viable?

A lot of British battalions in the Peninsular were second battalions.

Hi, I am new to 28mm Napoleonic gaming and need some advice. I have several boxes of Perry British Line Infantry and wanted some advice on building regiments. My idea is to build regiments of 30 men, 5 bases of 6. I'm a little confused about the flank troops though. I'd prefer not to use split bases to hold 3 grenadiers or 3 light infantry. Can I put 6 grenadiers and 6 light inf at each end or is this too many? Can I have 6 grenadiers or 6 light infantry at one end and ordinary troops at the other, thus sticking to 6 flank troops per 30 man unit? Sorry if my question is confusing, I'm finding it difficult to find a definitive answer to this.

Do I understand correctly that the Light infantry was always part of the line infantry and just detached as the commanders saw fit? Or were there also Regiments of Light infantry that operated on their own? And in Black Powder terms. Can you tell me how many models I should painting as Light and how many as line infantry, e.g. Out of a Box of 60 victrix models Thank you!

Where does one get a copy of Napoleon's Battles? How does it compare to Black Powder?

I think the 95th had three battalions and all were in action in the Peninsula War - could be wrong!

With so many different uniforms with different colour s how did they know who were the correct adversary to shoot

How long would it be a British line versus a French line? In yards?

The rank of Brigadier did not exist in the early 19th Century. Brigade commander was an appointment held by either a Colonel (eg Ompteda at Waterloo) or, more usually, a Major General (the most junior of the General Officer ranks). A division would typically be commanded by a Lieutenant General and a full General would command a corps. This did vary, 1st KGL Brigade was commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel at Waterloo and 4th Division by a Major General, by usually held true. As for battalion strengths, the British battalions (but not KGL or Hanoverian) at Waterloo averaged over 600 men, This was probably not far off the battalion strengths during the Peninsular campaign too. The French, by contrast would typically be around 100 men weaker per battalion. They did have more battalions though.

The fact that the British fought in two ranks seems to present a problem for war gamers using this set up, all your units regardless of nationality are based on blocks of four figures making it impossible to represent the British line's wider frontage. 600 British would bring all their guns to bare where as 600 French would only bring 400 guns to bare, how do you take account of this. Another point is that four British battalions might have a front of 1200 men where as four French battalions might have a front of only 800 men, how can you represent this if all your units are set up the same. Sorry but just wondered. btw love the figures.

Sorry a little confused, you said at the beginning that 10 stands make a battalion, yet then show 6 companies. Sorry new so getting my head round it.