French Corps D'Observation 1808 - No light Infantry

[Bar853]

There are no light infantry in the Emperors and Eagles, French Corps D'Observation 1808 list. I was wondering if this was the same problem that occurred in the French Army in Spain 1808-09 list. Checking Nafziger 808FSAA French army in Spain 1June 1808 there are but there seems to be a lot of inconsistencies with this list.

[MDH]

There are no light infantry in the Emperors and Eagles, French Corps D'Observation 1808 list. I was wondering if this was the same problem that occurred in the French Army in Spain 1808-09 list. Checking Nafziger 808FSAA French army in Spain 1June 1808 there are but there seems to be a lot of inconsistencies with this list.

Digby Smith's massive Napoleonic Wars Data Book covers virtually every engagement of the wars down to small actions and in the 1808 section none of the engagements involving any of the Corps d' Observation, whom he lists specifically, contained any French light infantry -but which would have been provisional light infantry or composites had they been there. Given the nature of a Corps d'Observation I would not expect it to be the same as an active frontline field Corps such as Junot's in Portugal or the army of Napoleon's Intervention . Pretty soon such, essentially reserve, Corps got split up and their constituent units and drafts distributed and merged with the front line Corps or used away from the front line . So the answer to your question is no.

The advantage of Digby's book is you can trace the shape of an army or Corps during the course of a campaign on a weekly or even daily basis and it is what was actually on the battle field . Nafzigers' collection is of course very good but tends to use the official orders of battle or a "spot"- ie only on one given day and you cannot trace forward or back . I use them both - as well as other sources such as the Napoleon Series and other campaign specific publications and try not to rely on any one to the exclusion of all others. Nor do I treat Nafziger as some kind of benchmark, although sometimes he was the only source I could find, and nor is he the most detailed. For some years and campaigns there are far better fuller sources - Scott Bowden on the Grande Armee of 1813 for example. I want strengths too.

I much prefer it if there is some narrative available to supplement such data as a simple list of what was available or present where and when does not tell you everything .

it's a worry I have about our use of light infantry, as simply identifying calling something was called that, tells you nothing about their tactical regulations and drill methods and whether they actually were light infantry as we model it in FoG(N). I believe it to be an overegged pudding for review when we come to a version 2.0 I find it increasingly hard to credit for example that the provisional legere regiments of early 1813, including the Young Guard voltigeurs of that time had had any actually light infantry training and so merit that classification. Just another version of infantry of the Line.

In Spain I was concerned initially that we would find very few really different lists for the conflict so actually being able to show such variations was great and I was determined not to have the Peninsular lists all cluster round a narrow bell curve.

[Bar853]

Thanks Mike. That is a great insight into how you went about designing the army list, much appreciated. I play French and as my regular opponent is British we tend to stick to the mid to late army lists in Spain. But this list seems to have an interesting range of troop types and quality so I might give it a crack.
On a side note would you know if a Emperor and Eagles errata with a correction to the 1808-09 list will be out?