French IV Cavalry Corps

[CutEmUp]

Can't make this Corps in the Army List because of the compulsory French cavalry

Any way that the Polish Ulhans would ever be made a compulsory option, or am I stuck with a semi-historical formation

After all, it kind of is one of the most famous formations of the whole Napoleonic Wars

[MDH]

Can't make this Corps in the Army List because of the compulsory French cavalry

Any way that the Polish Ulhans would ever be made a compulsory option, or am I stuck with a semi-historical formation

After all, it kind of is one of the most famous formations of the whole Napoleonic Wars

I assume you are referring to the 1812 Reserve Cavalry Corps list and the Polish Line Uhlans (not the Polish Guard lancers which are in the Guard lists) . I not sure the former are "...one of the most famous formations of the whole Napoleonic Wars." even if the latter are .( It helps to say which list you mean...)

There are only 16 bases of French cavalry as minima in that list and up to 12 Polish Uhlans allowed. Of course it may be when the 4th Reserve Corps as such is pointed up it comes to more than the standard game model are is trying to conform to....

Only a few of the lists are intended to be a specific Corps at specific times ,and certainly not every French infantry Corps or cavalry reserve Corps, even if some lists are drawn more on specific ones than others. Had we tried to produce lists for every corps in every campaign of every nation and at different times in those campaigns we would still be at it and still unpublished.

And of course making them compulsory would be no less semi historical inferring every Reserve Corps had Polish Uhlans . You do already have the option. And if you attach a cavalry Division from this Reserve List to the French Infantry Corps minima are ignored. Any they are allowed with a Duchy of Warsaw Corps list I think we have more than acknowledged the presence of these troops . (But lancers as such are not super troops in our system and some formations called lancers actually did not have them or dispensed with them, and in the case of the French only the front ranks had them .)

I suggest we have still produced more lists for this period than any others even if they are all, in one way or another, " semi historical" ! Why?

Well if one wants to get really picky then one had better research the muster rolls and daily strength returns rather like Scott Bowden has done for his book on the Grande Armee in 1813 and ask some searching questions, especially in 1812 for cavalry, where the attrition rate among the horses was appalling through poor horse management long before Borodino. Our lists are probably over generous in those terms for 1812 for the French and their allies.

As I have said many times here if you want to model a specific corps or (indeed an army of several Corps ) then historical orders of battle will, indeed probably should , trump the more generic or "blended " lists for that nationality and type in that campaign. Research explore and adapt.

They are a guide and we give rules of thumb for constructing historic orbats at the back and explain our thinking.

So there is no sense whatsoever in which you "can't" make a specific Corps and use it if you research it and apply our system consistently and your fellow gamers are content . Indeed in any historically based campaign I would expect that approach to be used and in the many historical battles I have run ( Austerlitz, Novi, Sacile, Plancenoit...), we departed from the maxima and minima and composition quite often, although rarely , if ever, from the elan and training and special capabilities assessments as that would throw the whole thing in the air.

Tournament play is different and requires a much more rigid and strict system based on equal points and cannot manage folk turning up with their own constructs and having debates about how an orbat has been interpreted.

[CutEmUp]

I want to play in tournaments with it....I'm a crash ahead guy, I like quick games

So it's not just simple enough to put a bullet point that says, "if only Saxon and Westphalian Cuirassiers are used then the compulsory French light cavalry may be replaced by Polish Uhlans"?

PS, I said kind of.....the storming of the redoubt at Borodino makes them pretty famous