Originally Published on the Spanner and the Yank Web Site. Used by permission.

July 4, 2002

There seems to be a million gaming "do’s and don’ts". When I first started out, the gospel was (1) you don’t build a French Napoleonic force as you wouldn’t find an opponent (in the U.S., at least). (2) One definitely didn’t build an Imperial Guard brigade, because the rules jockeys and competitive types would assume you’d done so to trump others in unit ratings.

Rather than building what I would have liked, I decided to build an AB Austrian corps. Then I decided to build a French line division. And finally, I lifted the brush to a French Old Guard brigade. I’ve worked on the assumption that the latter would look smashing, but theoretically can be routed (as is the case with the "General de Brigade" ruleset.)

Here’s a review, then, of AB’s Old Guard figures. One might assume the designer would have pulled out the stops in the rendering such a famous fighting unit. And that’s true in part. Tony Barton has created some wonderful Grognard figures – notably the officers, in full dress. The detail is very good, the faces stoic and martial, the positions natural. My favorite of the bunch is probably the Grenadier officer with arms folded.

I’d rate both the chasseur and grenadier command "10’s". The infantry, "9.5’s". Can’t do much better than that!

That’s the good news. The semi-bad news is that the AB Guard releases in greatcoats are not as good as their full-dressed colleagues. They seem to have been hurried along, particularly the chasseurs. In my order from Eureka Miniatures, there were only two variations for the chasseurs in. The grenadiers were better, with four variations.

Basically, the greatcoated figures simply aligned the same parts in a different manner. If a grenadier was looking right, the same face on a chasseur is look left.

Mind you, they’re good figures. And the benefit of having a unit in greatcoats is that it’s not only quicker to paint, but they’re perfect for the appearance of battalions waiting in reserve, which is what I was after. I’d rate the greatcoat boys from " 8-9", with the majority falling in the 8-8.5 range.

Good news for AB aficionados: There are no inconsistencies, or mm creep, either between the full dress chasseurs and grenadiers, or between the latter and their greatcoated counterparts.

Completed Old Guard Grenadier battalion

We’ve reviewed Tony’s sculpting so often that any additional comments would be redundant. We should almost have a separate scoring card, comparing AB’s to AB’s… which is what I’ve done.

They remain far-and–away, the best Nappies on the market.

By Mike MacGillivray