FIW French 1

Right, that's all the fun and games over with for now – it's time to get back to business.

As I wrote in my Projects for 2013 post, I will be doing a 200 points starter force for the French and Indian War rules Muskets and Tomahawks. After some back and forth, I settled on the following list:
10 Compagnies Franches de la Marine
1 Compagnies Franches de la Marine Officer
6 Canadian Milicien
5 Huron allies (ie Indians)

This is a (not very good) WIP shot of the first unit for project, The Compagnies Franches de la Marine.

The miniatures are all from North Star.

The "de la Marines" were, contrary to what the name might have you think, not marines, but rather colonial infantry troops under the command of the Naval department, tasked with protecting the fur trade and the civilians of New France. They were experienced in the small scale, guerilla like warfare, first practiced by their more local brethren the Canadian militias (milicien). These tactics were initially very successful against the numerously superior British troops, who used tactics more suited to the open battlefields of Europe, and gave the French the upper hand in the beginning of the war.

When posted in the wilderness, the de la Marines often discarded their impractical uniforms and instead adopted the dress of the colonists and of the native Americans of the area.

As you can see these are really nice miniatures, with a great ragtag look. To get some sort of unity, all the headgears are painted blue (except for the officer's tricorne). The only problem with the models are the details – there are so many of them it takes a good while to paint them all! I've also decided that since there are so few miniatures in the starter force, I will spend a little extra time on them and do an additional highlight or two, which of course takes even more time. To be honest, I'm beginning to get a little frustrated with the slow pace of this project – as I've now gone back to work I have to fit in my hobby time on the evenings. This is not helped by the fact that my opponent Dalauppror seems to churn out those Mohawk warriors like there's no tomorrow. But still, if I continue at this speed I should be able to have all the miniatures ready by our mutual deadline of the end of February.

Finally, let me welcome my new followers: Baconfat, Ellie Great, Justin Penwith, Lee Hadley, MrJ, Schrumpfkopf, TamsinP and Tony. Thanks for joining up! I hope you'll like the blog and drop by for a comment or two from time to time.