I had already started some work on a pair of Napoleonic Pocket Armies using the Epic scale figures from Warlord Games. The idea being that each army would start off with 6 bases per side and grow to around 12 bases per side, to keep a compact game on the table to work with my own rules.

The units were based as either single bases (cavalry and artillery) or pairs (infantry). It was hopefully to be a quick, cost effective and self contained project.

I had barely got going with that when I came across the DBN rules ( De Bellis Napoleonicis) by Alex Testo. These have a heritage in DBA style rules, although one notable difference is that there is attritional combat, with hits being registered on units.

The rules use single bases to represent a unit, these being at the higher organisational level with infantry being brigades (2000 to 2500 men), cavalry being brigades (1200 to 1500 mounts) and artillery typically being corps or army reserve with a base representing around 18 guns.

With the project so early in its infancy, it was a good time to rebase for DBN games.

I will be trying to make this a fast paint project, so the approach will be to make up the unit bases with unpainted plastics, enough to allow small games to be played, to help get to grips with the rules and simply enjoy playing.

I will then pull a unit from to time and 'speed paint' it already glued to its base. It might not be pretty ....... but the number one goal is that games get played.

Already having two napoleonic forces in 28mm fully painted, I thought I would get these to the table first, to help get a grip on the rules.

All the infantry and cavalry are based on 80mm frontages and usually I have two bases to form the unit, either in column or line. As the DBN system just uses single bases, I will deploy the base from each of my units that have the flag .... I like flags!

For the first game, each side got a basic 12 point army. I managed to write up an AAR and some observational notes and posted them to the Warriors & Battlefields Blog. Here is the link;

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/09/first-battle-with-dbn.html

Limbers are not strictly necessary, especially when representing artillery on the move, but DBN recommends using one to represent the army baggage - a compulsory item in a DBN army.

This blister pack kit actually includes 6 horses, but 4 already fully use an 80mm x 30mm base and I don’t really want a bigger base, but 4 horses make a fair representation.

The pack price for 1 limber is £14.50, probably at the top end of acceptable for me. The limber itself is metal and the horse / riders are in Warlord Resin.

Light infantry, such as French Legere, are units that can act as line but also can fully go into a loose skirmish type order and so as something of a hybrid of line / skirmish, I am basing these with just two strips of line and then putting four individual skirmish figures out in front, but staying with the same 35mm deep base that line use. 

They keep relative bulk, but are visually identifiable as being light rather than line.

While looking at some scenarios to fight, I noticed that the Prussians had jägers (light skirmishers with rifles) and that they were frequently deployed around company strength.

The Epic have some single infantry in firing poses for this purpose, so I have used one of the 60 x 20mm MDF bases that came with the limbers and just placed four individual figures on them in a loose and irregular line.

I should have tried harder with the commanders, but I have just taken the mounted commander on the sprue and placed it on the provided 20mm x 20mm plastic base. Really, it looks more like something that might be the mounted colonel of a battalion, a bit underwhelming!

At the end of the project, if I feel it has all been worth it, I will buy the two official commander packs and make up a 40mm round base with a bit of a command scene on it.

Although I am painting Epic figures to their 1813 / 1815 look (so I will need Prussian Landwehr at some point), with a medium term view of doing the fighting around St. Amand in the 1815 Waterloo campaign, in the first instance, I would like to take some battlefield inspiration from the 1806 Jena - Auerstaedt campaign.

I have a couple of nice books and four boardgames on the subject, so I should be able to create some scenarios that are historical and some that come from situations created in the boardgames.

In a recent playing of one of those boardgames, a moment cropped up in the game that looked like it would nicely convert over to the figures table (photo above).

The process was quite interesting and the results rewarding. I have decided that in the first instance, I will build my two armies to match what is needed in that game, though for now I will allow Prussian units to proxy for the Saxon Allies, rather than building new units with bicorne's!

For anyone interested in that sort of thing, I posted the process and final game map across to the Battlefield & Warriors Blog - LINK;

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/10/converting-boardgame-to-figures-jena.html

An 1806 Prussian army, with its training and command mentality still very much in the style of the Frederick the Great era, is a bit of a challenge to use well against the modern French army as honed by Napoleon, which has more efficient command and manoeuvrability.

In the boardgame referred to below, the French were stronger than the Prussians and though made a sluggish start, over a number of turns, they pretty much destroyed their adversary - so what will this look like in our DBN remake.