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 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. I hope during the process, none of this offends your eyes!

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 these units are based with 80mm frontages, but are different depths. DBN is designed to work with depths that are closer together than mine, but it didn't seem to matter much.

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

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.

Although I am painting Epic figures to their 1813 / 1815 look, 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.

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.

I have quite a fair bit of information on the campaign, supported by four good boardgames on the subject. So though the painting style of the armies will be 1813 / 1815, they will be proxied into 1806, the absence of tricornes being noticeable!