28mm Portuguese for Sharpe Practice 2

Some praise for Warlord Games, not only was the international postage free, but they also completed my order in double quick time, a turn around of 4 days.  The box that arrived in my Pathos Post Office box this morning contained my Portuguese contingent for my Sharpe Practice 2 Peninsular setup.    

My SP2 force composition is based on the 5th Division of Lieutenant-General Sir James Leith (a Scottish Officer who will give his orders in an indecipherable dialect in my games.  The 4th Foot are the British battalion whose adventures I am following, and 5th Division also had an attached Portuguese brigade.  Initially a rag-tag poorly trained rabble they slowly became Wellington`s "fighting cocks" with discipline rivaling that of the British themselves.  At the moment I can field four groups of 8 British Line, two groups of 6 British light Companies, as well as the Brunswick Oels company of two groups of six (or an eight and a six- flexible troops the Oels!).

The addition of the Portuguese will give me 3 groups of 8 Portuguese Line and a colour party, as the 3rd Infantry Regiment, as well as a group of 6 Caçadores. (actually Perry Riflemen I will paint in Caçadore brown.)  The Portuguese are to be commanded by the notoriously camp "Count of Pantalones," a man who has trouble staying inside his pantalones.  The box has 24 figures, 20 plastic musketeers an Officer drummer and two standard bearers (with the option to make one of these an additional Officer instead.)  To get the numbers right I ordered a spare sprue of British foot (5) that I will paint in Portuguese dark blue to fill out the ranks for fielding these as Militia etc...

I am a fan of the Perry plastic Napoleonics, however these Warlord figures are less fiddly to put together than the separate arms of those Perry figures. These also have heads to glue in, meaning that if I want to change headgear I don`t have to hack the figure to decapitate it.  I also like the metal command group.  I will of course be using stove pipe shako for my Portuguese.

I think that, on balance, I prefer these to the Perry figures... although I will reserve judgement perhaps until I`ve painted them.

Lieutenant-General Sir James Leith`s 5th Division, 
Peninsular War order of battle

1st Brigade
3/1st (Royal Scots) Regiment of Foot
1/9th (Norfolk) Regiment of Foot
1/38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot
2/38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot
2/47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot
1 Coy., Brunswick-Oels Jaegers

2nd Brigade
1/4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot
2/4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot
2/30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot
2/44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot
2/47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot

Portuguese Brigade
1/3rd Infantry Regiment, Portuguese Army
2/3rd Infantry Regiment, Portuguese Army
1/15th Infantry Regiment, Portuguese Army
2/15th Infantry Regiment, Portuguese Army
8th Caçadores Battalion, Portuguese Army