COBI Napoleonic Era Soldiers Set 20098

COBI's Napoleonic Era Soldiers set contains 45 blocks making three figures and a horse: a French infantryman of the Grande Armée in a winter greatcoat, a Russian line infantryman, and a Prussian hussar who can be built mounted or on foot using interchangeable legs. All markings are printed.

The greatcoat

The French figure wears the long dark campaign coat, and the reason it is worth noticing is what happened to the men who wore it. The Grande Armée crossed into Russia in June 1812 with well over half a million men. Fewer than one in ten came back.

Most of them were not killed in battle. The army was destroyed by distance, hunger, typhus and then cold — temperatures that froze men where they sat down to rest. Uniforms designed for campaigning in central Europe were useless, and soldiers improvised with whatever they could take from houses and corpses. The greatcoat was the one piece of issued clothing that helped, which is why it appears in almost every account and every painting of the retreat.

The Russian figure represents the army that did not have that problem, and the Prussian hussar the light cavalry that harried the retreat from the flanks.

In the COBI range

Part of the Napoleonic Wars series, alongside the Prussian infantry set (20094), French artillery (20093) and the Borodino diorama (20091), which shows the campaign these men were on.

Specifications

Pieces: 45 · Figures: 3 with one horse · Hussar buildable mounted or on foot