28mm Piedmontese in the Revolutionary War

Piedmont, or the Kingdom of Savoy, was a monarchy in Northern Italy stuck between the great powers of France on one side and Austria on the other. Diplomatically aligned with France, they had expected their next war to be against Austria across the open plains of Northern Italy and thus spent vast sums of money buying state-of-the-art “semi-automatic” cannons and horses to raise good quality cavalry regiments.


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This quickly changed with the French Revolution and they joined the rest of the monarchs of Europe in an uneasy alliance. Unfortunately, neither their cavalry or artillery had a large effect on the war with France, which was mostly fought at high altitudes in the Alps.

These figures would be appropriate for the battles of the First Coalition in Italy from 1792 to 1796, including Napoleon’s famous Italian Campaign. The Piedmontese mostly fought a defensive war, inflicting defeat on the French at the Battle of Saorgio and generally blunting the French offensive into Northern Italy.

However, once Napoleon took command of the Army of Italy in 1796 he defeated the Piedmontese in less than a month, forcing them to sign a peace treaty after the defeat at Mondovi. Although the Piedmontese soldiers were brave, in particular the artillerymen were highly respected, they were lead by generals from a bygone era and were beaten by the modern and energetically lead Revolutionary French.

In the lead up to the battle of Marengo in 1800 the Austrians hired over 14,000 Piedmontese troops as mercenaries, many of whom were veterans of the earlier wars. Although they did not see combat, this does make for an interesting what-if scenario where these figures would also be usable.

These 3 links give further information about the Piedmontese army and the uniforms.

http://www.bandieresabaude.it/Bandiere033.html

https://napoleoninpiedmont.weebly.com/the-sardinian-army-a-survey.html

http://thebritisharecoming-simmy.blogspot.com/2014/07/uniforms-of-sardinian-army-1793-1796.html


Here is an Italian site of Piedmontese re-enactors
http://reggimentopiemonte.com/

Although in French, this site gives further information:
http://www.napolun.com/mirror/napoleonistyka.atspace.com/les_compagnies.htm

100WFR801 Line Infantry marching
100WFR802 Line Infantry advancing
100WFR803 Line Infantry firing and loading
100WFR804 Line Infantry NCO
100WFR805 Line Infantry fifer
100WFR806 Line Infantry drummer
100WFR807 Line Infantry officer
100WFR808 Line Infantry standard bearer

100WFR809 Grenadier marching
100WFR810 Grenadier advancing
100WFR811 Grenadier firing and loading
100WFR812 Grenadier NCO
100WFR813 Grenadier fifer
100WFR814 Grenadier drummer
100WFR815 Grenadier officer
100WFR816 Grenadier standard bearer

100WFR817 Cacciatore, skirmishing
100WFR818 Cacciatore hornist

100WFR819 6pdr Saxon Quick Firing cannon

100WFR820 Artillery Crew
100WFR821 Artillery Officer
100WFR822 Mounted Officer

100WFR825 Dragoon at rest
100WFR826 Dragoon, charging
100WFR827 Dragoon Officer
100WFR828 Dragoon Trumpeter
100WFR829 Dragoon Standard bearer

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