Napoleonic skirmish games

This is probably one for Kieron...

If we were to finally start doing something for the war of 1812 (which would involve me using peninsular war models and pretending they are other regiments I would guess), how many models do I need to have painted? I think we were talking about Muskets and Tomahawks but I've no idea what I need for that...

Paint up a dozen line infantry and an officer and you'll be good to go. You really need more than one unit for M&T from what I remember.

Obviously, I'd need to paint something too as my Brunswickers aren't based for skirmish games. I'll see what I can do over Christmas.

Thing is... I'm planning on basing stuff for Black Powder first, and using the skirmish based bits for M&T as a happy accident.

I'm planning to start with standard sized units as per the BP rulebook, which would be 24 models per unit. Since Napoleonic units can do mixed formation, I need a third of each unit to be on skirmish bases, so that's 8 models.

Can I get away with using 4 men on a single base in M&T? Or can 8 men be a unit? I guess I could get a 95th officer, to have an officer that belongs on a skirmish base.

M&T is skirmish based because it's single figure activation. So that might not be a goer. We can use Necromunda for a small numbers of skirmishers in the interim.

Leave a handful of your line infantry on single bases for when your unit is in mixed formation.

How many men is a unit in m&t? If it can be 8, I could do 8 highlanders as well...

I think it can. I'll check.

There's still the minor issue that I've done nothing yet.

Well to be fair it'll probably take me a while to get to that many models as well, but I was planning to get to 8 normal infantry on skirmish bases anyway.

Two units of 8 and an officer should work for M&T.

I could always use my injuns which are based and undercoated.

Ok, that I think I can do without too much trouble. Does it need to be an officer on foot?

I don't think so, but I'll check.

I might try to get the injuns painted as they should be fairly simply if I do them without war paint or patterned clothing initially.