Review and Outlook

I would like to welcome all members, new and old, to the first issue of Volume X and to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous 1998. I also hope that everyone's Christmas stocking is bulging full of new lead miniatures and that the floor boards are groaning under the weight of lead, new history tomes and some of the may myriad of accessories that are widely available to historical wargamers.

The State of the Hobby From Our Point of View

It seems that 1997 was a good year for those of us who are enthusiasts of 18th Century military history. In the area of new figures, we continued to see an outpouring of quality 25mm figures from Guernsey Foundry (GF) as they released Russians and wide assortment of Prussians to their existing line. I plan to spend many a winter weekend painting the new Prussian hussars and starting on my GF Russian army.

Hap Jordan introduced a new line of 20mm SYW flgures through his Bataillenfeur Games enterprise and I hope that members will take a good look at this line and figure scale. In my mind, 20mm is the best wargaming scale because it combines the visual appearance of the larger 25mm figures with the economy and space- saving characteristics of the smaller 15mm figures. In addition, there is a ready supply of 20mm (HO) scale railroad buildings from which to choose to set up nice looking European terrain.

In the 15mm scale, Old Glory appears to be focusing their attentions back to the 18th Century, after a long hiatus in which they worked on Napoleonics, WWII, the Wild West and assorted other periods. I've always liked their large 15mm figures and have been using them for my French and British European armies.

However, I've had to put this project on hold for several years due to the lack of compatible French cavalry from Old Glory. This problem has now been addressed with the release of 5 more bags of French cava1ry. So some of my winter painting time may be devoted to some of these little fellas too.

Editor Climbs His Soapbox

You may recall that I started an Age of Reason project in which I doubled the size of the basic units from 12 figures in a single rank to 24 figures in two ranks. I did this because the appearance of two ranks seems to be more appropriate for 18th Century wargaming.

I have never been fond of the single rank basing and 12 figure 50 to 1 scale that seems to be the enduring legacy of the Empire Napoleonic gaming rules. I suspect that the individual who developed the 15mm figure had it in mind to retain a 20 to 1 ratio of figures to men, with the idea that he could put more large units on his table and still have considerable room for manouvering troops. Somehow this good idea got twisted and turned to the point where it seems as if every new set of rules uses the 50 to 1 ratio with dinky little 12 figure battalions. As I have said before, I have no quarrel with the rules, but rather with the appearance. I feel that the visual impact wargaming is best served by using larger units. There, I've made my annual pitch for larger battalions, so now I will get off my soapbox. Before anyone writes me an angry letter in response, take two of your 12 figure units, push them together into a two rank line, and give me your honest appraisal of which scale looks better.

The Upcoming Convention

I would like to remind the members that our annual SYWA convention in South Bend, Indiana is coming up fast, and it will be held on March 27-28, 1998. I am looking forward to seeing many of the members again and would encourage all members to try and attend this convention. We seem to be the only group that holds conventions strictly for our particular period and I always enjoy watching the dozen or so interpretation of the Seven Years War and the French & Indian War on the wargaming table. I also enjoy the fact that our group seems to be devoid of nules lawyers and win-at- all-costs players.

And while our convention has grown from an average attendence of about 50 to well over 100 gamers, the annual convention still retains its friendly, down home atmosphere that we all find so enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the large HMGS conventions in the east, but nothing can beat the SYW Association convention for fun and comraderie in my boolc This year's convention will see the return of a Christopher Duffy (SYW) and Brian Leigh Dunnigan (F&I) as guest speakers and at least a dozen SYW games.

I am still trying to decide whether to run a skirmish game using my Croat Terror rules, or to run a moderate-sized set piece action between Frederick and the Austrians. I will have to dust off the troop boxes in my basement to see what I have and hope that this generates the inspiration for a good convention game scenario.

Jim's Grand Troop Review

At least once a year, I like to clear off my wargame table and set up all my Austrians and Prussians in a sort of grand review of the troops. I do this for several reasons, the first and foremost being that it simply looks cool to see all the colorful Prussians and Austrians lined up as they were meant to be. Nothing matches the visual spectable of 18th Century armies. You should all give this a try. The second reason is that my review allows me to take stock of what I have in each army, to see which units need repairs, and to get a better idea of what I need to either balance or complete my armies.

Two years ago, this exercise made me realize that I was woefully deficient in cavalry on both sides of the table. I decide that infantry should outnumber cavalry by a factor of 2 to 1, and according to this formula, I needed to add quite a few cavalry units.

This led me to a year's worth of painting cuirassiers and dragoons for both armies. The Prussians received an additional 4 regiments of cuirassiers and 1 regiment of dragoons (with 2 more hussar regiments to come at a later date). The Austrians were augmented by 3 cuirassier regiments, 3 dragoon regiments and 1 unit of converged horse grenadiers. I would add more hussars other than the fact that these were not generally used by the Austrians as battlefield cavalry. It also pointed out my deficiency of Croats and Freikorps troops in the Austrian and Prussian armies, respectively.

During 1997's review, I decided that the Prussians were lacking garde regiments, so I added the 1st battalion of IR 15 (900 men or 30 castings in my 30 to 1 scale) and the garde grenadier regiment IR 6. The latter unit represented my first unit of Guernsey Foundry figures. I also added a freikorps battalion of double blues and a fusilier battalion, also using GF figures. It looks like my Prussian army could use a few more fusilier battalions in 1998. I can also see that my command stands need to be upgraded. For one thing, I don't have a stand featuring Alt Fritz. Imagine that! I have collected a number of Frederick personality figures over the year from Front Rank, Dixon, Old Glory and Willie and I think that the Front Rank version looks the best. This figure is also available mounted and dismounted.

All I need now are some suitable staff officers to put on the command stand with Fritz. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what grouping of figues would look good on a stand with Old Fritz? Should there be some sort of standard bearer or trumpeter, perhaps another general or an orderly on foot waiting to receive a dispatch?

On the Austrian side, I seem to have enough figures, although a few more units of Croats might come in handy. Again though, I need to redo my command stands. When I first started wargaming, I mounted my generals one per stand, but over the years l have had 1 figure stands representing brigade commanders, 2 figure stands representing wing or cavalry commanders, and 3 figure stands representing the army command. I suppose that kings should get 4 figures if I follow that logic to its rightful conclusion.

The Swedes Are Coming

I see that I am rapidly running out of space, so I want to take this opportunity to thank Peter Wilson for another sensational article on a topic for which there is little information in English. About a year ago, I asked Peter if he could write an article about the events taking place in Pommerania, particularly the small naval battle between the Prussians and Swedes near Steffln. Back in September, I was surprised to receive a large package ful1 of articles about the Swedish involvement in the SYW. I thought that this material was so good that I scrapped plans to do a series of articles on the Russians and slotted Peter's articles into this issue.

After reading his article, it will become clear to everyone why the Swedes did not pose much of a military threat to Frederick's Northern flank. I also want to thank Partizen Press for their permission to use an article that they published on Swedish jager units during the SYW. This article nicely augments the Wilson article and the extract from the Duffy book, courtesy of Emperor s Press. By the way, anyone looking for figures to paint Swedes in 25mm can buy either Front Rank's 8 figures or use the Guernsey Foundry freikorps (with Swedish cuffs) figures.

That's all the space I have for now. I hope you enjoy this issue, which is packed full of information on the Swedish involvement in the SYW. I think our writers, as usual, have done a fine job of uncovering new material for the benefit of the membership.

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