Peter Michels

Greetings from California. I just wanted to compliment you on a great job on the migration of the SYWA Journal! The new format is soooo much more pleasing to my (getting old) eyes, and the graphic arts are ... what can I say, great! I am very pleased with the first issue of volume VI.

I can't really describe how pleased I am without sounding corny. My wife is involved in marketing communications and, from her influence, one of my pet peeves on many of our trade magazines, professional and amateur, is the presentation of information in poorly organized and hard to follow the flow. I am a professional engineer and have to read a large amount of information regularly. It was a joy to see the new Journal. The articles were printed in larger fonts, they were well organized and the format of text and graphics has an easy "flow" that doesn't make one's brain ache.

Also, I think it was a great idea to add the "Coming Attractions" section at the end. Not only does it give potential authors an idea when their articles should be submitted, for consideration, it provides a teaser for us devotees of the period to see what we are going to be getting.

Keep up the great work! I was very impressed with the new Journal. You and your staff should be very proud of yourselves. The organization, presentation and content are all outstanding!

Bill Amick

Greetings from the south; received the newest SYWA Journal and wanted to congratulate you in putting out a very good issue. As per your request I thought I would let you know what we are doing in the Atlanta area with SYW. I have a group of about 8 laid -back gainers that are an HMGS chapter called the "Kennesaw Mountain Wargamers" . So named because of the close proximity to the National Battlefield of the same name. We meet regularly in my basement game room, normally once a month (early) and other times by arrangement. We have recently been gaming a set of rules that owe their basic concept to an old friend of mine in Texas. I have fleshed out the rules and hope to get them published someday. The rules themselves are what we are terming "Heroic" rules, in other words buckets of dice and relatively easy. As most of us have families we prefer games that can start on a Saturday mid morning and be finished by about 3 P.M. and these rules fit that criteria well. The rules use 4 to 8 bases per unit, with each base having 6 foot figures in 2 ranks or 3 cavalry in one rank. Casualties are taken by the base, and to show that great minds think alike, this base concept was developed before the "Fire & Fury " rules were released. As a side note, we now play these rules for ACW. The units are based on the battalion level so a rough figure ratio is I casting equals 20 men. I have convinced most of my fellow gainers that the look to achieve is what Peter Guilder called "the grand manner", large units that impart a sense of mass.

My own collection of SYW troops consists of both l5mm and 25mm. I guess I have over 2500 15mm painted and about 1000 to go. In 25mm I only have about 70 painted and about 400 to go. I've got a serious case of the "lead collecting sickness". Like any other "sick" gainer I have got thousands of painted and unpainted figures in other periods. Mostly "horse and musket" period.

I did get a chuckle out of Dean West's comments about the French. Being somewhat of a Francophile myself, there appears to be some merit to what he says though until we can get good reference books translated into English, most of us will have to struggle on with what little is available. From what I've read about Hastenbeck, perhaps thrashing is too strong a word for the Hanoverian Army and goes too far in the other direction. I think it fair to say that the army was beaten, but the Duke of Cumberland was the one who was thrashed! Gee, look mom, I'm an Anglophile now! It seems that "truth" is never acheived, only one's truth, the guy on the other side sees the same thing differently and his perception becomes his truth. Somewhere in the middle the real truth might exist, but who knows for sure? On rereading the above I'm not sure I've made any sense; of course I too am a little demented so that's my excuse.

(Editor: I concur with your appreciation for wargaming at the battalion level with large 20 or 30 man units. The colorful SYW era certainly shows off wargaming in its best light at this scale. As for your dementia Bill, you show early signs of converting to the true religion of British Scarlet and Prussian Blue).

Don McHugh

Thank you for the kind review you gave my army lists in the recent SYWA Journal. I was however, surprised that you made no mention of the rule adaptations as they form an important part of the booklet. These adaptations are designed for use with the "WRG Rules 1685 to 1845" which proved so popular here in the UK. It is these rules that have been used in the very successful SYW pairs competition hosted by Bath Wargames Club each year. Last year 40 competitors took part, many of whom are SYWA members. I look forward to Dean West's articles on the French Army, but must say that having read Kennett's The French Armies in the Seven Years War, I think he has a tough up hill struggle on his hands. It will be interesting to hear how he explains such actions as Minden and Warburg.

Ken Haynes, Jr.

Inquiry: how could the regular "hat companies" of a battalion drawn up in close order, 2 or 3 deep, advance through a body of woods and engage an enemy therein? Many battles of the 18th and 19th centuries were fought in wooded terrain. With the exception of one very general article on this subject by Christopher Duffy, I have never seen this subject addressed. Most drill books of the period ignore this important topic. The British Army in the AWI from an open order formed or deployed into little company columns called "double Indian files". Whether this column then deployed into an open order 2 deep line or an extended order 4 deep line for combat purposes is beyond me. Half of the company could have been thrown out, say 20 yards, in extended order (8ft. between files) while the rest of the unit remained in column as reserve. Any ideas on this topic that has bothered me for decades?

(Editor: Ken, you might want to read Brent Nosworthy's fine book on tactics, Anatomy of Victory, or Frederick the Great on the Art of War by Jay Luvaas or British Light Infantry in the 18th Century by Colonel J. F. C. Fuller, now available in reprint from Terrence Wise Publications , direct or from The Emperor's Headquarters in Chicago. Do any of the members have any thoughts about Ken's inquiry?)

David Morfitt

As a newcomer to the Association I do not know what has been covered in the Journal so far, but I am pleased to see that your own particular interest is also my own, namely the Prussian-Austrian conflict, which should ensure that it looms large in future issues, as your "Sneak Preview" seems to suggest. It would be interesting to see an article (or articles) covering the campaigns of Prince Henry in the SYW in some detail, as his exploits are inevitably overshadowed by the doings of his more famous brother. How about some biographies, potted or otherwise, of famous and not so famous soldiers of the period, summarising their acheivements and influence? I would also be interested in detailed accounts of some of the more obscure actions, which are sometimes more intriguing than the large, classic battles, largely, I suppose, because so little tends to be written about them in the standard histories. Moys springs to mind as one such. It was important for the death of Winterfeldt, Frederick's eminence grise and references in Duffy's Army of Maria Theresa suggest that it was not without some historical interest, as, for example, the occaision of the only authenticated case of a bayonet fight in the open field encountered by the Prince de Ligne.

(Editor: David has a lot of good ideas for future articles in the Journal. I hope that some of the readers can turn these ideas into articles. Any and all contributions will be gratefully accepted. )

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