It is hard to believe that Volume VIII of the Seven Years War Association Journal is the third volume that I have started since assuming the editorial reins from Bill Protz. Tempus Fugit, or "time flies" almost as fast as Alte Fritz runs away from a battle that is not going in his favor. In a similar vein, it seems like only yesterday that I was traipsing through the countryside of Germany and the Czech Republic with Christopher Duffy and 34 other members of the association, as we visited the Frederician battlesites.

Alte Fritz Tour

The Alte Fritz tour has certainly been one of the highlights for me since my introduction to the SYW and mid-18th Century military history back in 1985. I will always remember that day in 1985 when I attended my first wargame convention, at Little Wars in Chicago. Upon walking through the door, I made a bee-line to a game table where Dennis Smail and Bill Biles were hosting a SYW French-British battle with their wonderful RSM figures and in one glance, I was hooked on the period and on wargaming. Something about the colorful uniforms, the tricorne hat and the orderly, linear warfare tactics all add up to make the SYW the most elegant looking period in wargaming. Frederick and his contemporaries were also rather interesting characters, so there is something in the mid 18th Century that holds appeal for the historian as well as the historian-wargamer.

I realized that I had not devoted much attention to the Duffy tour in recent issues and I understand that a number of readers are interested in hearing more reports about the event. With that in mind, I decided to reprint an article that I wrote for Historical Gamer magazine (June 1994). As I began to type in the text, I realized that there was much that was excluded from my original article. So I embellished this version with more anecdotes and bits of information that I culled from my diary, notes, and a viewing of a videotape that Paul Petri gave to me. Paul shot several hours of VHS tape on the tour, and since he was sitting behind Professor Duffy most of the time, one can hear about 90% of the commentary that Duffy made during the trip. To make a long story short,if you read the original article in Historical Gamer, then by all means read this version again as it contains a lot of new material.

Paul's videotape also brought back a lot of memories of our visit to Hochkirch. I recall that the weather was rather warm, sunny and mild, so we got out of the motorcoach at Wuischke and retraced the approach march of Daun's main column of Austrians as they zeroed in on Hochkirch from the south. At first, the ridges and trees hid the town from our view, save for the church tower in Hochkirch and it was easy to see how the Austrians were able to sneak up on the Prussian position.

It was a beautiful day for a stroll in the sun and the memories of that walk, the wonderful lunch at the Gasthaus Alte Fritz, and the opportunity to see the church, the Blutgasse and other sites in person, with Professor Duffy and a host of SYWA members, is something that I will always remember.

15mm

Now that I have moved into a smaller house with a limited amount of space for wargaming, I'm beginning to realize the appeal of the 15mm wargame figures. I had previously owned a set of 15mm Age of Reason French and British armies, painted for a Sport of Kings Campaign, and subsequently sold the collection to Bob Baldwin in South Bend, Indiana. I now have a hankering to rebuild 15mm armies for the War of the Austrian Succession in Flanders, but continue to use my 25mm Austrians and Prussians for that theater of war. My thought was to use Age of Reason rules, but use the 25 to I figure to man scale rather than the 50 to I that most AOR players use. In other words, my infantry battalions will be 24 figures in two ranks, instead of the standard 12 figures in one rank. Two ranks simply look better and they don't take up any more space, frontage wise than 12. I even contemplated going to 20 to 1 and using 36 figure units in 15mm, and going with three ranks. Perhaps put some officers and file closers in the rear, etc. I also plan to mount a battalion gun on one of the stands to improve the visual appeal of the unit.

After some contemplation, I decided to write my own set of SYW rules and incorporate some of the elements and concepts that I like best from other rules sets, but keep the 24 figure battalion as the basic infantry and cavalry unit. This will allow me to use my own rules, or use AOR if I want. The point is to take advantage of the benefits of 15mm figures (space and cost) and build large, visually appealing units, rather than dinky little battalions. I think that large 15mm units is an idea whose time has come. I have to believe that the individual who came up with the idea of 15mm figures had in mind that gamers would continue to field large-sized battalions, probably in the 20 to I scale that was so widespread at the time. The units would cost less, and the gamer would be able to have a larger battle field since the overall frontage of the units was shrinking. Instead, wargamers went the other way by shrinking the size of their units, in terms of the number of figures, and adding more battalions or manouver elements. Thus games got bigger and took more time to play since there were more units running around the wargame table.

Blah, blah , blah. Sorry, I didn't mean to start preaching. There's enough room in the hobby for all of us to use our own approach to gaming. As long as everyone has fun, I guess it doesn't really matter which rules are used or how many figures per unit etc.

At any rate, I'm getting excited about my new "Dettingen/Fontenoy" 15mm project. I plan to use the Old Glory line of British for my British and Hanoverian forces, and some of the Old Glory Prussians will serve as Hessians in my army. Does anyone have any suggestions for what to use for the Dutch forces? Most of my artillery and cavalry will use Essex figures since Old Glory hasn't finished out this line. As for the French, I like the Essex figures best, again, no Old Glory figures are available.

I particularly enjoy painting the Essex horses and some of the mounted command figures that are available in that line. French Maison du Roi cavalry is a bit of a problem, in that Frei Korps seems to be the only company that makes the correct figures. The problem here is that Frei Korps figures are noticably smaller than Essex, particularly in the cavalry figures. In my previous French army, I resorted to using Essex French officers as Maison du Roi riders, but I had to use the Frei Korps Horse Grenadiers and Mousquetaires, both of which are very unique in appearance and difficult to convert from other figures. Isn't it odd that few figure manufacturers offer Maison du Roi cavalry figures in their 18th century ranges?

Once the figures are painted, I'll mount them six per stand in two ranks on four stands per battalion and two or three cavalry per stand. Then I take a thin piece of mahogony or cherry and glue it to the rear of the base --then I type up unit names on my computer and glue the labels onto the wood strips to create a "name plate" effect. Finally, the base is terrained with spackle compound and flock.

In This Issue

I can see that I am running out of my allotted editorial space, so I had better get on with the business of telling everyone what they can expect to see in the SYWA Journal in Volume VIII.

The next issue will get us back onto our chronological journey through the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. Peter Lenders of the Netherlands has submitted some excellent material on the Dutch Army in the mid 18th Century, with a focus on the Fontenoy campaign. Jim Mitchell is working on an overview of Fontenoy while Dean West is compiling some material on one of the great captain-generals of history, Marshal Maurice de Saxe. If anyone has any information on the Count de Lowenthal that would certainly round out our look at the French heroes in Flanders.

I would expect that the Fontenoy campaign, including the issue devoted to the Dutch army, will cover at least two issues. Later in the year, there will be an entire issue devoted to Kleine Krieg or the small wars and raids fought amongst the respective light troops in the war. Peter Wilson has submitted a comprehensive article on the Battle of Domstadtl, wherein Frederick's supply convoy gets wiped out by the Austrians. The point of this issue is to explore this aspect of the SYW in Europe that was so important, yet garners little mention in the history books. Also it should demonstrate that SYW skirmish level wargames can be fought in Europe , rather than limiting skirmish games to re-enactments of Braddock's defeat or Rogers Rangers raid on St. Francis. I'm really looking forward to this particular issue, probably Vol. VIII No. 4.

Finally, I'd like to ask the readers to send in some wargame reports covering any aspect of mid 18th century military wargaming. I'd like to feature a wargame report in each issue.

In closing, the state of SYW era wargaming is in good shape with respect to the availability of figures in 15mm and 25mm scales, the availability of English-language books and reference material, and above all, with respect to the quality of the games and gamers that I see at conventions across the country. It seems that the nicest people also happen to be interested in the SYW, and this can only enhance the appeal that our little segment can have with the public. It is my pleasure to serve all of the members through this journal.