I would like to welcome the membership, both veterans and new members, to the first issue of Volume IX. Your contributions in the form of subscriptions, articles written, help in organizing conventions, advertising in the Journal, or simply spreading the good word about our association are much appreciated by your editor.
Interest in the Seven Years War seems to be running at an all-time high, as evidenced by the great quantity of new wargame miniatures, rules and books that seem to be flooding the market of late. Refer to the newsletter section, beginning on page 62, for more details. We just concluded our 13th annual SYWA Convention in South Bend, Indiana and set an all-time attendence record with 120 visitors and 96 banquet attendees. I can remember when a turnout of 50 was considered a remarkable accomplishment.
No doubt, the appearance of Christopher Duffy as our special guest was a contributing factor, but I also noticed a number of return visitors from such distant places as California, Mississippi and the East Coast, and they seem to be bringing their friends back to the convention with them. At the present rate, we may outgrow the wonderful convention site at South Bend, Indiana, but we are working with the hotel staff to make better use of the available space, such as the lobby, so that we can expand the number of games and still have room for historical lectures. We are looking to purchase some light stands in order to brighten up the large lobby area and use it for games.
One change that we have made is to form a standing convention committee consisting of Paul Petri, Brian Vizek, Dean West and Herb Gundt to run our future conventions at South Bend. A tip of the tricorne to these gentlemen for volunteering and tor putting on a great show this year. I also want to thank Christopher Duffy for gracing our convention with his presence and delivering another inciteful discourse in his "Bad Guys Win Show" series. I ast year's presentation was on l euthen and this year's dealt with Rossbach. I understand that Professor Duffy will return next year and exact some revenge on Alte Fritz by giving us the gory details of Hochkirch and Maxen as a means of explaining the new Austrian tactics of converging columns. Professor Duffy will also return to the States this summer to visit Historicon, so don't miss out on this chance to meet him and have him autograph your brand new copy of The Army of Frederick the Great. A mini-review of his new book appears in the newsletter section of this issue.
Announcements
I have a couple of important announcements that I have to make regarding the format of your Journal. The first involves the appointment of Monsieur James Mitchell as Assistant Editor of the Seven Years War Association Journal. Jim has graciously volunteered to be in charge of all North American theater content, i.e King George's War and the French & Indian War, etc. Monsieur Mitchell is very well qualitied tor this role in terms of writing ability, research skills and dare I say, his numerous "nifty falls" as a grenadier re-enactor in Les Troupes de Levis. I am confident that Jim will enable us to fill the void of French & Indian War content that I have not been able to provide to this Journal, largely due to my lack of knowledge in this segment of history. I would encourage members to help us by sending articles to Jim Mitchell at his address: 147 North Jackson Street, Crown Point, Indiana 46307 or send him an e-mail at JACKSON@CROWN.ICONGRP.COM .
The other announcement that I would like to make is foreshadowed by the news above, and that is that we will get away from the chronological format used during the past three volumes and go to a more eclectic mix of content. The SYW will, of course, be the featured period, but at least one of the four issues each year will be devoted largely to French & Indian War content. As always, the Journal's content depends largely on the contributions of its members, so I would like to make an appeal to the membership to flood my mailbox with articles on any subject related to military history between 1733 and 1766.
The next two issues of the Journal will deal largely with the Italian campaigns during the War of Austrian Succession, but after that I am prepared to open up the pages to any appropriate topic. Perhaps we can focus more on the tactics of SYW warfare, obscure battles, and translations ot French and German accounts.
Membership Drive
I would also like to issue an appeal to the members to help me expand the membership rolls of our association. While we have successful recruited new members during the past three years, a few of our veteran members have left our ranks. For example, the entire state of Wisconsin has disappeared from the membership roll. In short, I would like to ask each of you to recruit one new member from your group of wargaming friends so that we can grow. For example, Bill Amick and some of his friends in Georgia have done an outstanding job of recruiting new people to the SYW Association, to the point where there are almost as many members in Georgia as there are in large states such as New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The new membership directories for 1995-96 are now available and they should be sent out shortly. The directory includes the names of all members who have given their consent to be listed in said directory. In addition, you will find a listing of companies that manufacture or distribute SYW-related wargame products, plus a comprehensive listing of internet sites that have SYW content. Along those lines, member Bob French has set up a SYWA Home Page on the internet and I would like to thank him for all the work that he has done to set this up. You can reach this site by typing in the address http://www.erinet.com/bp/sywassoc.html. Dial it up and take a look for yourself.
We will post new product news, convention news, sample articles, and updates on the progress of future issues of the Journal (i.e "its in the layout stage" or "its at the printer" or " it was mailed the week of ...". In addition there are links to other web pages that you will find interesting, such as an F&I War page and a SYW campaign page. I imagine that future membership directories will include members' e-mail addresses as well. I find email a terrific time-saving method of answering people's questions and encourage everyone to use it if you have access. You can send email letters to the Journal at JPURKY@aol.com.
25mm Project
On to the fun stuff now. Following this year's SYWA convention, I raced home and cleared off my wargaming table in the basement in order to hold a review of my 25mm Austrian and Prussian armies. I hadn't seen these fellows for some lime because they had been stored away while I lived at the smaller house on Thayer Street. Following my move to larger quarters last November, I had more space for my 25mm armies, but with the Holiday Season, getting out the Kleine Krieg issue of the Journal, and working on my 15mm Dettingen Project, I had forgotten my old veterans. So after seeing Bill Amick's and Greg McCluskey's huge 25mm Fire & Fury game at the convention, I wanted to line up the troops and hold an inspection.
I had forgotten how beautiful a mass of 25mm SYW figures can be and I realized that it had been some time since I had painted a battalion of 25mm figures (aside from those used in my skirmish games).The current roster includes 23 battalions of Prussian infantry (consisting of 6 grenadier, 3 fusilier and 14 musketeer btns) and 10 regiments of Prussian cavalry (5 cuirassier, 3 dragoon, 2 hussar regiments and 1 Bosniak regiment; the dragoons including the double-sized Bayreuth Dragoon regiment) and 9 pieces of artillery (including 2 at 3 pounders, 2 at 6 pound horse artillery and 5 at 12 pound field guns). Ialso had three different figures of Frederick the Great!
As for the Austrians, they had 5 btns of Bavarian allies (with 2 at 6 pounders), 2 btns of Croats, and 18 battalions of inl;antry. The artillery arm included 3 at 12 pounders, 3 at 6 pounders and 4 at 3 pounders. The cavalry contingent was a bit small with only 3 dragoon regiments, 3 cuirassier regiments and 1 hussar regiment.
It was clear to me that I had allowed my Austrian forces to fall behind in the arms race, particularly with regards to cavalry. So I decided that I would have to double the number of units so that I would end up with 6 each of dragoons and cuirassiers, while the hussars would need to be increased to 3 regiments. My plan is to have 3 cavalry regiments in a brigade and 6 infantry regiments in an Austrian infantry brigade or 4-5 btns in a Prussian infantry brigade. Each brigade should have a one or two gun battery of artillery and the Prussians would need to add some howitzers in a reserve artillery park. The Austrians would also need more infantry so that they could outnumber the Prussians on a regular basis. Eventually, I plan to have 5 or 6 Austrian infantry brigades plus one brigade of Bavarians; and two each of dragoon and cuirassier brigades and one brigade of hussars. This would give me 30-36 btns of Austrian infantry, 6 btns of Bavarians, and 15 regiments of Austrian cavalry plus 2 to 4 battlions of Croats or Jagers.
The Prussians are currently in good shape with regard to infantry, but I would like to add the Garde regiments (IR 6 and IR 15) and 2-3 more fusilier battalions. I seem to have plenty of musketeers. The expansion of the Prussian cavalry will probably be on hold until I augmcnt the Austrian cavalry to a similar strength; then I will add three more hussar regiments, 2 more dragoons, and 1 more cuirassier regiment, giving the Prussians two brigades each of hussars, dragoons and cuirassiers (in three regiment brigades). The Prussians will also get two or three sections of howitzers and a couple of frei battalions.
Leuthen Day
Mind you, this represents a two to three year project, but I decided that I needed some incentive to get going, so I decided to resurrect the huge all day wargame that I used to call Leuthen Day.
Several years ago, I staged a re-enactment of Leuthen on a cold December day for 24 members of the SYW Association. It was such a success in terms of the fun that we had, that I staged three more: a stylized Antietem scenario which the Prussians won, Kolin which the Austrians won, and a SYW version of Waterloo that was sort of a draw. That burned me out on big mega-games, so Leuthen Day turned into a small one-day convention in each of the last two years. Last year's convention was held on a bitterly cold day, and so I resolved to have my annual Christmas season event earlier in the Fall when the weather was more reliable. I also decided to scrap the mini-con and give the Battle of Kolin another try.
Why Kolin? Because I have visited the battlefield during the interim, its one of the smaller battles that is within striking distance of the armies that I presently have, and I botched my first attempt at Kolin by putting too many Austrians on the table. Having walked the field and listened to Christopher Duffy's tales inspired me even more. I believe that Kolin has the potential to be a classic wargame in that either side can come away with the win, but the Prussians have to be very good to pull it off. I also think that it can be fought to a conclusion in a full day of wargaming. So this is what I will be working on over the summer.
The Kolin game will be fought at 75% of the actual forces at a 30 to 1 scale. The Austrians had 42 battalions of infantry, which translates into 32 battalions at reduced game scale. This will include 2 btns of Croats and 2 btns of converged grenadiers, 4 optional btns represented the division of Puebla (which did not get involved in the battle and could be deleted from the game), and four brigades of six btns representing Sincere, Wied, Andlau and Starhemberg, or 24 line battalions. Since I already have 18 btns, I either must paint up 6 more btns or substitute my Bavarians. I think that I'll paint the additional troops; being Austrians, they are relatively easy to paint.
For the Austrian cavalry, there will be three commands of six regiments each, or 18 regiments in total. This is far less than the actual numbers involved, but since the Austrian and Prussian cavalry forces were nearly equal at Kolin, I don't think that it matters how many castings I put out on the table, as long as both sides have the same amount. The Austrians actually had more cavalry, but most of its light cavalry abstained from the fight, posted in a stalemate against Zeiten on the far right of the Austrian line.
The Prussians had 32 btns at Kolin, and at a 75% scale, this would translate into 24 btns on the wargame table. Since I already have 23 btns, I only need to add one more unit, and what better unit to add to an army than the 900-man strong first battalion of the Garde I/15? I think that my Prussian cavalry will be organized into five brigades of three units for a total of 15 regiments. I already have 11 regiments, so it only takes four more regiments (1 cuirassier, 2 dragoons and 1 hussar) to round out the roster for Kolin. As you can see, I can nearly pull this game off with existing forces, or else borrow troops from gamers who have their armies based in a similar manner. That's merely a fall-back position though, as the whole reason for the game is to get me to paint more 25mm Austrians.
Now that I know what I need to finish off my forces for Kolin, it becomes a matter of ordering up the castings and getting to work. I went down to the basement and dug up an old box full of RSM castings - 90% of my army is comprised of RSM figures. Thankfully, the Dayton Painting Consortium now produces and sells the RSM linc, so I called them up and placed an order for some 500 odd castings and about 175 horses to fill out my armies. Then I primed up the few castings that I had and began to work on some Hungarian grenadiers. I had forgotten how easy and how much fun the RSM castings are to paint. The figures have a very smooth surface which allows one's brush to glide across the casting without damaging the brush. I also like the fact that the RSM figures lack extra equipment such as back packs and haversacks. These guys are stripped down for battle, carrying only musket and cartridge box, and for that I am thankful, because that means that there is less junk to paint on the figure. I imagine that infantry did strip down to the essential equipment prior to battle. Why do all the other figure companies sculpt their castings loaded down with 60 pounds of equipment? Just wondering.
I completed six grenadiers from the Haller regiment: light blue trousers and turnbacks -- very colorful. I can't wait to get the rest of my order from Dayton so that I can complete the regiment. I also started the grenadiers from the Wied regiment and a few musketeers from the McGuire musketeer regiment.
I should mention that I am in the process of reorganizing my Austrian battalions. Previously, I painted 30-man units mounted six per stand, with one stand of six consisting of the grenadiers. My thought was that I could always split off the grenadiers and converged them into another 24 man unit (with the grenadiers from four btns.). In wargame practice, though, this never seemed to happen as players didn't want to weaken the battalion. However, now I am of a mind to paint 24 man units of musketeers and stop painting grenadiers; afterall, I can now converge them and get five extra battalions of grenadiers. It also allows me to play Age of Reason or my own variant of Rusty's Rules.
In This Issue
I see that I am running out of my alloted space, so let me mention that this issue's article on Camposanto had to be split into two parts, otherwise it would have taken up the whole issue and we would have had to delete the newsletter section and the terrific article that we have on the French grenadiers. Part II will appear in Volume IX Issue No. 2. This is a translation of an article in the Spanish magazine Dragona and is provided courtesy of Paul Petri. Normally I hate to split an article into two issues, but then it was pointed out to me that the original article was also split into two parts. I hope that Paul's efforts inspire some of you to paint Spanish and Piedmont armies for your wargame collections.
Back to Seven Years War Asso. Journal Vol. IX No. 1 Table of Contents
© Copyright 1996 by James E. Purky
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