The goal here is to provide a person who wants to begin gaming the Seven Years War period and has no prior knowledge of it with a primer on where to go and what to get in the way of information. With minor exceptions, everything is either still in print or readily available. Well, luck may not be readily available for the flags, but it is sometimes the only alternative you have.

Accurate references for this period are difficult to come by. A great many of the archives were destroyed in last century's two world wars, or simply "lost" when the contents needed to be re-written by later authors. There is a degree of confidence that we will have better access to the archives of the warring parties now that the eastern block countries are beginning to realize that they are sitting on sources of revenue. Prof. Duffy's new book is perhaps the first of many to come from this new openness.

A: Uniforms

1. Bill Biles 3 volume set
2. Funken Lace Wars
3. Pengel & Hurt Multiple volume set for the SYW
4. Knotel, Uniformkunde
5. Knotel, Plates
6. Mollo, Uniforms of the SYW
7. Sturm, Zigarette cards

The painting guides are cataloged by their ease of use and overall accuracy. The Bill Biles volumes are readily available, and even though they don't have any color pictures. The layout of the information makes them easy to read and understand. The error rate in the descriptions is low and mostly limited (Continued next page) (Continued from previous page) to unit names. The Funken books have color pictures, but segments of the plates are riddled with errors and the English language version is no longer in print, so you will have to settle for French. The Pengel & Hurt volumes are the most complete and accurate available, but have no color pictures and can be very confusing to follow if you are not familiar with the period. The Knotel book and plates are complete, but the book can be difficult to pick the exact information out of and the plates are quite expensive. The Mollo book is out of print now, but has a good selection of plates from the various armies as well as some orders of battle. If you find it, buy it. The Sturm Zigarette card book is an excellent guide, but is scarce and expensive. The two volume edition of the Prussian Army from Dorn & Engleman are very nice, with color plates for every infantry and cavalry regiment in the Prussian army, but is also quite expensive.

B. Flags
1. Pengel & Hurt
2. Funken
3. Bill Biles
4. Luck!

Flags and colors in the Seven Years War are difficult to research, and with few exceptions, difficult to paint. The references listed do the best job of describing the flags of this period. The best thing to do is buy the flags for the units you are painting.

C. Unit Histories
1. Dorn & Engleman, German Language version
2. Web Sites from the National Archives

Individual unit histories from this era are extremely difficult to come by. Except for the regimental histories of the English army, they are all going to be original source documents in French or German. Increasingly, these source documents are being made available on the internet, so you can find them there.

The source for the Prussian army by Dorn & Engleman has an English language version, but it is not recommended as the translation is quite poor. Get the German language version instead, the color prints are still outstanding.

D. Army Compositions
1. Koenig Krieg
2. RSM addendum to Mitre Mustache & Musket

Army compositions for the period are mostly ad-hoc. Above the regimental level, there is no permanent brigade or division structure. These are put together at the start of each campaign and may be broken up for a particular operation as required by events. The army organization, therefore, is a paper exercise for the purposes of knowing what military assets are available to the country. For gaming purposes, the organization found in the back of Koenig Krieg is an excellent guide for forming a brigade structure and unit composition for a game scale of 1:50. The RSM addendum accomplishes the same thing for a game scale of 1:30.

E. History of the period
1. Prof. Christopher Duffy
2. Journal of the Seven Years War Association
3. Translations by James Mitchell
4. Translations by Ken Bunger

Histories of the period fall into two categories. One is the version written to aggrandize or apologize for a particular event. The other is written by a scholar in a dispassionate manner, without regard to who or what may have occurred. It is quite difficult to discriminate between the two types. Of the material that is available, the works of Prof. Duffy give an even-handed account of the material under discussion with his volume on Russia's Military way to the West being virtually the only one for that important army. The Seven Years War Association (SYWA) publishes a journal for its membership that emphasizes scholarly research and has become an excellent source for all manner of relevant information on the period. Membership in the Association costs $30 annually, however. Two members of the SYWA, James Mitchell and Ken Bunger, have extensive collections of original source material and make their translations of these documents available for a nominal fee. There are any number of other volumes which have been published, but these are out of print and extremely difficult to obtain.

F. Rule Sets
1. Final Argument of Kings
2. Age of Reason
3. Volley Fire
4. Koenig Krieg
5. Mitre, Mustache & Musket
6. Mitre, Mustache & Lace
7. Volley & Bayonet
8. Shako

Rule sets are a matter of personal preference. They all have their adherents and detractors, so I will forebear to comment on them here except to note that these do exist. They are not listed in any particular order either, but for what's worth, I prefer the rule set Mitre, Moustache & Musket.