Enclosed you will find two orders of battle for Blenheim. The first one is the "historical" order of battle for both the Franco-Bavarian and the Allied armies with comments, commanders, and notes. The second is shorter and is the order of battle I used some years ago when I painted up both armies to put on Blenheim as an Age of Reason game using the Marlborough Supplement to the AoR rules. It has about 50% of the actual number of units (squadrons/ battalions) that were in the actual battle, but that still came to almost 1500 figures! The sizes of the units given in that OB are the basic AoR battalion/squadron sizes that I used. For anyone trying to put together a game order of battle or a painting guide to do the "Blenheim Project", I suggest that the combination of the historical sizes of where I have them listed in the "historical" OB and the AoR sample sizes should allow anyone to convert to whatever their chosen rules require. Aside from the "name recognition" Blenheim is a fascinating project because of the sheer variety of units involved. The "homogenous" French Army has regular French troops, Italian, Swiss, German, and Irish infantry in the French service (all in different colored uniforms) and horse that include French Gendarmerie, French Cavalry and Dragoons (both mounted and dismounted) in white, gray, blue, or red coats, and Allied Bavarians in light blue and cuirass. The Allied Army has representatives from just about every state in central Europe, in addition to the Dutch and British. When I painted up these 15mm armies years ago, I didn't think there were three units in the same colors in whole 1500+ figures! One word of warning. Even using a 50% OB and 15mm figures and units of 12-15 foot or 6-12 mounted figures, the Blenheim battlefield from the Danube to the woods in front of Lutzingen covered a 5 X 15 foot table when I put it on. This is a BIG battle if you do the entire thing, and it requires a fair amount of space to do it right. Blenheim Order of Battle: Historical Section First Note "Blenheim" is a typically English misspelling of the original German name for the village, which was Blindheim. On the European continent outside of Britain the battle is known as 2nd Hochstadt, after the nearest small city, which was also the scene of a battle in 1703 in which Marsin and the Bavarian Elector defeated an Imperial army under Stohyr or Stehyr. Base Information The bottom line is that the exact size of none of the armies is certain, either in numbers of battalions/squadrons or in numbers of men on the battlefield that day. Here is a summary of the various estimates by sources for both forces: Franco-Bavarian Armies < /TR> Army Size Squadrons Battalions Guns Total Tallard (in Pelet): 123 78 90 - Map in Md Armee: 143 79 - - Marlborough: 147 82 - - Kane: 163 82 - - Hare: >"6000 more than Allies" Millner: 160 87 - 60,000 Coxe: - - - 56,000 Parker: 120 - - - Verney: 178 66 66 - "stronger in infantry, weaker in cavalry" than Allies Tallard: brought 16 battalions, 60 squadrons from France (Staud. 1030), then dismounted 16 squadrons (12 dragoons, 4 cavalry), leaving 16 bns, 44 squadrons (Pelet) Foure: (pg.191): Marsin/Elector: 45 bns, 83 sqdrns, 45 guns Tallard: 36 btns, 44 sqdrns, 45 guns Allied Army Army Size Squadrons Battalions Guns Marlborough: 166 64 56 Kane: 181 67 - Hare: 160 66 - Orkney: 170 66 - Millner: 188 66 - Parker: 181 67 64 Mortier: 181 67 - Verney: 178 66 66 Marlborough: 86 48 32 guns Eugene: 74 18 32 guns OR: Eugene: 92 18 - Hare: Left Wing under Marlborough : 48 battalions, including: 14 English (British), 14 Dutch, 7 Hessians, 13 Hannover, Luneburg, Zell, and Swiss My Estimate Franco-Bavarian Force: 350 man average battalion strength, 120 man average squadron Allied Army: 500 man average battalion strength, 120 man average squadron BUT both forces had units well above and below those averages. Where I have some evidence for specific battalion/regimental strengths different from the average, they are in parentheses immediately after the number of squadrons/battalions in the unit. In the Orders of Battle, the sources for the various data are given out to the right. Most of the references are to: FA. 1748.123: A map in the French Archives showing a partial Order of Battle Foure. Pierre Foure's modern French book on flags and units Kuhn: The Klio Arbeitsgruppe Baroque booklets by August Kuhn (in German) with Book Number MA: Sapherson's "Marlburian Armies" booklet summarizing the minor states'forces OKA.KA. 16 - Austrian Archives document giving a partial OB for the Allied Army Pelet - Pelet's "Correspondance" covering the early years of the 18th century Staud - a map from the Bavarian archives giving the Brigade OB for the Franco/Bavarian army Sus or Susane - General Susane, with a number refering to the volume and regimental reference number in his 5-volume history of the French infantry regiments or his 3 volume history of French cavalry regiments. Verney: Peter Verney's work on Blenheim, which made use of many French sources. Wagner: The Wagner cards of uniform data, which also include an (unreferenced) list of battles in which the ents participated. Where a un=ignation has an asterix (*), I have uniform data sufficient for a painting guide to that unit, of varying degrees of completeness. Officers whose names are followed by (p) were captured in the battle; those followed by a (w) were wounded, and those indicated by (k) were killed or mortally wounded. More Blenheim Order of Battle Introduction Order of Battle: Franco-Bavarian Armies Order of Battle: Allied Army Wargame Section: Orders of Battle Back to MWAN #113 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com