SYW ASSOCIATION CONVENTION REPORT - The SYWA convened for its annual gathering in South Bend, Indiana over the weekend of March 29-30, 1996 and set an all-time attendance record of 120 guests, eclipsing our average showing of about 70 gamers. Undoubtedly, the return appearance of Professor Christopher Duffy, noted SYW expert and lecturer at Sandhurst, brought in a lot of new faces. On the other hand, a fair number of travelers from the east, southeast and west coast regions of the country attended for the first time, with vows to return in 1997. An additional variable in our convention attendance may also be that we have held it at the same venue (downtown Holiday Inn) for the third consecutive year. Familiarity and good location are key to any wargames convention.

Professor Duffy presented a highly entertaining discourse on the Austrian army at the Battle of Rossbach (1757) and made himself available to answer questions, autograph copies of his new book (THE ARMY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT), and toss a few dice on the wargames table. For those of you who missed the opportunity, Professor Duffy will return to the US for the 1996 HISTORICON convention and reprise his appearance in South Bend in April, 1977.

This year's convention featured 25 games devoted to the period 1733-66 with themes as diverse as the Jacobite Rebellion, the SYW in India, the French & Indian Wars, the Siege of Manila, the War of the Austrian Succession, and of course, the bread and butter fare of Austrians and Prussians in the Seven Years War. There were also a dozen product dealers in attendance hawking books, rules and miniatures for the 18th century.

The Army of Frederick the Great - Professor Duffy's long-awaited reprint of his 1974 study of Old Fritz and the Prussian Army was officially released at the SYWA convention and members were snapping up copies at a fairly brisk pace (I bought three copies for my collection). Professor Duffy has refined many of the ideas that he developed in his first edition, particularly those that relate to the Prussian style of leadership, the standard of medical care for the soldiers, and Frederick's use of light troops. In fact, Duffy has changed his opinion about the quality of the Prussian Frei battalions, admitting that they performed useful service throughout the SYW. This section on light infantry is greatly expanded from the first edition.

There is also considerably more anecdotal history that Duffy has culled directly from documents obtained from the Austrian "Kriegsarchiv" in Vienna. For this reason alone, every SYW period enthusiast should purchase a copy, for those frequent little stories are the spice of history and enhance the reading quality of Duffy's book.

There is an amusing little section devoted to the comical Prussian navy, actually a small flotilla of flat-bottomed boats that fought the Swedes in the lagoons of the Oder River in 1759. This would make for an entertaining "Limeys & Slimeys" wargame scenario. The Prussians converted four timber-trade boats into "galiots", each armed with 14 assorted pieces of artillery (31b, 61b and 121b guns). Then there were the "galeere" or galleys which were propelled by mast and oars and the "Espings" or smaller. faster sail boats. In a matter of hours, the Swedes captured all but three of the 12 boat Prussian flotilla.

Finally, Professor Duffy has added a new chapter to the book called "The Four Battles of Wendisch Tyrnau", a series of hypothetical battles fought on the same piece of ground that demonstrates the differing and evolving tactics of the SYW. In the first example (Frederick vs Prince Charles 1757). Frederick approaches a long ridge occupied by the Austrians, scouts the position and then marches to the Austrian rear where he unleashes his ohlique order attack.

In the second scenario (Frederick vs Daun 1758), the Austrians now expect Frederick's march around their flank to their rear and they take counter- measures. Daun has felled trees into abatis, built fortified artillery positions, and has stationed a centralized reserve force for lateral counter-moves. By the then Frederick attacks, the Austrians have turned ahout-lace into their new positions and defeat the exhausted Prussian infantry.

The third scenario (Prince Henry vs. Hadik 1761 ) features a Prussian attack on the Austrian position using converged columns like the Austrians did at Hochkirch and Maxen. In the last example (Frederick vs Daun 1762), the Austrians are firmly emplaced on the ridge, but this time. Frederick uses the terrain to conceal the movement of a picked force to a specific part of the Austrian line. The Prussian attack is preceded by a concentrated artillery barrage on the point of attack. The Prussian infantry burst through the rupture int he Austrian line, forcing Daun to retreat.

In conclusion, this is one of the most important books on the Prussian army of the SYW and we are most fortunate to have it available in English I'd highly recommend it's purchase, even if you have a first-edition, because there has been a considerable change in the content since 1974. Additional value is gained from the highly-detailed battle maps that list the position of every Austrian and Prussian regiment. Itis simple to reconstruct an accurate order of battle for research or wargaming pueposes. Copies can he obtained through EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS (the publisher), ARTICLES OF WAR and other military history book dealers.

New SYW French From OLD GLORY

OLD GLORY has released three packs of 15mm French infantry for the SYW at the COLD WARS convention and these little fellows are real beauts. SYF-I Musketeer w/o turnbacks. SYF-2 Musketee w/Front Turnbacks and SYF-3 Musketeer w/front and back turnbacks are the first three releases in what will hopefully be a large line of French SYW figures. I can hardly wait for the artillery and cavalry. These figures are suitable for the War of Austrian Succession and the SYW.

Those of us who waited for the OLD GLORY French before adding to our 15mm Frcnch armies will be well-rewarded with clearly sculpted and with animated castings that are, in my humble opinion, some of the best 15mm figures to come out ot the OLD GLORY studio. You get 100 plus figures per bag at a cost of $18.50, and this includes about five different infantry poses plus officers, NCO's, drummers and grenadiers (distinguishable only by their moustaches). In addition. each bag contains a couple of wounded specials". SYF-3 contains a terrific casting of a soldier literally being knocked off his feet by a musket or cannister blast. One foot is still on the ground, but the other is kicking up in the air and the poor soul is clutching at a sucking chest wound. This sounds a bit morbid now that I read it, but trust me, you will enjoy the animation.

The flag poles on the standard bearers arc a hit thin and bendy, so you will either want to cut off the pole and replace it with a wire or buy the bag of French Command (SYF-3) from the ESSEX 15mn SYW line and use the ESSEX standard hearer with cast on flag.

Big Battalions are Better!

As some of you know. I am in the process of building 15mm French vs Allied armies for Dettingen and Fontenoy, using 94 figure units (6 per stand on 4 stands) which effectively doubles the size of AGE OF REASON units. On one stand, I replace three of the figures with a battalion gun and two artillery crewmen. l he gun casting merely represents another "figure" since battalion guns ari already figured into the small arms firing tables an do not function as position field artillery. This results in a splendid two-ranks look that is enhanced the small gun and leaves no doubt in one's mind that they are looking at a product of linear warfare. It i5 SO easy and fast to paint 15mm figures, and OLD GLORY makes it so inexpensive at .18/figure you are doing yourself a dis-service if you don't the two-rank/24 figure system. I'd encourage everyone to take a little test: push two of your 12 units together to form a battalion with a 12 frontage and a two figure depth, and compare appearance to a dinky little 12-man unit in a rank. Now ask yourself honestly, which unit looks better? And since the frontages are identical, figures don't take up any more space on the games table than 12 figures, yet the visual act between the two is like night and day. Give 24-figure battalion a try and I'm sure that you concur that the Big Battalions look better on the ames table in 15mm scale.

Reader Feedback

Several readers have written to point out a few errors in some of the new 25mm OLD GLORY Prussian SYW figures. For example, the Fusilier Grenadier command packs include of officers who wearing, respectively, fusilier and grenadier caps. Well, guess what? Officers in the Prussian army always wore a tricom hat, even in the line regiments and in the grenadier companies. PS! The same holds true for the standard bearers in the fusilier regiments. Not that grenadier companies did not carry standards, save for IR6 (the Grenadier Garde Btn) and the third battalion of 5 (Regiment Garde). Note the 'lR" stands for Infantry Regiment".

It is an easy matter to use the musketeer command figures in your Fusilier and grenadier battalions, but then this could been avoided with a lime more research. Another reader pointed out that the von Seydlitz personality figure in the OLD GLORY 25mm Prussian Generals bag is wearing front and back cuirass plates. In point of fact, the Prussians only front breast plates, as did the Austrians (except fighting the Turks). So you either had to do skillful carving and filing on von Seydlitz, or cover the back plate with the tunic color and that nobody notices. Again, some basic research or some consultation with uniform experts as Ken Bunger of Bill Biles would have ented such errors from happening in the first le. Despite these little glitches, the OLD GLORY 25mm SYW figures continue to be highly recommended, as far as I am concerned.

RSM Figures Available Again

SYW wargamers will be pleased to hear that the RSM line of figures has been revived by THE DAYTON PAINTING CONSORTIUM, 140 Indiana Ave., Dayton, Ohio 45410; phone 513-2560410. The company bought the RSM line in the spring of 1995 and now produce the figures in pewter. You can buy infantry bags of 36 figures for $23.40 including command, or cavalry bags of 12 riders and horses with command for $19.80. The company will also sell individual figures in bulk quantities.

This is very good news for those of us who have collected large quantities of RSM battalions in our SYW armies. I had thought that I had as many figures as I could ever need (23 btns of Prussians and 28 btns of Austrians and Bavarians), but when RSM ceased production temporarily, I realized that there were a few holes that I needed to fill in my Austrian and Prussian armies (yes, like twice as many guys!) And I feared that I would not be able to get my hands on any more.

These fears are now a thing of the past, thanks to the guys in Dayton. They offer fast and friendly service and they accept major credit cards to speed up the ordering process. Give them a call and check out their SYW flag sheets while you are at it.

That's all the SYW news for now. In the next column, I will tell you a little about my "Battle of Kolin" project and demonstrate how to take an order of battle and distill it down into a wargame.