Most of your have done it. You've spent hours reading and rereading Peter Young's Charge or Charles Grant's The Wargame. You gawked at Grant's giant 50 figure battalions milling about at Mollwitz. You gasped at Brigadier Young's incredible 60 figure regiments at Sittangbad. And possibly, you've said to yourself "wouldn't it be great to do something like that...." But for most of you. reason prevails. Too much lead to buy - and not enough time to paint if you bought it. Yet despite the lunacy of the undertaking, some deluded souls persist in trying. This is the story of one such lost soul.

Late in 1994, I had to face the fact that my war gaming future was going to change. With a baby due in October, I realized that regular Friday night gaming, expensive lead buying binges, and long hours of painting were going to decrease as my son grew and parental duties increased. Like most Mwaners, I dabbled in many periods - ECW, ancients, renaissance, Medievals, War of 1812, and American Revolution. As I saw it, the short time remaining before my son grew to toddlerhood would be my last chance to laumch a new period for some time to come. I had always longed to play with "big battalions" ala Grant and Young. I thought, why not now? But the first question was, what period to play?

The Period

I also considered the Seven Years War. Here, with Old Glory's French and Indian line, my cost concerns were partially met. But at that time (1994), Old Glory was not producing cavalry and other forces for the period. This was important, since I wanted to have a true "horse and musket" array. So, my cavalry expenses for this period were going to be high. I also hesitated to dive into the Seven Years War because of painting fears. Some of those uniforms were going to be lace strewn nightmares.

While these ruminations were talking place, I happened to see Old Glory's advertisements for their Age of Reason Marlburian line. Now here was a period I had not considered. There seemed to be certain advantages. The troops generally wore tricomes; I suspected the uniforms would be simpler in style; with Old Glory manufacturing both horse and foot, I could probably afford the lead. I resolved to investigate the period.

I purchased as many of Pat Condray's booklets and war gaming guides as I thought appropriate. They are great fun to read, reasonably priced, and (if you actually go ahead and work on the period) generally invaluable. I ordered George Nafzinger's Orders of Battle for the French and Allies at Blenheim, Ramillies and Malplaquet (3 of Marlborough's biggest battles). Through inter-library loans, I obtained David Chandler's books, The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough, and Marlborough as a Military Commander. I purchased Ospry's Army of Louis XIV and Marlborough's Army. I also referred to as many articles on the War of the Spanish Succession as I could find in my collections of The Courier, Wargames Illustrated, The Practical Wargamer, Miniature Wargames, and, of course, MWAN. Unfortunately, there have not been too many articles on this period in the war gaming press. Wargames Illustrated ran a good series on the War of the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish Succession which contains beautiful color plates of uniforms and flags. My last research resource was a borrowed copy of the Fuenken's The Lace Wars. Always a joy to peruse.

After digesting all of this over the course of several months (I distinctly remember reading large chunks of Chandler's books while in the hospital waiting for my wife to recover from a nasty c-section!) I concluded that this was a fascinating period for war gaming. The uniforms were attractive, but not too challenging (though there was a bit too much of a reliance on the color gray by many combatants!). The obligatory tricornes were present, though new to the fashion scene. Also, the battles fought during the period showed an unexpected use of combined arms tactics. Deployment of troops did not seem to slavishly follow the "ideal" of an unbroken linear array. Of course, this may have been the result less of planning than the fact that the armies of the period were often actually conglomerates of smaller armies, which (inadvertently?) operated like corps or divisions. Yet another feature of the period appealed to my rigid little brain. Here was a period where the troop types actually conformed their functions to their names! The grenadiers really threw grenades; many dragoons actually did get offtheir horses to fight as infantry. Quite appealing, this! I was hooked, and decided to proceed to the next phase of the project; deciding on how the army should look.

The Units

With the big picture sketched out, I turned to the size of my units. Unit size is usually tied to ground scale. Slavishly following Grant and Company, I posited a 1" to 10 yards ground scale. Assuming that one real soldier occupies 2 feet of frontage, a single rank of 150 soldiers would stretch for 100 yards. At this point, I hit a snag. While the Dutch and English battalions of the period deploYed in lines three ranks deep, the French, Bavarians and some other nations clung to a deeper 4 or 5 rank deployment. Representing the deeper deployment in miniature is problematic. I decided almost purely on aesthetic grounds to deploy my miniature French battalions in 3 figure ranks. This complicated matters because my sources indicated that French units tended to be smaller than their allied counterparts (600 men plus or minus). Thus, I was limited in how wide I could make the units. I finally opted to make my French units 10" wide (100 yards). I found I could fit 45 figures into this space in 3 ranks of 15. This yielded a battalion of 675 and a figure to man ration of 1:15. These battalions would be a bit over strength, but they would look great, and that, frankly, was an important goal for me.

I now had to calculate the size of my Allied units. For this I referred to Chandler's works. There, I saw that Allied battalions "out-winged" (had greater frontage than) opposing French battalions by a wide margin. I decided to make my Dutch units at least 14" wide. In the case of my British units, I chose 16". I deployed these 2 figure ranks deep, yielding 42 figures for the Dutch (630 men) and 48 figures for the British (720 men). These totals make the Allied units a touch under strength, but I plan to add grenadier companies in the future. That will add some heft to the units.

As for the cavalry, I was originally attracted to Brigadier Young's organization set out in Charge. He used 3 squadrons of 8 figures each for his regiments, plus a regimental staff! As it turns out, I purchased my cavalry figures from Old Glory. That company packages its horse 10 figures to the bag including command. In order to avoid the "Old Glory math" phenomenon (OK, if I buy 3 bags, that's one unit with 6 figures left over ), I decided simply to put 10 figures in each cavalry squadron, and to have just two squadrons per regiment. In any case, this fit well with the figure scale as at 1:15, 10 figures represents 150 real troopers. I hit a snag, however, with ground scale and frontage. At 4 feet per actual horseman, a squadron deployed in three actual ranks would cover a frontage of a little less than 70 yards. Try as I might, I cannot fit 10 25mm troopers into 7". So, my squadrons occupy a frontage of a little over 8". Not perfect, but they look magnificent nonetheless.

When I started the Marlburian project, I did not give artillery much thought. I assumed I would buy one gun casting per battery, some gunners for each gun, and just plop them down on a 2" by 3" base. Recently, I've begun to rethink my position, both on historical, and aesthetic grounds. It seems that players use single model artillery units as though they were mounted on a portee. The players change the front of the guns with unbecoming ease, and also squeeze the batteries into (historically) impossible positions. Clearly, since the gun model represents a gun line of some 60 to 80 yards width, I had to rethink my representation of artillery. Looking to Young and Grant for inspiration I noticed that both urged the adoption of batteries (or half-batteries) of 2 model guns, plus crew and limbers. I had always thought this was a bit "overboard." But now, I see that the vast assemblage of model artillerymen, guns, limbers and ammunition caissons must have made it more difficult for the players to change front, and wedge their batteries into ridiculously small spaces.

With these factors in mind, I chose to represent my artillery with 2 gun castings and eight crew I cut 6" by 1" strips of x-ray film, and painted and flocked them. I place these under the gun models to limit the width of the battery when deployed. I have also painted up Wargames Foundry's limbers and limber riders to go with my batteries. However, budgetary concerns, and space considerations limited me to painting only one limber and team per battery rather than two. I hope Gen'l Young and Mr. Grant would understand.

The Figures

As mentioned, I chose to buy the figures mostly from Old Glory. However, several companies manufacture excellent figures for the period. The best (in my opinion) is Wargames Foundry. But at $1.10 (now $1.35!) per figure, there was no hope of using these figures for this project. I did however buy officers, ensigns, seargents and drummers from WE. They are beautiful, and fit in perfectly with the OG boys. Other companies include Stratagem and Dixon. Although Stratagem has an outstanding selection of figures, I did not like the style of the figures, and I have (so far) avoided them. The Dixons are wonderful, but ridiculously expensive. Most of my general officer figures are Dixons, as are some few of my foot of ricers. They too fit nicely with the OG's.

One last company to consider would be Imperialist Enterprises. Unfortunately, I only learned of IE after I had purchased most of my collection. The proprietor, Robert Haggerty, is a wonderful resource for the period. His figures, while running to the slim side, are still very good, and moderately priced (though still not as cheap as the OG's). For photos and a review of these figures, refer to issue 67 of The Courier.

For my project, though, price dictated that I work with Old Glory - and I do not regret my choice. Although the Marlburian figures in the OG line have some painful anachronisms on the figures (banded muskets, and some poses at "right shoulder shift" - in 1706?), generally, the figures are excellent. The officer figures are truly beautiful and match or exceed anything Wargames Foundry produces. Old Glory also deserves credit for good customer service. When a number of my cavalry trumpeters arrived sans trumpet, I called the factory for replacements. The OG folks mailed them out in days, and threw in a nice selection of extras as well. As to the style of figure poses, I favored the "marching" rather than "advancing" attitudes. As many reenactors can testify, carrying a musket with the bayonet fixed at a 45 degree angle is a bloody nuisance. Besides, the marching figures look more stately, and so, in my opinion, look more "18th century."

Now, having purchased the lead, I had another huge hurdle to mount - painting it all!

The Painting

But how would I pay for the painting? I did some soul searching, and asked myself how serious I was about the project. Was I willing to sacrifice some of my other wargame periods to raise cash to concentrate on this one (sounds a bit like a debate question from MWAN)? I looked at my collection with several questions in mind: how often did my group game with the period? Did I honestly plan to expand the period ? Were the figures really worth keeping?

I decided to part with some of my old collections. My 15mm Renaissance armies were targeted, as was much of my 25mrn medieval collections. And with a certain sadness, I decided that my 25mm English Civil War collection was expendable. I loved my ECW toys. They were old Hinchecliffe's, collected and painted while I was in High school, and mounted for Bill Protz's War gamers' Guide to the English Civil War. But we rarely ever played with them, and I never could find a set of rules my group could stomach. The Marlborough project had better prospects.

The next step was easy. Several advertisements were placed in the Subtler's Wagon in MWAN. Within months, all of my beloved old lead had found (I hope) happy homes with an assortment of MWANers. You know who you are; thanks guys! This left me with about $1400 to spend on the Marlburians.

Choosing a painting service is a task in itself. I am a good painter, and I wanted my Marlburians to live up to my standards. But at the prevailing market rates of $4.00 or more for 25mm infantry, and $6.00 or more for cavalry, I simply could not afford many of the (excellent) painting services out there. It seemed I had to make some type of compromise to reach my goal.

Several years ago I had worked on an 15mm ancients project with a painting service not known for great quality, but certainly known for low cost. I took the figures painted by the service, and touched them up myself. It was much faster than painting from scratch, and the end results looked good. I thought this approach might work for the Marlborough project.

I contacted Jay Wirth of Renaissance Ink in Vestal New York. Jay had painted some medieval knights for me years ago, so I trusted his basic painting skill. His service offers multiple "levels" of painting quality. Jay's midlevel (or B level) of quality costs $2.70 for a 25mm infantry figure. I certainly liked the price. I sent Jay some bags of figures with painting instructions. The results when they returned were outstanding. It seems that uniforms of this period are not that complex, and Jay was able to do quite a nice job even at the "B" level.

Over the next several months, Jay worked on the orders, and I was able to educate him about details on the figures. He adjusted colors for me, and added details per my instructions. If I was dissatisfied with a batch (this happened only once), he promptly offered a substantial discount on the next batch. As each batch arrived, I would touch up the figures to my liking, adding details, shading, highlighting ect.... Interestingly, as Jay worked on more figures, his quality improved. So much so that at the end of the process, I had to add very few details to "finish off". At the end, I was just painting bases green!

As I constructed my battalions, I noticed another phenomenon. When you group 40 or 50 figures close together, the viewer sees the mass, and not the individual figures. This seems true even for 25mm figures. I suspect that it is really not necessary to make each 25mm figure in a 50 figure regiment a masterpiece! It's the look of the unit as a whole that you want to work on. In my units, I place 2 ensigns with beautiful colors (more on these later), and a colonel in the center of the battalion. On the flanks, I place officers with espontoons, and sergeants with halberds. Across the rear ranks, I distribute drummers. The effect as a whole is excellent.

My painting sources were not limited to a painting service. I was very fortunate in that a member of my gaming group, Reg Wirth, took a great interest in my project. He resolved to paint a Bavarian contingent. When he was through, Reg had painted 2 foot battalions, 2 squadrons of horse, and a battery of artillery. The Bavarians, in their beautiful baby blue uniforms, are one of the highlights of our gaming table. Reg's commitment allowed me to redirect cash to pay for the painting of more cavalry. I had managed to paint 100 cavalry figures myself, but "daddyhood" and other responsibilities made painting time scarce. And I had 140 figures of cavalry left to paint! I farmed out some of the cavalry work to Reg. He tackled the French Household cavalry, and some English Squadrons. I gave the rest of the horse to Jay at Renaissance Ink, and for $5.20 per figure, he did great work. Another gamer in my group, Dick Vandergriff, contracted to paint my "general officers." These are mostly Dixon figures, and Dick's painting skills are legendary among our gathering.

The Rules

We next experimented with a set of home grown rules. Yet another member of my gaming group offered up his set of rules created over 30 years ago for the American Revolution. I modified this set for the Marlburian period. We fought a test game which went fairly well. This set of rules relies on a turn/movement sequence which is split into thirds. For example, in one turn, a unit may "move, move, fire" or "move, reload, fire." This allowed me to model the different firing systems used by the French and Allies fairly well. Nevertheless, I was still uneasy about morale and melee.

After reading Hal's description of his own CHARGE project, and his use of Todd Kirschner's Warfare in the Age of Reason, I resolved to give them a try. The AOR rules, modified for the huge units I use, worked well. They are very easy rules. Yet, the charge resolution rules, and the morale rules are excellent, and force players to behave a little more like 1 8th century generals. We have played several games so far, and the results have been encouraging. P<>

Finishing

One aspect of the Marlborough project I am very proud of is the use of flags and standards. I've always loved the look of units in the English glossies which have gorgeous flags. For my project, I wanted to match that effect. One outstanding resource was the English publication Miniature Wargames. In several of the earlier volumes (I know they were before 100, but can't recall the exact numbers), the various French, British and Bavarian flags were printed with both sides showing! So all that needed to be done was use a color copier, cut paste and viola! Great flags. In my opinion, these cutouts beat any pre-made flags I've seen on the market for any period. Unfortunately, the Miniature Wargames issues did not cover the Dutch, nor did they have all of the French units I wanted. For my remaining flags I relied on the reference works obtained through Pat Condray. In particular, the War gamers Guide to the Marlburian Wars and C.S. Saperhsons's William III's army were helpful in getting flag designs for the Allies. I simply photo-copied the line drawings in these books, created a mirror image by tracing or cutting and pasting, then rephotocopied using a reduced or enlarged copy as needed. The final photocopy could then be painted according to the excellent descriptions in the books. For the French, I used the above method, but relied on the Fuenckens' Lace Wars for color directions.

The finishing touch to my standards is only partially underway. I have purchased a pack of pewter pikes with nicely molded pike heads. When painted, they make excellent flagstaffs. Much prettier than piano wire! I hope to get these staffs in place for all of my infantry fairly soon.

Another touch I want to work on is landscaping. Our group generally lays out a good looking table. We have plenty of good trees, hedges, walls, geo-hex ect. But for the Marlborough project, I want to have enough houses and churches etc to make a number of quaint villages. I have already painted up 6 or so Hovels and Gallia houses suitable for the period and one large church. I plan to paint 5 or so more houses and shops. Ideally, I want to create workable wargame villages with fences, small trees, walls hedges. I think I can use a tile base, cut, painted and flocked on which to place these features. Any of you with ideas on this type of thing, please let us know!

Final Thoughts