SYW Association Convention

Venture Miniatures 28mm Hanoverians

The 25th annual Seven Years War Association Convention was just concluded over the past weekend, March 28 and 29 2008 in South Bend, Indiana. Attendence seemed to be up rather dramatically, although I will have to get information on the final attendence from the convention organizers for the final tally.

The day started off on the wrong foot for me, as I had packed my car the night before and was all ready for an early start on the 120 mile journey from Hesse Seewald to South Bend. My car battery did not cooperate and so I did not depart until noon. Consequently, I had to cancel my BAR game on friday afternoon. Fortunately, there was sufficient interest in my endeavor to stage the game at 7PM that evening. I ran a scenario that was loosely based on the battle of Reichenberg in 1757. See the picture below for the opening set up of my game.


The Battle of Reichenberg - Austrians vs Prussians

There were 25 scheduled games spread over the two day convention with a dozen on Friday and thirteen on Saturday. Both days had three gaming sessions: morning, afternoon and evening. In general, the evening games tend to be skirmish style games that are a little more light hearted in nature. The lineup of game judges read like a Who's Who of the 18th century gaming establishment, including Tod Kershner and Dale Wood - authors of the Age of Reason rules, Bob Hagerty with his beautiful WSS figures, Chris Engle with one of his famour Matrix Games, Dean West running his Final Argument of Kings game and Bill Protz with his Batailles de l'Ancien Regime (BAR) rules. Just to name a few.


Dean West (center) discusses the finer points of strategy with Sam Tinaglia during Dean's Final Argument of Kings game in 15mm.


Battle of Kolin using Carnage & Glory computer assisted rules.

The picture above depicts Hulsen's assault on the Oak Wood during the Battle of Kolin, as hosted by Ed Harding, Phil Roberts and Rob Huml. The terrain is made using a canvas painter's drop cloth with the roads and streams painted on. Foam boards underneath the cloth provide the contours. The game uses a computer driven set of rules to determine what happens during the game. Talk about fog of war! This really gives it to you. A fine looking game.


A view of the fine terrain and figures from Jude Becker's Age of Reason wargame.

Jude Becker brought his French and Hanoverian 28mm armies and his spectacular looking terrain boards for several games during the convention. Jude has his own range of 28mm SYW Hanoverians that includes infantry, cavalry and artillery. These are spectacular looking figures and Jude indicates that the French will soon be added to the range. He brought some French masters for "show and tell" and I have a feeling that a few of them will be making an appearance in my armies one of these days. He calls his figure range, Venture Miniatures and I will be doing a more detailed review of the range within the next several days. Very impressive figures and terrain.


Jude Becker's duel vignette from the Foundry range.


A Lady apparently has the vapors over the high quality of terrain in Jude's game. Figure vignette from The Foundry.


Tod Kershner (center) brought back his popular "Iroquois Terror" game.

I was too wiped out from staying up until 4 AM to get up early enough to participate in Tod Kershner's "Iroquois Terror: Revenge of Red Jacket" game. This has been one of the convention's most popular games and Tod really does a fine job of creating a challenging and fun wargame scenario. Iroquois Terror had not appeared at the convention for quite a number of years, so I was glad to see that it had come out of hiatus.


Bill Lademan enjoys particating in the BAR game hosted by Bill Protz and Der Alte Fritz.


Bill Protz adjudicates the opening moves of the BAR game played on Saturday afternoon.

Bill and I hosted our grand BAR game on Saturday afternoon, featuring 16 battalions (960 figures) and 216 cavalry figures per side. The table was 6ft by 20ft with back tables on each side of the playing area. I will report on the details of the game later this week. The French were doing well on their right due to a vigorous cavalry attack, the center had a slight edge to the French, and the Prussians were launching a steadfast attack on the French left. For once, there was not a conclusive or decisive outcome to this battle as it could have gone either way had it been fought out to the bitter end.


30mm Scruby Prussian fusiliers purchased by Der Alte Fritz at the flea market (bring and buy).

As stated earlier, there were a dozen vendors and three flea market tables with all kinds of goods to entice prospective inhabers of SYW regiments. I found a 59-figure battalion of 30mm Scruby Prussians that I snapped up in a hurry. I don't need anymore Prussians, but these were nicely painted, priced to sell and too good of a deal to pass up. I also bought a copy of a recent autobiography on the Prince de Ligne, a copy of the John Mollo SYW uniform book and 120 Imperialist Enterprises 1806 Prussian cavalry. I also picked up some Vallejo Paints from The Last Square and some Front Rank SYW Austrian infantry from The Elite Group. I also took delivery of my tents, campground and command tents from Herb Gundt (pictures to be shown later). All in all, it was a great convention and I look forward to returning again next year.

The Great Snafu

Crusader Miniatures Austrian generals. They undoubtedly had to deal with many unexpected events in their dealings with Frederick the Great. Painted by Der Alte Fritz.

Sometimes you think that you have made terrific plans and everything is lined up and ready to go, and then the unexpected happens. I had my car all packed up last night and ready for an early morning get away for the two hour drive to South Bend, Indiana and the Seven Years War Association convention. Then I jumped into the car, turned the key, and heard the dreaded "tickety, tickety, tick" sound of the dead car battery.

Needless to say, my BAR game at 1PM is not going to happen now. This is about the third time this winter that the battery has acted up on me, so I guess it's time to replace it. I'm told that if you don't use the car for several days, the battery loses juice and won't start. I'm hoping that this is all that it is. So I'm awaiting the arrival of the tow truck so that I can get a battery jump and drive to South Bend. If that doesn't work, then Plan B is to rent a car for the weekend. So one way or another, I will at least be there tomorrow for our game (Bill and I). This is very frustrating to say the least.

I am certain that the Austrian general staff thought that they had things all planned out, only to find that they had been hoodwinked by Frederick once again. Now I know how they must have felt.

One good thing about convention game preparation is that it forced me to finally base all of the Austrians that I had recently painted or had painted by others. I was a basing and terraining fool over the past week. Last night, I realized that I did not have enough movement trays for my Austrian cavalry. It seems that I had poached the Austrian stands to use for my Prussians over the past several months. Consequently, I had to cut and saw new bases last night and affix the magnetic sheet to the movement trays. I finished all of this around 10PM last night and finished packing by midnight. At any rate, I'm all set for the next game, whenever that occurs, provided, of course, that Old Methusalah (my car) decides to cooperate. Hmm, I wonder if those wily, rascally Gallians had something to do with my misfortunes of last. I bet that Colonel Enigma could shed some light on all of this.

Getting Ready For the SYWA Convention

Crusader Austrian Dragoon Regiment De Ligne on the right, and Josef Esterhazy battalion on the left. Hungarians painted by Dennis Smail, dragoons painted by Der Alte Fritz.

I have been away since Good Friday basking in the warm climat of Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean. I just returned this evening, sans suitcases, which were left behind in Miami by those wonderfully efficient people at American Airlines. It's a long story, and an even longer day, but in the end, the suitcases were found and delivered to my home at 12:30 AM on Thursday morning. Now that I no longer have to stew over lost luggage, I can turn my attention to the Seven Years War Association Convention this coming Friday and Saturday in South Bend, Indiana.

The picture above features a squadron of the De Lign dragoons in the Austrian service. I will have to cut out some foam core movement trays in the morning and affix the magnetic sheet to the foam core. Since I use metal bases for the figures, they adhere to the foam core movement trays quite nicely. If I want to change the size of the unit for different sets of rules, then it is a simple matter of cutting out a new foam core base. I started using foam core as a temporary expedient during one of our early BAR games. It seemed to work nicely, so I have stayed with the method. It's not the prettiest looking movement tray, but it works. Eventually, I plan to convert everything over to brown hard board (MFD, MFA or something like that - I forget the acronym). I am tired and must get off to bed, but I wanted to give everyone a brief update and to explain why the blog has been silent over the past week.

Austrian Recruits Have Arrived

Gaisruck (left) and Josef Esterhazy (right) have been based and are ready to fight. Crusader Miniatures painted by Dennis Smail. A half battalion of Minden Miniatures Prussians can be seen in the background.

The Austrian army is on a recruiting binge of late, having added the two infantry battalions shown in the picture above as well as two more squadrons of cavalry. The prospect of an imminent wargame convention does wonders towards concentrating one's mind. Since my Austrian army is woefully understrength in comparison with my Prussians, I have a lot of work ahead of me to get the Austrians close to parity with the Prussians.

Last evening I terrained the bases of the 150 figures shown above. That can be a bit of a drag doing it all at once. I keep telling myself that I won't let the basing work pile up, but I never heed my own advise and then pay for it with marathon basing and terraining sessions. It takes about one minute per figure to apply the wet spackle mixture, sprinkle on some railroad ballast and flock, and then move on to the next figure. As tedious as it can be, the end result makes it all worth the effort. Now I have to cut up 12 foam core bases to make movement trays. Arrrgghh!!!!!!


New additions to the Birkenfeld Cuirassier regiment and the De Ligne Dragoon regiment (one squadron of 12 figures each) plus general of cavalry Graf Lucchesi of Leuthen fame. Crusader figures painted by Der Alte Fritz.

I have been on an Austrian cavalry painting binge of late. The Birkenfeld Cuirassiers were completed two weeks ago (bringing the regiment up to 36 figures or 3 squadrons) and then last weekend I completed another squadron of the De Ligne Dragoons (also now at 36 figures). I really do not enjoy painting cavalry all that much, unless they are Prussians. So I trick myself by only painting a 12 figure squadron at a time. It makes the project much more palatable. Next on the painting table are a dozen Saxe Gotha horse grenadiers. These lads are dressed in colorful red coats with light blue facings and those every so cool bearskin hats. After that, I will probably paint a dozen of the Saxe Gotha dragoon company men.

And then lo and behold, a package full of Minden Miniatures Austrian infantry arrived today from the UK (thank you Frank) and I'm sure that I will want to shoehorn some of these figures into the painting que. So you can see that the Austrians are getting my full attention.


Der Alte Fritz's painting table (click picture to enlarge).

The above picture gives you an idea of what my disorganized painting table looks like these days. In the foreground on the right are a dozen Crusader SYW Austrian horse grenadiers in the process of being painted as the Saxe-Gotha Dragoons. Behind them, are some Connoisseur Sudan Black Watch that I'm dabbling with. Then we have some Front Rank SYW Austrian generals in black primer and Eureka Teddy Bear Grenadiers waiting for a coat of paint. In the back left is the growing artillery park, with some Eureka Arquebusiers de Grassin that I'm painting for a client, and then a couple of Prussian generals. Note the Foundry general placed on a Stadden horse. I'm using 2" round bases for commanders so that the command stand sticks out from all of the other cavalry figures.

I have run out of time to paint any more figures before the Seven Years War Association convention on March 28 and 29 in South Bend, Indiana. A short business trip will eat up my spare time and then it is time to start packing up the figures for the convention. The following weekend is the Little Wars convention in Lincolnshie, Illinois and Bill Protz and I will be hosting games at both shows. That should keep Der Alte Fritz too busy to invade Saxony or Silesia.

BAR Game At Chimaeracon In Texas

Opening shot of Ed Youngstrom's BAR game in Texas

I wanted to give a "shout out" or special mention to a worthy Man On Horseback, Ed Youngstrom who ran a visually exciting SYW game at Chimaeracon down in San Antonio, Texas this weekend. I would encourage everyone to follow the link to the Hesse-Fedora blog site and read more about this battle. The rules used in the game were Batailles de l'Ancien Regime (or "BAR" for short), naturally.

http://hessefedora.blogspot.com/
Ed reports that he is using 48-figure infantry battalions and 24-figure cavalry regiments. If you look at the pictures (and be sure to click them on to enlarge the view) you will see that these slightly smaller units look every bit as good as the 60-man battalions and 36 to 60 man cavalry regiments that Bill Protz and I use in our games. And that is really the point that I am trying to make here: i.e. that one need not have huge armies in order to play an enjoyable wargame with the BAR rules. I have played games using "half units" of 24 to 30 figures per battalion etc. and find that the rules work very well with different unit sizes.

Ed's game was played on a table measuring 6.5 feet wide by 10 feet long. Each side had 5 battalions of infantry and 4 regiments of cavalry (at least I think that is what the sides were, based on my visual inspection of the pictures). That is another point to make about BAR, when you have larger units and a smaller table, then it is a necessity to reduce the number of units on the table. Bill and I have played a number of games on my smaller 6 by 10 table in my basement and play with about 4 battalions and 2 cavalry regiments per side. This allows us to experiment with smaller scenarios, especially some of the enticing Table Top Teasers penned by Charles Stewart Grant, Jr in Battlegames magazine.

As for the outcome of the game, the blue-coated Hesse Fedoran army (similar to Prussians) seemed to have taken it on the chin at the expense of their enemies from The Empire (similar to Austrians). Regardless of the outcome, it looks like everyone had a fun time playing the game and again, I would like to extend a tip of the tricorn to Ed Youngstrom for putting on such a fine looking game. Bill and I are looking forward to travelling to Austin, Texas in November in order to participate in Ed's "Texas Big Battalion Game."

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I will post the final installment of the Battle of Ritterbrucke within the next couple of days. I have been busy painting Austrian cavalry this past week and completed another squadron of the dragoon regiment "De Ligne" that brings this unit up to 36 figures. These were the lads without moustaches that gave Frederick's army such a hard time at Kolin in June 1757. Since they wear green coats, perhaps I will post a picture of them tomorrow, on Saint Patrick's Day.

Schlacht bei Ritterbrucke - Part III

All quiet in the center, but the action is brisk in the Preecewald

I am not sure what to say about the fighting that took place in the center part of the field, because it seemed that for a couple of turns, nothing happened. The two French brigades deployed in the center seemed to be content to sit back and fire artillery round into the the Prussians. Since the Prussians were under orders to defend in this sector, they were not likely to advance. It looks to me that the 8 battalions of the French center could have crushed the 4 battalions of General von Rust's brigade, had they pitched into it right away. However, events on their flanks may have influenced the French actions and perhaps they were waiting to see how the cavalry melee on their right (the Prussian left) was going to turn out before advancing haphazzardly across the field. Also, King Frederick had a reserve of 2 guard infantry battalions, 60 cuirassiers, and 36 hussars forming a firewall behind von Rust's brigade. So there were some other variables to consider.


The French commence their advance in the center.

In the picture above, we see at least 7 French battalions matched up against 4 Prussian battalions, while in the background, the great cavalry melee is running its course. At this point in the game, Frederick was getting a little bit anxious because he could count the numbers and feared the weight of two brigades attacking the lone brigade of von Rust.


The Regiment La Reine charges into the Prinz Heinrich fusiliers.

I was too pre-occuppied with my cavalry melee to pay close attention to the center, but it appears that the French were relying on the cold steel (via melee) to push the Prussians back. In the picture above, we see French Brigadier Kyle launching the La Reine regiment into the IR35 Prinz Heinrich fusiliers, driving off the Prussian artillery in the process. To his right (and out of the picture) French Brigadier Black was giving the IR20 Bornstadt musketeer regiment a taste of the bayonet as well.


The Black Hussars counter-attack La Reine. My apologies for the blurry picture.

La Reine was fairly successful in its melee with IR35, cutting down nearly half of the Prussians in the process. But when IR35 held firm and did not run, Frederick committed two squadrons of hussars into the melee to tip the balance in the Prussians favor. What you don't see in the picture, is that a fresh guard battalion IR15/III is deployed across the gap in the tables waiting for La Reine to finish off IR35. Frederick was holding the guards and the CR8 Seydlitz cuirassier regiment back as a similar number of French Gardes Francaises and the Carabiniers were shadowing the Prussian reserves. We ran out of time, but it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had both sides committed their reserves in the center.

Tomorrow I will post the fourth and final part of the battle report. This involves the hard fight on the far left for possession of the bridge over the Ritterbrucke.

Schacht bei Ritterbrucke - Part II

French brigadier Brent Olsen deploys his line infantry, while the Arquebusiers de Grassin secure the wooded area of the Preecewald.

The Right Flank: the Fight for the Preecewald

The area comprising the Preecewald covered about a five foot frontage of table space and Frederick was not sure if he had enough infantry to cover the whole table. Nevertheless, he recognized the importance of this terrain to the survival of the Prussian army. For one thing, it served to funnel most of the French infantry towards the center of the battlefield, creating some certainty as to where the French might attack. Secondly, the little valley to the north of the Preecewald provided an easy roadway into the rear table areas of both armies. Frederick sensed that the French would attempt to sneak a couple of battalions through this passage.

Brigadier General von Harms was given a battalion of light jagers to contest the woods and initially three battalions of Prussian musketeers to hold back the French. A reserve battalion of the British 20th Foot was deployed on the rear table behind the Preecewald. Frederick released this battalion to von Harms at the start of the first turn when it became apparent that a French push was coming through this sector. Von Harms deployed IR5 - Alt Braunschweig regiment of musketeers in the open passageway and they would cover themselves in glory throughout the battle as they fended off two battalions of enemy infantry, captured a 6-pound cannon, and drove off two squadrons of light cavalry.


The British 20th Foot advance through the woods, driving back the Grassins, while the Alt Braunschweig regiment not only blocks the passageway, bu nearly advances to the back table edge.

The action in the Preecewald started off with a lively firefight between the Prussian Jagers (48 figures) and a rather large battalion (70 figures) of Arquebusiers de Grassin (both Eureka and Suren figures combined together). Due to the negative firefactors for shooting in the woods (-1 for every 3" of cover), neither side could gain much of an edge in the firefight. At this point, von Harms sent the 20th Foot into the woods (operating disordered for being a formed unit in the woods) to root out the Grassins. He also advanced the Prussian IR24 Schwerin regiment on the left flank of the British, en echelon, as well as IR20 Bornstadt on the left of Schwerin, also en echelon. Nifty deployment there, Herr Harms - well done! On the French side of the table, Monsieur Olsen advanced the Regt. d'Eu and the Irish Regt Bulkeley to counter the Prussian advance.

A closer view of the 20th Foot in the woods, with Jagers to their front and the French light infantry falling back.

The fighting in this sector now shifted towards the southern edge of the Preecewald as the 20th Foot and IR24 settled into a brisk firefight for the rest of the game. IR20 had to hold back due to the presence of the French brigade in the center of the table as well as a strong reserve of French Gardes Francaises, Grenadiers de France, and 5 full squadrons of the Carabinier cavalry. So the picture above depicts the furthest advance of von Harms, which was largely a bluff.


The French counter-attack at the edge of the woods. A spectacular view of linear warfare.

Monsieur Olsen had a surprise or two up his sleeve, rolling out the 60 figure Grenadiers de France to match up against the British 20th Foot in the woods. Then he shifted the d'Eu and Bulkeley regiments out into the open and to the right to square off against von Harms' two Prussian battalions that were out in the open ground. This seemed to bring the Prussian advance to a halt for a short while. At the same time, French brigadier Earl Kyle was advancing his brigade of four battalions into the center of the battlefield. You can just barely see the lead battalion of La Reine from Kyle's brigade advancing in the center.


French regiment Bulkeley (Irish) falls back and defends the French artillery battery. Irish figures are from the Capitulations range of WAS French. These are very nice figures.

The brigades of Olsen (French) and Harms (Prussian) continued the fire fight out in the open, with regiment d'Eu finally taking so many casualties that it routed away. The Irish Bulkeley regiment was whittled down severely and fell back towards the protection of a French battery. The French paid out an equal amount of damage to the Prussians, as shown in the picture below. IR24 and IR20 appear to be at or close to half strength. In BAR, when a battalion falls below 50% of its original strength, then it must take a morale check each time it takes casualties.


The fight in the open appears to be played out with both sides taking severe casualties. The Grenadiers de France appear to have thwarted the British 20th Foot's advance in the woods. Brent has skillfully hidden the powerful Gardes Francaises behind him, so things look better for the French in this sector than the picture would suggest.

While all of this was going on, IR5 Alt Braunschweig was fighing off everything that the French could throw at them, including a couple battalions of Russians, of all things.


IR5 Alt Braunschweig covers itself in glory as it defends the pass north of the Preecewald. Russians are RSM95 figures and the Prussians are my own Potsdam Miniatures.

In effect, the French and the Prussians fought to a draw on the right flank. However, a draw was as good as a win as far as the Prussian victory conditions were concerned, for Harms was protecing victory points in this sector. The French still had a powerful reserve of the Gardes Francaises and the Carabinier heavy cavalry deployed in the center on the back table. This would have been sufficient to deter any further Prussian advance in this sector. I didn't spend much time watching the fighting on the right flank, as I was heavily engaged with the cavalry, but it appears that all of the players gave a good account of themselves and nobody made any errors that could turn the outcome of the game. It was well played by all!

End of Part II. Tomorrow we will look at the action that took place in the center of the battlefield.