Minden Day - August 1st

The British cavalry is more noted for their lack of participation at Minden; nevertheless I thought that you would enjoy this picture of some Suren British Horse.

I almost missed the fact that today is Minden Day, i.e. the anniversary of the great British/Hanoverian/Hessian/et al victory over the French.

That being said, I did nothing particularly special to celebrate the anniversary, but I did prime two dozen Minden Austrian Dragoons today and will probably start coating them in red coats tomorrow. Yes, I've decided to choose one of the Austrian dragoon regiments clad in red.

I received my copy of Charles S. Grant's "Wargaming in History, Volume 4" today and that has temporarily derailed my painting aspirations, as I would much rather tuck into his book than I would to paint figures. This looks to be the best of the series yet, from first glance, with a noticeable increase in the number of color pictures and a nice pictorial from Bob Marrian that focuses on 18th Century hussars. Grant covers the battles of Hastenbeck, Rossbach and Leuthen (oooh, good choice, especially the latter one) as well as some background on his own Vereinigte Frei Stadte army that I found interesting from the standpoint of how to put a wargame army together. Finally, it covers the development of hussars and concludes with some information on Hadik's Raid on Berlin in 1757, with some ideas on how to wargame the event.

I promise to come back with a more thorough review after I have had a chance to read the book in detail. Sorry paint brushes, you will be going unused for the next couple of days. I have a book to read. :)