War of the Spanish Succession News

When I started with this period many years ago there was a limited choice of figure ranges.

There is now news for a further three ranges to add to those in existence.

Ebor miniatures are to release a new line of WSS figures from the talented hands of Mr. Paul Hicks. (http://www.eborminiatures.com/ go to the blog entries). These apparently are being designed to fit in with the Front Rank range.

At the same time Foundry are creating a new line as well. Jiggered if I can find the link on their site but it is out there somewhere.

And then there is the new plastic WSS horse from Wargames Factory. Having bought their plastic infantry I'm not in a rush to get some of these but still it is nice to see a cheaper option out there. (www.wargamesfactory.com follow the link on the RHS).

War of the Spanish Succession Game

My first game for what seems like, and probably is, months. For a change I brought the Danes along with some German support. Their opponents were, unhistorically, Andys superb Imperialists. No particular reason for using the Danes (apart from I like them) other than with only an eight by five table to play on I could use all the figures with no hard choices to make.

I also brought along some field works to protect my artillery.

With the horse largely massed on the right the night was spent in a series of intense and finely balanced cavalry melees. Neither side seemed to get the upper hand immediately and it was only the sheer weight of numbers on the Imperialist side that tipped the balance in their favour. Even having a quarter of their horse pursue the poor Fynske horse off the table meant that the Austrians still had a two to one advantage.

On the Danish left I advanced the Dansk Garden til Fot with a German battalion in support. The guards bravely took on two Austrian battalions. To show how long it since I played I miscalculated one move and advanced too far, receiving a hail of shot whilst not being to reply. However, being the elite troops that they are the subsequent return they gave made up for it. Ultimately of course being outnumbered told and the guard was forced from the field.

It might have been a while since I played but some things never change.

A combination of poor musketry rolls and some truly awful morale rolls meant that the Danes were not destined to prevail. Whilst they applied pressure at several points in the line the Austrians were always able to hold their own and, like the Welsh rugby team the other week, weather the storm.

Hopefully, Neil, the unfortunate player teamed with me, didn't feel as though his long trip from Gloucester was spoilt by the defeat. If not I look forward to the pleasure of his company at the club again.

Decision Time

One of the things I like to try and do is mix my painting projects by interspersing units from another collection between the units of the main task. It keeps things fresh for me and also means that I seem to get things done twice as fast. Up to last weekend that meant painting ECW units between the Persians. But as advertised in the previous post the Scots are finished.

So what next?

Well I bought a copy of "Beneath the Lily Banners" 2nd edition last week (if you thought that "Last Argument of Kings" was a lovely publication then you'll be very pleased with this - worth it for the pictures alone).

I've not played the rules but they have a lot of excellent reviews and I like the look of them after reading through. I'll publish a review later once I've chance to thoroughly digest them.

The eye candy photographs in the rules does mean that I'm now leaning towards getting around to re-basing and reorganising my Great Northern War project. All the infantry were done and I've got a lot of horse and some artillery in the barracks waiting for uniform distribution. BLB offers me a chance to remodel the battalions in smaller units and have fun making bases with features (just go and have a look at Barry website "League of Augsberg" and you'll see what I mean).

I need a little time to get my head around the concepts and to play with numbers and base sizes before committing myself, because this is the last time (how many times do we tell ourselves that?) I'm doing this. My original concept of 48 figure battalions was good but hard to realise and make playable on a normal game night. I think BLB might offer an alternative, Black Powder does but I'm not sure I want that style of play for this. Either way the unit size would be the same for both rule sets.

Another Project Finished

With this, the fourth regiment of Scottish foot, my ECW project is complete. For the first time I can remember this is a project that is no bigger and no smaller than originally planned and conceived. I've not bought any figures extra to the plan and I've no intention of doing so in the near future.

All the figures for the project, apart from twelve mounted figures and a couple of officers, are from Warlord Games (the rest are Perry).

For this last reigment I wanted something a little different. So I've given them a variety of muskets - both firelock and matchlock - along with an assortment of headgear in the attmept to show them as a veteran unit.

The firelocks were left over from the firelock party I did last year.

That's one of the great advantages of plastic figures - the ease with which they can be adapted and altered from the original intent.

The total for the project is three hundred pieces, just shy of two hundred foot and artillery pieces and the rest as mounted.

The Last Argument of Kings

I've only played a few games of Black Powder and I have to admit I enjoyed them. Having said that I won't be replacing the current house rules for the WSS with them but I am considering them for the Great Northern War (yes it is still a live project and there are in fact a hundred or so figures in the box to be painted).
I bought this supplement because it has sections on the Great Northern War and the War of the Spanish Succession, as well as the War of the Austrian succession & Seven years War (along with the French Indian War, Ottoman Turks and a trip to the Indian subcontinent to boot). Sounds good.
The book is stacked full of photographs that make me want to revert to the Age of Reason and get the brush out. Wall to wall full colour shots of well painted figures for all the periods discussed.
As for the rules well they take up very little space in the book, single pages mostly, being interspersed with broad brush outlines for the various conflicts. I suppose this may be because the rules are actually quite simple and the only refinement needed was to give some unique ratings and characteristics to the various combatants. Nothing much else changes.
As ever there are little bits in here which I feel we can include in the house rules for the WSS without changing the feel of our rules too much and making life somewhat easier (interpenetration and change of formation mostly, with some adjustments to dragoons).
At £18 from Warlord Games it is a very good publication (despite it being softback) and one I'd recommend if BP is your thing.

PS - the free figure of Wee Wullie, as on the front cover, is also an excellent piece of sculpting.