The Seven Years War (called the French and Indian War in the Americas), along with the War of Austrian Succession, are a couple conflicts in the period known as The Age of Reason. In gaming circles, it's often called the Horse & Musket era. However it's referred to, this period of18th Century warfare has always interested me. The musket armed troops, the linear warfare, the fancily-dressed troops, the often blundering nobles put in charge of the armies, has its own special flavor. I've collected miniatures for this period for a number of years, but most of the time, they've sat unused in their boxes.
The reason for this is the lack of a rules set I was satisfied with to fight out the battles. We began with "Warfare in the Age of Reason," but soured on it after a couple years of playing. The rules were just too poorly organized, we felt, to find the passages we needed while playing our less than frequent games. They also moved fairly slowly, with long charts of modifyers for every shooting or melee roll. Once you got past perhaps a dozen units on a side, there would be little chance of finishing the battle anytime soon. So, I began a search for another rules set, having no real luck, while the armies sat on their shelves unused.
Finally, after we began playing Hordes of the Things (HOTT) -- which are essentially the fantasy equivalent of our favorite Ancients set, DBA -- I began to hear of folks using these rules for Horse & Musket era battles. We gave them a try, tinkered with them a bit, and finally I pronounced myself satisfied that I'd found my rules set for quick and simple games in the period. I even settled on a rebasing scheme, as in HOTT all troops must be based on stands of equal frontage (Age of Reason had troops stands that ranged from 1" wide, 1 and 1/8th", 1.25", 1.5" -- a medley of sizes. I decided to go with 3" width stands, which would allow me to take two 1.5" cavalry stands and place them side by side, or three light infantry ones. The line infantry would require fiddling. My decision was to paint up a couple dozen mounted officers, and place two Age of Reason stands with one mounted officer alongside on a 3" wide by 1" deep base. I really liked the way these stands look, giving (I feel) the proper linear look to 18th Century warfare.
Here are some pictures of my armies.
Frederick the Great's kingdom of Prussia was the main aggressor of the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War. Most battles on the continent involved Prussian troops, so I had to have one of these armies. I started this army with 15mm Essex miniatures, then in a moment of frugality, purchased a big chunk of Editions Brokaw 15's. The Essex figures are noticeably larger and much more detailed. The EB figs are okay, but tend to be used only when needed.
Frederick's chief foe -- and target -- was the Hapsburg Empire of Austria. Both wars were started by Prussian aggression -- seizing one of Maria Theresa's provinces that Frederick felt was ripe for the plucking. The white-coated Austrians were implacable foes of the Prussians, and as such, were the second main army I would need to fight out battles of this period. This army was originally entire Editions Brokaw -- which made it quite a reasonably priced acquisition. When I found a bag of Old Glory 15mm German Fusileers in a flea market, though, Old Glory troops made their appearances among the ranks. Like Essex, these are noticably larger with nicer detail. So, any new Austrian line infantry I paint will likely be from Old Glory, as I have plenty of figures left over from the big bag of 50 figures.
The Croat light infantry were also a flea market purchase, and I honestly forget which company they were produced by.
My British contingent actually comes from a period when my buddy Allen and I were gaming the French & Indian War, using individually based 15mm figures. At the same time, I was basing some of the figures for Age of Reason, so they are a real mish mash of basing sizes and schemes. In additon to serving in the colonies and on the continent as Prussian allies, these Brits have fought rebel Scottish Jacobites using my HOTT Lead rules. They will likely be the next army I rebase after the Austrians and Prussians.
Probably one of the nicest looking armies I've ever painted up, most of these figures are from Old Glory 15mm. The sheer variety you get in a package makes them a joy to paint up and a wild explosion of movement and color on the tabletop. I learned early on when painting troops dressed in tartan patterns, that you must go for effect rather than complete accuracy. As such, not every piece of clothing worn by these figures is done in a pattern. Your eyes would simply see a mess -- too many lines, too much color. Instead, I would usually pick ONE item of clothing to be patterned. On one figure it may be the tartan cloak, on another his trews (pants), and on still another it might be a jacket. Also, there is little to be gained at the 15mm scale by putting multiple colors of stripes in a tartan set. A single background solid color with a grid or "window pane" of another gives the effect just fine. On occaison, I did toss in a second color, but this was done sparingly.
