Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Monday 30 March 2020

WSS - French Books and That

Progress with my Henry Ford-style production of a big refurb batch has been pretty good - never since the golden days of my purchase of Peter Welsh's Napoleonic collection has anything as mind-numbing as this taken place here. All being well, I should have 4 more battalions based and flagged by Wednesday (famous last words).

Before I started this latest batch - two battalions each of Bavarian IR Bettendorf and IR Kurprinz, to be retouched and freshened up. The ultimate Henry Ford touch would be to spray them all black, but I'll try not to do that
Assuming I don't destroy my morale completely in the next few days, the plan would be to do two further, similarly-sized batches, this time Imperialists, over the coming weeks. They may be rather more fiddly, since there are more replacement figures needed, and my research into flags is - how do you say? - doing my head in.

Anyway, all good. Since I will certainly become very peculiar if I paint all day, I am deliberately setting aside non-painting times, so some suitable reading is going on too.

I also have some British troops to refurbish, and I've been dipping a toe into the subject of the French army for the WSS. I have the CS Grant paperbacks on the period, and I've been very kindly sent some copies of uniform plates and old magazine articles, but I thought I should get something just a little heavier, to give me some good background and some reliable detail. My French forces will be starting from zero, so it would be useful to build up a small army for 1703 which can sensibly grow (God willing) into a rather larger army without too much disruption and too many U-turns.



I intend to buy Mark Allen's book, which gets some criticism because it is not The Bible, but it looks very useful anyway. Rene Chartrand is also an obvious source, but I start to get into problems with potential overlap between different publishers (primarily Osprey and Helion), and also there are a lot of books with similar sounding titles.

This is a period for which it is possible to spend money very quickly and find that what you have bought isn't quite what you were looking for. I have obtained titles by Robert Hall and Bruno Mugnai on the Austrian army, but I'm aware that trying to doing anything like this for the French is risky and potentially ruinous. Thus I am starting out at a gentle stroll.

I identified the following as books I could get easily and without huge expense - I'm still dithering about this, so would welcome any comments.

This last title is potentially interesting but, looking at the contents summary, am I to gather that this covers the Line Cavalry etc only up to 1697? Hmmm.

Unless there's a good reason to do otherwise, I might start with a few French units that would be OK at Schellenberg (for example), but could grow into a larger presence. My War of the Spanish Succession is very likely to be almost an imagi-nations set-up, with long-winded and largely imaginary campaigns between Bavaria and Austria to start with. [To quote from the Gallacher Book of Axioms, "If actual history is useful on a particular occasion, then use it, otherwise it's just a luxury (like the sick-bag on an aeroplane journey)".]

Anyway, British and French are a little over the horizon, but could come into sight fairly soon. Thinking and reading about them can't do any harm.

After a late rush of maniacs last weekend, the beach here at the farm has now been closed to the public (well, closed to their cars, which is effectively the same thing), so here's a sort of post-apocalyptic photo - by 9am on Saturday, the only footprints are mine.


Look after yourselves - please keep well. I'm also intrigued by the reported huge demand for dried chick-peas - is this recommended stuff for the fallout shelter? Any good recipes will be welcome.

22 comments:

  1. 20 miles a day in beans and hay in the regular army-o...
    Suits my delicate palette.

    I must get those books - they are on the list, but I have not caved as yet. WSS (and the important bit before it) is THE period of course.

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    1. I hope to order something in a day or so, but i am a beggar for getting distracted, so must keep it heavy on the discipline.

      Ref previous mention of rules - you do realise that my rules will be hex-based? This is why stones fall on my roof in the winter.

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    2. Oh yes, understood. I have my under-used hexes. and printer for cards, at the ready sir!

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    3. The most interesting period of all looks to me to be the League of Augsburg stuff with the big floppy hats (not just because of the hats, of course). If

      (1) I hadn't already got a pretty hefty investment in the ECW (which is tactically too similar for my purposes), and

      (2) I hadn't recently bought in an existing collection of painted WSS soldiers

      I think I would have plumped for the earlier bit!

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    4. Why sir - you speak my language :)

      Yes. LoA is the most abused and under-utilised period of all, mainly due to the lack of battles, however politically, financially, religiously, it created the cornerstone/minefield (depending on your POV) of much of our beliefs and systems today in Europe. (It wasn't that Boneparte fella)
      The main issue with the late 1600s was that warfare was so inefficient, that battle rarely achieved decisive results.
      But to me, that's perfect for wargaming and mini-campaigns - as we blunder our way across the table and campaign map - PERFECT I say!
      Never fear - I will be bastardising your hex rulest with a few pikes to bend it to the 1680-95 period. :)(in addition to using it for WSS of course)

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  2. You have been busy Tony, very impressive. How are the rules coming on?

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    1. Hi Ian - I think the rules are pretty much working - prototype version. Actually writing them up nicely is still under way, but it will happen. Some notes and QRS-type tables will get me started!

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  3. The spray all black once happened when I accidently picked up the wrong spray can when spraying varnish over some chariots...

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    1. I've never done this, but feel obliged to cringe on your behalf at the thought. That is a sore one. I guess accidentally undercoating with matt varnish would not be so bad.

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    2. I did the same, ONE TIME ONLY! Mine were two dozen 15mm French Napoleonics. Took a long time to regain the fortitude to recover from that mistake. Now, I always double check the can in hand before pressing spray.

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  4. So many topics, Tony!

    I will start at the bottom and work back...

    Dried chick peas:
    Clearly, homemade hummus must be at the top of many trendy hoarders' list of staples. We enjoy farinata made from chick pea flour with olive oil, parmesan and black pepper. Easy to make and satisfying.

    WSS Uniform Sources:
    While not a period at the top of my list (yet), for the French, Funcken has an excellent book on the French army with scores of uniform plates. Grant's "From Pike to Shot: is a good reference too.

    The books on your shopping list look very good!

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    1. Thanks Jon - chick pea FLOUR - now he tells us - did we leave the grinding mill back in the above-ground kitchen...? Whose turn is it to go back up there?

      Farinata - noted.

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  5. They're all great books with loads of info. I find it best to stuck to one book, as you tend to find others always tell a different story in cuff colours and the like. The old Funken books are great to go by, if you have them?

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    1. Thanks Ray - agree the Funcken books are lovely, but they start with Louis XV!

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  6. A great selection of books Tony...
    I like the Mark Allen book a lot... but of course I like Mark Allan... he is a very nice fellow.
    My main source is Robert Hall... I have ‘books’ as CD’s but I must admit that the temptation to buy the physical copies is great...
    You can also get individual Robert Hall Plates which are very useful...
    Chickpeas... Well of course they have the loo roll...
    Now they have to find a reason to use it....

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Hi Aly - I've now ordered a few of these - see how I get on. The individual R Hall plates are very tempting, but it would be a big advantage to have a browse of what's what - thinking about that. At some point I may pick your brains about Austrian WSS flags - I seem to have very little idea about the general form of these flags - different on the two sides etc - I need to identify just what it is I don't actually know.

      [Eternal paradox - offer to tell a stranger all about some topic that he has never heard of - give him the opportunity to specify a useful example of something he has never heard of - I had a Maths Physics lecturer at uni who worked like this - Dr Antrobus - it was rumoured that that there was a plan to drop him on the Russians during the Cold War]

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  7. A nice collection there which should keep you suitably engrossed. When I dabbled I did the whole army of Cologne!!!!! ( about 13 battalions if I recall!) and Bavarian type colours.
    Enjoy the distraction

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    1. Cologne is good - like it. I was checking through the OOB for Blenheim yesterday, and (once again) very surprised to be reminded how small was the British element in Marlborough's army. What got me pottering around this was receiving the Osprey book on Marlborough's Army and seeing that many of the art plates are of Austrians, Dutchmen, Prussians, all that.

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  8. I would not dare to even pick up one of those books if seen at a show. An interest was installed in my brain at a young age (Captain of Dragoons anyone?) and I have been dodging Marlborough and others for decades.

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    1. I remember that Ronald Welch. Captain of Dragoons, Capt of Foot (Peninsular War) and For the King (ECW) were the ones I read. Hmmm! That WSS box still needs to be ticked.

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  9. I'm in the early stages of a similar project (WSS French) but in 10mm using Pendrakens. I'm using the Osprey Ramillies Campaign book (with great Order of Battle) as an organisation guide and slowly building up the various Brigades. Grant's 'Pike and Shot' book is great for uniform details but also found these sites helpful:

    http://royalfig.free.fr/index.php?/category/31

    http://royalfig.free.fr/index.php?/category/42

    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Französische_Infanterie-Regimenter_des_Ancien_Régime

    https://web.archive.org/web/20140111081221/http://www.troupesdemarine.org/tools/theque/html/th000203.html#Ordonnance

    And for the Austrian Army (just click on the tiny blue buttons !)
    http://www.xenophon-mil.org/milhist/austrianarmy/austrianarmytable.htm

    Apologies if you have already seen these.

    Anyway, best of luck and I look forward to seeing how you get on.


    Phil

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    1. Phil - thanks very much for this - I have a set of the Rudolph Donath Austrian plates - hadn't realised they were available online through xenophon! I'll check out the others. Best of luck to you also - keep well.

      PS - I have met Rudolph Donath's brother, Krispi-Kreme.

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