It seems remarkable, given the short timescale, but I'm now giving some thought to the "5th Army" in the Phase One plan for my WSS Project. It was always my intention to have big(gish) armies for France, Bavaria, Britain and Austria, and an additional small army to add to the Alliance forces.
Without thinking about it for too long, I always assumed that it should be a Dutch contingent. I even bought the Robert Hall books on the Dutch forces, and very nice they are, too.
I am basing these Phase One forces on the Schellenberg/Blenheim period - if necessary, to keep Bavaria in the war, they can go on fighting around the Danube area for as many years as I like. Fine. The problem, of course is that the actual Dutch army was a bit committed to the defence of Flanders at the time, therefore the support for Marlborough which they sent along (belatedly) consisted of other nations' troops fighting on the Dutch side.
So, now that I can afford the time to think about this, I decided that Your Actual Dutch may appear in a potential Phase Two, but the exact identity of my 5th Army is up for review.
For a while, the Hanoverians looked like a good bet, but there are a lot of red uniforms in there. In the interests of visual variety, which is important in the world of toy soldiers, I also rejected a couple of other possibilities who were mostly dressed in grey. What else was there?
My latest thinking, and I am quite pleased with this, suggests that Hesse-Kassel would be suitable. They had a nice little army, with the foot resplendent in dark blue. Accordingly, I now have another (rather smaller) Robert Hall book on order. Sadly, their horse seem mostly to have worn grey, but I can make it a rather paler grey than the French. Promising.
The 5th Army is planned at 4 units of foot, 2 of horse and a battery. I'm still tracking down the adventures of the artillery. I think they may not have turned up on the Danube - still reading about this. According to Charles Spencer's large (and flatulent) volume on Blenheim, Francis Hare's journal (another Marlborough fanzine) states that it was arranged with the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel that his artillery should be sent to Mannheim, to meet up with Marlborough on his march to the Danube. Whether they turned up or not I don't know. If not, of course, it would do no harm at all to have an artillery unit from somewhere else. This is, after all, my own version of the war, so I can please myself.
So that's as far as I've got. Present thinking is my 5th Army will be the forces of the Landgrave, presumably commanded by the Hereditary Prince. I may, of course, change my mind next week.
Anything is possible.
I suppose the other non-grey/non-red option are the Prussians, but I think their horse were dressed in white coats too until later in the century. The Danes have a bit of variety including 1 yellow-coated foot unit I think, but most infantry is grey or red.
ReplyDeleteI thought about a small Prussian contingent - that was another possibility, certainly.
DeletePerhaps the decision will be made easier since the H-K infantry have nifty flags? That would count in my book!
ReplyDeleteHi Jon - yes indeed - nifty. I like your thinking, sir!
DeleteDutch, Hanovarian, Hesse, why not do them all? You know you want to?
ReplyDeleteRay, you are a very bad man. Stoppit, stoppit! My hands are over my ears and i cannot hear you - LALALALALALALA....
DeleteIf Phase Two ever commences, these chaps will be candidates, but the world is running out of vintage castings, and I am running out of years!
Lol
DeleteA nice dilemma to have, choosing between several interesting options. I take your point about the Dutch, if Bavaria is your focus. Just wondering if 'Stralsund-Rugen' might have sent a contingent?
ReplyDeleteStralsund-Rügen - now there's a thing. Hesse-Kassel seems about the right size to offer one of those delightful "principality" armies which really existed, but can be considered as close to an imagi-nation as makes no difference.
DeleteVorpommern must have been Swedish then, I guess, so must have provided troops for the GNW?
"If Bavaria is your focus" - about half the troops I purchased in the first load from the Eric Knowles collection were Bavarians, so they have always been a sort of backbone of the project! I am currently stuck in a recycling history in which Bavaria has not disbanded the army, and the British units do not carry Union flags, so the date and the location are pre-defined to an extent.
DeleteIf (as I intend) I move on to include sieges in this period [Vauban's Wars], the units of foot will take part without their command/flags stands - i.e. just 2 bases to a unit - and I will be able to get away with all sorts of pretence then!
Just a thought - the Hessians (like several smaller states' armies at the time) were technically auxiliaries (sounds classier than mercenaries), that is, they were rented out by their state on a contract, so they could turn out to fight on either side. That can be a handy option to have.
ReplyDeleteGood batting, Thinkman. I fancy some solo campaigns with this lot which should have a "Diplomacy" element. As I understand it, even the Bavarians were a surprise late addition to the French side?
DeleteI don't think Max Emmanuel was sure which side to join which would give him the best chance of a slice of the Spanish cake. Clearly the coin came down 'tails'.
DeleteI read somewhere that Max Emmanuel was persuaded to change sides by a hint from Louis that he would get him the gig as Holy Roman Emperor after Austria was defeated. That might swing it, I guess. [More conspiracy theories]
DeleteSounds not unlikely. There were some dodgy dealings before the war regarding the Barrier Fortresses when Max was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands which suggest he was already in Louis' pocket.
DeleteNot the Prussians then? They seem to have got most places. That said the Dutch were present, in small numbers, at Blenheim (according to Nafziger) and most of Marlborough's other battles. Then of course there's always Denmark - I can see Phase two is going to be pretty hectic.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, Hesse-Kassel seems to tick a number of boxes, though it's possible I may get a fright when I get to read Robert Hall's book about the army. The scope of Phase Two is going to be limited by the fact that I'm running out of proper castings, apart from anything else.
DeleteCurrent headcount of existing armies, if I include a few units waiting to be refurbished, is getting close to 1500 castings in total. I've been doing a stock take of the unpainted figures I have stored away, and I took the opportunity to ditch a couple of Kg of broken figures and very poor quality recasts while I was at it. After the cull, I've got loads of artillery (with a view to sieges) - I reckon I may have enough good infantry figures to add another 10 bns or so, including a couple of units of grenadiers. I haven't started on the cavalry stock yet.
Plastics? Irregular? Maybe - I guess Phase Two will be low-key if it happens.
Rob - poor terminology - when I say 1500 castings I count a rider and his horse as 1, so I guess I mean figures.
DeleteKnowing virtually nothing about the period I would go for the scientific "ooh that colour looks good" approach. The HK flags also are a win-win here.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly the same historically authentic method I use, Matt. There's also bonus points for a touch of "ooh, they don't look exactly like all the others".
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