British Infantry - First Look

Sculpting on the British (& Hanoverian) infantry is progressing well, Chris Tubb has kindly sent me some digital images to share. 

The same poses have been used as for the other nations so that they can all be mixed and matched. Once the British infantry are in production, I think that completes the 'close order' foot soldiers for the major nations - it's only taken 10 years😀. By mixing and matching bodies and heads from those moulds we should be able to get pretty close to casting infantry types from most nations. 

Rank and File

To try and cover the variation between units in the uniforms and equipment carried by different units we decided to produce 2 moulds, one for the 'hatmen' and the other for the 'grenadiers'. As usual heads will be interchangeable to get as close as possible to the unit you want.

'Hatmen'

These can be used represent the majority of the infantry, the coats have no shoulder wings and no sword is carried, just a bayonet.

'Grenadiers'

A second mould will be produced to represent the grenadiers and fusiliers. The figures have been 'upgraded' with the addition of shoulder wings on the coats, a sword and a cartridge pouch on the front of the waist belt.

Officer

Unlike other nations the British officers wore the sash over their shoulders, so a new figure is needed. He will have a 'plug in' hand to allow him to carry the musket shown, a sword or pole arm. 

Drummer

British drummers were quite distinctive, with hanging sleeves and a fancy mitre cap - so we really needed one of those 😀

Standard Bearer and NCO

As far as I am aware nothing has been done yet. The British standards were carried by junior officers, so I have suggested that one is needed.

Will I ever get my Prussian cuirassiers??????????????????????

As always your comments are very welcome.

British Infantry - Update

Just a quick update to let you know that Chris Tubb is currently sculpting the British infantry, and I have suggested he progress with 4 moulds as discussed back in January 2023 (yes that long ago), text in red are minor changes I have suggested since 2023:

Mould 1: Officer & Drummer

• Officer with  shoulder sash and hand to take partisan, musket or sword.
• 1 x spontoon for officer
• Drummer with hanging sleeves
• 1 x tricorne head
• 1 x grenadier mitre head*

* I wonder if it is worth replacing this with a tricorne with a 'Minden Rose', (officers did not wear mitre caps, which if wanted can come from the grenadier mould)?

Mould 2: Standard Bearer and NCO

• Standard Bearer (Officer with shoulder sash)
• NCO and hand to take pole arm or musket.
• NCO musket
• 1 x tricorne head
• 1 x grenadier mitre head*

* Perhaps another variation of a tricorne with a 'Minden Rose'?

Mould 3 - Hat Men (tricorne) - without sword, belly box, or shoulder wings.

• Marching torso  
• Arm for marching
• Advancing torso
• 2 x tricorne head

Mould 4 - Grenadiers (mitre cap)  - with sword, shoulder wings, belly box and match box.

• Marching torso  
• Arm for marching
• Advancing torso
• 2 x mitre cap head (I have suggested one with 'GR' and one with 3 feathers)

As always feedback would be welcome to help try and get this right.

Commands & Colors - Seven Years War

In the comments to the last post I was asked about how we played C&C with the 40mm semi flats.........

Over the years we have played most of the C&C games, my favourites being:

Napoleonic, We generally play the Epic Battles version with 15mm figures on an 8' x 6' table with 120mm hexes. These give very enjoyable games with reasonably historical outcomes.

Memoir 44 (WW2), with 1/300 figures on the same 120mm hexes, not such a well designed set of rules - but still fun.

Red Alert - yes space ships - a fun game with all the plastic spaceships and cloth in the box, so it is easy to transport and set up,

I also have 'Tricorn', the AWI version, however this is one of my least favourite versions, having more of the feel of a skirmish game - not in my opinion suitable for the large clashes of the SYW.

A gaming friend has made a very nice  12' x 6' gaming cloth marked out in 180mm hexes, which he uses to play C&C Napoleonic Epic with 28mm figures. He also has the hills and woods to match, so an easy option for me to borrow for a participation game. My 160mm frontage units sit nicely into the 180mm hexes (which are just annotated with lightly marked corners - one visible to front right of the artillery).

SYW Rules Changes

There was not really a lot of change needed, the main ones being:

Infantry v Cavalry

In this period the infantry was generally better trained, and able to repel frontal attacks from cavalry without the need to form square, so we modified the rules as follows:

• In the C&C system the facing of units is not relevant, everything fights all around, For SYW we decided that the facing of the infantry does matter, so at the end of the movement phase all infantry, even those which have not been activated, are adjusted to align with one of the sides or corners of hex. The unit then has 2 (facing corner) or 3 (facing side) vulnerable 'rear' hexes.
• When infantry is attacked from the front (not the rear), the infantry ALWAYS fights first, and the cavalry can NEVER ignore flags. Note that if the cavalry has sufficient movement it can ride around the infantry to attack the rear, so the ends of lines need to be supported.

Artillery

Artillery in this period was neither as mobile or capable of combined arms training as later (although the Austrians were getting there), so:

• Artillery may never fire overhead.
• Artillery may not combine in melee unless in support of an adjacent infantry unit.
• Other than Austrians, artillery may not  make additional moves such as those on the 'Bombard', 'Artillery Reposition' or 'Call forward the Reserves' cards.

Prussian Infantry

Prussian infantry was (at the start of the war) better trained than most others, so they have been given bonuses when firing on the move and entering melee with opposing infantry.

Prussian Cavalry

Prussian heavy cavalry (and cuirassiers) could charge for much greater distances than others, so they are allowed an additional hex movement when charging (not additive with the 'Cavalry Charge' card

I've pasted in the playsheets we used for the battle of Kolin - I don't think Blogger has a file upload facility? (For Lobositz we did not apply the advantages for the Prussians, as they were tired and hungry after a long night march.)

 

Battle of Lobositz & New Moulds

As I'm sure is obvious, I have not done much casting or gaming with the 40mm semi-flats so far this year.

Battle of Lobositz

I did however put on a participation game (back in June) using the Commands and Colors (American!) Napoleonics system to play the Battle of Lobositz. 

The table was 12' x 6', a scan of the battle layout is below. The Prussians are stacked up exiting the valley, and the Austrians partly hidden behind the village and in the sunken road, with Grenz on the hill. We played it twice and the Austrians won both times - as they should😀

The scale was roughly one unit on table equates to a cavalry regiment, two battalions or a 10 gun battery.

Below are some photos, many of which are copied from Aly's Toy Soldiers

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2024/06/wild-geese-2024.html 

New Moulds

Prince August have also been very quiet with regards to the SYW range, Chris Tubb has been working on other projects, such as their 54mm Middle Earth ranges, however I understand that they may be sculpting for some new SYW moulds over the coming months. 

• Reprint/rescale the Austrian cuirassier to as the current moulds are way too big (3 moulds),
• Reprint the dragoon heads as they ware currently too small, just a reprint to scale (1 mould).
• Prussian cuirassier (3 moulds)
• British infantry (4 moulds) - see post January last year for suggested figures.
• British artillery crews in coats (2 moulds).

My personal preference would be to do them in the order above so that I can complete my Prussians & Austrians, however I suspect PA would sell more moulds if they did the British first.

Going Small????

Not much has been happening with respect to the SYW semi-flats either at Prince August - or in my wargames room (I have mostly been playing 28mm 30YW using Liber Militum 'Tercios' rules and 20mm WW2).

Staying within the Lace Wars period, I have however been considering 'going small', and have been 3D printing some 10mm 'Marlburian' figures. 

The intention is to use these for mass battles of some sort, so simple figures and paint jobs to be viewed at a distance😀 

These are from a very small range of figures from 'Incomp', which print and paint very easily - well worth a try if this is something you are considering.

Christopher Duffy Books

 Best wishes for the New Year.

Just in case there are any of you out there looking for some books to spend your Christmas pennies on I just came across these:

I assume all respectable SYW gamers have these - but just in case?