League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

Really excited for BLB3. I’m looking to play WSS in 6mm with single base units. Has anyone done this? Good idea? Bad idea? Why or why not?

Why not!

I would half the ranges/movement and convert to centimetres(ie before halfing!)

I think is have been done before and you should be fine - good luck!

sorry, halving

Someone asked this on FB recently (maybe that was you)...

The main difficulty will be representing units in Column of March... You can probably get away with turning the unit 90-degrees, but you need a way to designate which end is the front!

Other than that, what Hilton said...

That was me! Wanted to get more info while I patiently await my new book...

Read the book. Love it. 6mm is going to be my next project. I’d love to get a good starting force of 10 or so units a side for the war of Spanish succession. I’m mainly interest in British vs French, but some allied units for colour would be great too. Does anyone have any great orders of battle or scenarios for a game of that size? I’d love for a solid historical battle of small scale so I can get this project realistically done within the next year or so. Anyone have any ideas or resources?

6mm sounds like a great idea. A few thoughts on this :

My understanding is that most historical field armies would have been quite large in this period so you are probably looking at either (a) playing part of a bigger battle (eg. the attack on Taviers from the Battle of Ramillies) or (b) creating your own scenario but basing it on part of an historical order of battle.

Another option would be representing the various raids that took place during the 'close season' (!) when both armies were in winter quarters. This was still quite an active time but would be on a much smaller scale and would provide very specific objectives. For example, a French raid (grand forage) on a town in the allied sphere of influence, looking for financial contributions from the locals or, equally importantly,stripping the land of any potential horse fodder. An allied force might be quartered nearby and respond to the raid...

You might also find this site useful (blog by Simon MacDowall). I have linked to articles with the WSS tag :

http://legio-wargames.com/blog/45914695 ... Succession

One of the smaller scenarios is here :

http://legio-wargames.com/blog/45914695 ... e./6342981


I would also suggest looking at Orders of Battle in the Nafziger series to give you some idea of historical organisation :

http://www.alternatewars.com/CARL/Nafgizer_CARL.htm


Apologies if you have all this already.


Hope this help. Good luck !


Phil

Thanks Phil, fantastic ideas! I’m brand new to the WSS, and am only really familiar with Blenheim. The attack on Taviers sounds really neat. Any other smaller parts of battles that you think would make sense, that would fit the roughly ten BLB units a side scale? Ideally without significant built up areas so that it’s more a battle of maneuver?

Hi there,

I've had a look round and, on top of the ideas in my earlier post, would
suggest having a go at some of the Table Top Teasers on this site :

http://steve-the-wargamer-teasers.blogspot.co.uk/

I haven't looked through them but, from previous experience, they
tend to be small scale battles with a very specific objective that is
used to offset any disparity in numbers. Really great ideas.

Have a look through these and see what you think.

A final thought - if you want to get the proper feel for this period, you will
need to make sure that you have a good number of cavalry. As a rule of
thumb, many battles would have infantry and cavalry in a ratio of roughly
one battalion to two squadrons of cavalry.

I am currently building a 10mm WSS army using Pendraken figures and,like
you, will be using single base units. In my case, I am using this to represent
either a battalion of infantry or two squadrons of cavalry. Both of these bases
are the same size.

The inspiration for this is here :

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.p ... 856.0.html

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.p ... 960.0.html

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.p ... 848.0.html


Cheers,



Phil

Thanks for the info and links. Great idea about combining two squadrons per base. So each base would in effect be 4 stands of cavalry in the rules? Which base dimensions are you considering for 10mm? I’ve played around with some basing, and I quite like 100mmx30mm. That gives me 40 6mm minis in two ranks per battalion.

Are there any concerns about cavalry packing too much of a punch on a narrower frontage? I haven’t played any BLB at all, so I can only go off theory!

I guess I can chime in here since I am kind of following the downsizing path to 10mm. I have been toying around with the BLB base size but with 10mm figure, looking at units of 90 or so figs. Still in the testing phase.

SteveRcR

Not sure if you have seen this thread but it shows an idea of what this could
look like :

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.p ... 213.0.html

Units this big will certainly test patience and resolve to complete the project !

Best of luck and let us see how you are getting on.


Phil

Yes, I saw that thread after I posted an order so I could start one unit. The Baccus 6mm battalia base of over 100+ figs got me started down this path of using the rules as they are but for 6-10mm In the Grand Manner style. I am waitng for my BLB3 to arrive and then the real fun begins. But yes, the first unit will tell me if I have the mental capacity to carry out this project

That looks amazing. That’s what, 60 10mm figs per unit? I was planning on 40 6mm in two ranks. Hats off to that guy.

I know that I couldn't complete an entire army with units that size. That's one of the
reasons I scaled it down to 24 figs per unit. They certainly don't look as amazing as
the large units but they suite me (I am still painting one year on !)

This gives you an idea what they look like (page 2 of the thread) :

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.p ... 09.15.html



Phil