"Just starting out" Topic

Hey all, I'm not particularly new to wargaming in general, but spent most of my time with homebrew rules and 54mm Britain Details, so I'm pretty out of the loop when it comes to the whole 'culture.' Anyways, a buddy and I are getting into 28mms, and are looking at starting some 18th century forces. We will be using Black Powder, since we have it for our Napoleonic forces as well. So, my questions to you are:

Given that I'm a big Francophile, and he is of the Austrian persuasion, what conflicts are ideal for this matchup?

We would prefer that the miniatures be relatively inexpensive, as so far we like the look of 36-man battalions. What are your recommendations for companies/ranges that can cover the most amount of conflicts over the longest period of time? Minor differences aren't a big issue, as we often use our Waterloo brits for the peninsular campaign.

What are the best 'showcase' units for each army? Units that pop out on the tabletop to break up the great sea of white and grey?

Thanks for your help guys!

The first half of the 18th C. would seem to be your period of choice then, as the Seven Years war saw the aberration of French and Hapsburg troops as allies… But from the Spanish trough the Polish to the Austrian Succession wars, the world was at it was meant to be, with those two powers at odds.

Given your tolerance for uniform details, you could probably use the same French throughout that period. The Austrians' look did change somewhat however, for both Foot and Horse.

Front Rank cover those decades well and have some interesting deals, but I don't know how postage and customs to the US may play out. Old Glory are pretty inexpensive, although their animation may not be to your taste. If you should opt for the Spanish Succession era, Wargames Factory has cheap 'n cheerful plastics – again, check first whether you like their style.

There are colourful units for both sides to break the white-out: Foreign infantry in French service wore red (Swiss, Irish), blue (Germans, Scots and some early Swiss) or brown (Italians), while the Austrians had Wallon regiments in green early on, and Croat light infantry (Grenzer) in various colour combinations from the 1730s – soon matched by equally colourful French Volontaires. Dragoons of both sides came in red, blue and green, and Hussars of course are something else again…

Enjoy!

Pre 1707 Spanish as French Allies:

Even after 1707 you could probably stretch that some of the Spanish units had not gotten their shipment of the new white uniforms.

versus English, Dutch Portuguese and the odd Imperial/Austrian unit in Spain.

I can't beat Waco Joe's beautiful and colourful uniforms but otherwise I agree with Musketier that there are quite a few choices. I would settle on the War of the Austrian Succession if you want the French to fight the Austrians.
1) Uniforms are close enough to the SYW so that you can buy these figures.
2) Crusader mixed with Front Rank and Elite will give you a good mix of manufacturers in 25/28mm.
3) The Austrians are far more colourful in this pre-SYW period than later so you have many colour combinations (vis IR Roth).
4) For colourful non-grey French you have a large numbers of German (Blue) and Swiss (Red) regiments you can choose or allies like Bavarians.
Check out my blog for lots of examples of both nations:
nigbilpainter.blogspot.fr
I'm a great fan of the WAS in preference over the SYW partly because armies (and flags) are more colourful.
Nigel

Noting your concern to get started as economically as possible, you might want to consider the Irregular Miniatures army packs at £72.00 GBP for 100 figures. Malburian and 7YW ranges
link

Wow, thanks for all of the help guys! It looks like the first half of the 18th Century is definitely a must. What are your experiences with the Wargames Factory plastics? They certainly seem like discount figures, but I wouldn't be against using them to start. Do they have different options to represent the different countries? Or are they "supergenerics?" I've ordered from Old Glory before for other projects, and don't have any problems with them either. Front Rank seems ideal for elite units/generals, as their sculpting quality seems very high. Do they have a US distributor?

Thanks again!

Waco Joe, I was just wondering where the picture of the Spanish uniforms came from, as I am interested in expanding my WSS forces to the Spanish theatre and I haven't seen anything like that picture before.
Thanks

Harb – the Wargames Factory Marlburian infantry have headgear variants, esp. for the various types of grenadier caps. The cavalry also include torsos with and without breastplate, and yet more head variants, including lobster pot helmets . You can mix and match parts from both sprues, and they've promised an artillery set to round out the range – although it's been rather quiet recently about the latter.

Note that there is some degree of model-building involved: one third of the infantry and all of the cavalry come as multi-part kits; you can find pictures of the sprues on their website to see what you'd be up against.

Uniforms of the period were pretty generic (making it a good subject for plastics), so as long as you're willing to overlook some inaccuracies, these will cover most armies of the period. They're less substantial than Front Rank, but once painted, should have no problem serving under FR generals for example.

The picture was posted here in another thread. I believe this is the original source: link

Thanks Waco Joe