"Pengel & Hurt / Bill Biles / or Other for SYW Unif Refs?" Topic

Which is preferred amongst those in the know and why?
Thx.

In my opinion Pengel & Hurt is well-documented but misses the most recent researches and is awful to read. I don't have Biles. Anyway, for the most up-to-date researches go to Kronoskaf:

link

Cheers, Fabrizio

Biles is well organized, clear, and a good tool for painting toy soldiers. It's just a wargamers' compilation of information. Pengel & Hurt is full of fascinating factoids but very poorly organized and sometimes poorly translated, so is difficult to use. But fascinating.

18th Century Press have the Greenwood and Ball booklets for the Austrians and Russians which are very good.

Greenwood and Ball are great

Kronoskaf is easy to use and also very good

Digby-Smith's new book is not bad (albeit it could have stood better proof reading) but it does have some armies not covered in other books

link

Pengel and Hurt directly reference contemporary source material from the period however, in some cases this is contradictory (as they use multiple sources) and, as observed by others the layout can be difficult to wade through. B&W illustrations only.

Biles, and James Woods' 'Armies and Uniforms' series are tertiary compilations for wargamers, as are the Sapherson booklets, with Woods as the latest published having the most chrome.

Stephen Summerfield is excellent, a bit like P&H in their depth, but well laid out and with plentiful colour illustrations. They currently only cover Austria and Saxony in depth, with the first of his Prussian books recently published.

Duffy and Savory are classics, but potentially have too much depth for what you're after, and they cost!

Kronoskaf is a great on-line resource; if you use it please donate to the site.

Dear Roger
I would recommend the Kronostaf Website. It is evolving as we speak.

Pengle and Hurt are translations from German and alas littered with translation mistakes. They are for a person who has spent years looking at the 7YW and the sources they have used. Biles is based heavily upon Pengle and Hurt so have the same errors.

The 24 page Greenwood and Ball booklets are good for the Austrians (c1970s, Prussians (c1970s) and Russian (new in 2012).

Digby's book is quite good and covers a considerable amount of ground.

Certainly the complexity of the Prussian Army caused me to look at the Musketeer Regiments for one volume before turning to the Fusilier Regiments and the Grenadiers. This I need to get back to and should be out by the Autumn but life, moving, other projects and a new job 300 miles away has halted progress.

If you would like to look at extracts of the 4 books here they are.
Prussian Musketeers of the WAS and 7YW
link
Saxon Army of the WAS and 7YW
link
Austrian 7YW Infantry and Engineers
link
Austrian 7YW Cavalry and Artillery
link

In addition there has been a considerable amount of work on the ordnance of the 7YW by Christian Rogge, Digby Smith and myself published in the Smoothbore Ordnance Journal available from Ken Trotman Publishing.

The most relevant issues are
18th Century Artillery
link
Austrian Artillery – Seven Years War and Napoleonic, SOJ-3
link
18th Century Britsh, French, Prussian and Saxon Artillery SOJ-04
link
Prussian 7YW Artillery, SOJ-06 [Published later this year]
Summerfield (2009) Saxon Artillery 1733-1827, Partizan Press
link

These have supplemented and corrected the errors in DDS (2007) Napoleonic Artillery, Crowood.

Also you should go to Christian Rogge's excellent website on 7YW artillery.

I hope that assists.
Stephen

Biles is just a compilation of Pengel.
Pengel is by far the best source as it actually cites and discusses sources.
Summerfielsd is unfortunately a very non-academic work with a sort of hit and miss presentation using illustrations without proper attribution. The Saxon book misses the entire SYW in France.
The best source for Prussia is the four volume work by the premier 18thC scholar, Hans Bleckwenn (about $150 USD for the set.
Actually the Osprey re the French by my colleague Chartrand is excellent.
Volume 2 of Lawson is the best for Britiah as wll as the new volume just published.
Stick with Pengel for the Brunswickers and Hessians, as the Osprey volume is hopeless.

I'm sorry for ressurecting this thread, but I'd like to know if the Bill Billes books have any information not present on the Pengel & Hurt volumes.