"Allied generals and staff at Hastenbeck - 1757" Topic

I am painting the last few elements for the Allied army in Germany. These are the command figures for the infantry wings and cavalry plus CinC.

With enough Generals and staff ordered, I am also painting Ferdinand of Brunswick who took command of the Allies after departure of the Duke of Cumberland to England.

In addition there are a few more grenadiers to paint.

link

By next week, the miniatures for both French and Allies will be completely painted. Next step is drafting a scenario for the battle of Hastenbeck.

Cheers,
Robert

Hello

My French versus Allied SYW armies in the Hessian Salient can be seen on te Wargamorium Blog. thewargamorium.6sided.net

I would be interested to know what rules you use.

Regards

@Broglie,

Lovely layout and figures.

We have enjoyed the WRG and DBX rules sets for over 30 years. For Musket period games we use the DBA-HX variant originally based on DBA 1.0.

We have recently adapted this to DBA 3.0 and enjoy the subtle changes that speed play and make the game more dynamic.

Cheers,

Thank you Timurilank.

We use a home made set but they are not proving to be too robust.

Regards

In what areas do you think the rules need improvement?

Where to start.

Command and Control – ok
Movement – ok
Firing – needs a few tweaks but getting there
Melee – still tweaking
Post melee – in need of a re-think
Morale – not great but ok
Fighting in BUAs – improved

The main trouble is trying to recreate battle of the SYW and not just Napoleonic re-runs. I would like to avoid petty manouevering with single battalions and yet what to do with units which have been reduced in melee for example. I am thinking that something radical is needed.

Back to the drawing board.

Much depends on the scale of conflict you are trying to duplicate. Are the rules meant to represent a brigade or wing or army level action? This will reflect the amount of detail you may want for shooting, combat, and combat resolution.

Add to this, determining a winner may not be the result of accumulated losses, but also the commanders willingness to reach a result. Hastenbeck (1757) is classic as both sides thought they lost the battle.

More often than not, generals relied on information relayed from their subordinates and based their decisions to send reinforcements, hold or withdraw.

Moving battalions independently is fine for a brigade level game, but increasing the number of battalions will likely increase the chance of having an unfinished game. Possibly moving groups of brigades in formation might optimize your time.

We enjoy SYW campaigns or have battles which involve preliminary skirmishes before en eventual deployment. We also make use of grand tactical maps which allow us to shift positions to bring a battle elsewhere over a large area.

Fredrick made use of turning maneuvers to flank enemy positions; Leuthen and Rossbach are classic. Reproducing this on the table would only increase unnecessarily the amount of time needed to complete a battle. The grand-tactical map helps reducing the time need to shift troops and make decisions.

Cheers,

Thanks Timurlank

I haven't given up hope about finding the ideal ruleset yet.

Regards