"How to begin with 18th Century" Topic

So there is something about tricornes and frock coats that just looks fun to war game. However other than the American Revolution or AWI as everyone except us Yanks call it, I do not have much of a grounding in the period. I have considered that era that is roughly late 17th Century where you still have pike formations but clearly the musket is in ascendancy. The pageantry of the games is a big draw but again I know little about the conflicts and nations. I know that seems to be a popular period for imaginations but I do like to learn about the reasons for the conflicts and whys and wherefores that governed the period.

For scale I think I would like to go with 28 mm and small battles with perhaps no more than a couple hundred figures on each side with oportunity for some drama and interesting personalities. Yet I will not rule out 15 mm or smaller to go for those big battles. So this is kind of open ended and at this point I far, far, far away from even beginning to start collecting. I will confess this photo…

from doctorphalanx' blog about Salute 2016 really caught my eye.

Here is the link for a better picture as if you click on it at the blog site it expands in detail nicely. link

Here's everything you could want to now about the Seven Years War, which many Imaginations are based on:

link

If you do any amount of driving you can download some good books on the 17th century.

I would recommend starting with this one on Maria Theresa by James Frank Bright as it covers the War of Austrian Succession as well as the Seven Years War.

link

And Macaulay's history of Frederick the Great is a nice next one to cover another side of the story.

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Kim, Chris gave you the link to the SYW Rosetta stone! I have huge 15mm SYW armies. Best of luck with your new project!

The SYW is a goldmine for Imaginations – the Project Seven Years War link is a tremendous resource

I have five big SYW armies and am starting on a Imaginations army given that they will have no lack of opponents! The practice painting them up has given me lots of ideas for Imaginations units

I have 28mm – 24 fig infantry units, 12 fig cavalry

The Great Northern War seems to be in vogue at the moment. The armies aren't too big, and there's a lot of colour, with cossacks, Turks and Poles all able to play a part.

Question for Imaginations fans--do you have Imaginary armies in ADDITION to regular armies, or INSTEAD of? I have a SYW collection, and I can imagine creating a fictional additional country.

YogiBearMinis-
Mine is "instead of". I don't have any actual SYW armies, but have enjoyed building my own imagi-nation army just for the fun of it!

Another vote for GNW. Do swedes and you can choose between. Danes. Polish. Russians. Saxons and prussians as enemies. Russians, saxons and even danes fought in the same force. So you can make a multinational force against the swedes.

There are now two companies that make good swedish 28mm figures. Warfare and the ebor. Warfare also makes Russians. And figures subtle for early war saxons. While ebor makes figures suitable for late war saxons and danes.

The 1st Russo-Turkish War of Catherine II (the Great), 1769-1774.

Photos from our recent game in 54mm:

zodanga.blogspot.com

great links Pictors Studio, thanks very much!

Since you're willing to paint a couple hundred figures per side, might I direct you to the rule set entitled "Warfare in the Age of Reason". For this game, that number of figures would let you have around 12-15 individual units, and the game is primarily designed for 28mm.

Well, I only started my 18th Cenury set up a couple of years ago, until then having nothing but Napoleonics.

Being half Scots, half English, I started with the Jacobite Rebellion, not so many troops, although tartans are interesting to paint. I will soon have all of the troops for every battle of the "45", plan to expand into the War of Austrian Succession, and possibly later the Seven Year's War.

Rod

If you are interested in the late 17th C, do take a look at the League of Augsburg blog: leagueofaugsburg.blogspot.be

They have different sets of their own rules (for sale), from skirmish to huge battles, and their own figures range.
Also for the Great Northern War, which is actually early 18th C.

A good place to start is to pay a visit to Der Alte Fritz's blog

link

In addition to the other corkingly good resources already mentioned please do visit Henry Hyde's blog. 18th Century Imagi-nations are one of Henry's great passions and he's currently bending our minds as we prepare for the annual Ayton gaming weekend at the end of the month.
henrys-wargaming.co.uk/?p=2388

Osprey's Honors of War are a very good set of rulkes for this period.

I game SYW and LoA in 10mm and love the figures.

Pendraken make a great range of figures and the are lovely to paint

kallman,

For an overview of the 18th century conflicts in Europe, the early wars were mostly conflicts between two dynasties -- the Bourbons and Habsburgs -- with a constantly changing set of allies. Later in the century, Prussia became a significant player.

If you want to pursue a historical conflict, there are many fine examples above.

On the other hand, if you wish to create a pair of Imagi-Nations, I would suggest that you model them on two "historical" armies that look different from each other.

I started with two such loosely based on Hanover and Bavaria . . . your classic Red/Blue match up . . . but there are many options available.

Most importantly, just have fun.

-- Jeff

Dear Kallman

The Society of Daisy, a Yahoo group devoted to Fellowship, games, friendship and Imagi-nations publishes a PRINT newsletter which a few years ago published six issues on making and running Imagi-Nations. If you are interested contact me at sigurd@eclipse.net.

Otto