"Which battle to wargame?" Topic

Being new to 7yw I am wondering which battle is a good one or a popular one to wargame. In Napoleonic games Waterloo and Borodino are common, but I know little of famous or good 7yw battles. We thought about using the Age of Honor for the Age of Eagles expansion module for the Wars of Lace 1700 thru 1789 which covers the 7yw pretty well. I will be the Prussian forces which covers most of the battles. The opponent will depend of course what we decide (with your help) upon for a conflict. It seems that the Russians, Austrians, Saxons, French? are the main combatants. British fight alongside the Prussians I believe. Not sure what scale we will use, probably 6mm or 15mm. Any thoughts or recommends welcome. Thanks
Bob

A traditional/ Old School option might be Lobositz.

I would recommend either the Russians or Austrians as an opponent. Both have tough armies and fought in a number of engagements against Frederick. And then you can decide on the style of play. If you want to sit in place and blast away with a lot of artillery, use Russians. Austrians played defense a lot too but sometimes attacked.

If you want a specific battle I would use Prague.

Kolin is an interesting one, with an outflanking force.
Leignitz and Zorndorf are also interesting to game
Rossbach is also good if you want to bring the French into it.

Russians or Austrians for sure – they account for a huge percentage of Great Freddy's battles

I went with Austrian first but Russians are also good – the nice thing about Russians is that the infantry uniforms don't vary by regiment

For battles, I would agree that Prague, Kolin and Zorndorf are great starters

Rossbach is a neat battle but if you lay it out the way the French advanced they have a pretty tough time

Leuthen,maybe the one where Old Fritz didn't do so hot;Kunersdorf.

Broadly speaking the war in Europe was two separate but not separate wars.
The 3rd Silesian war was mostly Prussia vs Austria/Russia. With some French involvement.
The western war, was Hanover and the Elector of Hanover (king of great Britain) vs France.
The majority of the allied troops on the watern war was hannoverian. Followed by British (at least post 1760) with troops from Brunswick and Hesse giving large number of troops to the Anglo-Hanoverians. A few prussian troops joined also.
Most of the Saxon troops fought in the French army.

I've run both Kolin and Lobositz and played in Leuthen. All made for good games

I agree with all the recommendations above but I still wanna pose the question: Why do you want to refight a battle that has already been fought? If you have studied the period at all you should have some basic knowledge of the armies, political, and military alliances, etc. Design your own scenario. You can use the OOB and general terrain from any number of engagements but then let your imagination have a little fun.

I have run so many of the battles of Frederick the Great and time after time I come back to Lobositz as the best game .

Any recommends for scale. Don't have a lot of room so 6m, 10m or 15mm will probably win out. What manufacturers would you choose or have chosen. Thanks

Well I know I am in the minority here but I have a soft spot for FreiKorps 15mm. Don't know where you are, if you're in the UK your choices are virtually limitless, but here in the colonies we have more limited access. I have heard good things about Old Glory and Blue Moon, haven't had the chance to try them yet though. Don't know about availability of 6mm or 10mm I do know that 15s are relatively easy to paint and still give enough detail without going overboard and you can put a large force in a relatively small space.
Well, that's just me, take it for whats its worth, this post and $1.50 USD will get you a cup of coffee, a cheap one.

I have SYW figures in several scales. For over all playability I would go with 15/18mm. I have a rather large 15mm set of armies and I'm able to refight the majority of the battles, while storage isn't an issue (terrain takes up more space than the figures). Also the visual impact of the 15's is pleasing, big enough to look good.

I think I should refer you a little known practice used by some wargames clubs. The Wars of Jumbled Alliances, you simply game with whatever armies the members happen to bring, such as Austrian vs Russian, French and Austrian vs all others, French vs Austrian, whatever! Makes for some very interesting combinations.

Scale, very much a matter of taste, 15/18mm is good, smaller and you loose some character. That said, I love 10mm and Pendraken do a great range, plus Leon is a joy to deal with.

Leuthen and Zorndorf. My favorites of the SYW.

Anything of the French Revolutionary wars

My favorites:

WAS: Fontenoy, Campo Santo, Piacenza.

SYW: Zorndorf, Minden, Freiberg.

French Revolutionary Wars: Fleurus, Würzburg.