Quite a niche post follows, even by my own low standards! It is about miniature army planning and scope - including scope creep...it might be of some mild interest to that tiny subset of gamers who are currently pondering the War of the Spanish Succession in 6mm; or perhaps, slightly more widely, gamers thinking about new horse-and-musket armies more generally
Model manufacturers are probably well aware of this, but it is definitely true that nice figures and models will help to persuade us to buy more than we might have planned. My 6mm War of the Spanish Succession collection is a case in point. The original scope of the project was quite tight: it was to be a 'tabletop teaser'-type force, with two armies, each just large enough to refight all the sources of 'Tabletop Teaser' type scenarios I possess. That amounts to, more-or-less, the Tabletop Teaser series in Battlegames magazine; Grant and Asquith's 'Scenarios for All Ages'; Grant's 'Programmed Wargames Scenarios'; and Neil Thomas' scenarios in One-Hour Wargames. And, in terms of playing, this is more-or-less exactly what has happened. Roughly speaking, the following forces will cover you for all of this:
BLUE FORCES:
4 units of Artillery
1 unit of Light Artillery
1 unit of Engineers
3 units of Heavy Cavalry
3 units of Medium Cavalry
3 units of Light Cavalry
2 units of Elite Infantry
3 units of Light Infantry
10 units of Line Infantry
RED FORCES:
3 units of Artillery
1 unit of Light Artillery
1 unit of Engineers
3 units of Heavy Cavalry
3 units of Medium Cavalry
2 units of Light Cavalry
1 units of Elite Infantry
3 units of Light Infantry
9 units of Line Infantry
1 Pontoon Train
4 Supply wagons
So this was my target. And it was achieved quite easily. I themed the 'Blue Force' as French, but with a very high proportion of foreign units, especially Irish. The 'Red Force' was themed as British, with as high a proportion of Scottish units as could make sense. The rationale for the above was using them as the regular troops involved in the various Jacobite rebellions, as well as for the generic Horse and Musket scenarios.
But, it turned out that efficiency be damned, I really, really liked painting WSS figures! So The Red forces also got a brigade of Dutch Foot (which were Scottish), and another brigade of Dutch Foot (which were French), the French got a couple of Spanish units too (mainly Irish regiments). The Manchester Regiment, The Royal Ecossais and various Jacobite units were also done as if they had been raised for the '15 rather than the '45. You get the idea. As the armies expanded, I looked to the couple of sets of rules I had for the WSS which included army lists to give an indication of what a reasonable-sized complete army might look like.
Firstly, the army lists in Horse, Foot and Guns:
The Imperialist Army: 1 x Headquarters, 1 x Command Post, 5 x Cuirassiers, 2 x Dragoons, 1 x Hussars, 28 x Infantry, 1 x Field Artillery, 1 x Heavy Artillery
The Anglo-Dutch Army: 2 x Command Posts, 11 x Horse (3 x Dutch, 2 x British, 2 x Danish, 4 x German), 9 x Dragoons, 2 x Guard Infantry (1 x Dutch, 1 x British), 3 x Grenadiers, 49 x Infantry (15 x Dutch, 12 x British, 2 x Danish, 4 x Prussian, 16 x German), 7 x Field Artillery, 2 x Heavy Artillery. (n.b. The British Horse become Cuirassiers in the middle of the war).
The Franco-Bavarian Army: 1 x Headquarters, 1 x Command Post, 2 x Elite Horse (1 x French, 1 x Bavarian Cuirassiers), 6 x Horse, 8 x Dragoons, 4 x Guard Infantry (3 x French, 1 x Bavarian), 2 x Grenadiers (1 x French, 1 x Bavarian), 39 x Infantry (34 x French, 5 x Bavarian), 7 x Field Artillery, 1 x Heavy Artillery (n.b. I don't think there can be strong objections to replacing some French units with Spanish, to taste)
There were a few surprising things in there to me: the lack of Imperialist artillery, and the preponderance of Foot over Horse were perhaps the most obvious. Grenadiers don't seem to have played quite as big a part in the WSS as these figures imply. In any case, these armies did represent a significant expansion over my originals! However, I am nearly there for the Anglo-Dutch and Franco-Bavarians, I think I am only missing some of the German Foot for the former, and some of the French Foot for the latter.
The other set of army lists I have for the WSS are those in the 1e of the Polemos WSS rules. They imply much bigger forces, big armies by anyone's standards, even in 6mm:
Ansbach (1 Foot, 2 Dragoons)
Austria (36 Foot, 28 Horse/Cuirassiers, 11
Dragoons, 4 Field Guns, 8 Light Guns)
Bavarian (12 Foot, 13 Horse/Cuirassiers 1
Field Gun, 2 Light Guns) + 2 Guard Horse
Cologne (3 Foot, 3 Horse, 2 Dragoons)
Denmark (13 Foot, 8 Horse, 3 Dragoons)
France (67 Foot, 45 Horse, 11 Dragoons, 2
Hussars, 8 Field Guns, 10 Light Guns, 4 Siege Guns)
Franconia (3 Cuirassiers, 2 Dragoons)
Hanover (13 Foot, 6 Horse, 6 Dragoons, 2
Field Guns, 4 Light Guns)
Hesse (7 Foot, 5 Horse, 3 Dragoons)
Holland (21 Foot, 22 Horse, 6 Dragoons, 1
Field Gun, 4 Light Guns)
Holstein (2 Foot, 1 Cuirassier, 4 Dragoons)
Ireland (4 Foot, 2 Horse)
Italy (1 Horse)
Mainz (2 Dragoons)
Mecklenburg (1 Cuirassier, 1 Dragoon)
Munster (3 Foot, 1 Horse)
Upper Reich (Oberreich) (8
Foot, 2 Horse)
Palatinate (10 Foot, 6 Horse)
Portugal (9 Foot, 12 Horse, 1 Field Gun, 2
Light Guns)
Prussia (14 Foot, 5 Horse, 4 Dragoons)
Savoy (10 Foot, 4 Horse, 3 Dragoons, 1 Field
Gun, 3 Light Guns)
Saxe-Gotha (1 Cuirassier, 3 Dragoons)
Scotland (4 Foot),
Spain (11 Foot, 16 Horse, 5 Dragoons, 2
Field Guns, 3 Light Guns),
Swabia (2 Cuirassiers, 2 Horse, 1 Dragoon),
Switzerland (4 Foot),
Britain (18 Foot, 6 Horse, 3
Dragoons, 2 Field Guns, 3 Light Guns),
Walloon (4 Foot),
Westphalia (2 Horse),
Wurttemberg (3 Foot, 1 Horse, 1
Dragoons),
Wurzburg (2 Dragoons),
[Allied artillery totals (12 Field
guns, 18 light guns)]
(the bold is just to indicate the larger contingents involved)
So I have enough units to paint for a very long time, if I want my games to be accurate to the individual facing colour level. This is not however what Heretical Gaming is all about! So my actual target has evolved into having sufficient forces for the HFG lists, plus functional extras as they come up (so a few units of Spanish Horse for Almanza say).
The other way to approach this would be to look at the overall forces one would need for the battles listed in the ruleset, viz.:
Helpfully, this family of Polemos rules also includes options for Smalland Medium-sized games based on the above. Broadly speaking, they imply forces of a third to a half of the above figures for Small, and around two-thirds for Medium. Even for 'Small' battles, it is noteworthy how much proportionally more cavalry and artillery there will be on a Polemos battlefield than on an HFG battlefield. The 'average' small armies work out as follows:
Chiari:
Imperials: 14 bases Foot, 9 bases Cuirassiers, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery
French: 22 bases Foot, 10 bases Horse, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery
Luzzara:
Imperials: 9 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery
French: 9 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 6 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 base Foot Artillery
Speyerbach:
Allies: 6-7 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery
French: 12 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery
Blenheim:
Allies: 27 bases Foot, 17 bases Horse, 12 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery
French: 26 bases Foot, 22 bases Horse, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery
Ramilles:
Allies: 23 bases Foot, 15 bases Horse, 6 bases Dragoons, 6 bases Light Artillery, 4 bases Field Artillery
French: 24 bases Foot, 15 bases Horse, 7 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 3 bases Field Artillery
Almanza:
Allies: 10 bases Foot, 6 bases Horse, 2 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Field Artillery
French: 10 bases Foot, 6 bases Horse, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Field Artillery
Roughly speaking, these armies are about a Baccus Army pack plus a couple of extra individual packs in size, with the exception of Blenheim and Ramilles, which are more like an Army pack and a couple of reinforcement packs. That might be a good target for the average gamer. The Polemos 'Small Armies for Big Battles' lists are similar-ish in size to an HFG army - which makes sense, when a base is Polemos WSS 1e is ~ a battalion, and a base in HFG is ~ a brigade.
An Allied Army would come out as 27 bases Foot, 17 bases Horse, 12 bases Dragoons, 6 bases Light Artillery, 4 bases Foot Artillery, which would be:
1 x Generals Pack (£4.32)
2 x Foot Booster Packs (£47.52)
1 x Foot Pack (£8.72)
1 x Horse Booster Pack (£23.76)
1 x Horse Pack (£10.08)
1 x Dragoon Booster Pack (£23.76)
2 x Dismounted Dragoon Packs (£8.64)
2 x Light Artillery Pack (£8.64)
1 x Foot Artillery Pack (£4.32)
Or about £130-140 all-in.
Interesting …. I like shopping lists 👌 I think the important thing with bigger battles / collections is to be able to play smaller games on the way to that destination, which I know is your approach.
ReplyDeleteI do like blue and red scenarios, is that the old school in me showing through 😀
Quite so - reminds me of myself at about 12, when planning armies was much more realistic than actually acquiring very many! As you say, the key thing is to acquire and play in gentle stages to stop the overwhelm...what is the smallest amount of purchasing and painting I have to do to get to the next game? Not, I need the full order of battle for the 100 Days before I even dream of doing Quatre Bras...
DeleteAnd yes, got to love 'Blue' and 'Red', our constant nod back to the origins of wargaming...