Assorted Artillerymen, and a call to the Colours

Not a large amount  of hobby activity to report recently, sadly - some 'real life' stuff  took up last week, for a start. This week I have made a start on sorting and re-basing sone more vintage Minifigs Seven Years War figures - specifically looking at a box of artillery men and guns. I acquired no less than 115 gunners and 14 guns, though it's not guaranteed that the guns actually match the gunners!  

I've got a selection of the gunners soaking in water to remove their rather varied bases - some plain cardboard, some heavily textured, even some aluminium! (the latter may need to go in the freezer to break the glue bonds). 

 

This first batch includes 24  figures with blue coats and mid-blue breeches and waistcoats, which have Minifigs code numbers PSW22 to PSW25: Prussian Horse Artillery. 

They puzzled me for a while,  as modern sources like the Kronoskaf website suggest white breeches and waistcoats for Prussian artillery. But I also looked in my vintage copy (published 1974) of Christopher Duffy's The Army of Frederick The Great, and in his appendix list of regiments, under Artillerie there appears a single line :  Plain blue coat, light blue waistcoat and breeches.  So I think I know which reference their original 1970s/1980s owner was using!  I should add that there are no less than six gun models with Prussian-style blue carriages, clearly intended to be crewed by these chaps. So my Prussian forces are not short of artillery..      

 

The second batch includes a couple more groups of figures,  the first with blue coats and red breeches, which I strongly suspect represent French artillerymen. They are attached to aluminium bases and flocked, so as yet I have not been able to see the code numbers on the bases - these may be revealed after a spell in the freezer and a clean up! 

And finally, another batch with blue coats, red facings and buff-coloured breeches: 

I wondered if these are AWI figures, representing either British or American gunners - and then I noticed the relevant Osprey book has a picture of an AWI Hessian gunner which looks a good match.  But I'll take any useful suggestions... 

from Osprey MAA543: Hessen-Hanau Canoneer

And that's about it for now on the great re-basing project. I will admit it has rather taken over all hobby activity, I really need to vary things aa bit, maybe even put on an actual game!  Perhaps I will be suitably inspired by attending the Newbury and Reading Wargames Society's Colours  wargame show, tomorrow at Newbury Racecourse.  There looks to be an interesting selection of games and an impressive list of traders, and having once before ( 2018? )  I know the venue is good. I have tentative arrangments to meet a couple of friends and will be on the lookout for Steve J in his (hopefully distinctive)  yellow hoodie!    If you know me and are at the show, I'd be happy to say hello and have a chat, and of course I'll take my camera and hope to show a few pictures of whatever games take my fancy, in my next post here. Until then, keep well everyone. 

1776 and All That..

It can't have escaped your notice that there have been some events in commemoration of the United States' Declaration of Independence from Britain 250 years ago.  In the spirit of such self-evident truths as Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (and now it seems, cheating at soccer), I thought it might be fun to mark the anniversary with some sort of gaming. I remembered what I think was the first board wargame I ever bought - Avalon Hill's 1776, and  I am glad to say I still have my copy, which I'm almost certain will have been acquired by the teenage me in, of course,  1976.  

Here is the suitably lightly  scuffed box,   

 and the contents - a little yellowing of paper here and there, but not bad condition for 50 years old, large stretches of which were spent in various lofts. 

 

The mapboard is rather splendid, measuring 16 by 44 inches, rather nicely depicting the wooded and mountainous terrain in a sort of 'relief map' style, at a scale of 1 hex = 18.6 miles.  

The rulebook contains rules for three levels of game; a very simple Basic Game with a single, simple scenario;  an Advanced Game (plus optional rules) which  allows the playing of four larger campaign scenarios (such as the invasion of Canada, or the Saratoga campaign);  and the Campaign Simulation Game which 'provides the framework for re-creating the entire Revolutionary War starting in January, 1776' - I suspect this latter would involve a fairly large commitment of time to play to completion.  

 Fortunately the Basic Game is very basic indeed, covering only the Northern half of the map and depicting the situation in mid 1776 during the British build-up. Units are restricted to British Regulars and Continental Army, they have only Combat Strength Points ( 1 CSP = approx 500 men ) and movement allowances.  CSPs are interchangeable ( so a 10 CSP unit can be split into 2 x 5CSP, etc )  and combat is decided between opposing units occupying the same hex, by calculating the attacker:defender CSP ratio and rolling a single D6 against a simple Combat Results Table - just like many contemporary SPI games I can remember.  The Brits win by occupying enough of the main cities (each has a 'Control Points' value) with no Continentals disputing them, and the Americans win by preventing the British from doing so, after seven (monthly) turns from June to December 1776.   There are only about 4 pages of rules and the turn sequence is Player 1 move then combat, Player 2 move then combat, simple as that! So let's give it a go..

Here's the initial setup : 

Fairly obviously, red counters are British units, and blue are American.  Something of a 'central position' for the Americans, with a fairly large force of 17 SP at Morristown, New Jersey, and an overall total of 32 SP.  The British have a total of 36 SP, with 20SP of those in New York and 10 SP at St. Johns.  It looks fairly even, but there are large British reinforcements coming.. 

Turn One represents June 1776 and the Brits go first - they advance with 18 SP from New York towards West Point ( which is occupied by 6 SP of Continentals), being careful not to allow  the Morristown force to get behind them and attack New York. Meanwhile in the North, 11 SP of British advance  from Canada along the shores of Lake Champlain, heading for Fort Ticonderoga ( held by just 3 SP of Americans  ). 

Turn 1 : British  New York army threatens West Point 

 

..while a large force from Canada descends on Ticonderoga 

The Yankee response is to split the large Morristown force, sending 7 SP to reinforce Philadelphia ( which is worth a substantial 15 victory points ) and 10 SP to strengthen their force at West Point to a total of 16 SP. (this split may have been a mistake.).  No fighting yet, but the Americans could not reinforce Ticonderoga, which looks vulnerable. .  

On Turn Two ( July 1776), the British get a substantial reinforcement of 19 SP landed  at New York - pretty much doubling their strength in that area!  The British forces coming down from Canada  attack Ticonderoga with with 12 to 3, so 4:1 odds, rolling only a '2' but that gets a '1/2DE' result - half (rounded up) of the defender's units are lost, so 2 out of 3 US SPs are lost.  One solitary SP of Americans face 12 times their numbers..   Meanwhile in New York,  the British reinforcements go straight into action, allowing a total of 30 SP of Redcoats to attack the 10 SP of Americans at West Point. 3:1 odds, and rolled a six!  That is a 'DE' result, and all  10 SPs of Yankees flee the field. That is a major blow for the Continental army - more than a third of their total forces lost in one move! 

Turn 2: Scary Redcoats at West Point threaten Morristown..

 

In their turn, the USA raises 6 SP at Albany, to add to the 1 SP already there and these are supplemented by the survivors (1 SP) from Ticonderoga beating a hasty retreat. After the disaster at West Point, the Americans at Morristown (8SP) retreat to Philadelphia, making a fairly formidable 15 SP available there. But they are still quite badly outnumbered by 40+ SP of Redcoats around New York. 

Turn Three -  August 1776 - piles the pressure on, as the British get another 21 SPs of Redcoats which can land at any port. They choose New Bedford, Massachussetts  and immediately march no less than 19 SP to attack the small American force (2 SP) at Boston, an important objective. With more odds of  5:1 or more, they roll a '3' which only gives '1/2 DE', so not a total wipeout but leaves 1 SP of plucky Continentals facing 19 times their number of redcoats!  The British are also able to send 2 SP to secure Newport, Rhode Island (worth some victory points ).

Having large forces at both West Point and Ticonderoga, the British now turn to deal with Albany.  From Ticonderoga, 10 SP advance but can't quite reach Albany owing to a couple of river crossings slowing them down; but 24 SP from West Point can easily get their, and attack the American 8 SP at 3:1 odds - the dice are with the British, a '5' gives 'DE' and the entire  American force is scattered! This is another disaster for the Yankees, they have only 17 SP remaining ( 15 at Philadelphia and a puny 1 each at Ft. Stanwix and Boston ) against the British with well over 60 SP.  In their turn, they recruit 4 SP around Albany, who promptly retire up the Mohawk valley to Stanwix. 

Turn 3 (August 1776) : Redcoats everywhere!  

 Turn Four (September) saw the British victors of Albany sending no less than 20 SP to attack Fort Stanwix, and detaching 10 SP to West Point, to be joined by  8 SP coming from New York. A further 15 SP marched from Boston across Massachussetts, reaching Hartford, Connecticut - that left 4 SP to deal with the last Yankees at Boston - which they duly did, wiping them out.  At Stanwix, the British has 4:1 odds and rolled a mediocre '3' , but that still gave '1/2DE', killing 3 SP of Americans (and leaving the survivors outnumbered by 10 to 1 !).  The Americans  gained reinforcements of  4 SP at Philadelphia, making a respectable 19 SP there, and the remaining 2SP from Ft. Stanwix began a cross-country retreat across the New York  back country, reaching Owego - the British probably won't bother to pursue. 

Turn 4 ( Sept 1776) : all over bar some shouting in Philadelphia..

And at that point, I'm calling it, a solid British  victory. The Americans hold only Philadelphia, with only a few  more reinforcements coming ( including 1 lone SP at Albany - that won't last long!), and the British can just keep them bottled up there, even if they don't actually attack. With all the other objective cities and forts held, the British will have an overwhelming victory point score (96 to 15!).  Looks like the American dream was squelched at the very start... 

Interesting - although the armies were fairly evenly matched at the start, the British had 40 SPs more coming in July and August, more than doubling their force! The Americans had only 18 SPs of reinforcements, in small packets from July to November, so they were at a real disadvantage after the first three turns.  I wonder if it was a mistake for the Americans to divide their large Morristown force early on to reinforce Philadelphia - perhaps they should have combined with their troops at West Point and attacked the British army which had marched out of New York. This would have given the USA  23 SP vs. the British 18  SP - which would only be a 1:1 attack ratio, so still quite risky and at best would kill half the British force, with quite a high chance of losing half (or even all) of  their own army.  Or perhaps just combining and standing on the defensive at West Point - with 20+ SP there, the Brits would have struggled to mount  a 2:1 attack,  even with their reinforcements, which could have made any assault quite costly.  As it was, once the big British reinforcements arrived, it was quite easy for them to build up 3:1 or 4:1 attack forces, and I'll admit the dice went their way - if they had rolled a '1' at West Point, 15 SP of  Redcoats would have evaporated as well as the 10 SP of Continentals! 

Anyway, quite a good fun game, thankfully simple for my heatwave-frazzled brains (we are forecast  34C / 93F  today!). and I am interested to read the Advanced Rules and give them a go soon - I do like the map, I have to say, and it cries out for using as a basis for a figures-gaming  campaign!

What with the heat and some fairly onerous 'real life' stuff, I'll admit there has been a shortage of both time and inclination for hobby activity, but I can report the next step in the great re-basing project: Russians! Here are some vintage Minifigs Russian 7YW musketeers  and Hussars going for a nice paddle in cool water ( lucky them!) to loosen up their old bases: 

    

I have also been enjoying catching up with other blogs, and will admit that my decision to dig out a very old game was partly inspired by the prolific Martin Rapier of  The Games We Play blog, who has clearly lost his senses in the heat and is grappling with the veteran SPI complexathon that is Air War  :  I had that one myself, and from reading Martin's valiant attempts I wonder if I ever even scratched the surface of it back in the day!  

Also great to see Postie's Rejects Richard's (My Wargaming Habit) excellent 1796  Battle of Caldiero report, supplemented by Ray and Big Lee's accounts of the same game from opposing sides, and Jon at Palouse Wargaming Journal with his Samurai 'Battle of the Tombs'  (featuring Postie's Rejects again!) games, even though I can;t keep up with the Japanese names and unit types, so it is to some extent 'all Japanese to me'!  Still, well worth a read.  And finally not to forget Alan 'Kingdom of Wittenburg' with his glorious-looking 18th Century armies fighting the 'Battle of Vierstrasse'  ( loosely based on Quatre Bras?)  - quite an inspiration for what I'd like to achieve with my old Minifigs collection!

More on the Minifigs next time, I hope (if we haven't all melted)  with basing and painting progress, and I have gleaned some more interesting snippets of  information about them.  Until then, keep cool, everyone. 

A Minifigs Mini-Mystery: re-basing saga continues

 Now I will quite understand if readers are getting a mite bored with pictures of vintage Minfigs 7YW/AWI figures, please excuse me as I am going to show some more!  The reason being that hobby time this past few days has been occupied with a minor Minifigs mystery, as follows: 

The latest group of figures on the re-basing production line are no less than 48 infantry which I take to be French: initially I guessed that they represent the Vaubecourt Regiment, because this is how they came out of the tin when I bought them: 

 I admit I was too quick to assume, that flag seemed to indicate Vaubecourt Infanterie pretty clearly, I didn't look any closer. . Anyway, this week I got to work on them, soaked them off their (thankfully just cardboard) bases, and took a closer look at the figures.  It's been a nice sunny couple of days, allowing a first venture into the garden with the painting table, so here they are catching some rays before a  paddle in a tray of cool water  : 

The officer is very nice but maybe not strictly related, more of him later..

Two issues arose immediately; (a) the flag wasn't actually attached to a figure, just sort of 'wedged' between the arms and body of one of them, and (b) the facing colours were all wrong! According to the excellent Kronosfkaf Project, they should have  white cuffs, red collars and red waistcoats; 

On closer inspection of the figures we see this: 

 

Quite nicely painted, I like the face, lots of character -  but look at the facings..Those cuffs are GREEN, as are the collars.  Which unit would that be? Well, I am a bit mystified.  I had a look through the invaluable  Osprey volume on Louis XV Infantry, which has a paragraph on pretty much every regiment - no luck. None of the units listed there had green cuffs - the vast majority were white, red, blue or purple. 

 

Having removed most of the flock that had been covering the bases, I can see the Minifigs serial number is AWI 18 : French Line Infantryman Advancing ( from the AWI range, obvs).  So maybe this is an 'AWI' period unit rather than 7YW; next port of call was to search on-line for French Regiments sent to help America, which turned up a Wikipedia page.   That was quite interesting in itself, in that several of the regmiments listed appear in the collection I acquired ( e,g Soissonais, Saintorge, Touraine) and many of the figures have 'AWI' code  - it looks like someone was indeed recruitng for the French forces in America 1778-1783.  But the green facings?   Back on-line, to  Kronsokaf's list of French Regiments in the 7YW :  after a fair amount of cross-referencing it looks like the only likely candidate would be  the Volontaires Étrangers de la Marine. - it seems they served in both the United States and the Caribbean. 

The Kronoskaf page gives this diagram of the uniform: 

 -well, it's green facings, at least!  That's the only one I've seen.. a slight question over the diagram showing the lapels as green, which doesn't appear on the figure, but perhaps that detail had changed between 1760s and 1770s?  (also the pose of the figure makes it quite hard to paint lapels, so maybe a bit of license was taken).  Having got the possible name of Volontaires Etrangers, further on-line meanderings  came up with a rather good  illustration, from a blog called  Flintlocks and Tomahawks: 

  -rather nice, though note the green waistcoat. Accounts clearly vary!   This unit had an 'interesting' start in life, being first raised at the start of the Seven Year's War  : Kronoskaf says The unit was raised on June 1, 1756 by Colonel Fischer to serve at sea and as garrison in the French colonies. Recruitment problems impeded the formation of the unit when its destination became known. Most of the recruits were German. The unit initially counted 3 battalions of about 911 men. In 1756 and 1757, its 3 battalions were sent to Bretagne.   Clearly, few recruits fancied life at sea! It then seems that one  battalion was used for coastal defence in France, one sent to Canada, and one joined the French army in Germany.   So conveniently, this unit served in both the 7YW and AWI, very useful!  

Another interesting feature is the regimental standard, which Kronoskaf shows like this: 

I reckon I could paint this.. 

 

However, we have 48 figures all carrying muskets, and I don't really need multiple battalions;  I will stick to just one battalion, and try to find an officer, drummer and standard-bearer from the 'depot' to join them. The rest could be recruited for other regiments, with a little re-painting of cuffs and collars. Now what were the Vaubecourt regiment's facing colours again?

 Finally a quick look at the officer that arrived with these - I am now asuming he has no connection to them, but he is rather nicely painted :

 He really deserves a command role somewhere, Brigadier-General at least, I should think.  All of which I hope shows that sorting through  a  'pre-loved' collection is proving to be an enjoyable, interesting and sometimes challenging part of the hobby in itself - I'm glad to have got involved with these.  

Meanwhile in the 'real world' it's the Salute show in a couple of days time, but for the first time in a while I won't be attending, owing to other commitments. I will look forward to seeing other blogger's reports on the day, of which there will be many, I'm sure. Maybe next year..  

I'll try to change the subject a bit next time!  Until then, keep well, everyone.

Reviewing New Recruits (5): One More Heave..

Regular readers will know what this post is about (and possibly be bored rigid, I admit!);  I am continuing to review my recently acquired vintage Minifigs 25mm 7YW/AWI figures.  If you have only just stumbled on this, the background to it all is described here ).   We are in the home straight now,  just one more box of infantry, a box of artillery pieces and gunners, and a small box of a few more cavalry and wagons.  So let's push on and get them finished. I will then have a 'mugshot' on here for every unit in the collection, and a good idea of what they comprise and how they can be used.  OK, let's crack on.

Box no. 9  was described by the seller as 'Prussian' and 'German' infantry, and included the following: 

A unit of 'Prussian musketeers'. The blue waistcoat and breeches are interesting, and from a quick look at reference books such as Duffy's The Army of Frederick the Great, these would appear to indicate a Garrison regiment. That's a nice variation from the usual line infantry, which will be useful for any game involving a garrisoned town or fortification of some sort.    The Minifigs code number of the rank and file figures is PSW 9 - Prussian Line Musketeer Marching, which makes entire sense. 

Next, a couple of units (18 figures each) of 'German' grenadiers. Blue coats, white breeches, yellow facings. 

 They're not Prussians - the grenadier cap looks wrong for them. The Minifigs  reference number is, interestingly enough, AWI 38, British 38th Grenadier Coy. So, an interesting paint conversion by the original owner.  I'll welcome any suggestions as to what (if any) real-life unit is being represented!  There is of course always room for an entirely fictitious Germanic Duchy, hiring out their troops for the duration to boost the coffers or expand the art collection of their Duke..   

More 'German' infantry - 3 units, each of 18 figures. Blue coats and red, yellow or white facings. Each unit has  6 grenadier figures - quite a strong 'company' of the big guys. 

 

I have no further information on these, and the heavy 'polyfilla' on the bases has covered the code numbers, so no help there. But they may be good as 'generic' Germanic troops - I think they could probably sneak in at the back of the parade of the Prussian army, for example. 

 And finally, that's it for infantry! Over four posts, I think I have covered over 50 different 'units' (of various sizes)  of infantry, which is fantastic, I am ridiculously pleased to have them. 

And finally for Box. no.9, a nice bonus of a selection of  officer figures : quite nicely painted, these will be very useful! 

  Box number 10 contains guns and gunners, and some uncertain identities. First of all, this large group of artillerymen: 

 I confess the uniform colours are a bit of mystery to me! Browsing around Kronoskaf 7YW has not produced any results yet - except to rule out Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Hesse-Cassel, Brunswick and Sweden! The code numbers on the bases ( e.g PSW 24, PSW 25 ) indicate Prussian Horse Artillery, but Kronoskaf shows a more conventional Prussian Blue coat and buff leather breeches for that unit.  I wonder if these are the gunners of an 'imagi-nation'? Oh well , onwards and upwards. The next lot look a bit more obvious: 

It seems fairly safe to say the yellow guns cariages and the red/brown coats of their crews mark them out as Austrians. 

The next batch are in three  groups, and I think are most likely French (left and centre ) with red breeches,  and Prussian.  All  have flock etc on the bases, so no clear code numbers to be seen. 

 

Next, I suspect more Prussians (left and centre), and can those be Americans on the right? Unless they are Hessians ?  Surely not British?  There are quite a few rather similarly attired possibles, with blue coats, white waistcoat and red facings. . Perhaps that's an advantage - they can represent whomsoever I wish.. Agian, no visible code numbers, buried under thick layers of filler. 

 These, I assume, are jolly jack tars who have brought their naval guns to the shore:

   

Next a selection of 'odds and ends' that don't quite match other groups, and seem to include some officers  - I am assuming the two on the right are supposed to be Austrian, at least. 

The two gents in grey coats and red breeches have visible code numbers - AWI95, Hesse-Cassel Artillryman,  and PSW18,  Prussian Foot Artilleryman.  But both Hesse-Kassel and Prussia's artillerymen had blue coats..  

A battery of guns on distinctive blue carriages - perhaps Prussian?  I notice the mystery blue uniformed-gunners in the first picture are 24 strong, which would give 6 crews of 4 each  for these 6 guns..

 and three on more neutral grey carriages: 

 and finally two one in a sort of olive green (left) and one grey,  of which the latter one looks  to be  a howitzer.. 

That makes a total of 14 guns - and over 100 gunners!  

Box no.11 contained a quantity of cavalry, and I've shown them in an earlier post. So we just have one more, Box no.12 with  a some more cavalry and some wagons.  First up, this small unit of cavalry 

 

Well, this has me stumped rather. The headgear might be some sort of Dragoon or Light Dragoon - perhaps AWI Continentals?  Interesting brown coat, green facings with some yellow trimmings. Any guesses welcome.. 

Another rather Dragoon-ish looking unit with green coats and red facings: 

 Could it perhaps be the American Continental 4th Light Dragoons ?  Again, opinions welcome! 

Last of the cavalry, this small group of red-uniformed horsemen:

Hmmm.. the uniform ( all red, blue saddlecloth ) could be Russian Hussars such as Moldavskiy (Moldavian) Hussars - but the model troopers have their right hands 'drilled out' to hold a lance. I finally thought of looking at the current Minifigs (sold by Matchlock Figurines, in turn under Caliver Books, it seems) catalogue - it has very few photos of the figures, but one of them is the (Prussian) Bosniak Lancer, code PSWC12 which looks about right. Eventually I remembered to  look at my Osprey book on Frederick the Great's Cavalry, and there of course is a lovely Prussian Bosniak Lancer, dressed in red just like these figures are - bingo! Rather a curious little unit, though - an officer, two trumpeters, and just two troopers, both of whom have mislaid their lances! All this has involved quite a lot of searching the internet, for the sake of a couple of dozen figures - the words 'rabbit hole' spring to mind..

And finally, finally - plodding along at the rear of the parade comes the supply column, of three wagons.   

Wagons are always useful.  I already have a few (plus a couple of plastic kits waiting to be built), so I think there's plenty of scope for 'supply convoy ambush' scenarios. One of them needs some running repairs as the wagon body has come loose from the chassis, but that's easily enough done. 

And that, at last, is pretty much all I have.  Over a thousand figures, all but a very few painted. As stated above, about 50 infantry units of various sizes, plus 11 units of cavalry,  14 guns ( with a surplus of gunners ) , a nice selection of senior officers and three wagons.   Not a bad collection!  Having  had a look at them all and made some attempt at identification (with very valuable help from several commentors on this blog - thanks everyone!),  the next step is to look at how they can be assigned to various armies for Seven Years War and/or AWI, and see what strength those armies can have, when combined with my existing small   'Portable 7YW Wargame' forces. I also need to work out a decent storage system, in place of the motley collection of carboard boxes and biscuit tins they arrived in! And of course, let's not forget actually gaming with them. At the moment I am thinking of small AWI actions  using Rebels and Patriots rules,  plus possible larger 7YW battles, for which several candidate rule sets are available - Keith Flint's Honours of War and Warlord Games Black Powder spring to mind.  In true 'old school' style, it would be fun to set up as big a game as possible and play it with Young and Lawford's Charge! rules, just for the hell of it! 

I reckon the next step is to put units together into potential contingents/armies, in which case I will show the resulting 'parades' here.  Then maybe we can think about some games.. I hope you've been interested and/or amused to see all these nice vintage figures in all their variety of styles - I have certainly enjoyed sorting through them and seeing what I've got.  Now let's get them into 'action'... Look out for that in future posts. Until then, keep well, everyone. 

Reviewing New Recruits (4) : Infantry, part 3

In this post I'll show yet more of my recently acquired vintage Minifigs 25mm 7YW/AWI figures. .I hope regular readers aren't getting too bored with this!  This is almost the last of the infantry, just two boxes to go but quite a few units so I'll just do one of the boxes now! . I'll mention 'bots' and Partizan later, but for now, let's get on with the figures. 

Box no. 8 contains units painted or labelled  as Prussians, Hessians, Brunswickers and other 'Germans', as follows: 

One battalion of  Prussians, labelled 41st Regt Wied Zu NuWied Fusiliers  :

 According to Kronoskaf Seven Years War the standard looks right, and the facings should be 'light carmine red' - these look more purple to me, but perhaps it has faded with the passage of 30 or even 40 years since painting!  The Minifigs code number on the base of the rank and file figures is AWI 53 Hesse-Kassel Regt. Fusilier Advancing  (that's according to the Minifigs 1975 catalogue, available on-line for those who might like a little more nostalgia) .   

This highlights a big feature of the whole collection, in that there are some fairly 'interesting' choices of figures being used!  Why use an AWI Hesse-Kassel figure for Prussian Seven Years War?   I can only assume that a bulk order was placed for AWI, perhaps at the start of a club project, maybe the project perhaps morphed into SYW over time ( 'mission creep' at its best..), and it seemed a shame not to use the figures?   Or perhaps there was some opportunity for discounts on a large order? Or it was just a case of 'keep it simple', ordering as small a range of different figures as possible?  I will never know, but it's ineresting to look into what figures are lurking under the paintwork of the finished units! 

Next up, labelled as Prussian 35th Regiment, Prinz Heinrich von Preußen Fusiliers:

    

These look right according to Kronoskaf , and the rank and file figures are AWI 53 Hesse-Kassell Fusilier, as above. 

Another Prussian unit - 42nd Regt Markgraf von Brandenburg-Schwedt  

  - with orange facings. And again, the basic fusilier figures are serial no. AWI 53. 

 

Now, on to various other Germanic types.  First up,  a unit labelled   Hesse-Kassel : Musketeers Von Trumbach  (8th Regt) 

von Trumbach is the name carried at the time of  the regiment's service in the AWI - in the Seven Years War it was the Mansbach regiment.  I do like the exotic drummer! That might be a specifically 'American' feature, but  with a little wargamer's license I will be happy using these for either AWI or 7YW games - as an aside, it seems that this regiment was also present at Culloden in 1746.   The rank-and-file figures have serial number  AWI 56 : Hesse-Hanau Regt - Musketeer Advancing -  from the catalogue, I can see there was no Musketeer figure for Hesse-Kassell, so I can understand the seeming eccentricity of this choice.

 This next unit are labelled  Hesse-Kassell Grenadiers von Rall  and they boast rather splendid trousers!

 I'm not sure that colourful legwear can be really accurate, but it's certainly distinctive. [Update: many thanks to Neil Patterson and Jon Freitag for confirming that they are indeed authentic. representing  'ticking' material from which new leggings were improvised, which was indeed striped, being intended for mattresses!].

This is clearly an AWI unit,  as shown on a Uniforms of the American Revolution website, but  I have not yet tried to trace whether or not they existed in the 7YW.    The serial number on the grenadier figures is  AWI 55  Hesse-Kassell Regt Grenadiers,  quite sensibly. 

Pressing on, to Brunswick : first up, Regiment Prince Ludwig 

These are unusual - it seems that they were actually a Dragoon regiment, sent to America in British employment in the AWI, but without horses, and thus obliged to serve on foot!  The figures are mostly serial number AWI 87, which the catalogue describes as 'Brunswick Dragoon' , so they are correct, it seems, if pretty unusual.      

Next,  Regiment von Riedesel :   also serial number AWI 87,  I like the colour scheme of these Brunswickers.  [ Update: my US correspondent and AWI expert Jon Freitag suggests that these look like they might actually represent von Retz regiment..]   

 and Royal Deux-Ponts regiment : even more interesting, it seems these were indeed in America, but  were in the service of France, fighting against the British!  Once again, serial no.  AWI 87. 

And finally,  three more small units which were only described to me as 'Germans'. Hmmm.. 

This first unit (above) has blue coats and yellow facings, and a possible clue is the serial number - AWI 56 Hesse Hanau Regt - Musketeer Advancing.  However,   Hesse-Hanau's contribution to the British army in America was its Erbprinz regiment  - who seem to have had red facings and buff or yellow breeches. So for the moment I am indeed chalking these up as generic 'Germans'. With a bit more research, maybe I can assign them a name - suggestions welcome!  I confess I don't have any reference books for British/Hessian units in the AWI - I clearly need to do some reading, and probably should acquire the appropriate Osprey book..    [ Update - Jon Frietag suggests these may be more likely to represent  von Riedesel regiment..many thanks, Jon ] 

Another unit, also  code AWI 56,  but this time with green coats, and clearly the work of a different painter ( and note those rather over-engineered alumium bases, which I've mentioned before). 

 I note that it seems there was a unit of Hesse-Hanau Jagers (Jäger-Corps von Creuzbourg) in Ameirca, but have not yet found any uniform details on-line. Might they have worn green coats? It seems a goodish bet.. 

And finally, yes finally, another small unit which I think are serial no. AWI 57 Hesse-Hanau Regt. Firing :     

Now those, I suspect, might represent the actual Hesse-Hanau Erbprinz regiment - or a small part of it at least.  [ Update - Jon Freitag suggests these may in fact be von Specht regiment - thanks again, Jon!]

I think that will do for now - eleven units of various sizes,  out of just one box, phew! Some of uncertain identity, but all full of period flavour and can be happily used in games, be it AWI or 7YW. There would seem to be scope for a decently sized army made  up of units from various German states (a sort of imaginary Reichsarmee perhaps?)  to oppose or be allied with my French, Prussian and/or  Austrian forces. One more box of infantry  to go, but I'll spare you that ordeal now. I hope this has been a fun,  interesting and possibly quite nostalgic read for you. It has certainly got me trawling the internet for possible IDs! 

That's enough for now except for a couple of quick points : 

(a) The bots have gone, it seems! the crazily high volume of recent pageviews dropped back to 'normal' on about 2nd October, and I see others have reported the same.     They have thoroughly messed up my viewing counts and 'top 10 views' list, but never mind.  Presumably silicon valley's brief obsession with old-school wargaming has passed - maybe they've gone on to model railways. You need to get out more, guys.. 

(b) Partizan! Or to be correct,  The Other Partizan - is on this Sunday at Newark, and I am planning to go along.  I am going with absolutely no plan of games to see or traders to patronise [ though I should clearly be  looking for an Osprey book on AWI British and Hessians!] , just winging it.  But of course it will be good, anyway. Meeting old buddy Dave 'St Cyr' so we can do our usual 'Waldorf and Stadtler' routine around the hall,   and hoping to run into one or two others - a couple of book exhanges on the cards.  Happy to chat to anyone that knows me - and if you don't know what I look like,  I am a late-middle-aged, badly-dressed, bald, white guy, so I'll be easy to tell apart from everyone else there... 

As usual, I will try to take some pictures of the games, and show them in a post on this blog sometime next week, so watch this space.. Until then keep well, eveyone.