Extra Crispy's List of H&M Rulesets

Not Just the Ones That He Owns!

1812 Dawns Early Light Horse & Musket

18th Century Game of War Horse & Musket

19th Century Skirmish Horse & Musket

Age of Gunpowder: Fast Play 1500-1700 Horse & Musket

Age of Honor Horse & Musket

All For One (Three Musketeers) Horse & Musket

All the King's Men Horse & Musket

American Battlelines (1st. Ed.) Horse & Musket

American Battlelines (2nd Ed.) Horse & Musket

Among the War Parties Horse & Musket

Black Powder (Warlord Games) Horse & Musket

Black Powder Battles Horse & Musket

Black Powder Gaming (A.G.S.) 2nd Ed. Horse & Musket

Black Powder Tactical Commander Horse & Musket

British Are Coming, The 2nd Ed. Horse & Musket

By Savvy & Steel Horse & Musket

Carnage and Glory II Horse & Musket

CdePK: A Tactical Toolkit Horse & Musket

Chosen Men Horse & Musket

Cohesion Lite Horse & Musket

Complete Brigadier, The Horse & Musket

Drums Of War Along the Mohawk Horse & Musket

En Garde! Horse & Musket

Escalade Horse & Musket

Field of Battle: Piquet 1700-1900 2nd Ed. Horse & Musket

Field Regulations Horse & Musket

Fire & Discipline 1:10 Scale Rules 1740-1850 Horse & Musket

Fire and Charge* Horse & Musket

Fix Bayonets! : Rules for Simulating Warfare in the Horse & Musket Era 1700-1865 Horse & Musket

Flintlock & Ramrod Horse & Musket

Fortunes of War, the Horse & Musket

Frederick d'Or 2.0 Horse & Musket

Frederick the Great Horse & Musket

Fusil & Fortress Horse & Musket

Fusilier Horse & Musket

Ga Pa Horse & Musket

Gentlemen Generals Horse & Musket

Gloire Horse & Musket

Glory: Individual Combat 1750-1914 Horse & Musket

Grand Ambition Horse & Musket

Habitants and Highlanders* Horse & Musket

King of the Battlefield Horse & Musket

Koenig Krieg 1st Ed. Horse & Musket

Koenig Krieg 2nd Ed. Horse & Musket

Koenig Krieg 3rd Ed. Horse & Musket

Kriegspiel Horse & Musket

Lace Warfare Horse & Musket

Long Rifle Horse & Musket

Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre (War of the Spanish Succession) Horse & Musket

Maurice Horse & Musket

Minden Rose Horse & Musket

Mitre, Moustache, and Musket Horse & Musket

Muskets & Mohawks Horse & Musket

Muskets & Tomahawks Horse & Musket

Old Trousers 2.6 Horse & Musket

Old Trousers II Horse & Musket

Piquet (Core Rules) Horse & Musket

Piquet: Cartouche Horse & Musket

Piquet: Din of Battle 1st Ed. Horse & Musket

Piquet: Din of Battle 2nd Ed. Horse & Musket

Piquet: Field of Battle Horse & Musket

Piquet: Hallowed Ground Horse & Musket

Polemos: Great Northern War Horse & Musket

Polemos: War of Spanish Succession Horse & Musket

Principle of War: 19th Century Horse & Musket

Principles of War: 18th Century Horse & Musket

Ranger Rogers Neighborhood Horse & Musket

Ranger: Rules for the French-Indian Wars Horse & Musket

Rank & File Horse & Musket Rules 1740-1900 Horse & Musket

Redcoat Horse & Musket

Repique System: Die Fighting Horse & Musket

Rocket's Red Glare Horse & Musket

Rules for 1750 Period Wargames (Tony Bath) Horse & Musket

Rusty's Rules for Horse & Musket Wargames Horse & Musket

Rusty's Rules for Horse & Musket Wargames May '88 Horse & Musket

Sacre Bleu Horse & Musket

Standing Like A Wall Horse & Musket

Then Place My Parboiled Head Upon A Stake Horse & Musket

To the Last Gaiter Button Horse & Musket

Twilight of the Sun King Horse & Musket

Two Hundred Years Horse & Musket

Valley Forge Horse & Musket

Volley & Bayonet: Road to Glory Horse & Musket

Volley Fire Horse & Musket

War Games Rules 1750-1850 Horse & Musket

Warfare in the Age of Reason Horse & Musket

Wargamers Guide to the American Revolution Horse & Musket

Wargames Rules (1420-1700) 2nd. Ed. 1979 Horse & Musket

Washington's Wars Horse & Musket

When Empires Clash Horse & Musket

Whites of Their Eyes, The Horse & Musket

Wilderness Wars Horse & Musket

With Musket Fife & Drum Horse & Musket

Woodland War Horse & Musket

Woodsman: F&IW Skirmish Rules Horse & Musket

WRG 1750-1850 Horse & Musket

The Four Big Books

Asking for information on Linear Warfare and Grand Tactics in the 18th Century (the "Flintlock Musket and Socket Bayonet Era"), I've had four books recommended to me, again and again. This is a list of those four books, blog-style.

I'm not going to list them chronologically, I'm listing them in the order that I'm reading them this year, 2015. I think it's a useful order, and anyway it's working for me.

Nosworthy, Brent. (The) Anatomy of Victory: Battle Tactics 1689 - 1763. New York: Hippocrene, 1990

This is the basic book for understanding units, formations, distances, frontages, strategies, tactics, linear warfare, grand tactics, theory, practice, etc. What formations did the troops take and how did they maneuver in those formations? How practical were various formations and what were the typical elements and their battlefield missions? This is the book which opened up the understanding of 18th Century deployment and maneuver for me.

There should be a Wikipedia page for Brent Nosworthy and for Anatomy of Victory, for the amount of times the book can be cited to clarify specifics as to formations and tactics. I should fix that.



Out of print. Pricey, but essential. Wait for a sale.

Duffy, Christopher. The Military Life of Frederick the Great. New York: Atheneum, 1985.

This is the book for understanding the campaign and the battle, linear warfare as it was actually practiced, the operational strategy of the period, and some of the key personalities and forces of the era. Christopher Duffy has written extensively on the era, and this book is considered a classic tome. I'm finding it a fascinating read as well. Duffy knows his material and his sources well, and weaves a tale of a man destined to a duty almost beyond him, a strange and enigmatic figure of an ancient sort of martial nobility. I have a copy from the public library. It's on the Short List of Books to Buy.

Probably also OOP, and pricey. Equally essential.

Showalter, Dennis. Frederick the Great: A Military History. London(?): Frontline, 2012.

This is also one of the most highly-recommended books, and it will be nice to get an updated view of Duffy's 1985 book. I just got this from the library (through ILL), and I'll read it right after I finish the SYW chapter in TMLoFtG. I only have it for a month, but this book is also on the Short List.

Recent, available and reasonable? And what a dust jacket! I finally get the reference!

Duffy, Cristopher. The Military Experience in the Age of Reason. London: Routledge, 1987.

After reading two accounts of the campaigns of Frederick the Great, I think it'll be good to also read about the daily lives of the soldiers, troopers and commanders who fought these wars, to truly understand the nature of the period and the conflict. I'll read this last. Acquired.

Available at a reasonable price in trade.

And those, Gentle Readers are the Four Big Books that I'll be reading in 2015.

Progress thus far? I've read in AoV right up through the start of the SYW, and I've read in TMLoFtG up to the end of the SYW chapter, now I'll read FtG: AMH entirely, then I'll finish AoV, then I'll finish TMLoFtG, then I'll read TMEitAoR, which I had just barely started when all of these other books arrived.

Reviews and impressions to follow. And thanks to those who recommended these books.

Notables

Q: What's a Notable?

A: Any particular individual commander, unit, artist, author or commentator of note.

Frederick's beloved comrades, brave compatriots and brilliant commanders.

Their opposites, in the Austrian, Russian, French and Imperial armies.

Their peers, in the Hanoverian and Allied forces.

Any infantry that charges cavalry, or redeems itself, or acts particularly bravely.

Any cavalry of distinguished mettle.

Artillerymen worthy of the name.

A very select list of the most well-known, or academically accepted artists and illustrators.

The half-dozen recognized experts on the military operations of the era.

The oft-quoted authorities of earlier eras: Warnery and de Saxe, Catt and Mitchell.

Q: Why a button for Notables?

A: Just a place for bios and factoids of those soldiers or troopers who I happened to note.

Q: It's kind of a brilliant tag.

A: That's not a question, but Thank You.

King Frederick with IR3 Anhalt-Bernburg after the battle of Liegnitz - Source: Carl Röchling, 1895

 

Building Buttons

Strategy
Battles
Distances
Formations
Notables
Images

Recommended Listening

The Kind of Thing Fit for a King
(Thank You, Public Library)

Individual reviews may follow, but all of these are recommended.

Albinoni Oboe Concertos Chandos

From the Court of Frederick the Great Sony

Bach Complete Flute Sonatas (2 CD) Hyperion

Elevazione Gordon Hunt BIS-NL

Bach for Meditation Naxos

A Note, From Me, To Me; re: Maps

For Campaign Maps

Berthier software

https://sites.google.com/site/berthiercampaignmanager/home


Vassal engine

http://www.vassalengine.org/


murat.ca (maps)

http://www.murat.ca/maps.htm


Soldier Kings

http://www.avalanchepress.com/gameSoldierKings.php


Soldier King

review @ Map and Counters
http://mapandcounters.blogspot.com/2010/04/gdw-soldier-king-1982.html

conversions for V&B
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mcnelly/vb/campaigns/soldier_king_campaign_rules.htm

Images and publisher/developer info to follow, along with possible reviews, if and when I try these products.

European SYW Osprey Campaign Titles

Right now I'm reading the fabulous The Military Life of Frederick the Great, by the wonderful Christopher Duffy. As an adjunct to that book, I'm also reading the three Osprey Campaign titles that deal with a few of the European campaigns of the Seven Years War, specifically the movements of Frederick the Great during the early years of the war.

After I read the relevant section of Duffy's book, I set it aside for a day and read one of Simon Millar's three books: Kolin 1757, Rossbach and Leuthen 1757, and Zorndorf 1758. The books are Osprey Campaign Series Numbers 91, 113 and 125, respectively.

We'll discuss these particular battles, and the tactics involved, in a separate post, but for now I'd like to discuss the Osprey books themselves. I find them quite useful, especially as a starting point for further research. I got all three titles through the Inter-Library Loan system, so I only have them for a brief time, but I would consider buying all three.

What I Liked:

1) These books are a pretty easy read. If I skip the illustrations and the captions, I can breeze through the main text in about four hours. When I go back and read the captions and the maps, it's another summary of the text, in a more visual format. That helps with the retention.

2) They have very nice full-color two-page spreads, of action scenes from the battle, complete with numbers and captions on the overleaf, detailing the finer points of the research. They are all done by Adam Hook, who does a fine job conveying a sense of the scale, the setting and the mood of the action. There are three such "double-spreads" in each of the volumes, and all are well in the tradition of Osprey action tableau.

3) The campaign maps are reasonably close to the relevant text, are fairly well colored, and very nicely drawn showing the terrain and major towns of the wider theaters as well as the local areas near the final battle sites. The text on the legend is tiny, and the pages are shiny. I recommend daylight for the maps and the illustrations, while text can be done by electric light. More on that with the Cons.

4) They're short, they're colorful, they're focused on one (or two) battle(s) and the surrounding campaign, they give just enough information on a few of the leaders and a few of the units and the overall flavor of the period to really serve to induce the reader to wider research, and they provide a nice bibliography of the "accepted" "recommended" generally English-language sources, with enough prints after the "well known" "expert" artists. In short, I would say worth the 20 bucks.

Glitches That Are Really Features:

1) As above, reading the text is easy on the eyes. Once through for the narrative, then again by daylight for the illos helped my old eyes, and hopefully helped my muddled memory.

2) The art that isn't part of the big spreads can be... small... black and white... a print... probably fairly common, once you do the research... somewhat muddy... underwhelming by electric light. Again, a second read-through in full daylight does the trick.

3) We've spoken about the campaign maps, what about the "3D" "bird's-eye view" maps, and the regular battle maps? Well, here's the rub about the illos and maps reading separately from the text.

Battle maps work best for me when I flip back and forth, from the maps to the narrative, from the narrative back to the map. In a big book like the Duffy book, there are less maps per battle, because each is trying to contain the whole day in one or two maps.

Here there are six or eight maps per battle (something like three of the birds-eye and three of the standard style per major battle). So while I'm trying to read the narrative, I'm also looking for the correct unit on the correct map, without trying to get distracted by the beauty of the map itself, and all that tiny, tiny text detailing the day by the half-hour.

Again, going back the next day, and just poring over the maps, in and of themselves, in a nice bright light relieves my anxiety that I am somehow missing important details of the story and affected units.

4) There are those who consider Osprey books to be Cliff Notes for wargamers, and I suppose they may be right, but I don't find that to be such a bad thing. These three copies have to go back to the library, but the titles get added to the Longer List of Additional Material, as well as the Relevant Osprey list.

Really, for anyone interested in Linear Warfare and Grand Tactics in the 18th Century, and is looking for useful diagrams of units in formation and the movements of those units over the course of a campaign and throughout a day of battle, these are very useful volumes, and I look forward to adding them to the collection and reading them again.

Also, they make a nice summation of the state of the Prussian army at the start of the war, throughout the first couple of years, and of their abilities to perform some of the more complicated maneuvers required by their commander, the always interesting and often innovative Frederick the Great.



Prussian and Austrian cavalry meet at Leuthen.

The Short List of Big Books

I'm reading some of the "classic" recommended books on these subjects, the ones written like textbooks, with annotation and attribution. There is a sort of Short List of Necessary Titles, to which one may add the Longer List of Useful Additions, if one so desires.

On this page, we'll start with the Nosworthy and the Duffy and the Showalter, and proceed to the Szabo and Anderson, the Warnery and the Catt, the General Staff and the Military Archives.

This was a list for me, a rank beginner, interested chiefly in the tactics and operations of the forces on the ground from the perspective of the campaigning army commander, as recommended to me by other hobbyist war gamers from their experience for much the same reasons, viz, unit frontage and effective action range, per unit time, as might be experienced in a game turn. Use accordingly.

Osprey titles have their own page, as do works of a more scenic nature. This page is for textbooks.

List to follow, as always. This is a stub. Maybe a stem. Definitely a start.

Cheers.

Recommended Listening

I Like Bach.

There. I said it. I'm glad we got that out of the way.

I Like Baroque.

That, also, felt really good.

Now that you know that about me, let me also say that harpsichords (especially digital recordings of harpsichords) can be really grating.

I Like Cello, Violin if it's not too grating, Oboe because it is haunting, Flute if played on a period instrument or in a period style or exploring previously unexplored work. I don't mind the occasional Cembalo, I don't mind a bit of Lute, I actually enjoy Clavinet, and Horns have their place, as well. Organ should be used with restraint.

I personally do not listen to a lot of Vocal Music, except in some very specific styles.

I don't mind the Presto and the Allegro, but I prefer the Largo and the Siciliano.

What follows will be a list of some composers, some notable works, some specific performances, perhaps a video link or two, and possibly some CD reviews.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me add that I have both a "CPE Bach" station and a "Frederick the Great" station on my Pandora.

Music can be quite revealing of character, and the fact that Frederick the Great liked the sound of the oboe, the fact that the oboe had a place in military music, the fact that the Prussians used their martial musicians to improve cadence and the fact that Frederick was an "accomplished amateur" philosopher-king flute player and composer all converge to make Baroque music quite meaningful for me in this context, particularly the melancholy sounds of the oboe, the gravity of the cello, the hopefulness of the flute, the wail of the violin or viola, and the blare of the horn.

Listen to some Baroque. Listen to the beautiful, emotional, lovely clockwork and airy constructions of Bach, his contemporaries, his sons, their contemporaries, and the Baroque to Rococo to Classical transition and tradition that they encompass.

Here's a nice place to start:

Rulesets That I Own

Rulesets That I Own

(Or Have Access To)

Black Powder (multcolib)

 

Minden Rose (free PDF)

 

Rank and File (book)

 

King of the Battlefield bklt

 

Might and Reason (PDF)

 

Volley & Bayonet 3 vols

WitAoR 3 vols

To be updated with author's names, publishers, where to buy, price, etc.

Cheers.

Titles are links, generally to sources for purchase or publisher, images are cover of core ruleset.

Uniforms and Action: The Artists and the Scholars

The beginnings of a list of artists and scholars for the study of the uniforms of the period.

Uniform Artists/Scholars

 

Richard Knötel

Carl Röchling

Günter Dorn

Hugo Ungewitter

Adolph Menzel

Wojciech Kossak

Guiseppe Rava

 

Hans Bleckwenn

Daniel Hohrath

Christopher Duffy

Englemann

To be updated with examples, bios, titles, availability, some formatting and a little order.

The Relevant Osprey Titles

As always, when I want to study a certain era, I begin with a reading list. One immediate list is always the relevant Osprey titles. From there one can usually find some good leads on a bibliography for the subject.

It also pays to ask on a useful website, if others can recommend useful books on the subject. Later, a listing of some of the more academic titles. Herewith, for now, some of the relevant Osprey titles.

Pictures of the covers, for reference, to follow. Cheers.

Prussia:

 

MAA16

FtG's Army (old)

 

MAA236, 240, 248

FtG's Army 1, 2, 3

 

MAA460

FtG's Allies

 

Austria:

 

MAA6

Austro-Hungarian Army of the SYW (old)

 

MAA271, 276, 289

Austrian Army 40-80 1, 2, 3

 

MAA413

Austrian Frontier 40-98

 

WAR81

Hungarian Hussar 56-15

 

Russia:

 

MAA297, 298

Russian Army of the SYW 1, 2

 

France (European Theater):

 

MAA296, 302, 304

Louis XV's Army 1, 2, 3

 

Britain (European Theater):

 

MAA285, 289, 292

King George's Army 40-93 1, 2, 3

 

MAA261

18th-Century Highlanders


Campaigns and Battles:


Campaign 91
Kolin 1757


Campaign 113
Rossbach and Leuthen 1757


Campaign 125
Zorndorf 1757
 

Give Battle: A Study of Linear Warfare & Grand Tactics

The Welcome Address

Welcome, Gentle Friends, to Give Battle! A Study of Linear Warfare & Grand Tactics.

Q: What is it?

A: It's a blog for me, by me, where I can record and attempt to organize some of the volumes of information I've learned about 18th Century Linear Warfare, Grand Tactics, Operational Strategy and The Cost of Campaigning.

Q: Why a blog?

A: Because blogs are bright and colorful and can be inspiring.

Also, I think tagging might help.

Q: Why "Give Battle!" as a name?

A: Because war gaming is often battle gaming, and when we read histories of wars, they're generally written as histories of campaigns, made up of a series of battles, (or possibly commanders who sought to evade or harass their opponents, and refused to give battle).

In any case, the field commander needs to know how certain formations performed under actual battlefield conditions, and how practice compared to theory, and therefore battles become our chief concern.

Q: Why the concentration on the Seven Years War?

A: The period of the Seven Years War is often considered the culmination of the period of linear warfare (and grand tactics of the Frederician school), and it also lies very much in the middle of the flintlock musket and socket bayonet era.

It falls between the earlier, "Marlburian" school of multiple lines of attack (like, say 4 lines at Blenheim - the Baroque), and the later "Napoleonic" school of attack columns and "revolutionary" impulse formations (the Romantic).

It's also considered the "Last Argument of Kings" or the end of the era of the Ancien Régime, the last big war purely prosecuted for "dynastic" reasons (before the revolutionary and nationalist eras).

It's the Rococo period in the Age of Reason, when philosopher-kings strode about the land with their small corps and Royal Armies and kicked giants in the knee. The actual details are even more interesting than the legend.

Q: What next?

A: See list:

A list (of course) of the applicable Osprey titles (with pictures of the covers, arranged by series).

A list (as well) of some of the well-known artists who've chosen the period (with lots of pictures, and the occasional war gamer quibble about the veracity of the pose or the equipment).

A couple of pages of dimensions, with discussions of formations, frontages, unit depth, space per soldier/trooper and the like.

A couple of pages with organizational information, how many platoons to a company, or troops to the squadron, leaders, support, supply and things of that nature.

Some discussion of campaigning, from an operational point of view. Some discussion of the basics of military missions, infantry operations, cavalry operations, artillery operations, siege operations, bridge-building, encampment, fortification and et cetera.

Some discussion of the particulars of the soldier's personal equipment and weapons, as well as those of his unit and his army.

A very general discussion of the uniforms of the era, with reference to current fashion and practice, as well as the utility of said garments for the intended military purpose.

Ditto grooming, queues, wigs, powder, drawing a mustache on one's face, tall guys in the front rank and other such relevant minutiae of the soldier's life.

A list of the "recommended" books to read on the subject, about the key commanders, their military careers, campaigning in the 18th Century, and the specifics of Linear Warfare and Grand Tactics, from the point of view of the occasional war gamer and Armchair Field Marshal.

A list of the horse-and-musket rulesets that I happen to own or have access to, and later on, some reviews of said rulesets, complete with my own personal attempts to distill an "ultimate set" of House Rules for the Solo Campaign.

Possibly, a list of some recommended listening to accompany the study of the era and the science of the campaign.

Q: Updated often?

A: There are other things in life, better sources for the information and many beautiful blogs which already cover the information in much greater detail.

When I find a factoid I want to write down and access later, hopefully I'll remember to post it here and tag it properly.

Q: What's up with the moustaches?

A: I'm really not sure. We'll see what further research reveals.

Q: What happened to those other blogs?

A: Ooh Shiny!

(Small unit tactics led me to the origin of small unit tactics led me to grand tactics led me to linear warfare led me to operational strategy led me to campaign management... Ooh Shiny!)

So, Welcome, Fellow Gamers, Fellow Scholars, Fellow Historians, Fellow Art Lovers.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you find it useful.