Reinforcements

My Blue Moon order arrived. I picked up a pack of civilians from their Pirates range and Skirmishing Grenzers and Grenzer Command from the Seven Years War line. The latter will be the start of my Austrian Army for the Seven Years War.

I believe that I have a campaign picked out that I will work on for the Seven Years War. The Battle of Peterswalde April, 1759. This is an interesting action as it featured mostly skirmish actions on both sides. The Austrians were defending and had a number of garrison troops while the Prussians had considerable amounts of light troops that raided forward deployed magazines of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

I have found near period maps of the area. These were featured in the First Military Survey Maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Below is teh excerpt of the map from https://maps.arcanum.com/en/map/firstsurvey-bohemia/?layers=141&bbox=1544730.2649412372%2C6581595.444347261%2C1570508.652730413%2C6591130.963625838.

I am keen to look at the forces commanded by Johan Jakob von Wunsch. His Wikipaedia entry indicated that he was a skilled leader of light infantry.

Seven Years War Research

I am slowly working my way through the De Jeney book. Yesterday, Amazon delivered the Grandmaison book that I had ordered. It seems that De Jeney has a bone to pick with Grandmaison as he makes reference to his book and expressed disagreement with his conclusions in places. In flipping through the Grandmaison it makes reference to the end of a war in which he drew his conclusions circa the 1740s. This makes these more interesting as this would have been opinions of tactics going into the Seven Years War rather than an output of developments that came out of the war.

I have also found a copy of Treatise on Partisan Warfare by Johann Ewald. I still have much to read. De Jeney includes several drawings to detail examples that he is talking about. It is proving very interesting. It is also impacting how I am building my forces for Sharp Practice. For instance, I had previously purchansed some Eureka Miniatures Prussian Musketeers, some Dragoons and a light gun. This was loosely based on Rich's articles on his Imaginations campaign. I just placed a Lancashire Miniatures order for some Ottomans. I bougt 8 light horsemen and a group of Serbian or Bosnian musketeers. Not nearly a full force but a start on one. I am well aware that the Ottomans were not part of the Seven Years War, but they did have a number of engagements before and after it. The Ottoman miniatures will be very flexible as they should be usable throughout the whole of the 1700s and through the Napoleonic Wars.

Then I placed an order for my first Austrians. I decided to go with Blue Moon miniatures for the Austrian force. I bought a command pack of Grenzers and the skirmishing Grenzers. I plan on ordering both Hussars and Dragoons. Lastly, some musketeers and a cannon or two as well. Again, I see the Austrian force as a defending force. This will take a while to build up. Unless I get a resin 3d printer for Christmas. Then I can see this moving more rapidly.

I have forces in mind as to how I will paint them. My mother grew up in Dessau both before and during WWII. During that time, she became friends with the Von Anhalt's who were the hereditary nobility of Dessau. Because of this, my Prussian force will be based off of those raised in Dessau. There was a regiment of Infantry and some cuirrasiers raised under the von Anhalts of Dessau. There are also Von Anhalt-Zerbst troops raised as well who fught for Austria. The intent is to have the Anhalt-Zerbst forces be the defending forces while the Anhalt-Dessau forces be the attackers.

Both Zerbst and Dessau raised units of infantry and currassiers. I will likely get the Currassiers later. The main thought right now is basing. I am not liking the sabot bases I am using as I feel formed troops should be more tightly packed for the SYW.

Miniatures Purchased

Nation	Troop Type	Number	Painted
Prussia	Musketeers	24	None
Prussia	Dragoons	??	None
Prussia	Artillery	1 Gun & 5 Crew	None
Prussia	Jagers	15	Need rebasing
Prussia	Artillery	1 Gun & 5 Crew	None
Ottomans	Yoruk Light Cavalry	8	None
Ottomans	Derbent Infantry	8	None
Austria	Grenzer Infantry	20 + Command	None