Catching up on my Reading no 23

 The Battle of Fribourg. 

Fast on the heels of his fine volumes on the French Army of the 30 Years War comes another from Stephane Thion, this time on the Battle of Fribourg in 1644. This action of which I previously knew little more than its bare existance pitted a French army commanded by  arguably two of the best generals of the period  Conde, thogh he was actually the Duc' D'Enghein at this time, and Turenne against Bavarian army commanded by a general often overlooked by modern historians  Feldmarschall Frantz Von Mercy who was to say the least no mean soldier in his own right.

 In eight chapters a conclusion  and four appendices M. Thion takes us through the stategic situation leading up to the  battle- (or actually battles- there were two actions 3rd and 5th August 1644 seeming separated by a day 'to catch their breath' as Thion puts it.), the organisation of the armies French and Bavarian and of course the action itself. No spoiers here if you want to know what happened buy the book.

Further there are tables with regimental strengths for both sides- the Bavarian being particularly detailed. In addition notes on battlfield tactics and formations are also included.

Thion's text is succinct and aurthoritive and well interspered with cogent  sections from contemporary sources. I'm enjoying this as I read it. It is after all increasing my knowledge of the 'French' period of the 30 Years War.

For such a comparatievly slim volume- a mere 120 pages it is crammed with maps and illustrations. 14 pages of colour plus an additional 7 colour maps these being extremely useful in following both the strategic and battlefield movement of the armies. Most of the 'uniform' illustations are reproductions of watercolours by K.A. Wilke- not an artist I am familiar with- they have the  illustrative style of the 1940s-50s but are none the worse for that. Indeed I rather like the panache they exhibit. Other pieces by this artist appear in Thion earlier work and more amongst the black and white illustrations in this volume. All are worth their space in either book. Three of the colour pages are of flags of some of the regiments who fought in the battle 2 pages of Bavarian flags being especially unusual and useful.

As for other illustrations - some have appeared in the French Army volume- and this is really my only niggle- but other have not but even if you have seen a particular picture in another work this does not really detract from what I have found to be a very useful work.

Recommend to all those whose area of interest is the 30 years War. 

Catching Up on My Reading no 22 - A Bundle from Helion.

 It is not often that I buy more than 1 book at a time since I can only actually read one book at a time. Well that is almost true even if I have one book in the lounge, one book in the bedroom and possibly another in the kitchen- though this last is unlikely.

 This 'rule' does not of course include the piles of books around the computer  that I use to refer to when I am writing.

 So most often it is sually 1 book at a time.

However rules are made to be broken escially when Helion have a sale on!

 So all three of these Helion books were bought in 2 different Helion sales. one in  late june and then 2 more in late July.

 So to deal with them in order of arrival.

French Armies of the Thirty Years War 1618-48 

The French army of the 30 Years War has interested me for some years and as I have said before that is the fault of Oliver Reed and Gerard Depadieau between them. Oh and just possibly Alexandre Dumas.

Stephane Thion has written on the French army of this period  previously for LRT Editions in 2008 and in many ways this new Helion book is an updated and improved  edition of that previous work.

 If you do not have the LRT version then get this one.... if you DO have the LRT edition as I have - then get this one too, not only is it somewhat better it is much more convenient to handle.

So what do you get for your money-  I  plumped for the hardback simply because at the then sale price the difference between the two was minimal- a couple of quid- so no worries there.

 In 213 pages- including an exstensive bibliography, M Thion takes us through the developement of the French army from its poor start at the beginning of the 30 Years War (when it was not technically involved)through rebellion and civilwar in France to the victories of the 1640s of Conde and Turenne. Organisation is discussed in detail as is equipment. The sometimes confusing changes inboth of these areas is also covered in some detail. This is interesting stuff. The French army has its own foibles and distinctions which make it subtly different from others involved in the Thirty Years War.

 For me though the core of the book is in the last 2 chapters which cover the main operations and orders of battle in  Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 has  a selection of contemporary accounts of various battles involving the French forces which are most useful for getting the 'feel' of the period and the army.

The book is , as you would expect well illustrated with both contemporary and non- contemporary illistrations  in black and white some of which appeared in the 2008 work - but many which did not. There is also a 14 page colur section  of which 6 pages are flags of fFrench army Infantry units - a total of 24 different flags- engough to keep most wargamers busy building units  (I'd have 23 more units to build if I was to make a unit using each of these flags as a source !) The other colour illustrations show assorted troop types and are by Giorgio Albertini one of my favourite Helion artistsand are of excellent quality.

This book  will give any English language reader a decent grounding in the French armies of the first half of the 17th century.

 Recoomended. 

The Battle of Castillon 1453.

Now there was a time , when I was much younger that I was of the opinion that nothing much of interest had happened in Europe after 1485. I had gone all medieval- seeling off my ECW armies and buying a bundle of assorted Hundred Years War. These kept me amused for a few years and even now when I don't have much of an HYW collection the period still holds some interest. So this book by Peter Hoskins was added to the purchase..

Castillion was the death knell of the once substabtial English possessions in France.. This book is quite slim compared to some other recent Helion publications being a mere 125 pages but that does not mean that it is in any way a 'lighteight' volume. The book begins with a swift gallop through the  Hundred Years War up to the Treaty of Tours in 1444. This is simply scene setting for those whose first foray into  the 15th century this may be.

 The next two chapters deal with the changes and reforms to the French forces who would fight in these final campagns. These reforms - especially in the use of gunpowder weapons were fundamental to the French victory. Gone were the days of the hapless French nobility being mown down by English Longbowmen as they struggled through the mud to reach the English line! These reforms are put into a wider European context. The details of Fifteenth century artillery are particularly fascinating along with the photographs of modern reproductions of the medieval weapons. There are some meaty beast of war here !

The following chapters deal with the campaigns that lost the English their possessions in Normandy and the two campaigns in Gascony plus a chapter on John Talbot - Earl of Shrewsbury - the English commander at Castillon which ive a view of the man and his experience before the fatal campaign.

The battle itself is covered - as one would expect - in some detail and is not a run of the mill HYW battle at all. The role of the French artillery was crucial and while you may know how the story ends if you don't buy the book - or even if you do, but that does not detract ffromm its usefulness as a source for the last stages of the Hundred Years War. 

The maps by George Anderson are clear and to the point and the colour plates by Girogio Albertin once again are fine and include four pages of heralry and banners...there is a little niggle here, the plates though fine in themselves are perhaps poorly chosen. One each of Talbot himself, his standard bearer, a French crossbowman and Jean Bureau- the commander ofv the French artillery, the other four pages of colour being heraldry and flags- 2 images per page. The plate descriptions are also quite brief though mostly to the point. This is not a problem for those  of us who have a bit of medieval military knowledge but  for the newcomer to the period perhaps a little more might have been helpful.

A useful book which works on two levels - as aprimer on the HYW and more to the point as a text on the final campaign of that long series of wars. Reccommended. 

 Now I wonder if I could find the time to do some 40mm Late HYW French ..... 

Now for the third and final book in this review.

 

 Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution 1775-1783.

 By David C.Bonk and George Anderson.

 

A long winded title for a largeer than average tome.

 George Anderson doing an atlas  well that needed looking into. I'd had my eye on this one since its first publication , intending to pick it up at a show if it was up to the mark. However I bought this during the sale and aside from a certainty about the quality othe maps I wasn't sure what I was getting.

  I need  not have stressed- not even a litttl bit.

This is a serious book 241 pages with an excelent collection of coloured maps of all the major and many of the smaller battles of the American War of Independence or Revolution as the Americans seem to prefer.

The ladscape format is a bit of a pain but once you open the book it becomes obvious why this format was used .

 Each engagement battle or campaign is treated , in chronological order, to a double page spread, usually one page of text and one a colur map. Though there are exceptions to this as some pages have less text or perhaps a smaller map. There may also be  a contemporary illistrtion or painting  to illustrate some of the sections . There are 119 of thhese sections showing battles from Concord to Trincomalee. As you would expect the bulk of the actions are in the continental USA but the West Indies is not neglected nor are naval actions.. The siege of Gibraltar is also covered - though  while Suffren's naval campaign  in Indian waters  is covered  the land fighting in India is not- this being the only gap in an otherwise superlative book  The usual price tag of around £60.00 is not out of court for a hardback quality volume such as this. Frankly I was much more impressed than I expected to be.

Highly Recommended. 

Bitsa this and Bitsa that.

 Over the last few weeks I have been trying to  progress on three different projects. Now those of you who don't get bored when organising their socks in colour and numerical order may thing this a little odd. Well maybe it is but single minded concentration on 1 wargaming project to the exclusion of all others would simply bore me witless and the quality would therefore suffer.

 So Gentle Reader  my painting table always has more than one lot of partly painted figures on it. 

 Currently the projects in hand are- 

 1/. Anglo -Sikh Wars. This is progressing nicely. I now have forces for both sides that are bigger than the game shown in the Sikh and Ye Shall Find post a few months back. Currently working on the 1st Bengal European Light Infantry. This is the most pressing of the projects as I need to add sufficient to the two armies for a demo game at The  Battle Ground Wargames show in late November - by which time my book on wargaming  the Anglo- Sikh wars should be imminent if not actually published. Once 1 BELI are done then it is on to 2nd Bengal Native Infantry Grenadiers. Assorted Sikh Irregulars will fill in any gaps on the painting table.

Bengal or Bombay  Field battery- with a 9 pdr. In front 
of a British camp. Bengal Native Infantry in the background.

The same Foot battery with the first of the  First Bengal European Light Infantry.
 More of these on the painting table.
Old Glory  28mm figures . Gun by Eagle Figures

2/. Shinyloo!.  I always have a few  retro style models on the table as a sort of light relief. Most recently finished are some French Foot artillery and a few French Dragoons. Both arrived here in a 'sort of painted' state so didn't need everything doing to them hence they were quite quick to finish and add to the growing collection of old shiny dudes. 

Recently added shiny dudes.
 Hinchliffe 30mm French Foot Artillery.
Connoisseur French Dragoons.

3/. 40mm Thirty Year War.  This project has languished for quite a while. Mostly because I simply could not decide which way I wanted to go with it. However two excellent books  recently published by Helion have helped me on the way. So French and Imperialists it shall be, with perhaps a slight accent towards the Spanish of the 1640s-50s.  But then again I might change my mind .... 

40mm TYW
 incongruously appearing in the Punjab!
Models on their sabots are a mixture of my own Romanoff Miniatures some ex-Jacdaw 
 and some with Sash and Saber heads

After reading a line in the recent Helion book on
Rocroi where a Spanish commander takes up a buckler
 I rather thought I'd make such a figure from various Romanoff parts. 
The result is the chap in the middle. 

 The 18 Musketeers no 2 exactly alike . Rebased on round 25mm diameter bases.

Units will be largish so not too many actual units on the table - accent will be on 'minor tactics' and  battalion command, at least that is currently the plan. Rules will be somewhat retro as many modern rules simply 'abstract out'  many of the interesting bits of 17th century warfare in favour of game simplicity for the hard of thinking but the role of a colonel or captain was very different from that of a general and rules should reflect this- you can't refight Lutzen using Pikeman's Lament-  and it is not meant for such  but I'll not use them for this project as they have many other historical and organisational problems despite being supposedly set at the command level I am looking for.. I have found a Featherstone set which may do the deed if I can graft on some command rules.  We shall see. 

Catching up on my Reading 18. The Battle of Lutzen A Reassessment by Andre Schurger

This latest volume by Published by Helion in the Century of the Soldier series (It is no 104) landed on my mat almost a month ago and has taken some reading. This is not a bad thing as it is well worth the time actual study takes.

 The Battle of Lutzen in the Thirty Years War is mostly famous  for the untimely death of King Gustav Adolf II of Sweden in the heat of the action and the confusion of battle, at which point apparently hearing of their Kings death  by magical means the Swedes  went battle mad and promptly polished off the Imperialists in short order.

 Needless to say the reality was a lot more complex that that which this fine book goes on to explain. 

 Indeed it is so stuffed with useful information that it is actually overflowing, as another 80 PAGES are available as a download from the Helion website, which will give the careful reader even more useful and fascinating information.. This section contains another 48 assorted maps and charts of  archaeological finds and bullet distribution. Maps of pre-battle movement and a clutch of battle maps showing  formation movements down to brigade and sometimes even regimental level.

 So what  do you actually get in the paper format?

Physically the book is in the usual Helion style and has 241 pages  with 17 pages of colour plates of troop types and colours plus two colour maps of army deployment.

The eight chapters cover all you might expect in a 'Battle ' book  such as the campaign including the difficulties of supplying seventeenth century armies and the two armies  orders of battle and deployments but also a whole lot more.

 For a start there is a serious examination of  both primary and secondary sources and their respective values (or lack of such) Then an equally serious examination of the archaeology, much of which the author was himself involved in so he knows whereof he speaks.

With the help of the downloadable maps- these give extra details- the reader is taken through the battle  blow by blow in deep and almost exhaustive detail. From the initial manoeuvres through to the Kings death and Pappenhiem's arrival to the exhaustion of both armies and the final Swedish attacks it is all here for the reader to study.

 One of the things that surprised me was how comparatively small the battle was.  The total troop numbers for both armies  only just topped 30,000 men. Somehow I had the erroneous impression that the two armies were much larger.

There are , as you would expect,  more than a few translated chunks of contemporary accounts and the author uses these to illustrate his points well. 

Now I not going to launch any spoilers here, regular readers will know that is not my style, you will have to buy the book and download the extra info to get a full picture of what is there . Anyone wit any kind of interest in 17th century warfare should have this volume on his shelves.   

 My only niggle - and it is a very very minor one, is the authors use of military terminology - in particular the word 'squadron'- which for most of us is a sub unit of a cavalry regiment often in the 17th century  composed of two 'troops' or 'companies' of horse usually, though not always, from the same regiment.

 Here the term  is used as a catch all for anything from a  battalion of 1,000 or so Imperial infantry (some of the eight of these units were made up of more than one regiment) through the usual cavalry term to any detached unit of  'commanded' musketeers. I found this a tad confusing until I worked it out and once you realise this it does not detract from the book in the slightest.

So yes I  commend  this book to any Pike and Shot fans wargamers or not, but more than that, this is a book  worth serious study to any student of 17th century military history. 

 Highly Recommended

Catching up on my Reading -16. The Battle of Rocroi.

Now off and on I have something of an interest in the 30 Years War- though often not the bits that you are supposed to be interested in. No Swedes for me for a start. 

 No my main interest is the French army of that period and it's all Oliver Reed's fault aided- though he would not know it- by Gerard Depadieu and George MacDonald Fraser- and never forgetting Alexandre Dumas - but there you  go  all sorts of things can spark an interest.

 So the new publication from Helion on the Battle of Rocroi- written by Alberto Raul Esteban Ribas- an author previously unknown to me really sparked  my curiosity telling the tale of Conde's great victory for the French over the mighty Spanish army in 1643. 

In the Helion 'Century of the Soldier' series (no94 to be precise) the volume  is up to the usual Helion physical standard that we have come to expect. in all 167 pages.

 First off  Mr Ribas knows his stuff. The breadth of his knowledge of the various French and Spanish sources for the battle and the campaign is impressive. The author has done his research- this show in the extensive bibliography but more than that  the book is well written and detailed - even if the prose is occasionally a tad ponderous this does not in the least detract from the scholarship.

The treatment of the actual battle is very detailed indeed, including, as it does, a full order of battle for the French and as full an OB for the Spanish as can be gleaned from the sources. Mr Ribas takes us through the fighting almost blow by blow, citing the various anomalies in the sources which have caused some confusion to scholars over the years. This detail is never tedious and repays careful reading, but let us be clear, you will need to concentrate. I personally was left  with the conclusion that the Spanish lost the battle  by missing their chances for victory while the French won by taking advantage of every chance they had. However you will need to read this excellent book to get the benfit of Mr Ribas's narrative and  conclusions - no spoilers here ! 

The narrative is backed up by a fine selection of contemporary illustrations which show us what the troops were supposed to look like or how 17th century artists saw them.  The maps by George Anderson are in their usual clear style and make the narrative easier to follow.

 If I have one reservation it is the colour plates. They are well drawn but perhaps a bit pedestrian and suffer from a surfeit of  blue but this is my only reservation in an otherwise excellent and useful book .

Definitely recommended.

Now all I need to do is get the 40mm French and Spanish on the table ! 

Getting organised... Finally

I've had a small collection of 40mm models for the later 30 Years War for some time but I could never quite decide what to od with them.  The problems were all of my own making. 

I used my own Romanoff miniatures casting together with some Sash and Saber and Drabant pieces  but was never consistent in what I actually built or painted. There were bits of all sorts. Bavarian French Scots Danes and the odd Spaniard, as well as models that were really ECW. Also I could not make my mind up about basing. The earlier models were on 25mm square for foot , the newer on 25mm round for use with sabots. Rules had not been thoght about except for a vague idea to use a variant of Young and Lawford's Charge! from the 1960s as an antidote to the  points based faff and organisational twaddle that is Pikemans Lament. A variant on Forlorn Hope was also a possibility but I wanted to game smaller actions  rather than full dress battles and I was daft enough to think PL would do the deed.  Well I got that wrong so the project went to the back of the shelf for a while even though I liked painting the models and completed to odd few here and there as the mood took me.

40mm Thirty Years War French.  Castings are from my own Romanoff Miniatures range all painted- slowly- by me. Flags are hand painted paper.

 I will probably still have to repaint a few Officers Sashes but finally I begin to have some actual units. What I actually fancy are the early campaigns of Marshall Turenne against the Spanish and Bavarians  and possibly the War of the Fronde in the early 1650s.  Lots of scope for small actions around sieges  and suchlike.  Also quite a few of the troops are pretty interchangeable.

 As for rules well - still a bit of a problem but nothing that can't be solved. Using Featherstone ECW rules as basis  but adding some command rules  might serve but I will need to test the theory as is using a Charge variant . What I don't want is the same old same old just because it is popular - indeed rather the opposite.

Close up of the pikes and colours in the centre. 

So here are pictures of a reinforced rebased and revamped Regiment Champagne chosen because my wife and I like Champagne and always have a bottle or three about the place. Next regiment for the French will be Picardy - with  some of the Queens Cavalry on the go as well. 

 The first officer for Picardy. He is a Sash and Saber figure converted by adding the half Pike the Sword and his hat from Romanoff parts.

The Emperor's new Book.

Bit busy at Salute but did pick up one very useful little tome from Helion.. "In the Emperors Service by Laurence Spring is an examination of Wallenstein's Imperial Army of the Thirty Years War.  Now anyone who has read even one book on the 30 years war will have heard of Albrecht Von Waldstien- usually Wallenstein and the army he raised for Imperial service. This new volume gives us  some details added to the bare bones that many of us already think we know.  I have other work by Spring and this is well up to the standard of research and scholarship that I have come to appreciate from his work on the English Civil War.

 This new book covers "all the usual suspects" - organisation , pay  officers and men , arms and armour very well. It also gives us details of the Siege of Stralsund and the Battle of Lutzen to give us an idea of the army on operation service. There are plenty of photographs and a good slew of contemporary illustrations. I found the photos of captured Imperial flags especially useful especially when coupled with the colour plates of colours and standards. I can feel an addition to my small Thirty years War collection of 40mm models coming up over the horizon.
 I would certainly recommend this volume to anyone who has even a passing interest in the armies and operations of the Seventeenth century  in general and the 30 Years War in particular.

The photos show a few of my finished 40mm Thirty Years War models. Castings are by Sash and Saber and my own Romanoff Miniatures. Armed with this new book from Helion I can now sort out the organisations an flags for these models !