Lone Star Historical Miniatures SYW Rules

Hi all,

Just a quick note. Not much going on: busy at work, busy at home, and not feeling too well.

BUT...I finally decided to post a PDF of our local rules for the SYW.

So without further ado, take a look and enjoy.

Old eye candy

I was able to find one last shot of the toys from a club game night that I have not already uploaded.

The infantry are French Old Glory 25mm, with Front Rank French behind them. The Austrian cuirassiers to the right were on the same side as the French, but were trying to get out of the way!

RSM recruits arrive

Ah, the joy of that simple little box in the mail! I came home from an extended weekend trip to the coast (no computer, no phone) and found the first shipment had arrived from RSM.

These are beautiful castings. Well, duh, everyone has been saying that. And I even have a few in my collection already (British guns, gunners, and limbers that I bought from RSM at Cold Wars back in "double aught"). Now if I can just motivate myself to paint them!

Over the weekend my miniature gaming-related activity was limited to two areas: reading and planning.

The reading material was Christopher Ward's reprinted The War of the Revolution, which was recommended over on TMP. The book is a single-volume reprint, available at most local Barnes & Noble stores in the "value" section. I also had Greg Novak's two-volume The American War of Independence: A Guide to the Armies of the American War of Independence which is from Old Glory. Although I enjoyed the information in Novak's books, it is sadly full of typographical errors in the prose, which tends to make me wonder how many there are in all of the tables of organization and orders of battle.

The other activity, planning, might be more properly termed "plotting and scheming." Among the topics were, in no specific order:

1. How to get to Little Wars or the OSW Big Battalion game
2. Whether or not 4 regiments of Austrian infantry, BAR-style, would be a good start (since the Fedorans will hopefully muster 4 line, 2 grenadier, and a jager battalion, it sounds good!)
3. Hope impressive a BAR battalion from the Reichsarmee would look...or not

But, first things first. Let's get one unit painted!

The First Order for the Army of Hesse-Fedora

To His Excellency the Landgraf von Hesse-Fedora,

Per your Excellency's instructions dated March the 14th, 1757 (2007 by Hesse-Fedora reckoning), I have this afternoon ordered the smithies of RSM and the Dayton Painting Consortium to provide the raw materials for the Leib Regiment of Foot and the troopers of the Garde du Corps.

I will keep your Excellency informed of the troop's arrival and progress in fitting out.

I have the honour to be your loyal servant,

Linus von Larrabee, QMG

63 figures...and counting!

I got a chance to go over BAR, and I must admit to being intrigued. The idea of maneuvering a 63-figure battalion has me itching to give this a try. However, until the Landgraf's drafts arrive, I will have some of the Prussian battalions demonstrate to me.

A note about the rules: they are not presented in the common manner. After the introductory information, unit composition, and army building guidelines the rules are laid out alphabetically. Yep, that's right, alphabetically: from Aides de Camp to Wargames Tables.

This is not a criticism, just an observation. The rules are intended to be played with the Quick Reference Sheets, and not the book. But I wonder that this might be a set that needs to be taught by someone experienced with them, rather than learned straight from the book. Hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to try.

I almost broke out Microsoft Excel to start scheming my armies. Oops, don't let the Landgraf see that! But I have always been a little like Hal Thinglum in his sadly defunct MWAN, in that planning, plotting, and scheming new wargames armies and their organization has been a big part of my enjoyment of this hobby.

Now the tough decision will be to rebase any of my existing figures!

BAR Arrives!

Woo hoo! Break out the reading glasses and the RSM order forms...more to follow later tonight (I hope!)

Flaky Flakiness...

Do you have the wargamer's ferret syndrome? Where you chase after bright new shiny things even though you have plenty of projects awaiting completion?

Right now I'm waiting to receive my copy of Bill Protz's Batailles de l'Ancien Régime 1740-1763. Once I have that, I will put in my RSM order, making sure the figures will meet both the BAR requirements and our local rules.

BUT in the meantime I've ordered a copy of Might and Reason, and several books about the American War of Indepence. This all started when I picked up a copy of Washington's Crossing from the library. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and am now casting about for another Lace Wars book that would be a good read. Any suggestions?

So I have also been browsing online AWI resources, and admiring the Perry Miniatures AWI line. So many figures, so little time!