Prussian Infantry flags in the WSS

[Zozimus]

I've been slowly building up my 28mm French force, which is composed of 4 battalions of the Irish Brigade (O'Brien, Lee x 2, Dorrington) and 2 French battalions (de la Reine & du Roi).  Ultimately I hope to have all of the Irish Brigade together with a few more French.

However, that's a lot of red uniforms and I want to have someone to fight them who don't have red or white uniforms, so I think I'm going to go with the Prussians.  However, what I'm unsure about is the regimental colours, especially those available for Prussians of this time.  Obviously I've had a quick trawl through the interweb and, essentially, my question is this: would the colours carried by the Prussians during later wars (Austrian Succession, Seven Years' War etc) be the same as those carried during that of the Spanish Succession (apart from the Royal cipher)?

Fingers crossed and thanks in advance for any replies.

[pogo]

have a look at http://www.maverick-models.com/wss_prussia.htm
Alex

[WFGamers]

Zozimus: The short answer is no they are different. Sometimes quite a bit but often they have similarities but the early ones are simpler.

For information on this army is a CD by Zuhn/Hall available from Baccus (and no doubt others I don't know about).

[Zozimus]

Thanks both of you for your help.

Pogo: I've used Flags of War and GMB Designs already but have missed Maverick, so I'll have a good look at them later.

WFGamers: I had a feeling they were different: the Prussians aren't a force I'm too sure of for this earlier period and it's no surprise really about the colours.  I don't have a CD drive but I will have to look at printed sources (any excuse for a book is a good one).

Sometimes wish I'd picked a later period to become interested in!

[WFGamers]

Most of the series of CD's I suggested are also available as books but unfortunately not the one on the Prussians.

This book is a good general guide to uniforms of the period but unfortunately it has not got flags - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Armies-Uniforms-Marlboroughs-Wars/dp/1858185068

This page focuses on the Prussians in the Great Northern War but might be useful as it is the same period - https://www.wfgamers.org.uk/great-northern-war/gnw-brandenburg-prussian-army

The good news is it is a good period to game. Also there are lots of other options you could choose. The Hessians are also in blue for example. The Dutch, like the French, have units in various colours - grey/white, blue and red. These are just examples and there are plenty of other interesting armies.

[Zozimus]

I have the Grant book which I've found useful.  Your page on the Prussian army in the Great Northern War looked very interesting, I'm going to give it a slower read through later.  It seems to fit the bill in many ways.

I do find the period interesting and I do like the relative simplicity of the uniforms as well as the linear style of warfare. I don't like painting cavalry so much, probably because of the colours of the horses I suppose.

Thank you again for your help.

[Zozimus]

Just a follow-on to my original post - have just received an order of flags from Stuart at Maverick Models (www.maverick-models.com) and they're just the job.  Stuart even resized them to fit in with ones I already had.

[pogo]

Just a follow-on to my original post - have just received an order of flags from Stuart at Maverick Models (www.maverick-models.com) and they're just the job.  Stuart even resized them to fit in with ones I already had.

yes, Stuart is a great chap when it comes to flags, have a whole lot of WSS material flags from him and very happy
Alex

[Zozimus]

I'm even more impressed than I was - I mentioned a flag for a specific regiment I hadn't seen anywhere and sent an illustration of an image I'd found on the Web. The next thing I knew he'd come up with a proper looking design which is now on his site. Going to order it today - cracking job!

[warrenpeace]

Zozimus, a CD player is worthwhile because some of the best materials for WSS are available on CD. You might also check Caliver Books in the UK to see if that store has the CD's. I usually buy from On Military Matters in the USA. Maybe these will become available in another format as CD's drop out of use.

You could create some totally hypothetical brigades, or you could structure a small collection by taking a piece of a big battle and modelling that. 3 of the 4 battalions of Irish in French service that you have painted were in the middle at Blenheim. I think there were some Hessians in blue that might have been in front of them, some paid by the Dutch and some paid by the British. The Prussians in that battle were to the left from the point of view of the 3 battalion Irish brigade, over in front of the Bavarians. Both the Prussians and Bavarians are well liked subjects for painting projects in this period.

Some partial orders of battle can be found at spanishsuccession.nl such as this one of the allied infantry at Blenheim (each block is a battalion):

http://www.spanishsuccession.nl/maps/fotpag_blenheim_oob.html

Or the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian cavalry at Ramilles (each block is a squadron):

http://www.spanishsuccession.nl/maps/ramillies_french_oob_cavalry.html

Or the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian infantry at Ramilles (each block is a battalion):

http://www.spanishsuccession.nl/maps/ramillies_french_oob_infantry.html

OOB's for battles are pretty hard to piece together, and involve some guesswork based on camp rosters from a month or two before a battle. Various people have had to assemble  "best guess" OOB's to recreate battles, and those can be a nice basis for building a force of miniatures. Here's the ones assembled by Ian Croxall, with help from Iain Stanford, for the Blenheim game played in our region in 2004 (links to Word documents down below):

http://www.warflag.com/blenheim2004/oob.html

[Zozimus]

Thanks warrenpeace, some interesting points to think over as well as sites to refresh my thinking with.

I will have to look into  a CD player; it wasn't until I had built up enough of the Irish and French regiments that I felt I should move out into some opposition and preferably not wearing red. I did consider the Bavarians, but the Prussians were a more attractive option.  As far as the Irish regiments are concerned, my vague aim is to have all eight regiments represented, even the ones which were disbanded or transferred to Spain at the end of the war.  I'm going to try to mirror them with English regiments based on the colour of their facings (O'Brien's could also double as Lord Rivers' regiment and Dorrington's by the Royal Irish, for example).  I didn't plan to start of with the3 regiments at Blenheim: that was a happy coincidence.

I don't like painting cavalry, although that's probably because I'm not sure on painting horses, but will have to make that leap.  I have in mind to do Sheldon's Horse (Irish, of course) first.  I'm not a quick painter and have to work out where in our small home I'm going to put these fellows.

I've only just joined the Pike and Shot Society as I saw they had an interesting range of publications.