SYW French Reinforcements: Chasseurs de Fischer, Grenadiers & Chasseurs

[Jemima Fawr]

Eye trouble has stopped me painting since Christmas, but I'm now back on the wagon, starting with some reinforcements for King Louis; the Chasseurs de Fischer, some massed line infantry grenadier companies and some line infantry deployed as chasseurs.  All details are on the blog, but these are 15mm figures by Old Glory 15s (for the Chasseurs de Fischer and Grenadiers) and Blue Moon (Line Chasseurs):

http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2024/09/26/reinforcements-for-king-louis-part-9-chasseurs-de-fischer-massed-flank-companies/

[CapnJim]

They look good!  Welcome back to being paint-able... 

[Jemima Fawr]

They look good!  Welcome back to being paint-able... 

Thanks Cap'n! 

[SJWi]

Very nice. Seeing these reminds me that I have my Freikorps 15mm British/Hanoverian army to paint. Old figires but they still have a certain charm.

[Jemima Fawr]

Very nice. Seeing these reminds me that I have my Freikorps 15mm British/Hanoverian army to paint. Old figires but they still have a certain charm.

Go on, you know you want to... Go on... Go on... Go on... 

[SJWi]

Indeed I do! I gamed SYW back in the late '80s using the old US "Koenig's Krieg" rules, building a large Prussian army and acquiring a French one. I now have opponents with Austrian and Russian armies but really needed a British/Hanoverian army to fight the French, hence my purchase. My bug bugbear has been finding a set of rules I like. I have Osprey's "Test of Honour" which are OK-ish, a Caliver Books ser based I think on General de Brigade ( or Armee) and a few weeks ago picked up a copy of Sam Mustafa's ""Maurice". One of my mates also has "Twilight of the Soldier Kings". Lots to try out. Do you have any particular recommendations?

[carlos marighela]

Back in the day when a few of us were playing SYW, we really enjoyed Warfare in the Age of Reason. They play well, give a decent sense of linear warfare and as bonuses there's an exteremely good campaign system as well as worthwhie siege rules.


Loving the Chasseurs de Fischer and friends, they look a treat. Glad you are fully sighted again, although you'll have to stop the Horatio Nelson impressions now.

[SJWi]

Carlos, thanks for the rules tip-off. Do you recall if they required a specific basing convention? I've been lucky that most of the rules I have already bought can accomodate my existing 2 or 4 figures per base convention, only differing by the number of bases per unit. Unfortunately my experience with ancients rules is far less forgiving. Given that a new copy of "Warfare in the Age of Reason" is £45 I don't want an expensive shock.

[carlos marighela]

15mm? The original rules were written for 25/28mm but there are suggested basing conventions for 15mm

In 25/28mm Battalions are typically four stands of 3 figures per stand. They allocate 1/2 inch frontage by 1" depth or a 1 1/2 " stand by 1" deep. There are exceptions, Scots clans, Turkish irregulars are 16 figure units and there are a few variations such 18 figure Austrian Fusiliers and British Army Highland units of 15 figures. Skirmishers are on two figure stands and irregular or 'native' troops like Native American units are singly based

Regualr cavalry are based on two figure stands,1" frontage, 2" depth, typically 12 figures to a unit.

We found the bases a bit squishy in 28mm  so we adjusted them to around the 2 inch mark for infantry. If you fancy bigger units you can simply double the figure count and add a second rank to each unit (24 figures). You just double the casualties each hit causes.

The 15mm suggested basing is a bit weird.

Infantry: 3/8" frontage per figure with a 1/2" depth or 1 1/8th" wide per stand.
Cavalry: 3/4" frontage, 1" depth or a stand size of 1 1/2 " X 1"

Guns are suggested as 3/4 " wide X whatever depth you need to accomodate the model.

Similarly there's nothig to stop you from doubling the number of figures by creating a second rank.

There was a good magazine article on adjusting the frontages to more accurately reflect Marlburian formations but the rules as they stand have the same basing for the whole century.

To be honest as casulaties are calculated by figure (you don't need to remove single figures just mark the number of casualties on a base) and as morale etc is calculated for the unit as a whole, I think you could play these with a variety of basing conventions. Indeed there are number of units which have four figure bases anyway. It might make it trickier forming square but that's a very rare thing anyway.

I haven't played them in ages but recall they gave a really satisfying game and played smoothly. Heaps of illustrated examples of play too. Having said all of that, we had previously been playing Napoleonics with Empire, so stabbing each other in the eyes with pokers would probably have seemed fun by comparison.

I think the campaign and siege rules make the purchase worthwhile in and of themselves. There was also an expansion pack available. Need to track down my copy.

[vtsaogames]

Carlos, thanks for the rules tip-off. Do you recall if they required a specific basing convention? I've been lucky that most of the rules I have already bought can accomodate my existing 2 or 4 figures per base convention, only differing by the number of bases per unit. Unfortunately my experience with ancients rules is far less forgiving. Given that a new copy of "Warfare in the Age of Reason" is £45 I don't want an expensive shock.

Found this: The "standard" basing for infantry is 3 figures on a 1.5" X 1" base, and cavalry is 2 figures on a 2" X 2" base. That said, as long as both sides are based the same (regardless of how units are actually based) it won't make a difference.

[SJWi]

Chaps, thanks for the replies. Sounds do-able with my existing bases. First thing is to persuade my regular gaming opponents to give SYW another run-out. So many periods/armies, so few gaming opporrunities!

[Jemima Fawr]

Indeed I do! I gamed SYW back in the late '80s using the old US "Koenig's Krieg" rules, building a large Prussian army and acquiring a French one. I now have opponents with Austrian and Russian armies but really needed a British/Hanoverian army to fight the French, hence my purchase. My bug bugbear has been finding a set of rules I like. I have Osprey's "Test of Honour" which are OK-ish, a Caliver Books ser based I think on General de Brigade ( or Armee) and a few weeks ago picked up a copy of Sam Mustafa's ""Maurice". One of my mates also has "Twilight of the Soldier Kings". Lots to try out. Do you have any particular recommendations?

Since the 90s, we've used our own variation on 'Shako' rules, rather unimaginatively called 'Tricorn': http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2022/04/19/tricorn-my-seven-years-war-variant-of-shako-rules/

It's a very fast-playing set of rules and we've played even the largest battles in a single day.  I never particularly cared for Shako as a Napoleonic ruleset, but we do like our version for the 18th Century.

Each infantry unit is a battalion.  Figure ratios are irrelevant, but I use 12 figures for most battalions or 16 for a large battalion (e.g. Hanoverian, Hessian, six-company Austrian, British Guards, etc).  Cavalry units typically represent a regiment of 3-6 squadrons, but can also represent a group of very small regiments (e.g. most French cavalry) or half of a very large regiment (e.g. Prussian hussars).