When planning my new army for the WSS allies I have been using the Blenhiem OOB which gives brigades of infantry as either 4 or 5 infantry battalions per brigade. Within the rule book for BTLB it shows brigades of 3 battalions per brigade. I'm wondering if using a historical list will make the brigades a bit fragile for morale as a single brigadier may struggle to command all his battalions. What are people's thoughts?

Jez,

At Blenheim the brigade's of Rowe and Ferguson both 5 btns strong did not advance in single line, but in 2 lines because of the length of a battalion against the frontage of the village.
The 1st assault on the village was lead by Rowe with 3 btns in the front line and 2 btns following behind.
Wilken's Brigade (5 btns) (2nd Line) stayed behind at the Nebel to cover the crossing of Ferguson's Brigade (5 btns) (3rd Line) and it was these who made the 2nd assault on the village with the same result as Rowe's.
It was while preparing for the 3rd assault that Marlborough stepped in and ordered Lord Cutts to stop the assaults and instead surround the village and cut off anyone trying to come out or attempt to reinforce the defender's.

Hope that helps,

Ray.

Not sure where you saw that mentioned. Reading various historical orbats we find brigades can be anywhere from 2-6 battalions. So there really is no 'rule' on their size. When recreating a historical fight I would use the orbat if one is available as Ray points out above. For local pick up games we use 3-5 battalions per brigade.

Joe

Hi Joe, it is shown in the sample armies at the back of the rules after the scenario. Will just go with the historical formations of 4 or 5 then and see how it goes.

Ahh ok I was reading thru trying to find the reference. Yeah those are suggested starter armies. Yup with 3-5 you cant go wrong and the casualty sheet has room for 4 in each.