hey all, new BLB player here, sofar i've only played warhammer 40k/fantasy, and flames of war.


I met barry at Crisis 2011 in antwerp today, and played a short demo of BLB together with some people from my club. we loved it so much we bought ourselves a rulebook, some markers and some models, two of my clubmates bought 2 infantry boxes from warlord games, and i bought a box of cavalry (pike&shotte royalist cavalry)

Now here's where i've run into trouble, i have absolutely NO idea what units from this period of time looked like, or what factions there are or how it even works in-game. sofar i only know that i'm going to base 2 models per base, and that's about it. i'll need your help with where or how i can find more information in a small package about this period of time, or maybe some of you may be able to help me.

I will most likely also post pictures of the finished models here, so you can look out to that aswell

There are plenty of uniform guides and photos of painted units in the rules so I'm not sure what other info you are after?
Dave

well, i don't have the book on me, it's with a clubmate so i can't look into it.
and what i want to know really are the choices i can make in terms of color schemes and nations.

alright, i've assembled 4 models and i might start painting soon.

me and 2 of my clubmates are wondering, what brand of models/what line of models would be considered best for this game? barry told us to check out warfare models at crisis, but there was a huge assortment and we weren't sure which were the right ones, so if anyone can help us with that?

Guys here is a very brief but I hope clear, overview of the period..

History/Politics
The main contests in Europe were between the mighty French under Louis XIV, the powerful Habsburg Austrians and the rich Dutch. The French wanted to expand France on its northern and eastern fronts. The Dutch wanted to protect their very profitable commercial interests. The Austrians were distracted by the pressure from the feared and giant Ottoman Turkish empire. The Austrians allied with the Dutch and others to try and contain the meglomaniacal tendencies of Louis.
Some people,particularly in UK portray the wars as religious wars between Catholics and Protestants. Although religion has some influence it is too simple and just plain wrong to portray it as a religious struggle.
Catholic Austria fought together with Protestant Holland against Catholic France. The Wars were mainly about commercial power, territory and dominance of Europe.

Theatres of operation
Mainly Flanders but also the Rhine, Italy, Ireland and Scotland. Peripheral, associated and non connected struggles in Scandinavia, Turkish front of southern Europe and elsewhere including Canada.

Armies
Formal, permanent armies were just beginning. There was little standardization of equipment, dress, tactics and formation.
The majority of each army was infantry (called FOOT). These were about 66% of the army.
The cavalry(called HORSE) were about 33% of the army. Also included within the horse were the Dragoons (MOUNTED INFANTRY). The can fight on foot or mounted (less good in both roles than the FOOT or HORSE but versatile)
Artillery has military gunners but civilian drivers and labourers. The guns were large, heavy and almost impossible to move in battle.

Uniforms
All troops wore long coloured coats with large turned back cuffs often of a different colour. The waistcoat underneath was usually an 'old coat' with the sleeves cut off. The trousers and socks could also be of different colours. Most soldiers wore a black felt hat with yellow or white lace around the brim and some coloured ribbons around the crown.
Coats colours could be red, blue,white, grey, brown, green, yellow, purple. Any variarion of the above in terms of shade(dark or light). The cuffs, waistcoat, trousers and socks where sometimes the same or a combination of 'different'. You will find many versions here

http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/gallery/gallery-39.html

Look through these galleries and you'll see examples of everything mentioned so far.

BATTLES
Range from small (a few battalions) to enormous(perhaps 100 battalions per side with proportional cavalry... a lot!)

Hopefully this will get you started!

that helped me out ALOT barry, thanks for the info

Sjefke,
Look if you can get (maybe via library) "Lodewijk XIV en de Lage Landen" by Etienne Rooms. Imho it's a great book about the 1672-1700 period from a historical view.
greetings
jan

hey jan, thanks for the tip and i'll look into that. from your avatar it seems you're from limburg, if i may be so bold, where in limburg?


So recently we found out that the warlord models didn't quite look right for the period of time that BLB is about, so does anyone know if the warlord models differ much from the models we should have, and what models would be the best for it then?

You can use them, but for the later period, round about 1700ish onwards this is because they have a tricorn hat instead of a floppy hat, not sure when most armies adopted the tricorn, but I'm sure somebody will!!!
What armies and for what battles did you want your figures for?

well, sofar the only thing we know anything about, is the setting for the demo barry gave at crisis this year, something in ireland, and a river (don't know much more myself)

The game was the rearguard action AFTER the Battle of the Boyne 1st July 1690.
Gaming in this period there is plenty of choice of theatre of operations:

Scotland
England
Ireland
Flanders
Italy
Germany (various locations)
North Africa
Denmark
Russia
Baltic States and Poland
Hungary/Bulgaria/Romania/Austria/Balkans
Canada/New England
North Africa

Of course some of these theatres were minor but many saw major battles between 1660-1721.

A look round the Boards on
Beneath the Lily Banners & 17th/18th century topics is a great place to start.
Some of the other members will give their opinions on available figures I am sure!

Warlord figures, aren't those more geared towards 30 yrs war and ECW? (1615-1650) Other lines are Front Rank, Riever, Dixon and of course Barrys' line of Warfare Minis.

As others have stated read through the forum, particular the War-gaming the 1660-1720 forum. Loads of info and ideas.

Don't be shy to ask rule questions either, plenty of experienced players here ready o answer them.

Have fun

Joe

Also if plastic works for you, Wargames Factory do a Infantry and what appears to be a really nice Cavalry box

cheers

Sjefke,
Peter and I (the whole Alde Garde) come from near Venlo, Dutch Limburg that is.
greetings
Jan

PS, we're planning to take our 1690 Demo to Gent next year with added troops

Hello fellow gamers,

I'm Jeroen, 23 years old and from Holland.
I'm also a new player with BLB ,I was with sjefke123 at Crisis past saturday.
Thanks to everyone for being so kind and helpin us

Greetings,

Jeroen.