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LOA Armies

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 1:07 am
by CoachB
Greetings Gentlemen,

Starting out in the LOA with BLB2, not knowing much about this period. However not wanting to do the Marlbourgh phase.

where would a wargamer find more army compositions than the 4-5 in the rule book. And color of uniforms and flags.

thanks for any help.
cya
Coach

Re: LOA Armies

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:02 pm
by Friedrich August I.
CoachB wrote:
Sat Dec 01, 2018 1:07 am
Greetings Gentlemen,

Starting out in the LOA with BLB2, not knowing much about this period. However not wanting to do the Marlbourgh phase.

where would a wargamer find more army compositions than the 4-5 in the rule book. And color of uniforms and flags.

thanks for any help.
cya
Coach
Welcome Coach to our Forum!

To your question:
The Timeline for LOA and BLB2 is one of constant Warfare across Europe and in the Colonies.
Therefore you might start be choosing a Country first. You might also go for a specific Army that fought in that Period but that would not a quite easy way to start in that Period.

If you like to start in Western Europe you will find the English Mainland Conflicts including Ireland, French Involvement, Holland and all those other "friends" of both sides of the English Throne.
Holland and France "loved" each other truly..so much that each side made sightseeing tours in the others countries,
Then there was Spain with the troubles to find the right successor. Centerpiece of most of Europe - The Holy Roman Empire - constantly in trouble from neighboring countries, i.e., France and Ottoman Empire/Turks.
A bit to the North...Denmark and his Nightmare Adversary Sweden, war faring in several Northern Wars, with changing Allies.
Than there was the largest European Country---nope not France or the Empire but the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. Fighting against Sweden, Russia and the Turks and for the survival.
Then there was a very ambitious Saxon Elector who dreamed of a Kings Crown himself...and so he bought himself the Polish crown with the backing of the Empire that didn't want to see a French on that Throne. The new Polish-Saxon King got dragged into an Alliance with Denmark and Russia and so the famous Great Northern War started that ended with the defeat of Sweden.
Oh, and there was the Giant, Holy Russia, that tried to expand its boundaries under the not lesser ambitious Peter the Great.
Russia fought several Wars against the Turks and Swedes.

I believe that covers it. Besides of several Colony quarrels around the globe.

As soon as you made your mind someone of us will most likely help you with information to build up your forces.

Btw., If you chose a part of the HRE(Empire) you can fight in almost every Theater besides English affairs because it was common to raise Troops and lend them off to fight for other members of the Empire...or those who paid best...Diplomacy-Games, you know?

Hope that helps you to chose.
Best,
Günter

Re: LOA Armies

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 9:37 am
by Glorfindel
>> where would a wargamer find more army compositions than the 4-5 in the rule book. And color of uniforms and flags.

There is a wealth of information on the series of Uniform CDs here :

https://www.baccus6mm.com/catalogue/WSSUniformCDs/

Although the CDs can be expensive, they are well worth it,

I also have a couple of few soft copy documents that you might be interested in (covering Danish and Spanish armies).
Just send me a PM with your email address so that I can forward them on.


>>However not wanting to do the Marlbourgh phase.

Although wargamers do tend to mentally separate the 'Williamite Wars' and WSS, there were only four years between them (think of
this as a half time break !!). As such, much of the information available for the WSS will also apply to the earlier period.

From what I understand, there is very little difference in terms of army structure with most armies comprising brigades (made up of either infantry battalions or cavalry squadrons - not mixed). Higher structures were temporary. The fixed Divisional and Corps organisations of the Napoleonic era did not exist in any formal sense.

It can take quite a bit of detective work to identify battalions or squadrons at a specific battle. As an example, there is a discussion here on the Order of Battle for Aughrim :

http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/fightin ... it=aughrim

My suggestion would be to ask on this forum if you are interested in a particular battle - there will usually be someone who can help.


Cheers,



Phil

Re: LOA Armies

Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 5:05 pm
by CoachB
Thank you all for responding. So I think that the best use of my money would be to build a Holy Roman Empire army that would be in lots of battles? And since I will be sharing this time period with local gamers, I should have a second army to fight the HRE at local game stores to build up interest in the period.

Right then Gentlemen, would you be able to suggest a generic enough army build for the two opposing armies? Lets stay in the Western Theatre. Although the Polish and Turkish armies look wonderful, my painting skill on those exotic units with all the colors would slow me waaaay down on getting anything painted. So I think, and maybe wrong, but the Western Theatre would have more simple and easier uniforms(?) to paint.

Thank you in advance for any and all help.
CoachB

Re: LOA Armies

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:27 am
by barr7430
I am just working on the Army Builder guides for the new GNW/Eastern Wars supplement to Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd Edition. The book is being laid out now.

My suggestion for a starter army for the Imperialists would be:

4- 6 infantry battalions (pikes if pre 1685, none if later) - these could be 'Austrian' or other German States.
4-6 squadrons of Cuirassiers
2-4 squadrons of dragoons + dismounted option
1 squadron of Hussars/Croats
1 field gun
chevaux de frise defences

Your best opponent if you don't want to do Ottomans would be the French:

Similar sized force as above using pike armed infantry, no cuirassiers but standard Horse maybe 6-8 squadrons


cheers

B

Re: LOA Armies

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:06 pm
by DHautpol
As Glorfindel says some wargamers do tend to mentally separate the 'Williamite Wars' and WSS, I think this arises partly due to William's death during what Glorfindel describes as the "half time break". William himself was very aware of what Carlos's death would bring for Europe.