Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames

The Seven Years War

Dealing with those Prussian bullies

Note: Die Kriegskunst now has its own page

This is probably my favourite period. This is the true "Warfare in the Age of Reason", "Sport of Kings" era, when the aesthetics of warfare seemed almost as important as the fighting itself! Although I began with a 15mm army, I've recently switched over to 28mm, tempted beyond reason by Foundry's new Seven Years War range. There's just something about a tricorne - serried ranks of tricorne-wearing infantry and imposing grenadiers look great, and then there's the range of different uniforms, flags and colours involved. It really is one of the most aesthetically pleasing wargame periods around.

   Several years ago I wrote a couple of Osprey books on the Russian Army of the Seven Years War, so I   suppose it was inevitable I would opt for the Empress Elizabeth's lads. The Foundry range is superb, with a great range of poses, although their sometimes illogical packaging system means that I've slipped a few Front Rank figures into the mix as well.

After a year or so the army is almost finished - just a few more units to do. At the moment I've got a dozen units of foot, five of horse,(16 foot to a battalion, or 20 horse to a regiment), plus guns, limbers, wagons and, of course, a dancing bear (left). My final goal is 16 battalions of foot, 4 regiments of horse, 2 units of Cossacks, four gun batteries, staff and all the other impedimenta of war.

I've also started work on a new army - the French. I recently conducted an unpainted lead swap with a wargaming pal from the Edinburgh club - he got Romans I bought but quickly lost interest in, while I gained a box of Front Rank French infantry. It was enough for about five battalions, which - added to the three Reichsarmee units I already have will be enough to make up a 12 battalion army.

Part of the inspiration for me was meeting Phil Olley - a very gifted member of the former League of Augsburg triumvirate, and the owner of an extremely pretty and rather large Prussian Army. My regular wargaming opponent (and co-author of Die Kreigskunst) Dougie Trail also built up a large force of Prussians.

        Caught in the flank...

When I played this period in 15mm I used Warfare in the Age of Reason, which was a fairly good system, even though it seemed rather slow. I then tried A Grim Panoply, which is Phil's own variant of the Wargame Holiday Centre Marlburian Rules. They work extremely well, even when everyone brings all their toys to the table. 

However, we ended up developing our own rules, based on the popular General de Brigade system for wargaming Napoleonic battles. We decided to call them Die Kriegskunst (The Art of War) as it had a suitably Germanic ring to it, and because the opportunities for mispronouncing it appealed to our more puerile instincts

Well, a few years down the road the Die Kriegskunst rules have been published by Partizan Press, and are now available. If you want to learn more about the rules, please click on this  Die Kreigskunst link.

If you want to but them from Partizan Press, then click here.

A Russian Regiment (28mm Foundry)

A game with Phil Olley's figures

Dougie Trail's Prussian Blue Hussars (28mm Foundry)

Die Kreigskunst page       Notes on Die Kriegskunst Basing and Unit Sizes       A sample Order of Battle (Kolin, 1757)    

         A simple version  of Die Kriegskunst Playsheet (Word File)  Newly revised version

 Sample Scenario: Gross-Jagersdorf , 1757  (Prussians v Russians)  

General de Brigade site  (an off-site link) - it includes a Die Kriegskunst discussion page

   Example of  Die Kriegskunst Armies:  The Russians          The French      The Prussians     (both under construction)

For accounts of our own Seven Years War games, see:

 Journal 9, Journal 12 , Journal 13  Journal 15  Journal 16  Journal 17  ,Journal 18  , Journal 19 , Journal 23 , Journal 24 , 

 Journal 26 , Journal 30  , Journal 32  , Journal 33 ,  Journal 34 ,  Journal 35   Journal 37  , Journal 41  &  Journal 42

As you can see, this period is something of a main staple of ours

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