Time flies...

In the half a year since I updated this blog, this particular moth has been flitting around a number of different hobby porchlights for a while so "Will ye go to Flanders?" has been cruelly neglected of late.

My fascination with the War of the Austrian Succession has never been in danger of waning. However, there is ever only so much time available to spend on one facet of a hobby in which I have a number of different interests and projects on the go. Fortunately, a number of events are happening/ have happened which after such a long absence mean that it is high time for me to be doffing my tricorne again.

First off, and of great importance to me after having first read it all those years ago while a freshman at university, is the arrival of a new edition of Sir Reginald Savory's 1966 masterpiece, His Britannic Majesty's Army in Germany during the Seven Year's War.

This remains the only comprehensive modern book in English on the western campaigns of the Seven Year's War between the French and the Allied armies that I am aware of. After having walked over the battlefield of Bergen (1759) on my last trip to the Frankfurt area, I am anxious to read up on that and other battles of the time again.

It is being reprinted by Nigel Billington, through a very promising publishing venture, the 18th Century Press.

While Nigel and I are both very much into the War of the Austrian Succession ("WASsies" as he terms it!), the SYW is a mere stone's throw away in time, and I will be delighted to have it on my bookshelf at last. Congratulations, Nigel, and thank you for doing such a service for 18th C. aficionados.

Once Nigel notified me that things were ready to roll I had no hesitation in ordering a copy. At 75 pounds Sterling it is not cheap, but is still a good buy, seeing as good condition copies on the second hand market go for up to 4oo pounds or so- as do the reprinted versions by Athena Books.

And now perhaps at last I can finally get over the urge to kick myself for not having pilfered the University of British Columbia's copy when I had the chance; because some else must have done, as when I went back some years later to refer to it it had been long missing!

The other 18th C. goodness due to be shipped off my way is the latest edition of the Koenig Krieg rule set now published by Siege Works Studio in Australia. As I mentioned previously here, this was my first and still my favourite set of rules for gaming 18th C. battles, and while the bulk of the rules have remained "as is" it seems that there have been some revisions with unit sizes and rule presentation as well, with a much more "modern" layout in keeping with what gamers have come to expect lately (the original rules, as well as the second edition put out by Freikorps 15, look so "eighties" these days...).

Finally, I received an email from a well-known designer of board games asking if I had any information on the Allied order of battle for Lauffelt in 1747. Well, that is proving a headache but I may discuss this more on that on a later post.