Halket's Brigade

This will be the second of my Dutch infantry brigades. It will not be the last, as I have a lot more figures and flags available. I will certainly be doing a third infantry brigade at some point in the future, but two brigades of infantry (plus a cavalry brigade) should keep me busy painting for a while.

This brigade formed the left flank of the Dutch second line at at the Battle of Fontenoy. It consists of the regiments Broenkhoorst, Broekhuysen, Smissaert, and Oranje-Groningen under a General Halket.

Regt. Oranje-Groningen presents a problem. Brian at Vaubanner does a very nice flag for this regiment which I am keen to use. But while I've seen several references to Oranje-Groningen in a number of sources and orders of battle, I could find no reference to it in "The Uniforms of the Dutch Army- 1740-1748" (War of the Austrian Succession-A Wargamer's Guide Pt. III), Stephen Manley's invaluable booklet on the Dutch army.

So unless I find out any more information- and in the absence of anything else to go by- I'll use the uniform for the Regiment Ysenberg, which will go nicely with the flag. However, I'll give Oranje-Groningen gold buttons instead of Ysenberg's silver.

If anyone has any more information on this rather enigmatic regiment I'd love to know.

Kapitein's log, Supplemental: John Wright put me on the straight and narrow, and I've redone the uniform plate. 

According to an article by Dan Schorr in the old "Courier" magazine, Oranje-Groningen would have worn a uniform very much like the one now illustrated above (I used the uniform of the regiment Bentinck, but with the addition of a white shoulder knot which I tacked on to the illustration).  Thanks, John- and be sure to send me any good pictures of Rocourt when you get back!

For use with Koenig Krieg, this will be a four-battalion brigade, each battalion consisting of twelve miniatures each, all with a morale grade of 4 (groan!) Cannon-fodder, alas. One can almost hear the Mousquetiers du Roi drooling with anticipation as they draw their swords...

Swiss "Cheese"?

I've made a decision on which regiments of the Dutch army of the War of the Austrian Succession I'm going to do.

This involved firstly seeing which units I had the uniform details and flags for, with secondary consideration going to which units may have seen the most combat in the notable battles of the time. Brigades were relatively ad hoc entities in these pre-Napoleonic days, so units which were brigaded together in one particular battle were not necessarily to have been found fighting alongside each other in the next.

A couple of things became immediately clear as I did the research, namely:

1. There are some regiments whose uniform details are unaccounted for.
2. While the flags details are out there, as Brian Homenick pointed out in his notes to his excellent range of Dutch flags, just exactly which flag went with which regiment is extremely problematic.
3. Now, we are talking about the Dutch army of the 1740's here- Prussians they ain't. In the Koenig Krieg rules, Dutch infantry have a morale rating of four, compared with a rating of five for line infantry of most other nations. Add to this the fact that their commanding officer, Karl August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, boasts an illustrious initiative rating of "zero"- not to mention my own record of dice rolling- and things do not bode well for the military reputation of the United Provinces on the tabletop. Odds are pretty good that they will find themselves frequently having their pasty butts handed to them all over Flanders by stouter bullies, such as the Maison du Roi, the Irish Brigade, or even the Regt. de St. Vignobles.

With all this in mind, I've settled on two brigades for now.

First up is a brigade of Swiss. This will consist of three regiments, Regt. Hirtzel, Regt. Salis, and the Regt. Sturler. All three saw action at the Battle of Fontenoy, albeit in different brigades.

Why these particular regiments? Aside from having extremely pretty flags, Swiss units in Dutch service have a higher morale factor in Koenig Krieg than do the rest of the "Hollandaise Herd". And they come in larger units- 16 figures rather than 12 for the other line regiments. This will make them a lot more durable, and should see them being selected for those more glorious (and murderous!) battlefield tasks.

"Cheesy" maybe, but at least its high-quality Swiss cheese!

Next up, a line brigade.

Note: I put together these painting/ organization guides as a reference to help me visualize and paint my wargaming armies. Uniforms details are from Royalfig, Giles Boue's excellent site. Flags are by Vaubanner- I bought them and scanned one side of them in poor resolution for this purpose only, and detail you see here is a fraction of that you can see in Brian's flags. If any cheapskate out there is even thinking of trying to copy them for his own minis, show some self-respect, support Brian's hard work and buy your own. Or take up checkers.