With pre-orders for the new Black Powder Epic Battles: Revolution! nearing their end, and the full release almost upon us, we’re looking at all the awesome things you can do with the new range. We’ve covered in detail the contents of each sprue in previous articles, showing off what you can do with them, and we’ve seen some fantastic painting from around the community. Even our CEO John Stallard has gotten in on the action! Today, we’re looking beyond North America, because there’s a very interesting conflict on the other side of the Atlantic that these models are perfectly suited to represent – the Seven Years’ War!
To talk you through the hows, whys, and whats, we’ve enlisted some outside help. Alex Burns (check out his Kabinettskriege blog!) will be our guide. Lead on, sir!
AB – The new Epic Battles: Revolution! range gives players the ability to represent not just
infantry from the American War of Independence, but also the earlier Seven Years’ War, a period that’s long been popular with gamers on both sides of the Atlantic. The Seven Years’ War saw titanic (dare we say… epic? – ed.) clashes between the armies of Prussian king Frederick the Great and his opponents. These would be the largest battles of the eighteenth century until the Napoleonic Wars. The uniform similarities between the Seven Years War and American Revolution allows hobbyists, particularly those using the Hessians and Allies Brigade box, to easily represent multiple armies from the conflict. Let’s explore the possibilities!
Most eighteenth century infantrymen, from the later part of the Seven Years War to the American Revolution, wore relatively similar uniforms. This means that, by using the standard British or Continental Infantry frame, you can quite easily paint most European armies of the period. Simply by changing the colour of the coats and gaiters, you can create the Prussians from 1740-1786, the Austrians from 1740-1763, the French from 1760s-1770s, and the Russians in their winter uniforms from the 1750s-1760s. Thus, while some regiments might have unique uniforms, the ‘base’ infantry in Revolution! gives a wide variety of cross-compatibility. The stand above has been painted to represent French infantry from the period of the American War of Independence in white coats and gaiters with white and red hat cockades to display their national identity.
For more specific troop types, we turn to the Hessians & Allies Brigade box. The box includes several stands of Hessian and British grenadiers with their trademark caps: metal-plated in the case of the Prussians and Hessians (or even Polish or Saxons!), and fur-fronted for the British, Austrians, and French after 1760. Thus, using the same miniatures, you can represent everything from French Grenadiers in the American Revolution to Austrian Grenadiers from the Seven Years’ War, in addition to their British counterparts in America. The stand below has been painted to represent Austrian Grenadiers of the Teutschmeister Regiment (Nr. 4) in the Seven Years’ War.
The Epic Battles: Revolution! range has been specifically designed with flexibility in mind, enabling players to modify stands in order to create ‘custom’ units. Mixing extra bits from different sprues allows for the creation of some of the more rare and unique units from both the American Revolution and Seven Years War’. For example, while most grenadier battalions in the Hessian and Prussian armies did not carry flags, a few specialized regiments, such as the Hessian Regiment von Rall, and Prussian Grenadier Garde (Nr. 6), did indeed possess colours. With the modularity of the sprues, it is possible to represent these rare grenadier battalions with banners. The stand below has taken two ensigns from the standard infantry set in order to represent both the Leibfahne (Colonel’s Colour) and Kompaniefahne (Regimental Colour) of the Prussian Grenadier Garde (Nr. 6). This is an excellent example of how well the Revolution! range can cover even the ‘edge cases’ of units from the Seven Years’ War.
For the majority the Prussian infantry, the musketeers, it’s possible to represent these
troops with very few alterations. These two stands below have been painted in the colours of the Prussian Itzenplitz Regiment (Nr. 13), one of Frederick the Great’s crack infantry units, which fought hard on the Central European battlefields of the Seven Years’ War. There are very few changes from a Hessian regiment – I’ve simply added small dots of white to the hats in order to represent the Pueschels (pom-poms) that these soldiers wore. Thanks to the designs of the sprues, players can represent a majority of the infantry forces of the Seven Years’ War. As a further example, the Hessian Jägers had their counterparts in the Prussian army, who were uniformed in a similar manner. This flexibility means that your Revolution! miniatures can march not only through the fields and forests of Revolutionary America, but also through the smoke-clouded battlefields of Frederick the Great!
~ Article by Alex Burns
Inspired to take to the battlefields of the eighteenth century, on either side of the Atlantic? Pre-order now to be among the first to get your hands on Black Powder Epic Battles: Revolution!
