¡A Italia!

And so the decision has been taken. 

His Most Catholic Majesty, King Felipe V, by the grace of God King of Castile, of León, of Aragon, of the Two Sicilies, of Jerusalem, of Navarre, of Granada, of Toledo, of Valencia, of Galicia, of Mallorca, of Seville, of Sardinia, of Cordóba, of Corsica, of Murcia, of Jaen, of the Algarves, of Algeciras, of Gibraltar, of the Canary Islands, of the East and West Indies, of the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Anjou, of Burgundy, of Brabant and of Milan, Count of Habsburg, of Flanders, of Tyrol and of Barcelona, Lord of Biscay and of Molina, etc. has decreed that an army shall be formed for the protection of our lands in Italy.

I’m taking the plunge and ordering troops from H&R for a Spanish army for the Austrian War of Succession. Now I mentioned before that I have sizeable Austrian and French armies for the period, and was reluctant to start another white-coated force. Especially as they’re 6mm figures.

Neil came up with the good idea of just making substitute command stands with different colours for the respective Bourbon armies. Two things stopped me implementing this plan. (1) I’m reluctant to start prising individual figures off bases; (2) having separate command stands is fiddly and takes up room. But it did spark off a compromise approach. I could build up half the number of Spanish units needed, each base with their colours or guidons to be paired up with bases of ‘French’ without colours. You see all my units are 2 bases strong.

The sizes of the Bourbon armies in Italy (or ‘Gallispans’/Franco-Spanish) were generally smaller than 50,000. So let’s say I need 25,000 Spanish split between 20,000 foot and 5,000 horse. With the unit sizes I employ this would be 8 units (brigades) of infantry and 4 of cavalry. But with my cunning plan I only need 1/2 that. As I get a brigade’s worth of horse or foot from each H&R pack, I only need to order 4 packs of infantry, 2 of cavalry, 1 of artillery, plus a pack of grenadiers for good measure. Except under Cunning Plan Dos, I don’t need any cav because I have re-purposed enough spare mounted officers to make up 2 units!

These were previously painted up as Austrian and Prussian officers for use as sort ‘command points’ in an idea derived from Polemos rules. Spanish cavalry mainly wore dark blue or white coats, with some in red and dragoons in yellow. Apart from some touching up I hardly need paint them! However, I do rather like the idea of mixing it up a bit by having a splash of yellow! I will have to make some little guidons from wire and baking foil. Fiddly, but doable.

An order will wing its way to H&R in the morning, together with an order for more bases from Pendraken.

As ever with these projects, no sooner had a scaled back the volume of new toy soldiers required than I realised I need some buildings more appropriate for northern Italy. I should have a go at making some poplars too, to line the roads.