Wargaming in History Volume 1 - The Seven Years War, Krefeld, Sanderhausen and Lutterberg 1758

As a reviewer, one gets sent old books and new books.  This one has been around a couple of years (published 2009) and is fairly narrowly focussed – basically all the information you need to fight the battles of Krefeld, Sanderhausen and Lutterberg during the Seven Years War!  However it gets an extra spin when you realise the co-authors are Charles S Grant and Phil Olley.  Mr. Grant is the son of Charles Grant, who as much as anyone developed wargaming in its modern form.  And both Mr. Grant and Mr. Olley (I do feel that I should call them Charles and Phil as their book is written in such a friendly and engaging way that I feel I know them both!) have inherited the late Mr. Grant Senior’s idiosyncratic approach to wargaming!

To really get a proper feel for that approach you should read Mr. Grant Sr’s seminal work on modern wargaming: The War Game (also available from Ken Trotman Publishing apparently). First published in 1971 (my copy is sadly the 2^nd re-print edition of 1972), this contains a set of rules for the Seven Years War period and is a “how to do” guide for anyone interested in starting wargaming, the principles espoused being a great guide whatever period in history one was interested in. It would be rude to use the term eccentric but what made Mr. Grant’s approach so interesting is that whilst firmly rooted in the Seven Years War period his armies and campaigns were based on the two fictious states of the Vereingte Freie Stadte (sort of based on the armies of the Low Countries/small German states of the period) and Lorraine (based on the French armies of the period).  It is in this fictious milieu that the armies of Mr. Grant and Mr. Olly are firmly based. So whilst the battles in the book are real, in some of the orders of battle there are fictious units – although it is made clear which historical units they are “replacing”.

So with perhaps one of the longest introductions to a review ever (!) what do you get in the book?  You get 5 parts; a brief introduction to wargaming and descriptions of the armies used; an overview of the Seven Years War and then a section on each of the battles.  In these latter sections you get short description of the campaigning leading to the battle (with a map) and then information on how to re-fight the battle – terrain, historical deployments, orders of battle and advice on how to scale the battles to enable them to be sensibly re-fought.  Also each battle has a clear map showing initial unit deployments and the terrain to be fought over.  You get an overview of how the battle was actually fought and then Mr. Grant and Mr. Olly give us a description of how their re-fight went (using Mr. Grant’ army of Lorraine and Mr. Olly’s Electoral League army).  All this is supported by some excellent colour photos of the battles underway, all showing lovely painted figures, in big battalions fighting across some lovely but practical terrain – a real inspiration for both experienced and inexperienced wargamers.

All this is great stuff.  What you also get is brief overview of some the various irregular/informal units raised during the War – Freicorps, Grenzers and such like.  This section is well supported by some superb illustrations by Bob Marrion.  The reason why these troops are mentioned is that Mr. Grant has changed the rules from the original ones in The War Game to better reflect the use of such informal units on the wargames table, this certainly adds to the content and character of the book!

This is a super book and illustrates to me exactly what is so brilliant about wargaming as a hobby – enthusiastic participants, fascinating history, great figures and terrain and an element (forgive me gentlemen) of madness.   At a practical level the book is of direct interest to those who wargame or would like to wargame the Seven Years war period.  However it should also be of interest to those like this reviewer who love to peer and pry at how others play and perceive the hobby that I love!  Mr. Grant, Mr. Olly I salute you!

Available in hardback from Ken Trotman Publishing (www.kentrotman.com) priced £ 29.95.  Volume 2 is also now available – The War of Austrian Succession: Dettingen, Fontenoy and Lauffeld.

Review written by: Paul Robinson, Staff Writer