Hanover Dragoon Regiment Busche

Some Detective Work

I chose the engagement at Hoya for my game because it was small enough to play the complete battle at the battalion level. Most of the time if you are playing games at the battalion level set in the Seven Years War, you either have to play an imaginary battle or a part of a larger battle (Well I guess if you have a really huge table and a lot of time you could play a large battle at this scale.).

The problem of playing a smaller engagement is an age old problem of not having a complete order of battle. The problem is as old as history itself where an author will give the number of heavy infantry involved in a battle and omit the number of light troops and cavalry – or as in the case of the Romans, you might find the legions involved in a battle and no mention at all of the strength of the opposing side. Here’s a contemporary account of the forces at Hoya:

The anonymous author who served in the British Army in the campaigns of the Allied Army, mentions a single squadron of dragoons present at the battle. Even the excellent Kronoscaf Seven Year War website doesn’t identify this squadron. I could have just chosen any dragoon regiment in the allied army, but I wanted to be as accurate as possible with my guess. And for that, I turned to the Nafziger Collection of Orders of Battle and began digging through file after file until I found the Hanoverian-Allied Army Table of Organization on 18 February 1758, one week before Hoya. The Hereditary Prince of Brunswick jointly commanded the Advanced Guard:

Advanced Guard: Generallieutenant von Oberg & Generalmajor Erbprinz von Braunschweig:

• Hanoverian Guard Infantry Regiment (2 bns)
• Brunswick Leibregiment (2 bns)
• Wagenheim Infantry Regiment (1 bn)
• Kielmansegge Infantry Regiment (1 bn)
• Hauss Infantry Regiment (1 bn)
• Oberg Infantry Regiment (1 bn)
• Dachenhusen Cavalry Regiment (2 sqns)
• Busch Cavalry Regiment (4 sqns)
• Garde Cavalry Regiment (1 sqn)
• Grenadiere Cavalry Regiment (1 sqn)
• von Lückner Hussars (50)
• Jägers (100)
• 3rd Brigade Artillery: 6 8pdrs; 3 12pdrs; 3 6pdrs 6 howitzers

It seems logical the Hereditary Prince would have chosen a dragoon squadron from his own command since the infantry battalions at Hoya came from his command. And the only dragoon regiment under his command was the Busche dragoons.

The Figures

The figures are 10mm from Pendraken. Pendraken doesn’t make Haoverian Dragoons. In their army pack, they use British Dragoons since the Hanover uniform was very similar to the British uniform. However, the horse furniture and horses with cropped tails doesn’t appear in any paintings or period illustrations on Hanover cavalry. So, I chose to use the Austrian dragoon pack for Hanoverian dragoons and saved the British dragoons to use as mounted Jagers.

I painted the entire regiment, each base represents 1 squadron of cavalry. The reasoning was that I may play a future game where I will need the full regiment and, for the purpose of this game, use the surplus squadrons as reinforcements. The game, Muskets and Shakos, do allow the possibility of reinforcements arriving during the game. Ideally for the Allied force, these reinforcements would be units patrolling in the area – patrols were usually composed of dragoons, hussars or jagers.

The Count

The completion of these figures brings my count of painted figures to 113. Here’s the breakdown:

• 8 28mm Fantasy Figures
• 60 6mm Ancient Greek Figures
• 22 10mm Seven Years War Figures
• 10 28mm Old West Figures
• 13 28mm Science Fiction Figures
• 41 Pieces of Terrain
• Rebased 9 Science Fiction Figures

The Corner of Miscellany

I removed two posts from my blog recently. They were old and were no longer attracting gamers, but viewers with a bit of a creepy vibe. Most of you won’t even notice they are gone.

As usual, your comments, suggestions, platitudes and gifts are always welcome – even the occasional grumble is appreciated.

This week, the group Everglow explains why you are so done.