KotB Schwein-Hundia v Prussians

King of the Battlefield is a very popular 7YW rule set written by Ian, one of our club members, and frequently played at the club.

Personally I've never had much interest in the 7YW or possessed a 7YW army. I tend to prefer Napoleonic's or the ACW for horse and musket games so despite KotB games being common at the club I've never played it.

However, thinking about the so-far disliked 1806 Prussian army I painted up for Blucher it appeared I could easily use them as a KotB army as they have a very 18th century appearance. The period also leads itself to the use of 'Imaginations' where people make up their own country, units and uniforms etc. So as a result the Principality of Schwein-Hundia took to the battlefield comprising Schwein troops looking remarkably like 1806 Prussians and Hundian forces with a similar resemblance to 1806 Saxons!

Stan kindly agreed to give me an introductory game against his Prussians so we threw down some terrain and deployed our forces:

On the right my Schwein faced considerably larger numbers of better class Prussians:

Numbers were fairly equal in the centre but on the left the Prussians only had a couple of skirmishing light cavalry units against the Hundian cavalry allowing the Hundians to go onto the attack:

The cavalry clash on the right, while Schwein infantry move up to contest the hill:

The Prussian cavalry are victorious and quickly smash almost all the Schwein cavalry:

The last Schwein cavalry are despatched, their infantry are holding on to the hill though:

On the left the Hundian's exchange fire with Prussian infantry, neither side gains an advantage though:

The Prussian skirmishing light cavalry evade the Hundian cavalry and start to roam about in the rear of the Schwein-Hundian army:

On the right the initially successful Schwein infantry are starting to take losses and some have been drawn off to face the Prussian cavalry horde:

The Prussians also gain the upper hand against the Hundian infantry:

Can't catch those pesky skirmishing Prussian hussars:

 Much of the Schwein infantry has been destroyed and the Schwein-Hundians concede the field:

So what did I think of KotB? Firstly it certainly looks like a battle with plenty of figures and units in action. Vast games are often played at the club and the rules can certainly cope with that giving you a result fairly quickly.

Some of the mechanisms are unusual (such as dicing using a D8 and a D6 for damage to your own troops in melee and firing rather than the usual damaging your opponent) and the cavalry melee's have a slightly complex reinforcement sequence which can be hard to understand at first.

As regards the game I should have been more aggressive on the left and in the centre where I was a little fearful of the potential effect of Stan's 'grand battery' which made me hold back. I get the feeling you need as many higher quality troops as possible as they certainly seemed to make a difference in both the shooting and the melee's especially for the cavalry.

I don't think I will be painting a 7YW army but it is possible the Schwein-Hundians may appear again and at least I got one game out of the 1806 Prussians (though they didn't endear themselves to me yet!) but I do like the Saxons so they will definitely be under consideration as allies for my French Napoleonic army!