Disrupting a Bavarian summer: The assault on the Schellenberg

The first thing that's going onto the blog is the grandiosely named Project 2011.
It's held at the Guild, probably the most friendly and cheerful assembly of wargaming crazies you could ever imagine (there's a link below if you want to check it out). Along with two other gamers, we've undertaken to set up a complete game of the 1704 battle at the Schellenberg, with 1:72 scale figures.

I'll be tracking the progress of this megalomaniac idea, and the blog will also show our discussion of ideas and concepts for the game. Don't be surprised if you see strange characters on your screen...some of our communications will be in greek. Like the fellow said "there is nothing wrong with your set".

We have already settled on the rules, Frank Chadwick's "Volley and Bayonet", an old favourite of two of us (hey, democracy in action!). Right now we're discussing the scale we will use- the original rules are written on a scale of 1 "strength point"= 500 men or 6 guns, but versions with 1 SP =200 or even 100 men have been successfully playtested, with attendant changes in the ground and time scales.
The driving force here is not the size of the forces so much as the size of the table: we want something big and impressive, yet manageable. Coupled with a desire to properly reflect the colourful variety of military
uniforms during the early 18th century, we're leaning towards 1 SP = 200 men, which very nicely makes each base of troops a battalion.

At this scale, the game board will be 160x120cm, and cover this area:

(the ticks are at 10cms, the grid is 20x20cm, and the numbers show the elevation). The base sizes for various troop types are on the right, to give a sense of the size of the game.
The light grey traces the fortifications built by the Bavarian and French army, however those tiny little bastions are probably below the "grain" of the rules. The thin black line marks where the fortifications will run for the game (we can still dress them up, of course).