Nine Years War Submod Preview

I'm working on a Nine Years War submod for Empire Total War, covering the conflict between Louis XIV and the Grand Alliance. (NB you can click on an image to enlarge.)

Some generals in this period wore a cuirass under their justaucorps. A portrait exists of John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, doing so. In contrast, Electoral Max II Emmanuel of Bavaria is depicted wearing a cuirass over it. Still others are depicted wearing corselets. Here is some of my work on the three types of general. NB The generals bodyguard models are not done yet and will change from the ETW originals. The last one is Spanish and based on the research of the Count of Clonard in the 1850s. Some Spanish generals seem to have worne purple, but no country had a general's uniform per se at this time (Saxony introduced one only in 1733). So I largely relying on portraiture and paintings of battles as a source. The generals are also replaced on the campaign-map models.

General in corselet

Dutch general

Spanish general

According to Anton Hoffman's plates in Army of the Blue King, officers of the Bavarian infantry regiments wore reverse colours at the start of this war, as well as a cuirass. The pikemen in this army were already abolished in 1687. Below is a work in progress on the officer of the Steinau regiment. Army of the Blue King says that the tricorne was already used by this stage in this army. The dragoon on the right is from the Red Regiment, which is mentioned in Army of the Blue King as one of at least two dragoon (mounted infantry) regiments (the other one being the blue regiment, which is also in the forthcoming Nine Years War release).

Steinau Regiment and officer

"Red" Regiment of Dragoons

For the Austrian dragoons, I am relying largely on the Xenophon website, which indicates they tended to wear blue or red coats, often with red shoulder ribbons which were the ancestors of the epaulets. Below left to right are: Batt Regiment, Vaubonne Regiment, Lowenfeld Regiment and Jorger (Herbeville) Regiment . Xenophon shows a Lowenfeld dragoon regiment wearing red coats with green cuffs, but also a regiment of the same name with green coats and red cuffs. This raises the interesting question as to whether or not there was more than one regiment by this name, or whether - at a time when uniformology was less consistent than in the 18th century - both were used. For the time being I'm going with the redcoats. It is also known that in Montecucoli's time as general, Austrian dragoons wore redcoats, so this could be a continuation of that tradition.