Another wip-update/decision.
As I will start with a small scenario, the Invasion of Silesia 1740/41, without the Bohemian and Upper Austrian theatre of war (7 day turns make up for it!) I can put quite a lot effort into the details. So here are a few Prussian leader-portraits for this scenario, from left to right line 1, Frederick, the Old Dessauer, Schwerin, Holstein-Beck; line 2, Buddenbrock, Schulenburg, Kalckstein. I still need to work on them a bit in order to make them look more cohesive. But as you can see, I'm going to leave them more "realistic" in style. I was very delighted to find these portraits, as they're almost all but 1 or 2 years pre or post 1740, so they actually give us a good idea of the faces of the campaign - and you can also see that those doll-head whigs were en vogue at that time.
However, the portrait-situation for the Austrians seems to be much more difficult. I will see what I can do.
It's clear that I also need to adjust all unit-graphics (more yellow and red, warmer light) to match the portraits. Moreover I also decided to use a darker background colour, as my unit graphics are in general darker than the vanilla ones, so I need to make the details come out better with a darker background. I actually like this green-blue colour for the Prussians. I think it matches very well the colour-tone that the uniforms of the rank-and-file Prussians would take on during a campaign (at least to Hyacinth de la Pegnas paintings). In general, I think that the "warm" style of the graphics also fit better to the beautifull map.
PS:
On music
Check out this
video(first & second by András L. Kecskés, Kecskés Ensemble; third ?) for an impression of what hungarian hussars would have sung at their campfires: Its a song dating from the Rakoci-era. Interestingly, the traditional hungarian "verbunkos"-dance-music is also said to have come up during the 18th century in connection with military recruiters - "verbunkos" being the magyar interpretation of the german word "Werbung"/recruitment.
For the music of Trencks' pandurs, you probably need to search for "mehter" on youtube to get an idea. The famous band of his pandours used the same instruments as jannissaries, and probably also helped to inspire the European craze for "a la turca".
There are also some nice CDs out there with 18th century prussian marches (search for Volker Wörrlein, Preußische Armeemärsche des 18.Jahrhunderts (only the drum and fife parts), Christian Blüggel/Märsche des Soldatenkönigs; plus add some Tippecanoe Ancient Fife and Drums Corps french stuff for more elan). The 19th century instrumentalisation of many vanilla records (mostly marches that have been written but a few decades later) doesn't quite do justice to the period.
Apretty old military-folk-melody is the melody of what is today known as "Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter", telling of Prince Eugenes' capture of Belgrad. Allegedly, it originated 1683 as a Saxon song on the siege of Vienna ("Als Chursachsen das vernommen..."). Unfortunately, I have yet to find a record of it that does not make my ears bleed.
Another old melody that has also been used with various texts (for he's a jolly good fellow!!):
Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre (here by Poeme Harmonique; see context in the comment).
I'm not striving for hyper-realism (button holes, etc.), just for the overall impression and awesome moustaches!
).
