War of the Spanish Succession Project - Introduction

While being an avid history nerd, I have a sweet spot for the "horse and musket" era of history and wargaming. Beyond the Napoleonics collected in the 1990s, back in 2013 or so I purchased a couple of boxes of Zvezda Great Northern War figures. I have painted up some of them to the best of my skills.

Recently I wanted to get rid of my "pile of shame" and discovered that I still have many of these figures in unopened boxes. This prompted me to find out what to do with them and it has come into my mind that they should be converted to a theme which is more connected to Hungarian history than a bout between Swedes and Russians.

In parallel with the War of the Spanish Succession, an independence war raged in Hungary called Rákóczi's Independence War. The conflict sparked in 1703 due to discontent with the Habsburg policies towards the war-torn country (Hungary suffered heavily between 1683 and 1699 during the Great Turkish War, and the absolutist Imperial policies violated almost all of the society, inflicting huge taxes on the commoners and eliminating some important rights/privileges of the nobility).

"Pro Libertate" - motto of the revolution on a warflag.
Image taken from a public Hungarian educational website.

This independence movement might have achieved success only if the Franco-Bavarian armies knocked Austria out of the war, but their failure at Höchstadt (a.k.a. Blenheim a.k.a. Blindheim) meant that the insurgents had to fight on their own. Therefore I chose this campaign as it had a significant, albeit indirect impact on the history of my country.

Furthermore, the Great Turkish War which liberated Hungary from Ottoman rule involved troops from the entire Holy Roman Empire and even beyond. I'd love to keep open the opportunity to wargame this fascinating period of history as well.