British Flags in the Western Battles (SYW)

[GMcClellan]

I'd just typed up a fairly long answer to a question when the topic disappeared, so I thought I'd take a moment to explain. I'll admit here, part of the difficulty is of my own creation.

The later "western" battles in SYW (the campaigns between Ferdinand of Brunswick and the French) tend to use the British colors/flags. Why?

The first thing to realize is that the sides and available armies in the game are hardcoded in, and that was done at a fairly early point. So, you have Prussian, British, Army of Observation, Russian, Austrian, French and Imperial forces.

Ferdinand's army was mixed. He generally had a mix of Hanoverians, Hessians and Brunswickers, and at times, British. He also tended to have a fairly small number of Prussians, and maybe other troops from the smaller states. Generally, the army was supported (and paid for) by the Elector of Hanover (ie, King George II). The initial army under the Duke of Cumberland that was defeated at Hastenbeck was named the Army of Observation. I'd originally intended to use that army tag (and thus counter colors and map flags) for Ferdinand's army throughout the war, but then realized that the AoO title wasn't really used post Hastenbeck. (And this was fairly deep into game development, and not realistic to get that change.) Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

So, I was left with a choice.
1) Army of Observation, even if it wasn't entirely correct.
2) Prussian, even though they generally only had a few forces.
3) British, to highlight that they were paid for by the British.

Obviously, I chose #3. I think you can make a fair case between #1 and #3, but either way, that's where we ended up.