Happy New Snyear

Vincent Price as Witchfinder General

The English Civil Warre shall loom largge in the yeaar to coome for mee.

May your games year be filled with successful die rolls and good table talk shared with good folk.

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries, but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other off and remain at peace. The leaders were conservatives with little use for republicanism or revolution. France lost all its recent conquests, while Prussia, Austria and Russia made major territorial gains. Prussia added smaller German states in the west and 40% of the Kingdom of Saxony; Austria gained Venice and much of northern Italy. Russia gained parts of Poland. The new kingdom of the Netherlands had been created just months before, and included formerly Austrian territory that in 1830 became Belgium.

Bourbon restoration ... less than ideal

Edward Fox as the Colonel from The Duellists 1977

A second section of the community was equally disgruntled -- the ex-soldiers.  The victorious powers had insisted that the French forces be reduced to a shadow of their former size, and large-scale demobilization was in any case economically imperative.  Pitchforked into civil life, the French rank and file grumbled - as always - but this time with real grievances.  One hundred and fifty-five years earlier Cromwell's New Model Army had similarly been abruptly disbanded by another restored monarchy, and contemporary observers had been greatly impressed by the orderly way in which the original redcoats had re-assimilated themselves into civil life.  The France of 1815 was not, however, blessed with so easy a transition.  No doubt many of the conscripts were only too gladto revert to their former ways of life, but there remained a hard core of veteran soldiers who proved incapable of finding a place in the inflationary economy and shaken society of defeated France.  Many starved; all felt disgruntled.  The focal points of the old comrades discontent were the cafes where the 12,000 or so officers on half pay would congregate to read the Paris news sheets, sip a pernod, and lament the "good old days" of teh Empire.  The passage of time rapidly glossed over the realities of Napoleonic campaigning - the fear, the fatigue, the mud, the hunger and pain - and left only the evocative memories of la gloire and treasured remembrances of some passing word from Le Tondu.  In this way, the Bourbon policy of military retrenchment ensured that the Napoleonic mystique survived.  Somewhat paradoxically, this was nowhere more evident than within the ranks of teh units incorporated into the new Royal army.  No amount of ordinances and disciplinary awards could check, for instance, the established practice of sentries presenting arms to veterans wearing the white enameled cross of the Legion d'Honneur.  In the end this was allowed.

~ The Campaigns of Napoleon, D. Chandler, p. 1010

The annual Gingerbread House ... 2014 instalment

the 2014 gingerbread house

Happy Season's Greetings to you and your family for all readers of MurdocK's MarauderS.

The LOBSTERS - ECW Cuirassiers

A unit of Pike and Shotte Cuirassiers has been gifted to me.

Though only the Hesilrigge's Lobsters force actually existed during the ECW, I may go with a different flag

Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein fame presented me with this most wondrous gift so as to complete the Parliamentary forces.

The final three regiments of Pike and Shotte are going to get paint over the next few days and a trip to Bearstein is on the calendar to move forward the Royalist horse.  This way our two forces will have a chance to engage before this winter is out, on the tabletop.  Our working plan is to do Edgehill using the Canadian Wargames Group rules "For God King and Country".

Out Travelling

I have been away for the past seven weeks traveling, my wife made sure to accurately inform me of the time away, and supporting a friend in need.

a view of the NY Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas strip from the Mustang convertible we had for a rental car.

Along the way I attended a couple of networking events and a business expo/convention.

The one expo in Las Vegas included an encounter with the lady designer of "My Barter Game", which has been designed like Monopoly or Cashflow were to teach about certain business or property concepts; in this case the Barter Money system concept.

The board has a layout like Monopoly, with an 'inner track' similar to Cashflow, though with different uses.

Ana Hawk, the designer and owner of a barter exchange - busy with the teaching task

While I did not win, I also did not come in last ... along the way I came to understand more about barter exchanges

What 'real world' skills have you developed or come to better understanding of via game play?

Magnificent modeling: Fontainbleu

An amazing work in progress!

The Adieux de Fontainebleau blog has works that will bring a smile to a modeler's face.