Languages spoken at Waterloo

In case you haven’t seen this clip before https://youtu.be/0GQ036V5lyA?si=A7TZ84JarP4OTxa9

This is a fun little exercise. A clip of the climax of the battle from Bondarchuk’s Waterloo, with characters speaking their own languages. It doesn’t have English subtitles, but most of us have probably seen the film so many times that we know much of the dialogue off by heart not to need it. Apart from which, I’d bet our hobby interest has given us a reasonable smattering of French and German, and especially military vocabulary.

Cheeky way that Boney’s internal dialogue is portrayed 😄

Where is Grouchy?

The Google app on my phone occasionally gets it right. More often the algorithm makes unwarranted assumptions about what may tickle my fancy. This one (link below) hit the sweet spot.

It’s a video on YouTube by a group of American gamers who traveled to Belgium and re-run the Prussian-Grouchy side of the 18th June battles. The French decide to ignore their orders and march to the sound of the guns. A ‘what if’ on the actual ground……and a tabletop wargame to follow.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=12GsPI6LOWQ

PS I have just been reminded by James on the Chauvinistic Blog, and by the Librarian Gamer, that yesterday (Sat 2 December) was the anniversary of Austerlitz. I spent most of yesterday travelling to, and back from, the outskirts of Oxford to see a defeat in very similar weather conditions to the Battle of the Three Emperors. Fog and frost. Brr! At least the loss wasn’t Napoleonic in scale, and we lost no one in carp ponds. Spirits were raised by a daft yet deft re-working of Last Christmas.

I missed Benidorm for this!

Yep. I've been to see Napoleon. I had reservations having seen the trailer (with the 'Battle of Austerlitz' scene). I seriously tried to leave those reservations at home. I read a positive review on a wargaming blog earlier, and I spoke to a movie maker at the weekend who had been to the premiere and liked it. With the possible exception of the storming of the fort at Toulon, the fight between Kenneth Du Beke and Joyce Temple-Savage in Benidorm* was as convincing a portrayal of Napoleonic warfare as the battle scenes in Napoleon. It was as if Donald Trump had scripted the battle scenes.

* naturally the redcoated Joyce won.

Battle of Waterloo

In the interests of balance, there were some good bits. I thought the theme of Boney's relationship with Josephine worked well as a unifying thread, artistically if not historically. Phoenix is a good actor and adds a certain Latin quality to the 'Frenchman' Buonaparte. And his accent worked well in contrast to the British actors in most of the French roles. I liked Miles Jupp as Emperor Francis (with an understated Mitteleuropa accent) and Paul Rhys as Talleyrand. Raspberry for Rupert Everett as Wellington though.

Sergei Bondarchuk's position is safe.

Rationalising

''Rationalising" is one of those euphemisms that emerged in the 80s for 'cuts' and it is in that sense that I am thinking right now. I don't have a massive inventory of toy soldiers, and I have been thinking about expanding it. My first thought is always to look at 'the lead mountain' to see what I can do there before I can justify to myself more spending.

I've worked through my 6mm SYW pile to the point where I don't have enough for any more units. Just a few odds and sods. The ECW 'pile' is similar. I have a few civilians and some petardiers. And some officers, drummers and the odd pikeman, but nothing to make a unit out of. The AWI collection has nothing whatsoever, unpainted. I'll say that again. "The AWI collection has nothing whatsoever unpainted".

Then there's the Napoleonics. Again, nothing to paint. There are various painted figures, donated by Tony 'Max Foy', which could be based up into a unit. It might require some re-painting. But here's the thing, I haven't gamed with them in 3 years. I have an Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish army and a late war Prussian army. But no French, save the aforementioned painted loose figures. I could look at the viability of re-painting the Prussians. Obviously the biggest issue is the shape of the shakos (and all with covers on), and the flat caps amongst the Landwehr. Food for thought. If I decide not to do that I will seriously think about moving the collection on.

	No./base	No. Bases
Napoleonics
Baccus infantry	24-28	63
Baccus cavalry	9	24
Baccus artillery	1 gun	16*
Baccus generals	1	55

* about half with limber teams.

Finally there's the WWII Finns and Soviets. Again, I hardly use these. There are a lot more unpainted models here. I sorted through them, catalogued them and decided what I would definitely keep and paint, and what was genuinely surplus. The surplus will definitely be moved on one way or another. Comment below if you're interested.

Description	# Figures/heavy weapon teams/vehicles	Cat.No. (packs are not necessarily full)	Make
Soviets in winter coats and fur hats	40	?	Magister Militum?
Finnish senior officers in coats and winter hats	4	Fin 2	Pendraken
Soviet officers various hats	10	W258?	Magister Militum
Soviet LMG team (teams of 2	9	W257	Magister Militum
Soviet light mortar teams (bases of 2)	4	W251	Magister Militum
Soviet LMG teams of 2	7	?	Magister Militum?
Soviet heavy mortars (teams of 3)	2	W256	Magister Militum
Soviet Naval infantry	11	SV19?	Pendraken?
Soviet MMG teams of 2	7	W252	Magister Militum
RCW Red Army inf in Budyanovka	23	RCW1	Pendraken
Soviet AT guns (teams of 3)	2	SV17	Pendraken
Soviet early war light tank	3	?	?
Soviet T28	1	?	?
Soviet BT7	1	?	Pendraken?
Soviet KV1	2	?	Pendraken?
Finns in winter coats	37	?	?
Finns in Summer uniforms	35	?	?
Finnish MMG (team of 2)	2	?	?
Finnish heavy mortars (teams of 3)	2	?	?
Finnish AT gun (team of 3)	1	?	?
Finnish AT gun (team of 3)	1	?	?

I was originally thinking of the Winter War, which is why I've got some of the earlier AFVs and RCW infantry, but the thought of creating all those leafless broad leaf trees put me off! Most of the Soviets are in  post-1940 kit.

Oh, I nearly forgot. In the interests of full disclosure, I do have various samples of Punic War, Colonial and late C17th pikemen unpainted. The latter for the 'bateaux project' I mentioned a while back.

Postscript

I 'discovered' that I also have a pack (50) of Pathan infantry and a pack (20) of Tartar cavalry bought from H&R many years ago for an 18th century Ottoman project that never got off the ground. [Now there's a thought]. Also some Prussian grenadiers and  some Austrian grenadiers. Collectively nearly enough for a battalion of grenadiers (based on pennies for use as markers in my home brewed rules). But which nationality? I seem to have enough Prussian, Austrian and Anglo-Hanoverian grenadiers. Options include:

• Rochow Fusileers (Saxon) would involve cutting mitres down, but they have nice green coats. Fought with the French.
• Saxon converged grenadiers - white coats with mitres for a change!
• Reichsarmee combined grenadier battalion (which could be a mixture of bluecoats in mitres and whitecaps in bearskins!). Think they may have only combined grenadiers later in the war.
• Something from the WAS like Piedmontese or Spanish (assuming they had grenadier battalions), but they'd be odd ones out.

I also have c.40 mounted officers, also based on pennies as 'markers'. These could be 'converted' into cavalry of some description. Enough for 2 'brigades'.

Le Tour de 1813

Sat down for a rest and switched the telly on. Noticed that  Stage Two of the Tour de France today covers some of Arthur Wellesley’s old stomping ground.

Very pleasant scenery.

https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-2

War & Peace

If you have a spare 7 hours, the Soviet version has been released in full on YouTube. I’ve only ever seen the Hollywood version (better than I expected), the fairly recent BBC version and snippets of the BBC series from 50 years ago that Chandler worked on.*

This is supposed to be the best.

https://www.openculture.com/2022/07/watch-the-hugely-ambitious-four-part-soviet-adaptation-of-war-and-peace-free-online-1966-67.html

Good timing by Mosfilm!

* like millions of others, I never finished the book.

Goetz on Austerlitz

Is this book any good? Naval and Military Press have it on sale for £3.99. Not my main period but I love a bargain.

Helion sale

For those interested, in case you weren’t aware already, Helion have 20% off all Napoleonic books today 18th June.

Use code Waterloo20 at checkout.

RIP the Iron Duke

 He WAS the Duke

Apparently he was also in some little musical too, about an K-und-K naval captain.

Got a spare million Euros?

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/napoleon-bonaparte-manuscript-victory-battle-of-austerlitz-goes-on-sale

Influential books

Whilst surfing through my Blogger reading list earlier a thought came to me* that there were two or three books which have had a massive impact on my wargaming life. More than any others. All three were published, and acquired by me, in the 1970s, so they've been around me during the last 5 decades. Whilst others have come since and have had a big impact on my hobby time, most of these have sprung from one or more of these wellsprings. I mentioned a couple of these last year in a trawl through my own history as a wargamer.

* Two things probably brought this about. One, I made a throw-away remark to david in suffolk  about the 1970s. Two, I had been thinking about Jonathan's analyses of the Great Wargames Survey 2020 which discussed the associations between age and wargaming interests.

The three books in question are:

1. The War Game, ed. Peter Young, London 1972
2. Wargame Rules 1685-1845, The Wargames Research Group, 1977
3. The Army of Frederick the Great, Christopher Duffy, Newton Abbot 1974

The Young and Duffy books were both presents from my sister and brother-in-law, known within the family for the great books they choose as presents. I think I was 13 when I got number 1, then I bought the WRG rules in early 1978. This in turn got me into the SYW and I was subsequently bought number 3.

The dust jacket alone got a young lad salivating. Incidentally this is the second copy of the book. The original I had got damaged when it was stored in a damp garage for several years.

I want to take each book in turn and give a sense of how and why it has influenced my wargaming path, naturally starting with The War Game. Wargamers of a slightly older vintage often cite Featherstone, Grant,  and Scruby as their formative wargaming influencers. Others in this truly 'Old School' era were Young & Lawford, and Wesencraft. Whilst many of the chapters were written by these luminaries, mentally I classify the War Game as 'NQOS' (Not Quite Old School). For a start it's in colour! And the terrain is diorama quality. Also, the chapters do not describe wargames or wargaming but historical battles. For Tail-end Baby Boomers like me (I snuck in under the wire) the 70s were probably our formative years. The 1980s were by contrast the least favourite of all my 6 decades. In fact I pity people for whom the 80s were their formative years (sorry Gen-Xers).

So, this book, edited by the pioneering Peter Young, was produced near the start of the best decade and I got given it somewhere in the middle. I'd not seen the real Old School stuff at that stage. I'd not seen any wargaming books or rules at all. So getting the War Game was truly one of those mind blowing moments. First of all, the photography and the models are stunning. Peter Gilder was a major influence on the look with his terrain and some of the models. The other chapter authors, plus other wargamers, also contributed models. And all were superbly photographed by Philip O Stearns, who looks to have had an interesting life. He was in the OSS during the War, and as well as photographing wargames and toy soldiers, he also photographed  er-hem, models in 1/1 scale. There's more about him here including some of his contributions to something called Mayfair. No me neither 😉. 

I'm not sure whether I saw the book first, or a display by the Grimsby Wargaming Club in the Army Recruitment Office Window, but both were around the same period. This was a Proper grown-up Hobby. (I think the GWC was called the Horse & Musket Society in those days).  

Clearly a Proper Hobby. Apparently not all wargamers have such paraphernalia lying around the table.

So clearly presentationally the book was superb. Then there was an impressive list of authors, many with military experience themselves. The pen portraits of the authors gave it all added respectability in my eyes. Each chapter was well structured giving historical background to each of the battles, descriptions of the leaders, a summary of the forces engaged, an account of the battle and some very useful maps.

I'm going to throw in some gratuitous photos here, because the book is such a feast for the eyes. And it conveys something of the sheer mass of material that was in front of my young eyes 45 years ago. Here's something from every chapter. This showed me what a rich field of interest was opening up to me. I hope it conveys some of the excitement I felt first opening up the book and when I devoured every page. And if you haven't read this book, I hope it inspires you to get hold of a copy. 

From the chapter on Thermopylae. So this was the battle that inspired The 300 Spartans film! Not gamed it though. Yet.

Agincourt initial dispositions

Agincourt again. A lot of the English archers here are Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood's Men conversions, as are some of the French dismounted men-at-arms. I ended up buying lots of these but for conversion to Ancients.

Dispositions for Edgehill. Now I hadn't heard of this battle at the time. It took me until 3 years ago to finally get this battle on the table. Over 40 years but I got there eventually!

Lovely opening shot from the Blenheim chapter. I had Airfix Napoleonic at the time but this set the slow match burning for the 18th century. Or was that down to songs like 'Soldier Soldier' and 'O'er the Hills' learnt at primary school?

Now this was a complete eye-opener for me! I'd not heard of Frederick the Great, or von Browne, let alone  Lobositz. I don't think I even knew that Austria and Prussia contended the SYW! That was all Britain and France in North America, India, plus a bit in Germany right? This shows the style of the pen portraits of the commanders as well as the maps. The figures are clearly Grant's Spencer Smiths - painted in his imagi-nations' armies' colours. Finally re-fought this one 35 years later.

From the Saratoga chapter. Another battle I'd not heard of. The Battle of Freeman's Farm. 2 battles in the one chapter here, the other being Bemis Heights. Re-fought with a lad from school using book 2 rules and Airfix AWI figures.

In the Grand Manner! Austerlitz - another new one on me (I don't recall it from the Ladybird book on Napoleon which was my one source on the Nap Wars outside the British area of involvement). Just look at that lot!

Another mouth-watering shot from Austerlitz. It took until about 2011 to get involved in a re-fight of this when I umpired a game using Marechal de l'Empire and Old School Tony's Baccus collection.

Pretty much all I would need to know to get Waterloo set-up. It took me a few years before I war-gamed it, and that was a refight as a SYW battle because that's what our school group did.

Gettysburg. Day One. Another new one on me. Again it took me a long time to get to this. And again with Old School Tony, using Altar of Freedom. A great battle to attempt. Lots of options.

Last, but not least. El Alamein. Shot of a German column. Whilst I was aware of the Desert War (how could I not be with Airfix DAK and 8th Army sets amongst the first figures I had) I wasn't familiar with El Alamein. I must have had a very cursory acquaintance with the campaign in the Western Desert! And still not made it to the table.

Lots of eye-candy then. And lots of historical background. Much new information. And all very well put together and excellent told. But what helped nudge me in the right direction was the appendix. This gave me the bare bones to get started with war-games rules. Most of this was a revelation. I had not seen a set of war-games rules at that point. I still hadn't after reading this book. But I could cobble together my own on the basis of what the appendix described. Before this I was struggling with 1:1 troop ratios - shooting ranges were enormous on the table!

In conclusion then, the War Game really set me on the path to 'proper' wargaming. It gave me inspiration, validation, information, and (importantly) a framework. More than that it, educated me in areas of military history that I knew nothing about and it nudged me more towards the 18th century from Napoleonics where my area of interest had been the Peninsular War. The Seven Years War in Central Europe became my abiding passion, but not straight away, though the slow match had been lit.

I almost forgot that it also encouraged me to get into Ancients. One of the lads at the school wargames club was also interested in Ancients. Through him I heard about the Wargames Research Group, and thence on to book 2 on the list.....

What would you say are the books most influenced your wargaming career?

Some actual wargaming

Yes, last week I got some actual wargaming in against a real life opponent that I'm not related to. Admittedly via Zoom, but it was a proper game. The estimable Max Foy invited me to participate in a Peninsular War game against prolific blogger, Stryker, using Max's Command and Colors Napoleonic 'Ramekin' variant. The good count was umpire/gamesmaster, dice roller and anecdotist. I will never look at a chocolate on a hotel pillow again without chuckling. Stryker took the part of Wellesley and I was Marshall Masséna.

I have used these rules once before (and their ECW cousin) and they are very easy to pick up. I had to ask for a few clarifications as we played the game, but the game fairly tripped along. The clarifications were more to do with me not having command of the detail than any lack of clarity in the writing. The actions and results of combat were plausible even if there were some surprises (mais c'est la guerre) along the way.

The battle was Fuentes de Oñoro, something that I'm not overly familiar with. The set-up was great (I suspect huge amount of work went into the scenario design, planning and preparation) and the guys were both gents and a pleasure to wargame with. I have no pictures, but if you haven't seen it already, I commend Max's post on the game here.

Outbreak of Real Life and a Good Read

It’s been quiet in this part of the Blogosphere (“no ‘you know’ Sherlock”). Not only the usual absence of wargaming, but also no encounters with stags, Swedes or streams. Not even an update on exercise or weight gain avoidance (both going well so far this month since you ask).

The big disrupter in the Nundanket realm lately has been finally ‘getting the kitchen done’ after five years of humming and ahhing, pondering the merits and costs of having an extension built and living with what the Wickes advert calls ‘house embarrassment’. We finally took the JFDI decision to refurbish the existing space on the basis that the wife doesn’t want me working until I drop.

The ‘war room’ has been severely constrained by the need to store the cabinetry and appliances whilst the work has been done. The dining table extensions have been put away and the table shoved up against the wall. It works very well as an office desk, but I don’t have a Portable Wargame style set up to make use of the desk space not taken up by the computer screen. Bad planning!

Also preparing even something as simple as a sandwich takes about three times as much time as it normally does, let alone doing the dishes etc.

What I have been doing with spare time is reading more. Currently I’m in the middle of the book below, which I’ve been meaning to get for years.

The book starts with the shocking events of early 1945 during which the city of Breslau (now Wrocław) was under siege by the Soviets and their allies. Then the reader is taken back to the earliest times of the city - when we know there was a settlement but not what it was called. Each chapter corresponds to successive periods of history when the city fell under the control of different states - Polish, Bohemian, Habsburg, Prussian, Imperial German, Weimar and Third Reich and finally back to Polish. Each chapter uses the name most associated with the relevant state (hence the names on the cover). For the ‘unknown name’ period the term ‘the Island City’ is used. 

The writers take you through the socio-economic, political, religious and cultural aspects of the city and the wider historical context in each period. One theme that ties it all together is that this city has never been wholly one thing. Neither German nor Polish nor Czech. Neither Protestant, Catholic nor Jewish. Reality is a lot more complex and messy than that. It puts to bed the nationalist myths (of all varieties). Interestingly, the city was solidly against the Hussites in the 15th century, but early adopters of Protestantism in the 16th without descending into the worst excesses of iconoclasm and religious violence. When the Counter-Reformation came, it too was relatively non-violent. I’m still at the Habsburg stage, so there’s lots more to come, including that snuff-bedaubed, French-speaking opportunist from the north.

Whilst this is not military history (though it does include a decent map of the Battle  of Breslau, 1757) it is great background reading for many periods. A big thumbs up.