Saturday, July 5, 2008

Some progress on Revolutionary Wars

You may think I am enjoying a nice vacation and getting all distracted from my wargaming projects, but nothing could be farther from the true. Aside some good progress on Griffith's "The Art of War of Revolutionary France" (and conversely, very little progress on "Monetary Policy Strategy"...), I have been keeping an attentive eye on a few very interesting auctions over eBay. And I am glad to report that I successfully completed some bidding, and I will soon add to my French revolutionary/early napoleonic forces. Enough to have a good jump start on a few projects I kept on my back-burner for quite some time, including Valmy and the Italian campaigns of 1796 and 1800.

I've always been surprised by how little consideration this early age receives by wargamers. True, its battles are less massive than those in the golden age 1805-1815. But this actually turns out to be an advantage for solo wargamers, or for those of us constrained by smaller gaming tables or limited available troops. Personalities may also be less flamboyantly appealing than those in the golden age, but many generals in this early period deserve better consideration: Dessaix, Kellerman, Dumouriez, Kleber, Hoche, Brunswick, Coburg, Suvorov.
I think it will be a lot of fun to finally explore this period further. I will keep you posted as soon as the mail will deliver the new additions to my collection, and the painting process start.

1 comment:

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

..I think I must be unusual in that I like the early periods of most of the major wars - early Napoleonic is full of interesting conflicts, I would be tempted by the Egypt campaign..

..for WWII, I play the French theatre in 1940 for skirmish games, and the desert campaigns for bigger games - no Tigers, Panthers and King Tigers, but lots of smaller more interesting vehicles...