Work in progress......

Its the Vendee!

The purpose of any hobby or interest must be to transport the individual to another place and or time where they can experience a different world. I think that's why so many films and novels just don't do that for me anymore. I'm too old and have seen to much in too many different places.

However, sometimes something just grabs you by the bits and says, this is really interesting lets go! If I had the time, money and freedom I'd be off to the Vendee tomorrow. Perhaps I should already have been there.

So today, amongst other important domestic activities I have been busy planning a version of "a la Carte" for the Vendee based on the battle of Cholet in 1793. First job has been to knock up some counters. I have some great stuff from Junior General which has not required too much effort.

I have printed out some trial counters but these are a little disappointing so the following are snaps from the screen.

Henri de La Rochejacquelein perhaps?

Evil Republicans (boo)!

Revolting Catholic peasants

And here is a close up of the revolting peasants. I'm really pleased with these. They are based on Daniel Harper's United Irishmen from Junior General and require only some minor colour changes, a new hat and some sacred heart badges. Unfortunately all this lovely detail does not come through on the final counters.

Never mind, I'm sure I'll find a way of getting this onto some counters. More to come this week I hope.

Rembarre!

Some thoughts on where to next...

A combination of health and work issues are keeping me very quiet on the hobby front at the moment. Nothing to worry about but but I'm feeling a bit semi-detached at present.

Henri de La Rochejacquelein at the Battle of Cholet

However, yesterday I picked up the latest WSS. It fell a bit flat with me, other may disagree of course, but I didn't get excited until I came across Rob Harper's article on the Battle of Cholet 1793, as illustrated above. For those of you not in the know, this was one of the key battles of the war in the Vendee. This is an extremely interesting war which still causes quite a bit of historiographical discussion in France. It has got rebels, ex-Royalist regular troops, the potential for emigres and British support, foreign fighters (I've heard that one before) and competing and incompetent republican generals. Simply brilliant.

The best bit is that WSS did not include two other articles by Rob including a general introduction and an item on the battle of Thouars. You can get these on the WSS site for knowt. There is also a surprisingly good article on Wikipedia which is well worth a read.

I have kept a series of articles from the old Miniature Wargames covering some of the key battles of the war in the Vendee with a period specific set of rules. Lovely and something to have a go at over the summer, while watching some rugby I hope!

The other interesting thing that I came across this weekend is the first edition of a new periodical called Panzerfauste Quarterly. Panzergrenadier Dwarves anybody? Get it for nothing from Wargames Vault, it is by Hysterical Games. Well worth a look.