Reading on the Great Procession #2 ‘More Like Furies than Men’

 

More Furies Than Men’ is one of the latest books in Helion’s ‘From Reason to Revolution’ series. The exploits of the Irish Brigade in the service of France during the close of the seventeenth and most of the eighteenth centuries are well known and documented, yet this new study by Pierre-Louis Coudray takes us deep into the heyday of the brigade using many previously unused records from French, British and Irish sources. The book also examines the decline of the brigade in the service of France at the beginning of the French Revolution and how many of the officers and men joined new regiments raised by the British to pursue the war against the Revolution. Others stayed loyal to France and the new republic but were regarded with suspicion and many met a grisly end as a result. Many of those fighting under the British flag were to face disease and death in the West Indies.

Much of the book is devoted to the battle of Fontenoy, arguably the brigade’s high water mark. Casualties were high, and suitable recruits and replacements hard to come by, a critical issue discussed at length by the author. The use of many first hand accounts and correspondence adds as always adds a degree of intimacy, and particularly poignant are the letter from senior brigade officers pleading to be utilised in continuing the war against a common foe.

The book is well illustrated with a great many contemporary black and white images, nine pages of colour plates depicting the changing uniforms of the brigade, a contemporary colour map of Fontenoy and also contains an extensive bibliography.

To conclude this surely is a must for anyone interested in the Irish Brigade from its creation to its demise. Highly recommended.

ISBN 978-1-914059-82-7 206 pages, paperback.

The Wild Geese Weekend, Kenilworth 2109

Last weekend saw 24 venerable wargamers  (and two wives) gather together for their fourth annual wargames weekend. The origins of the group lies with John Ray's A Military Gentleman forum but the group has evolved into a much broader church of wargaming enthusiasts, renamed The Wild Geese for reasons that now escape me, a couple of years ago. Several previous attendees were sadly unable to come this year so we had a number of new faces among us, all of whom have said they want to come back next time!

Friday late afternoon saw the five games set up ready for the next day. After a very nice dinner we had the now traditional quiz, hosted by Tony Dillon, with assistance from me in the shape of a few movie/picture rounds and some apparently really hard questions. I didn't think they were but hey ho.

Saturday and the games commenced. There were five, each timed to last about 3 hours, thus enabling them to be run twice on Saturday and at least once on Sunday. That meant that we had the opportunity to play in three of the five games on offer, and one of the hardest decisions was which games to chose.  All I can say is that despite loosing all my games and dying in one I had a great time playing rather than organising a game as I'd done in the past.

Paul Robinson of the Grimsby Wargames Society again put on an enormous Great Northern War game, Danes v Swedes at Helsingeborg. Tony Dillon laid on a 28mm Peninsular War game, Steve Metheringham a splendid 40mm Seven Years War game using his gorgeous home cast figures and the new A Gentleman's War rules, and Willz Harley put on a splendid homage to the past with a beautiful 30mm SYW game using Spencer Smith figures. Lastly, stepping into the breach at the last minute the Perry Twins put on a really tough AWI game using Black Powder. The photos that follow are either mine, Chris Gregg's or Tony Dillon's. I can't remember who's is who's except that mine are the crap ones and they're all jumbled up in any case.

The Quiz Results.

After a splendid 'Curry Night' on Saturday there was the opportunity to return to the games or hit the bar. Pleasingly quite a few people chose to play after dinner games, I think for the first time in the life of the event. Seen below is Gavin and Leigh's Blood and Plunder pirate game.

After a morning of gaming and a large lunch we had our annual awards ceremony, where votes were cast for "Luckiest" (Lee Brewster), "Unluckiest"(Aly Morrison) and "Most Gentlemanly" player (Martin Gane), the "Best Looking Game" and "Best of Show" (both Tony Dillon).

To my knowledge everyone is safely home. The hotel excelled themselves this year and were very switched on to our needs. The food, both at lunchtimes and dinners, was excellent and there was lots of it. The hotel is maybe a little tired but its ok and good value for money. This year we shared the place with several hundred Rotarians, which is an improvement on a very raucous wedding and an even more raucous glittering hoard of ballroom dancers! A date has been pencilled in for 2020 (19-21 June I think) and I've been asked to organise the event again which is an honour. We will also be upping the numbers to a max of 30 so that this year's newbies and the absentees from last year are in theory all able to attend.

Finally a big thanks to everyone who asked after my health throughout the weekend and their support and kind words, and a very big thanks to my wife Katherine as without her support I wouldn't have been able to get through the bad times when my chronic pain was at its worse, and for her willingness to drive me down to the Midlands for a weekend with 24 wargamers.

Roll on next year.

The Wild Geese Wargames, Kenilworth 2019

It'll soon be time for the Wild Geese to assemble for what will be our fourth annual wargaming weekend in Kenilworth. Some 'Geese' can't make it this year but others have joined the 'plump' (look it up) so we have 24 very mature wargamers (including many well known faces) attending from the four corners of the kingdom (and France, but not the bit we ever owned I don't think).

The purpose of this preamble is simply to provide a link to a video of last year's event put together by Tony Dillon. Enjoy.

Wild Geese Kenilworth 2018

This year we have five games; Great Northern War, War of the Austrian Succession, Seven Years War, French Revolution and Napoleonic. Several prizes have been donated, for things such as luckiest/unluckiest general, most gentlemanly general and best looking game to name but a few.

We will also be having a curry night on Saturday so the Sunday games may be punctuated by a little more than a 'whiff of grapeshot.'

Wild Geese weekend goodies

I picked up quite a few gifts and I have to admit purchases at our Kenilworth weekend of gaming. First up, each of us was presented with a painted French SYW officer by Willz. Tony gave me  battalion of 24 Prussian grenadiers for 1806. Paul very kindly gave me a beautifully painted Prussian SYW vignette. My game also won the  ‘best looking game’, winning one of Chris Greggs lovely painting of a Wild Geese of Bulckley’s regiment in the War of the Austrian Succession. Finally the guys bought me a book about the real Wild Geese, which they all signed (the guys not the Geese).

Here is a link to a video of the weekend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqp3CQVZQfA&feature=youtu.be

I managed to buy at very reasonable prices a couple more paintings from Chris, a job lot of unpainted late 17th century figures off Graham and several painted units of Renaissance Polish infantry and dragoons which will fill a gap in my army nicely off Paul.

Prussian 1806 Grenadiers off Tony Dillon

My prize for 'best looking game' donated by Chris Gregg

I just had to buy yet another Hussarette!

This is another of Chris' paintings, this time depicting Saxon Uhlans following the Prussians after their defeat at Colin on 18 June 1757. 

The Prussian vignette kindly given to me by Paul Robinson.

Willz Harley painted one of these for each of us.

My gift from all the guys for organising the event.

Just a few Poles to add to my existing army.

Late 17th Century figures. Already made a start on one battalion.

In return I commissioned a Wild Geese Wargames Group 2018 commemorative mug for everyone who attended. (Artwork by Chris Gregg).

I hope I've not forgotten anybody, but thanks to everyone.

Versailles the Wargame, Kenilworth 2018

The inspiration for this game came partly from the tv series Versailles and partly from the League Of Augsberg's steeplechase game put on a Tactica and elsewhere.

The premise for this game was however slightly different and wasn't a straight horse race. There would be three of four French commands, each of between four and six squadrons of horse or dragoons (the better the troops the few squadrons). They were ordered to fight through the defending Spanish and Dutch troops and get to the bridge in the distance. The bridge was representing the sluice gates, which once opened would flood the area between the two rivers crossing ng the table. I played the defenders.

The other objective, which was where there was scope for lots of skulduggery and overt interference in each others' commands, was to collect as many of the objective markers as possible (each representing a potential new mistress for the King, or in some cases a less useful personage).

The Gypsey encampment .

Dutch cavalry defending the approaches to the sluices.

Movement was dictated by playing cards, each command being represented by one of the suits, which when drawn would allow the player to move all or as many units as they wished. Obviously this meant that some players had to sit around for a bit until their suit was drawn, but then they would no doubt get a 'run' of cards thus balancing things out. There was also a deck of random event cards, ranging from gaining a unit an extra turn, upgrading the quality of one squadron or even a unit of the enemy. (These cards were kindly sent to me by Barry Hilton). As was an added fun element, if a joker was drawn then the destruction of the sluice gates would be speeded up. The second joker would see them opened, at which point the game was over.

Tim's haul of ladies.

So near yet so far....

After much manipulation of the cards (not really) we managed three runs at the game over the weekend, using back of a postcard in my head rules which worked well). In every case the players took to the spirit of the game, and spent as much time charging hapless Spaniards and Dutchmen as they did trying to scupper the plans of their comrades in arms while scooping up fallen women, courtesans, and the odd surprise, e.g. Sister Josephine). The bridge was reached by one player each game, but none were able to stop the sluices from being opened, so the Umpire won. Yeah!

The largest number of objective markers, i.e. the aforementioned women etc was collected by Tim, while Gavin did well but had the honour of collecting some dodgy blokes along the way that didn't count in the scoring.

A fabulous weekend and after some uncertainty quite a good game. I was voted the 'best looking game' by the guys so I can feel pretty chuffed. My prize was a lovely painting by Chris Gregg depicting one of the Wild Geese in the Seven Years War. Thanks also to everyone for the great book gift and to Paul and Tony for their gifts too. Hope I've not missed anyone out.