My current preoccuption with european wars in the post Napoleonic era have been fuelled by some book buying.
So my period is called the Vienna Treaty Wars and the era roughly covers 1815 to 1871.
Currently I have been painting quite well although right now a campaign beckons. I never thought I would be doing anything post napoleonic – thank you again Mr Renaissance Troll!
Back in 2008 Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies published Sharp Practice. I had always considered this black powder ruleset very Napoleonic. Yet it is for black powder wars and these ran well into the 19th Century.
Enter George Macaulay Trevelyan (GMT) who a mere 100 years before Sharp Practice wrote a trilogy on Guiseppe Garibaldi hero of the Wars of Italian Unification (WotIU).
This little post is not about my current interest in WotIU. We must travel back to the 1830’s and sail to South America. Uruguay to be more accurate.
The War for Rio Grande do Sol was fought out between Uruguay and Brazil. Later Uruguay fought Argentina along the rivers that fed the Rio de la Plata.
Garibaldi fled Piedmontese execution in 1836, having failed to cause rebellion in its navy, served in both these wars and became a local hero by 1848.
In the process he developed his expertise in warfare, leading bands of highly motivated and very mobile forces. This experience would serve him well on his return to Italy.
I am not sure how you might acquire the GMT trilogy – I got mine from Paul Meekins Military books. There are a few other more modern Garibaldi biographies.
In the introduction to Richard Clarkes Sharp Practice the author makes it clear the rules aim to relive the exploits of 19th century literary heroes. GMT hero worships Garibaldi not least because of his political leanings – a true revolutionary of the people. GMT adds a lot of praise and enrichment to the story shall we say.
Contemporary accounts and later biographies recount small naval actions with Garibaldi being shot on deck and his wife Anita Riberas also being shot as she fought with him. Lagoons, amphibious assaults, cattle rustling (the key cash crop), sieges, river gorges, forests, upland ridgeways, prairie, pampas, arroyas (wooded streams) and canadas (ground dips deep enough to hide your forces in!), not to mention lancer cavalry fighting musket armed soldiers.
In fact the Risorgimento continues to be fought over as a literary subject in itself. I have enjoyed Lucy Riall’s book which injects some 21st century objectivity into it all. Lucy has also authored a book about Garibaldi, that might be a good starting point for using Sharp Practice in a different way.
So my offering today is to the jaded “Richard Sharpe” player – cast way those green jackets and take on the slaughterhouse cloth of Monte Video* and march or should I say ride with Garibaldi across the uplands of the Rio Grande do Sol, grossly outnumbered yet most often victorious: And he lived to tell his tales.
*the famous italian red shirts apparently started life as a very cheap industrial clothing for Garibaldis Italian Legion in Monte Video.
The beauty of a written plan is you can tear it up and then reflect later on whether things got better or worse as a result!
So here is plan A for 2021.
My wargames plan A for 2020 was about Normans in the South (NitS) and that plan “went south” which is in the negative. At least Plan B gave me plenty of wargames pleasure.
For 2021 I am in the nineteenth century and specifically it is the wars of Italian Unification which have me dazzled.
Abbreviations give me WoIU. Not very catchy. Or I could tweak it to get WotIU – Watteu.
hmmmmmm.
OK we will run with that WotIU.
WotIU in my plan runs from Napoleon to Nation State as Lucy Riall says on the cover of her book entitled “Risorgimento”. So I could go with “Risorgimento”. That feels a bit constricting though.
And low and behold Neil Thomas gives you a book – Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878.
Excellent. Too Excellent as Neil Thomas offers you a myriad of armies to choose from. And it is anything but uniform in this period.
Skakos, coatees, knee gaiters, stovepipes, kittels, greatcoats, kepis, short gaiters, spikey helmets, zoaves, bersaglieri……….and red shirts.
So where do I begin?
Two armies around 1855 – looking a bit like
Austrian – kittels, trousers and small tapered shakos
Piedmont – kepi, trousers and frock coats or tunics
It seems the cavalry still resembled napoleonic styles but with trousers.
So I have made a start with some ACW Union Infantry being repurposed as Piedmontese Line Infantry.
The aim will be to get some forces on the table.
So posts might be thin on the ground if I am painting well……..
“The Supply Chain” is a bit like “hospital beds” a term overly used and missing out the crucial part – “people”. No hospital staff and well beds are useless. The same goes for all suppliers, despite the digital/AI/automation hype, people are still the crucial aspect of suppliers and the services they operate. Their work, largely hidden, is what makes our modern world go round.
Even my hobby activities rely on supply chains, as I do not make my own figures or write books I want to read for that matter.
My supply chain for wargames has been of necessity online for about 10 years. Although when I think about it I was “online in the 1970’s because if you wanted certain figures you could not buy them at your local store.
I remember back then you could buy the “centre companies napoleonic british infantry” provided that was roughly 5 of each in advancing pose only (hinchliffe I believe) – that was all they had.
So I discovered direct postal sales long before “online” was even dreamed of. And in those days I did not go to shows either, having no means of transport. And anyway I don’t think I was even aware of them as a shopping opportunity.
I bought all my Warrior Miniatures by post in those days. and I still have a few.
So this is a big thank you to all the “people” who provide my miniatures, paints, scenery, brushes, books and the like. Either at shows (remember them) or by post (online).
In some ways nothing has changed although I seem to remember the cost of postage was truly massive to my mind back then – and I was trading in metal too.
In alphabetical order some of my popular “suppliers” have been
Tirelessly working to give their customers great service.
So thanks to them all for allowing me to pursue my hobby even in the midst of a global pandemic.
wishing every one a safe and secure christmas and a better year for all in 2021
The Wargaming Erratic 