VTW1848 – Page 3 – The Wargaming Erratic

The Painting Pedestal: 1848 French at Rome

I found these excellent metal figures at Irregular Miniatures (a prolific UK figure manufacturer).

These are from their 20mm range for Garibaldi Wars.

I based them high so they would work alongside my 20-25mm 1/72 figures.

You can easily get French post Crimea as that uniform pretty much ran until 1914.

I use Field of Battle Piquet basing of 4 bases per battalion. This also neatly matches Neil Thomas rules for the 19th century european wars. I also like to have the officers separate so they can gross up to show brigade commands. Piquet also allows strong and weak battalions, 3-5 bases is possible. Neil Thomas does not like command explicitly on show, so there are no issues there.

The reality is that between 1815 and 1854 the French had uniform changes like so many cups of tea – sorry that should be coffee of course.

The Funcken shown is an excellent book that shows the colourful story of French fashions from shako to kepi and breeches to pantaloons!

Vienna Treaty Wars (VTW)

The Holy Roman Empire ended by Napoleonic War recovered enough in the guise of the Austrian Empire to be at the top table with the other Victors – Russia, Prussia and Great Britain.

In 1815 the Vienna Congress led to a treaty where the 4 great powers attempted to create a balance of power in Europe to end major wars while also dismantling concepts of liberty and freedom.

They basically succeeded for about 50 years!

By 1848 a reinvigorated Austria routed the Piedmontese liberation of Lombardy while France ended the short lived Roman Republic on behalf of the Pope.

So my wars of the italian unification project actually fits better into what I am calling the Vienna Treaty Wars. shortened to VTW with 5 key dates appended, they will make good categories on my blog.

VTW1815 – heralds the regression back to 18th century values

VTW1830 – sees the first significant european rebellions especially in France

VTW1848 – sees mass revolution break out across Europe

VTW1859 – the French (now an Empire again) end Austrian interest in much of Italy

Photo by Frans Van Heerden on Pexels.com

VTW1866 – Prussia replaces Austria as top dog in greater germany and forces Austria to quit its last Italian possessions.

Plenty of wargaming to go at there in pursuit of this flag.