I have a quiet week on my hands, and the weather appears to be relenting for a while, so I have a good opportunity to get on with some Other Stuff.
One of the Other Stuff items is some hobby time. I have set up the battleboards, and have had an evening of solo noodling, to check out some suggested rule changes I scribbled down before Christmas. I have also been teaching a new laptop to do Zoom things without causing trouble - seems OK, so I have a remote game scheduled for Sunday.
I include a couple of photos of the set up. More improvised history. The action is a moderately-sized clash between an Allied force, commanded by the notable Charles Churchill (for once freed from the shadow of his flaming brother), and a French army led by the little-known (though well-connected) Maréchal Comte de Rabachière.
More of this after Sunday.
***** Late Edit *****
I received an email, asking for more details of the "Dance of the Six Planets". I confess I am not an expert, and this clip is a bit early, but it may give an idea...
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Looks like it could be a great game, Tony.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray - hope your New Year is settling in nicely.
DeleteAha! Good to see you back Monsieur.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that clip. Is it from that Versailles series a few years back?
No sir, this is a clip from "Le Roi Danse", a much acclaimed movie from 2000 which I only came across fairly recently. I have a small (but pertinent) collection of Louis XIV-period music, and I was delighted to add the movie soundtrack album (which I bought secondhand on eBay for a scary price). The movie itself (I've only seen excerpts) is available on DVD for even more scary prices; I keep promising myself that I'll have a look on Amazon France, but I'm currently boycotting Amazon for political reasons - is there a French eBay? I'll maybe watch it on Youtube...
DeleteThe film is all about the rather odd relationship between the very odd Louis XIV and his Florentine composer, Lully. The soundtrack is a blast.
I find music of this period very appealing, but extended exposure to it is potentially dangerous. Orchestras of circa 1700, especially in triumphal-type pieces, feature the natural (valveless) trumpet; you being an accomplished player of the tenor horn(?) will understand that the natural trumpet has a splendid sound, but even skilled players are restricted to the instrument's fundamental note, and a small number of overtones of that note, some of which are musically correct and some of which may be "lipped" into tune by accomplished players. Thus the trumpet of that time is best at playing things like fanfares (or bugle calls, I suppose), but the whole orchestra has to play everything in one key to suit this, which makes it a bit samey, and eventually you find that you are starting to think seriously about running screaming into the garden to get away from it.
French composers of note of the period, apart from Lully, include Philidor, Francoeur, Delalande. Much of the recorded repertoire consists of choral works, which are not what I'm looking for.
Oh yes - meant to say - the clip I included here gives an excellent glimpse of the red heels which were necessary for fashionable gentlemen at this time. All my books on WSS uniforms show officers (of most nations) with red heels on their boots. I wonder why? It was not specified in any regulations, but I suspect that the young officers would have died of shame if they did not have them; this is reminiscent of the unoffical adoption of black gloves by Napoleonic ADCs... I'd be interested to understand this - maybe red leather was just very expensive? Maybe Louis XIV set the fashion?
Red dyes, being difficult, were much prized in the ancient world and lived on through the middle ages in the Tzagion or red boot of the Byzantine Emperors and the red shoes of the Popes. After the conquest of Mexico, Aztec cochineal made its way to Europe enabling wider use and the fashion you describe, which, incidentally, is, according to some, the origin of the expression 'well-heeled' (other people say it is an Americanism describing a fighting cock fitted with good spurs).
DeleteMore importantly, might you be able to favour us with some thoughts on the rules governing your strongpoint, which I see sits on a corner rather than within a hex?
Excellent explanation of red heel significance - thank you for this, it certainly raised the tone of the discussion.
DeleteStrongpoint - the churchyard is actually on a hex, it's just a bit big, so it hangs over the edges. It's OK - plenty of room outside! In my rules, there is a general terrain classification called Cover, of which the sub-categories are Woods, Buildings, Earthworks, Enclosures (fields, fenced gardens) and Strongpoints. There are some slight differences, including the protection offered; they all offer some protection in Close Combat (which includes all musketry), and all except Enclosures offer some protection against artillery fire. A unit occupying a Strongpoint may also ignore one retreat inflicted by enemy attack. Thus an elite unit in a Strongpoint can ignore 2 simultaneous retreats, which makes them hard to shift, but if you also attach a General it doesn't get any better, since there is a maximum of 2 waivers allowed!
Artillery can set up in Earthworks and Enclosures, but not in Buildings or Woods (unless the scenario specifically says it's OK for a particular place); Strongpoints may or may not let artillery in - it's up to the scenario. In this case, the churchyard of St Gaspard l'Oublié does not admit guns. This is an encounter battle - if one side had had time to prepare the field, the scenario might have allowed engineers to knock a hole in the stone wall, in which case artillery would have been allowed in.
Loopholes; scenario notes; damned lies.
Yes there is a French eBay called le bon coin. I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Full of fraudsters, mountebanks and neerdowells.
DeleteThis is my second attempt to reply to this - Blogger is playing silly buggers this morning - must be a New Year revolution...
DeleteI wished only to ask you to have a care, sir, since the Mountebanks and the Neerdowells are related to me through my mother's side.
My mistake about the position of the strongpoint - I was enjoying that shade of green to much to look at it properly.
DeleteThe perspective of hexes is confusing - especially in a photo with some spherical distortion. This is why I regularly estimate artillery ranges incorrectly...
DeleteNice to see the troops on the table, look forward to seeing how it all plays out.
ReplyDeleteHi Donnie - we have some time restrictions for Sunday's outing, so I've deliberately kept the armies down to 16 units each, plus guns and staff. I'm interested to see how this goes.
DeleteOne possible concern is that my CJ_Lite rules are designed to handle big battles, so may be a little crude for anything smaller - best thing is to try it and see!
Good to see you back 'at it' Tony :) Always a fan of that fine hex board and the shiny troops.
ReplyDeleteLee.
Good New Year to you Lee - hope you are keeping well. Yes, the shiny lads will be fighting on Sunday!
DeleteHappy New Year to you Tony. I suppose there will often be similarities in the battles but this is another fine table. I would expect the rules to suit 'smaller' actions as well. Looking forward to reading what happens.
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you Jim - hope things are good. I've been intending to get a Zoom game organised, but it got delayed a bit since I had to get my new laptop working.
DeleteIn my Zoom games, the "host" is my desktop Mackintosh, with a Logitech camera connected, looking from one end of the table; the laptop is a "remote" attendee, with another Logitech plugged in, looking from the other end of the table; there is also my tablet, signed in as another remote attendee, which can be called into play as a hand-held close-up camera as necessary. Actual human attendees can switch between the 3 views as they wish, without anyone knowing what they are looking at(!). That's not quite true, since if they need to use the close-up camera they have to ask the umpire/spielmeister to carry it about!
That was certainly more detail than anyone might have wanted, but I'm a devil when I get enthusiastic.I have a stock of Lucozade ready for Sunday. And Hobnobs, of course.
Good luck with the game!
ReplyDeleteThank you young sir - I've got everything set up and the new kit configured and tested so far in advance that something obvious may go wrong.
DeleteAncient tale of caution: many years ago, I had to go for a hospital outpatient appointment. I was anxious about it, and I arrived so early that I had to sit in a waiting room for an hour and a bit. Managed to fall asleep in the waiting room, and missed the appointment. I think there may be a lesson there for all of us, boys and girls.
Blogger is determined to mess me around this morning - I published a comment kindly sent by the bold James Fisher, and it has disappeared without trace. Since I refuse to be upset by such things, I got my forensic department to rescue the text, which was as follows:
ReplyDelete"Ah Tony, Roland Crispe and St Gaspard l'Oublié; excellent. By the dear comte's effusive wig steals the show. Somewhat eponymous too?
I look forward to see how he fe-hairs or whether he succumbs due to some hair-brained plan.
Best wishes, James
p.s. Poor Charlie. Under the shadow of his bro'. Still, he has lovely ruddy cheeks and a boyhood complexion that I am sure would have worked for him in later life, though he did not make it."
Hi James - I don't know much about Charlie (Churchill Minor, as he was known at school), but it seems he had a tendency to apoplexy and became a heavy drinker, which may imply that his complexion might not have been all good news.
DeleteI understand that the rapid arrival of huge wigs in the later 17th Century is attributed to fashion instituted by - you guessed - he of the red heels, Louis XIV. This apparently came about because he began to lose his hair in his teens, and the social media of the day would have insisted that this was due to syphilis.
I know - I'll wear a laughably enormous wig, so no-one notices I'm going bald. Great scheme, Louis.
St Gaspard l'Oublié was the patron saint of something or other in Wallonia, but no-one could remember what it was.
Thanks for rescuing my comment. Probably wasn't worth the effort.
Delete"... no-one could remember what it was", stop it! I am having laughing fits at this like I did when I first read Asterix the Gaul (I believe my first of many of those marvellous tomes by Goscinny and Uderzo) with the 'hair raising' jokes about the Romans who consumed the secret potion, which had been concocted by Getafix to produce copious growth of hair. Giggling now just recalling it/them.
Asterix - big cultural influence.
DeleteDo you remember the tale of the soothsayer? That made a lasting impression on me - strange looking guy turns up in the middle of a terrible storm; he tells the terrified villagers that they must not be afraid, since when the storm is over the weather will improve. And, of course, it does, so he becomes the unofficial village soothsayer, and is kept very busy (and well supplied with cakes) telling the wives of the village fake gossip about the other wives...
There was a lot in that one...
Yes, I do! Also 'Asterix and the Roman Agent' about the fellow planted by Big Juli to sow dissent in the village. Can start a fight with a couple of words. The 'word bubbles' changed from white to green as people got jealous and/or irate. Marvellous. Or the 'Olympic Games' with the runners all coming a dead heat on account of having taken 'substances'. So many brilliant tales. Wonderful humour, plenty of plays on words and double-meaning.
DeleteI bought 'Asterix and the Missing Scroll' a couple of years ago. The authors managed to stay true to the originals, to keep the same wonderful elements and added a beautiful tribute to Msrs Goscinny and Uderzo. Marvellous.
In fact, I have recently downloaded the entire collection c/- archive.org. Time to read them all again, from 1 to 25 :)
Rabachière has my vote, anyone who can't help but laugh at that preening mountebank clearly has his head screwed on right.
ReplyDeleteHi Rob
DeleteLouis doesn't get a lot of fan mail, right enough. In Winston Churchill's book about Marlborough, he says of Louis, " No worse enemy of human freedom has ever appeared in the trappings of polite civilisation", and you would think that WSC was well placed to think of a few challengers for this nomination.
I am honored to have the privilege of playing the French command, though I do think I could have done without the wig. The damnable thing keeps getting in the way of my view of the battlefield!
ReplyDeleteGood evening sir - a great honour. These wigs are tricky fellows - if you spin around fast enough, the wig will remain stationary and you stop when you're facing the opening again. No double-sided tape or velcro in those days.
Delete