Friday, July 31, 2015

Re-Imagining my ImagiNations (Part I) - Le Grand-Duché de Gourmandie

It came to my attention several months ago that many of my blog photos had disappeared from their posts. A quick investigation made me realize that they were irretrievable (I work in IT and know a lost cause when I see one). After a further look, it became apparent that I have neither the time nor the inclination to go through all the affected posts and replace the photos from those I still have or replace with new ones. Thus, most of my ImagiNation project, although chronicled in word, has few photos to show. 

Luckily, this has coincided with a re-imagining of my ImagiNation project as a whole. Originally I had a fairly sturdy plan for building the armies and collecting the figures. I started with Le Grande-Duché de Gourmandie and Das KaiserReich. Later I acquired the forces of Il Ducato di Libagioni from Phil. The first two were envisioned as redoubtable foes but with no particular overall plan for uniform regulation beyond a vague adherence to red and blue. Lately, I've undertaken a bit of a reorganization and moved a couple of units about among the armies. This will now conform to an older school of organization, RED & BLUE armies. Moving forward, Le Grande-Duché de Gourmandie forces will be predominantly RED (with a few exceptions, as there always are in any army). Das KaiserReich will now be the BLUE army. And of course Il Ducato di Libagioni will remain the GREEN of Phil's original ImagiNation.

To chronicle this change and to make up for the loss of photos in previous posts, the extant  forces of le Grand-Duc Pierre Louis are listed below.

Le Grand-Duché de Gourmandie
Army Commander: Jean Lafitte Roquefort, Marquis de Fromage
Le Grand-Duché de Gourmandie is ruled over by Grand-Duc Pierre Louis. His armies are commanded by Jean Lafitte Roquefort, Marquis de Fromage. The Grand Duchy is a hereditary territory, having passed from son to son for more than 300 years. The ruling family is notoriously conservative and the Grand Duc normally sends Arch-Bishop Ambroise de Chabichou du Poitou into the field with his army to ensure adherence to God's Will and the moral rectitude of the men.

Le Grand-Duc Pierre Louis

Jean Lafitte Roquefort, Marquis de Fromage, commander of His Excellency's armies in the field.
Le Marquis is flanked (on the left of the photo) by Georges leRoque, Comte de Villenveulle (commander of Les Grenadiers à Cheval Boursin) and (to the right) Phillipe Grand-Nez, Comte de Roquefort (commander of l'Infanterie Roquefort).

L'Infanterie Roquefort, with battalion guns. 
Roquefort is a two-battalion regular infantry regiment sporting the traditional Gourmandie red coats and commanded by Phillipe Grand-Nez, Comte de Roquefort (see above).
(Crusader figures) 

The colour party is sporting GMB flags. Here also can be seen the red hat lace of the grenadier division of the first battalion (left of the photo).

 4lb battalion guns 
(Crusader guns and figures with Front Rank limbers and wagon)

 Grenadiers de Camembert, a one-battalion regular regiment sporting lovely mauve uniforms and commanded by Jean-Jacques LaPierre, Comte de Champagne (not shown).  Each of the three divisions of the battalion have unique facing colours.
(Crusader figures)

  Camembert colour party.
(GMB flags)

'Red' division of les Grenadiers de Camembert.

 Three squadrons and colour party of les Grenadiers à Cheval Boursin, commanded by Georges leRoque, Comte de Villenveulle (he of the bronzed cuirass), and sporting the traditional Gourmandie red coats. As with les Grenadiers de Camembert, each of the three Boursin squadrons have different facing colours.
(Front Rank figures and GMB flag)

Colour party of les Grenadiers à Cheval Boursin.

 1er Artillerie de Gourmandie, commanded by the mercenary Cameron von Müller. 
These are professional gunners decked out in royal blue to distinguish themselves from the infantry gunners who man the battalion pieces of the infantry regiments. This is a heavy artillery battery, equipped with 12lb guns.
(Crusader gunners, Front Rank limbers and wagon, Sash & Saber Napoleonic French 12lb guns)

The professional von Müller directs the operations.



Thursday, July 30, 2015

Pistoliere von Doppelbock

After more than year and a half of gaming WWII exclusively, I'm ready for some colour on the table (besides khaki and feldgrau). I've been hankering for some ImagiNation gaming and three things have conveniently coincided to spark the fire again. First, I recently played a game using Black Powder rules at our annual cottage gaming weekend (which I just noticed I have forgotten to blog). This game used Matt and Bob's lovely 15mm GNW collection. I thoroughly enjoyed the rules and thought they would be perfect for my ImagiNation gaming. Second, after that weekend Bob painted up some cannons for my Blue Army (more of this anon). I had asked for two or three BIG guns and he obliged by bringing along the painted versions to Historicon a few weeks ago (some pictures once they're supplied with crews). Thirdly, at our recent gaming weekend in the Independent and Glorious Republic of Quebec, I received from the talented hands of Captain Dan the Pistoliere von Doppelbock, as seen below.


Pistoliere von Doppelbock (Ebor Miniatures)

This is a militia cavalry unit of the KaiserReich, raised and funded by Freiherr Georg von Wolkewitz. This two-squadron regiment hails from the southernmost city in the Kaiserreich, Rheine, famous for its social conservatism and strict protestantism. As with all militia units in the KaiserReich, the only mandate is blue uniforms. The remainder of the distinctions are wholly in the purview of the Inhaber. In this case, von Wolkewitz chose the unusual (and perhaps anachronistic) expedient of arming and training his regiment with the aim of employing the caracole as the primary battlefield tactic. This involves the squadrons calmly riding forward in line, one behind the other, until a mere 50 paces from the enemy (cavalry, infantry or artillery). The lead squadron looses a pistol volley then wheels and falls back around the second squadron which then proceeds to repeat the exercise. The squadrons continue to cycle through this process, hoping to weaken the enemy force, before attempting to charge home. On a more aesthetic note, von Wolkewitz encourages his officers and troopers to carry the favour of their ladies in the form of silk scarves about the neck, each of a personal colour. 


Thursday, July 23, 2015

Quebec Games Day

Packed up my passport and trundled up the highway with Michael for some international travel to Quebec and a Games Day hosted by Captain Dan of Red Over Blue. Rather than drone on about the day,  Cpt Dan's excellent articles about the day are here and here. I've added some pictures below as well.

A great weekend of gaming and other manly pursuits with Daniel, Michael, Phil and James (all members of the Canadian forces and damned proud of 'em I am). Another such weekend apparently is in the planning stages...this time in the bustling lakeside resort town of Trenton (the Ontario version).

 Is it surprise that there's no bar to go with the sign or that it's not snowing in Quebec?

 Table set-up for 28mm Bolt Action. This is a mix of Warbases, Sarissa, Crescent Root Studios and scratch-building. The result, I think, is quite spectacular.












Our host, Captain Dan, pontificating (or issuing orders...not sure which). 



Some very nifty new artillery explosion markers. 


Daniel's new Puma skirting the hedgerow. 


American paras approaching the town.