Battle of Borodino, Allergies, and Reinforcements

"Battle of Moscow, 7th September 1812", 1822 by Louis Lejeune

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino (Moscow), and also reminds us Napoleonic enthusiasts that we are in  the midst of very special time for our hobby.  If not a golden age, then perhaps a silver one with more and more high quality metal and plastic miniatures to choose from as well as new high production rule books and supplements being released among all these anniversaries.

Not only that, but never before have we had such excellent hobby tools at our disposal in paints, brushes, basing material, terrain, etc. etc.  The amount of research material available on the Internet today was unimaginable back in the '80s when I first started farting around with 1/72 plastic Frenchies.  And to top it all off we have a very active, friendly, and most of all, supportive gaming blogosphere ready and willing to share their projects, knowledge, and experience to help inspire others across the globe.  Especially those that might not be so lucky to have a local club.

Field Marshal Kutuzov at Borodino.

Those are some of my thoughts as I start to dive in to my 28mm Napoleonic project with my friend Eric.  As you may already know, I'm starting out with some 1813 Prussians and Eric will be marshaling his own French forces to take me on.  As we're still hammering out some details, I'll share more of our (initial) Master Plan in a later post along with the progress of both our armies, terrain projects, and eventually our glorious battles in the future.

Although ultimately a solid group of 4 to 6 players would be nice, right now we're somewhat avoiding any attempts at open local recruitment.  Rather going with a "Build it and they will come" approach, figuring once we have our own shit squared, and enough initial battalions/squadrons painted up to game, we can then see who would truly be interested in joining in on the fun.

Emperor Napoleon at Borodino.

This post has taken a different direction then I originally intended as I ramble on, but I did want to include a blog update of sorts.  I wanted to apologize for my lack of posts lately and  more so for my lack of visits and comments on all your wonderful blogs I follow out there.  I'm sorry, but I've been hit pretty hard with allergies in the last 2-3 weeks.

Although I've made some slow progress on some of my Prussians including my entry into the La Bricole Painting Challenge I just haven't felt good enough lately to post anything or even surf around to other blogs.  With my head no longer feeling like someone's personal cow bell and gunk no longer perpetually pouring out of red irritated eyes, I'm hoping to have something posted to share with you soon.

A little hint of whats to come...

In the meantime, I've received my first order from Perry Miniatures a few days ago which certainly helps the motivation factor even if I'm still not feeling top speed yet.  Eric will be placing his French order soon as we both get the ball rolling at least, no matter how slowly.  In the spirit of Borodino's anniversary and Eric being somewhat new to the Napoleonic hobby, I will leave you with this French Imperial Army training video for your enjoyment.  :-)


Bonus video!  (The French Army)

"Vive Napoleon, super cewl!!"

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