Start of the blog

During the last year I have been looking at getting into Napoleonics . The period interests me and the idea of fielding one battalion after another was very appealing. The one problem I had is that the size of the armies and the investment needed would be rather large. So for a long time my interest had been put on hold, showing up now and again, but without me making any investment.

At the end of the Summer I saw something that just blew me away - Perry Miniatures' Retreat from Moscow range. I started reading about Napoleon's most infamous campaign and the incredible hardship the Grand Armée endured. I then stumbled upon the blog Monty's Caravan and 1812 White Death - a yet-to-be-released ruleset for the Retreat. I wrote back and forth with Stefan from Monty's Caravan and I learned that the rules where still somewhat far from being released. I then started looking at different rulesets that I thought would give me the game that I wanted. I looked at Sharp's Practice and A Song of Drums and Shakos but neither clicked with me. My continued search brought me to Muskets and Tomahawks - not a traditional Napoleonic ruleset, but I could see the potential in the rules and with a few tweaks here and there I believe I have found the perfect ruleset for the type of game I want to play.

For the past 3 months I have therefore been painting, thinking and reading, and it got me thinking that perhaps I should start a new blog where I detailed this project.

So what can you expect to see on this blog? Well I need to build a gaming table - will be 4' x 4' (any larger will be impossible in my flat), and I have started gathering the terrain I need. This week I started working on building some village huts, and today my latest order from Perry and Westwind arrived (more Cossacks both mounted and infantry, Russian Jaegers and some French cavalry). My reworking of the Muskets and Tomahawks rules is going well and I am currently layouting them in InDesign. Last but not least I have picked up the novel The Officer's Prey which is a murder mystery set during the Russian campaign.