Let's begin with the latest brilliant campaign idea, shall we?

Rather that begin this blog with a dreary account of my miniature gaming and modeling history (that may come later), it is far better to start afresh with the latest campaign endeavor.  A good friend Pete, with whom I have maintained correspondence (despite his long absences and separations in pursuit of wine, women, world culture/religions, and mortal combat with Southwest Asian insurgents) is now somewhat settled  in  lands far to the southwest of the Duchy.  

During the first ten years of our acquaintance, we variously wargamed most every period popular with our sort – including dabbling in the Age of Reason.  More recently, as our eyes and minds grow weaker with age and abuse, we have decided to conduct a long distance build up of 18^th Century Armies, in semi-toy soldier style, using home-cast 40mm Prince August figures, supplemented by one-offs and finer quality castings such as Sash and Saber.  Initially this effort provided the forces for my staging of the Great Northern War siege Veprik battle at Southern Front in 2012.  Now, we have decided to move into the Seven years War – but what forces to pursue?

As I already have a fairly robust collection of un-blooded 30mm SYW Austro-Hungarians and Allies (thanks to fellow gaming partner Dave); for this 40mm endeavor I decided to pursue a long standing interest in the French Army of the mid 18^th C.  The Francophile direction  mirrored Pete’s interest in constructing an Anglo-German Army.  Initially we planned to meet at a convention and lay down countless ranks of newly painted 40mm Lead, but (given time, distance and busy schedule considerations) I proposed a long distance campaign so we might come to blows sooner.  The concept would be to would make campaign moves vie e-mail, fight tabletop battles virtually using Skype and lesser skirmishes via telephone/e-mail.  The 1757-58 French invasion of (and later expulsion from) Hanover seemed to meet the requirement for a “simple” campaign with a variety of colorful forces that neither one of us were too familiar with.  Simplicity and flexibility where the order of the day, with historical accuracy being a consideration, but certainly not a particularly harsh restraint. 

Therefore, in the initial chapter of this Blog, over the weeks and months to come, I will provide an account of the progress of our force buildup and Hanoverian Campaign.  But fear not dear viewer, as certainly, there will be other related and unrelated posts, as no proper aficionado of fine lead and claret could limit himself to one period or subject.