Reading and Rambling

Haven't posted in awhile because I've done no gaming - work has been busy enough that I haven't felt like it when I get home, but not so busy that I absolutely have to kill something when I get home.

I've been reading a lot, though.

Still working on this one, mostly because I only read it in the bathroom. Up to about 1785. It's quite recent and very pro-Georgian (and very dismissive of the American viewpoint). The main takeaways are:

• that George III had very little at all to do with the American Revolution
• that George didn't suffer from porphyria, but was instead bipolar. While the author is very definite about this, from what I've read it is still a controversial claim. His 1765 attack is sympathetically described.

Two of his early prime ministers, Lord Bute and Lord North were close favorites (his teacher and childhood friend respectively) and neither was confident about their ability to be prime minister yet stayed because George practically begged them. This seems to be the real problem of the Revolutionary period - North was in office for twelve years and hated most of it, and the fact he was in debt to George made things worse. He kept trying to resign, but the only people available to replace him were practically pro-American, much less anti-government.

Roberts goes through every complaint against George III in the Declaration of Independence to demonstrate that all but one of them either weren't attributable to George (because Parliament was calling the shots and George knew it wasn't his job), or were put into place after the start of the war over a year before (thus not having been causes of the Revolution, but effects). It wasn't just at this point, and not just in America, but especially given that this was published just last year, there were terrifying antecedents to modern misinformation techniques at work. Hilariously, the Americans tried to convince Quebec to revolt with them, when they had stoked rage against Britain by invoking its toleration of its new Catholic French citizens as a sign of popery and incipient tyranny.

At more than one point during the war, elements of the government - and not just the opposition - were on the verge of offering the Americans practically everything they wanted. The entire theme of this section of the book is that George wasn't a tyrant, didn't want to be one, and wouldn't have been allowed by British law if he'd wanted to. He did, however, have a surprising amount of influence, and was instrumental in the rise to power of Pitt the Younger.

Also only partway through this, up to the point where the 24th discovered they were fucked. Good enough, though, that I have also borrowed Into the Jaws of Death and intend to read his other books. I've seen plenty of reviews on blogs and comments on the Colonial Wargaming Facebook group - particularly for his Go Strong Into the Desert - that I had to pick one, and the Kindle version was on sale.

I'm not very "up" on Isandlwana, though I've played Rorke's Drift several times with The Sword and the Flame rules (in 1:1!). Zulu Dawn is also a less regarded film than the classic Zulu. But it is of course the pivotal moment of the Zulu War, and Col. Snook's account is extremely detailed. The maps are useful, though in electronic form it's impossible to just switch back and forth when he goes on about specific dongas and kopjes. So I'm probably not getting everything possible out of this, but it remains a fascinating and tragic story. One thing I was unaware of was that the approaching Zulu army did not intend to attack that day; if not fired on they would have sent a delegation to politely demand of the British why they were invading. Things wouldn't have gone much better, I imagine! Another interesting note is that if the British had formed square, they might have survived; not only did they separate their forces in the face of the enemy (an obvious no-no), but contrary to depictions of close-set thin-red-lines, the infantry were spread out in open order.

Also, again contrary to received wisdom, although the 24th was still the 2nd Warwickshire at this time, it had been based at Brecon, Wales since 1873 and over half the 2nd Battalion were Welsh. So, yes, many of them would have known Men of Harlech.

A very interesting method of portable solo play. There have been many blogposts and reviews of this series lately. Haven't tried it yet; I ordered it because I have ECW Wofuns, but unfortunately the bases are 30mm and the hexes 25mm. Of course I could copy and resize them, but that would require splicing paper together or going to a shop to print on larger sheets. I will probably print some Junior General minis for the purpose, although I'm very tempted to buy some hex terrain - especially now with news that Heroscape may be republished!

I've finally got all five of this classic series. Sadly, two of them - this one and the American Civil War volume - have no rules, though both are fine beginner's guides to the period. Herbert's book does include reviews of rules from 1990, including The Sword and the Flame. He also has a few scenarios - I particularly like his suggestions for a 1:1 skirmish between Boers and Bushveldt Carbineers, the same one that led to the trial in the film Breaker Morant. (Morant was played by Edward Woodward, a gamer who headlined the first TV series about wargaming, Battleground.)

The reason I like this scenario is that it is clearly influenced by the RPG-forerunner skirmish games of the '70s. Names and character stats are even provided for the troops; though their meaning isn't stated I could probably use them with Free Kriegspiel techniques in a pinch. That's tempting. Though my local group are sometimes wary of new games, they have been remarkably tolerant of my efforts and interests. We'll see.