Scottish Referendum

I am Scottish. I live in Quebec. These are facts, the rest of this post contains nothing but rambling, politics and points of view. If none of those interest you, please feel free to skip this post, as it is not wargame or gaming related.

Still here? Okay. I have another blog, a personal blog. One that has been running in various guises for about 14 years now with sporadic regularity. Mostly it is pictures of my kids, and other stuff that would only ever be interesting to family and possibly my future self. However, the first two facts I stated in the beginning of this post dictate that I have a keen and special interest in the goings on in Scotland over the last couple of weeks, and that has been taking my attentions away from the delights of wargame blogging, hence the radio silence here. If this is something that interests you, and you want to hear my point of views on these matters, then please feel free to click on this link and go read the blog. They appear in reverse chronological order in that link, so scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the start.

If this is of absolute no interest to you, and I would assume that goes for the most of my readers, then don't worry, I won't be insulted if you don't click. Now that's all over with, I'll be back to this being my main blog, and there'll be some pretty pictures of painted toy soldiers for you all to admire in the very near future.

Father's Day Weekend

Today was taken up by a visit to Ormstown Fair (the centennial edition), which was fun, involving pony rides, demolition derbies (or cars fighting, as the lil'un called it), and 100 pipers.

The reason I mention it here, is that the fair takes place next to the battlefield for the Battle of Chateauguay. Thereby leading to the continuation of my unintended treks around the battlefields of the War of 1812.  Indeed, the two battles themselves were fought in close succession (in the reverso order of my visits though!). Not really a surprise that the two were linked, and so close geographically, as the intended outcome of the St Lawrence Campaign by the Americans was to capture Montreal. This was indeed the closest battle to Montreal that was fought during the war, so indeed it is more surprising that we had not been there before.

The battlefield itself is just a large flat field now, but there is a visitor centre (we didn't go in). I did however, purchase for myself a little father's day pressie, in the form of a booklet by the Chateauguay Historical Society, which seems to cover the whole campaign in some detail. It is titled 'A Young Person's Introduction to the Chateauguay Valley" but that seems to be mainly because it was originally produced as an educationally booklet for schools. In my opinion, the secondary title is enough. it is a 32 page bookelt, with no space wasted, including a rather full intro to the whole St Lawrence campaign, including the background, geography, and all the major players. The maps and artwork seems to be rather out of focus, and hasn't been well reproduced, but since there is a web site reference for all the art, there should be no trouble finding the originals. I look forward to delving in in more detail.

There were two other points to note, that I think are relevant. First off, the pipes and drums of the Canadian Black Watch were amongst the 100 pipers who played today, and they were supposedly at the battle, as the 5th Battalion of the Select Embodied Militia (50 of whom were at the battle). Secondly, to drive to the fair, we passed through the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk reserve (the first time we had done so since coming to Canada. This in itself would make an interesting post, but we'll leave the politics of the First Nations aside for now), again, there were 150 Mohawks and others present on the field at Chatueauguay.

I really should get round to doing some proper 1812 gaming. It really should be easier to find people to play with for such a local historical period. Who says the New World doesn't have any history?

P.S.
In addition to the wikipedia site above, there's a rather neat little breakdown of the battle here.

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

This one of of local interest, as it's the battle that decided the fate of the Province that I now live in. Today is the 254th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains Of Abraham, which happened on the 13th of Seoptember, 1759. An historic event indeed, in wich both leaders were mortally wounded during the battle.

So, to commemorate this battle, and the war of which it was part, I have a few of links of interest.

From the Warpath to the Plains of Abraham, a virtual museum.

A Soldier's account of the Seven Years War.

Wolfe and Montcalm. A short film (1957).

A link to a previous post on my blog, which, amongst other links, has a Black Powder scenario for this exact battle. I have yet to dabble with the scenario myself.

The Canadian Military History website, with lots of nice colour images for use as inspiration for painters.

Stewart Museum

There's a fort, just across the water from my house, that I have been meaning to go to for a long time. In fact, it has been a threatened Father's Day trip for the past 3 years. However, as the kids are a little too young, and would likely be really bored by it, it hasn't happened.

A few weeks ago, they did have free tickets for families, so we finally went along to see the place. There's not too much there, but I do plan to sneak over by myself one afternoon and really get a look around. There's plenty of inspiration for the historical wargamer and amateur historian to be picked up there.

Meanwhile, here's some pics of the trip to the Stewart Museum.

Map of the fort.

Some better pics can be found here.

Happy New year

Happy New Year to you all. May 2013 bring all you wish.

As for me, 2013 is going to be a busy one, at least at the outset as my better half is starting a new job, so we'll be a month or two getting used to the new routine. Also, we have rented a chalet in the mountains for a month starting next week, so the weekends will be spent up there making the most of the huge amounts of snow that has fallen here in the last month with friends.

All this goes to suggest that winter evenings, once the time to get out the brushes and glue, will be replete with winter fun.

Still, I would like to get my Dystopian Legions Britannians finished at least (almost there with the line section, and after that, there's only a couple to go). Including the little tankettes I bought yesterday, so if you're looking for resolutions, that's as far as I'm willing to push it!

"Lang may yer lum reek, a'body!"

French & Indian War: Alternative Quebec

Major General James Wolfe

Warlord games have posted an article on wargaming the battle of Quebec, specifically with their supplement for Black Powder, Last Argument of Kings. It includes a historical background for the battle as well as an order of battle and Black Powder stats for both sides. There are then some alternatives for gaming the battle, just to keep things interesting. Lots of options and lots of inspiration. One day I will game this, one day...

Check out the article here.

And for those of you that want a real alternative, Zombie Indians!

Colore ton Monde Juin: Montrez votre fierté!

The entries from May from all of the participants are now up on Club Chaos's Blog. There are some beautifully painted minis there, go check them out. 

For June, the theme is as follows:

Montrez votre fierté!
Nous vous invitons à célébrer la Fête Nationale en peignant un modèle avec du bleu ou en peignant un modèle avec un étendard.

Show your pride!

We invite you to celebrate (Quebec's) National Holiday by painting a model with blue or painting a model with a standard.



Flag Option 1: The Carillon Sacré-Coeur



For those that don't know, Quebec's National Holiday, or Saint-Jean-Baptiste day is the 24th of June, hence this month's challenge.  Hmmm, I have a Cygnarian Long Gunner standard bearer that I have converted to a Llaelese Long Gunner standard bearer, maybe he'll do, though there will have to be some fixing done to the model first, as the standard I added was far too heavy for the glue I used. Out with the pin-vice and copper wire. Or, I could make my own new flag, which makes this post over on Monty's Caravan rather timely.



Flag Option 2: Llael Flag from here.



A Quebec themed flag even fits with the heraldry of Llael (they both feature the Fleur de Lys). This may work out very well indeed. At least I have a plan to do only 1 miniature, rather than trying to paint all the minis that have been in my cupboard for a long time.



There is also this miniature that has just been announced.
Perfect timing I think.





The other option is to wait till I can get my grubby little fingers onto this rather fetching model. I fear, however, the release will be too late for this month's challenge, as she was just announced today. She does cry out to be placed in a diorama with eIrusk. Epic flag-off!