To the Aid of King Raoul and Grenouisse!

No updates for ages now.  Clearly the history professors beavering away at La Bibliothèque Nationale de la Lorraine, poring over the documents relating the stirring tales of M. le Marquis have been slacking, or have at least been suffering from a shortage of willing graduate students to do the gruntwork. 

Our club here has been focused on WW2 and to a lesser extent Napoleonic games.  The reality of accomplishing anything in miniatures gaming is that you really need some degree of project discipline, and to accept that you can't do everything you want to.  To try to do so by working on a little here and a little there is to make no significant progress in anything at all. 

So all the time that there was no real prospect of getting any 18th C. games in, I had resigned myself to the fact that work on l’armée de l’Oise would have to be put on the furthest of back-burners for the foreseeable future.  A shame, but given time restrictions it made sense as I have been making inroads on my Soviet army and on my Napoleonic French army.

Well, things can change.  And it appears that the The Regt. de St. Vignobles is destined to see combat in big way- even if I won't be there in person to see them in action! 

Over on the WD3 forum which is my first forum port-of-call these days, an idea has taken off to have a big 18th C. "Old School" game on a grand scale, to be held in the wilds of Yorkshire in spring of next year.  This will be under the auspices of a number of veteran wargamers including Tim Hall and Henry Hyde of Battlegames magazine, who is of course in overdrive getting everything sorted out for the game.

Now unless war breaks out on the Korean peninsula again, I can't see myself getting to the far reaches of decayed Empire for the game, as I have committed to being back in Vancouver then.  But I offered to send a contingent from the Bishopric to form part of the vast forces being mustered for battle, and Henry was happy to accept.  With New Year's holidays on the horizon, this means that I have an incentive to finish off the regiment now in a box awaiting completion, along with some other units that need some TLC.

The Expeditionary Force of the l’armée de l’Oise boards transports before setting out on its long voyage in support of King Raoul.

The story at the moment is as follows (subject to change!); 

His Excellency, Louis-Baptiste Sardanapalus Bouillon-Cantinat, the 10th Marquis de Sangfroid, Comte de Roue and the Prince Ecclesiastical of the Bishopric of St. Vignobles, will of course be honouring his ancient allegiance with King Raoul of Grenouisse, in defence of His most righteous and holy cause as he asserts his ancient rights to the territory of Grandprix, held in violation of God's Will by current Duke Zigor.

An expeditionary force is being raised for service afar, in which the Bishopric of St. Vignobles will will no doubt once again add further laurels and acclaim to King Raoul- and, of course, to the House of Buillion-Cantinat.

But rumours abound that the great rival of the House of Buillion-Cantinat, Matthias St. Hubertus von Loseth-Pfaffenhofen, Duke of Avenberg-Pfaffenhofen and Landgrave of Nassau Ringgwurm-auf-dem-Skree, is planning to hire out his own contingent as part of an Auxiliary Corps to the Duke Zigor, including the famous Lieb-Dragoner regiment. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", yes; but for a price.