Thursday, February 17, 2011

A Call for action at Quatre Bras by Grognards!






QUATRE-BRAS FARM AGAIN SERIOUSLY THREATENED WITH DESTRUCTION !
Update: 15/02/11
Dear Friends of History

Already in September 2008, we appealed to many of you in order to save the historic Quatre-Bras farm, maybe the last witness of the famous battle of 16 June 1815 (two day before Waterloo), from destruction. It is located at the crossroads of the roads from Namur to Nivelles and from Brussels to Charleroi, and also served as a hospital after the battle.

Our appeal met a great success and thanks to your massive response, the project was rejected and the authorization to destroy the historic farm turned down.
Now, two years later, the owner, a property developer, has introduced a new request to destroy the farm buildings in order to build new houses and offices.

Again, we have to stand up against this project and express our disapproval of it. We already had some important support from the French side, but we desperately need British and Dutch (and other) support too!  If some British and Dutch (Napoleonic or military) associations and museums would care to send a letter to the "Administration communale" of both towns, we are sure this could have some impact!

The farm being located at the border of two districts, the e-mails and/or letters of rejection have to be addressed to both municipalities:
- at Genappe:     by e-mail at: info@genappe.be
          and/or by mail at: 
                                            Au Collège Communal,
                                            Espace 2000, 3,
                                            B-1470 Genappe
                                            Belgium

- at Villers-la-Ville : by e-mail at olivier.vantielen@publilink.be and valerie.damanet@publilink.be, the two local officials in charge of the town planning at Villers-la-Ville. (If one of these addresses gives an error message, please try again, their mailbox has already been saturated once.)
                                                
BEFORE 22 FEBRUARY 2011 (after that date, it's too late).

Don't forget to mention your complete name and address. This is compulsory for your request to be accepted.
You can write in English or get some inspiration here, from our press release in French:

Only a few weeks after the theft of the Christ at the Hougoumont farm and of the commemorative stone on the south wall of the Quatre-Bras farm, we can not allow the new act of - what some of you very eloquently called – " historical barbarism" to happen.
 
Thank you to inform us of any action or letter at dominique.timmermans@skynet.be, so that I can keep you informed of any development.

Many thanks in advance.
Yours sincerely.
Dominique Timmermans
Maj (R)
(Coverage in the Belgian press on our page in French: http://napoleon-monuments.eu/MONUMENTSENPERIL/Belgique.htm)

The e-mail text & addresses to send to; (Copy & Paste all text)!



From: Olivier Vantielen <olivier.vantielen@publilink.be>
To: Christopher Maine <napmemorabilia@yahoo.com>
Cc: valerie.damanet <valerie.damanet@publilink.be>
Sent: Thu, February 17, 2011 1:52:25 AM
Subject: RE: Objection de démolition de la ferme des Quatre-Bras!

Bonjour Madame,
Bonjour Monsieur,


En ce qui concerne le dossier de démolition de la ferme des Quatre-Bras, je
m'oppose à la démolition totale de ce monument.
Dernier témoin sur le hameau des Quatre-Bras des combats historiques des 15 au
17 juin 1815, il serait inadmissible, historiquement parlant de laisser
disparaître ce lieu qui vit passer Wellington, le Prince d'Orange, le duc de
Brunswick et l'Empereur Napoléon, sans compter cette foule des humbles dont les
noms ne nous sont pas parvenus.


Il y a certainement moyen de trouver un arrangement afin que soient préservés le
porche d'entrée et la grange (ancien dancing) s'y attenant.


Je profite de la présente afin de signaler la disparition de la plaque
commémorative installée par l'armée néerlandaise sur le mur sud de la grange.


Dans le dossier en cours, j'ai été interloqué par deux points particuliers en ce
qui concerne l'évacuation des eaux :


1. les eaux pluviales seront déversées dans un bassin d'orage perméable avec un
inévitable reflux vers le lotissement « 1815 » voisin et un risque permanent
d'inondation dans cette zone en contre-bas du site


2. les eaux fécales et ménagères iront vers la station d'épuration de
Villers-la-Ville (qui EST LOIN d'être construite), au travers d'un collecteur
sous la chaussée de Namur, avec en conséquence d'importantes nuisances
olfactives, pendant une longue période transitoire. La nappe phréatique sera
polluée pendant quelques années.
Tous les éléments historiques seront entièrement détruits : le magnifique pignon
de la grange sera démoli, la plaque napoléonienne "Aan de Nederlanders ..."
présente sur ce pignon a déjà "disparu" courant décembre 2010, toutes les
anciennes écuries et la cour pavée passeront aux oubliettes, alors qu'ils sont
les témoins et les vestiges de la plus importante bataille du 19 ème siècle, qui
a considérablement influencé notre époque !
Merci de me tenir au courant de la suite.


Name firstname
Full adress
Phone number
Fait à PLACE….. le …DATE….2011




My e-mail response from the burgermeister;


Bien reçu

VAN TIELEN Olivier
Administration Communale de Villers-la-Ville
Responsable du Service de l'Urbanisme
Rue de Marbais 37 - 1495 Villers-la-Ville
Tél. 071/87.03.68 - Fax 071/82.71.39

Ce message électronique n'engage en rien la Commune de Villers-la-Ville. Seul un courrier à en-tête dûment signé par le Bourgmestre et le Secrétaire communal est valable.


Translated;


Received VAN TIELEN Olivier Municipal authorities of Villers-the-City Person in charge of the Service of l' Town planning Rue de Marbais 37 - 1495 Villers-the-City Tel. 071/87.03.68 - Fax 071/82.71.39 This email n' engage of anything the Commune of Villers-the-City. Only a mail with heading duly signed by the Burgomaster and the communal Secretary is valid.

Monday, February 14, 2011

More Windmills!

I came across this by accident the other day so needless to say I was pleasantly surprised and ordered one right away as supplies are limited. 


What's of interest is that they are specially manufactured by a unique individual. Paul McDonagh of  Paul's Modelling Workshop.


Paul is a sole trader hand building terrain and scenery pieces for sale to gamers, collectors or any other persons looking for highly detailed and unique looking architectural models. He has previously built display models for museums including ancient village scenes and battlefields. He also has constructed models of town and residential projects for local councils, architects and building developers.







An article by John Moher

http://wargaming.info/buildings-fortifications/a-warlord-games-windmill%20


Some history about Paul from his website;

I started building scenery and terrain many years ago with my father. Back in the early 1970's we used to build with matchbox wood - balsa being expensive or hard to get - and used shoe polish to stain the wood! Also, cigarette packet plastic was used to represent glass and painted sawdust provided the groundwork. Things have changed a lot since then in the availability of items for the model maker!

My early influences include the late, great Ian Weekley and the range of fantastic scratchbuilt buildings he produced - I still have all the articles he wrote for Miniature Wargames magazine from the early eighties onwards. Also Basil Fletcher of Fortress Models produced some great articles showing differing styles of walls, doors, windows etc - basically anything architectural that would be useful for the model maker.

I believe passionately in that we have such fantastically sculpted and painted figures available for wargaming nowadays that it is such a waste not to therefore have the most highly detailed and (more importantly)  realistic scenery and terrain to fight over. I despair at seeing beautifully painted figures being let down by a plain green base for example. Or buildings badly painted or lacking detail. Remember,  the majority of space on a wargames table is not taken up by the figures.

I have to say that when it comes down to scenery our cousins in the railway modelling world regularly turn out beautifully built and detailed terrain  - I aim to produce the same standard for wargamers.

Nowadays I would say that my biggest influences are companies like WETA workshop in New Zealand who created the models for the Lord Of The Rings films, Industrial Light & Magic who have created many models for films including Star Wars etc and also Pinewood Studios in the UK who have been creating fantastic scenery for productions like Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet etc since the 1960's. I hope you like them as much as I like making them!

Paul

Friday, February 11, 2011

Cold Steel & Canister / Battle of Finland 1808 / Williamsburg Muster 2011 / 05/Feb/2011 AAR#4

Search Amazon.com for cold steel & canister napoleonic


CS&C Rulebook

Each game pack is loaded with...
  • 10 exciting scenarios from the 1809 campaign!
  • French andAustrian player handbooks!
  • Full color easy to use charts & army reference tables!
  • Tournament and point game rules!
  • Most games can be completed in an hour!
  • Full color wooden game markers!
  • 70 page heavily illustrated color rulebook!
THE SEARCH IS OVER! Within these pages you will find a fast moving, highly playable Napoleonic miniatures game system. Break out your 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, or 28mm figures! CS&C can be used in conjuntion with ALL standard miniature scales and most basing methods.


CS&C is an order driven, battalion level system. Each stand of miniatures representing one company of actual soldiers. Each turn represents 20 minutes of time. Players secretly send orders to units using 6 sided order cubes, roll for initiative and then fight it out utilizing available action points. Most scenario?s can be completed in less than 1.5 hours!


CS&C uses a unique quadrant system to determine movement, range and command radius. The battlefields are subtly divided into grid squares, but retain the traditional flavor and visual effect of the standard miniature wargame. The CS&C system eliminates ambiguity from movement and facing while enforcing the linear reality of Napoleonic warfare.
  • 10 exciting scenarios from the 1809 campaign!
  • 4 pages of full color easy to use charts!
  • A mere 2ft x 4 ft of table space is required for 15mm scale!
  • French and Austrian player handbooks!
  • Full color 17 x 11 French&Austrian army guides!
  • Gamemarkers and Order cubes included!
  • Tournament and Point quick play rules! Full color game markers included.

Battle of Oravais 1808

 
The Battle of Oravais (Finnish: Oravaisten taistelu, Swedish: Slaget vid Oravais) is sometimes regarded as the turning point of the Finnish War: the last chance for Sweden to turn the war to her advantage. It was the bloodiest battle of the conflict, which some historians attribute to the exhaustion, resignation and desperation of the Swedish army: it was losing the war.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Oravais


Prelude:


At the beginning of the war, Swedish forces had retreated to Oulu. They had then managed to repel the Russians and reach Savonia despite the capitulation of the fortress of Sveaborg by the end of summer 1808. Russia recuperated quickly, and by the end of August the Swedish army was again retreating northwards along the coastal road. To avoid being encircled, colonel Georg Carl von Döbeln was sent in advance to Nykarleby with a brigade. The threat of encirclement was exaggerated, but the Swedish army was at this point showing signs of panic and collapse. On September 13 the army left for Oravais and it halted to await news from von Döbeln, who was fighting the Russians at Jutas. The sound of a cannon was heard in Oravais, and a brigade was sent to reinforce von Döbeln.


The Russian main army had marched from Vasa in furious pursuit of the Swedish forces. The night before September 14 was spent in bivouacs along the road between Vörå and Oravais. The impulsive General-major Yakov Kulnev's troops had taken the lead and were the first to make contact with the Swedes.
Battle of Oravais
Part of Finnish War
LA2-stridfin-map-oravais.png

Positions at the battle
Date14 September 1808
LocationThe village of OravaisFinland
ResultRussian victory
Belligerents
 Sweden Russia
Commanders and leaders
Carl Johan AdlercreutzNikolay Mikhailovich Kamensky
Strength
5,000 troops6,000-7,000 troops
Casualties and losses
1400 dead, 600 wounded740 dead, 200 wounded, around 100 prisoners


The Fate of Finland! kbf_chicago@yahoo.com http://www.deckergames.com/ The Battle of Oravais a pivotal engagement in the Russo









































GM Name: Kevin French

Club or Affiliation: Decker Games


Short Description: September 14, 1808


Swedish war over control of Finland.

Long Description: CS&C is a unique set of Brigade level Napy rules using a grid system for fast play representing the linear warfare tactics of the day. Rules will be taught. Napy experience helpful but not required. Young gamers with an adult only please as we'll not have time to get deep into gaming/Napy concepts.

As Karl Adlercreutz or one of his Brigade commanders will you turn the tide of history and hold the Russian's at the river or inflict enough casualties to force a retreat? As Nikolai Kamenskij or one of his Brigade commanders will you deliver Finland for the Czar and carry the day? Shall history be repeated with a valiant Swedish counter attack that came within an hour of carrying the day? Will you direct Kamenskij's reinforcements and turn the tide against the exhausted Scandinavians?

Perhaps you'll just have a fun game replaying foes in a Napoleonic war and battle seldom seen on our gaming tables!


Huzzzah!!!
Number of Players: 5
Scale: 15mm
Ruleset: Cold Steel and Canister