Welcome

Welcome to my wargaming blog,
I'm Dave and live in Morpeth, Northumberland in the UK.
This may or may not be a regular thing, we'll just have to see how it goes.

I am a painter/collector of figures first and a wargamer second. My thrill in this great hobby of ours is to place that final well researched & painted unit into the cabinet. The actual gaming with the figures is an important but secondary experience, we all like to win, but it isn't the be all and end all of it, being with good friends and having fun is.
Hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I will writing in it.
Just to remind the visitor to scroll down the various pages and click on 'older posts' to see more.
Dave.

Sunday 24 February 2019

'We are accustomed to do our duty' German auxiliaries with the British army 1793-95.

Its not that I haven't been doing anything wargaming wise, its just that there hasn't been anything of interest to put on here for a while. I have tarted up some crappy looking rubber roads which now look great. I have made some hexagonal river sections which look ok and are functional. I have had some good knock about games both at the club and at home which were fun and exciting but none of that really needed to go on this blog as it was nothing particularly special.
I am however nearly finished a 28mm 1792 -3 French light infantry battalion which will look pretty good so that should get done soon.
However today I am doing something I have never done before and talking about a book that I purchased a while back and have just read. Now I don't know about you guys but my reading in terms of military matters has become more and more specific subject wise as the years have gone by. It's not that I know loads of things and therefore don't feel the need to cover a broad range of subjects, it's just that my interests seem to have narrowed and become more focused onto a more limited number of subjects.
One of those subjects are the French Revolutionary Wars, as a regular visitor will know I have a reasonable collection which is slowly expanding and I am therefore always on the lookout for more detailed reading matter specific to this period. Which is why I sent for 'We are accustomed to do our duty' German auxiliaries with the British army 1793-95 written by Mr Paul Demet and published by Helion.


This is a hardback, plenty of maps covering the operations of the armies in the low countries and Germany during the campaigns and also contains a good number of colour uniform plates in the centre pages.
Split into three parts the book covers a full description of the hiring of the troops from the various states including Hanover, Hesse Cassel, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt and Brunswick, a process fascinating in itself. A full and comprehensive description of the campaigns in which the various auxiliary troops were involved with. The final section contains descriptions of the fighting methods and organisation of the contingents with full orders of battle for each.
Very well researched by Mr Demet using many original journals and documents from the contributory states I can say this is one of the most comprehensive studies into this particular subject I have come across. If you are into this period then get this book while if you are not then why not!
Dave.

6 comments:

  1. I agree its a superb book and a dangerous one for my bank balance

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  2. Sounds a good book, so when you getting some auxiliaries painted then?

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    1. Austrians and French Scotty, no Brits of Germans as yet!

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  3. Thanks for your review - I'm glad you liked the book

    My next one will be on the 1793 Rhine campaign, also for helion

    Cheers

    Paul

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    1. Thanks for all the hard work Paul, I will be up for the next one too!
      Dave.

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