A visit to the Hoffburg to see Charles...

On occasion my significant other (she who must be, and frequently is, obeyed) and I have the opportunity to do a city break. Last year she asked me where I would like to go next and without pause for breath I said... 'VIENNA!!!!!'

Now, why I hear you ask would I be so keen to go visit Vienna, the romance and attractiveness of the Austrian capital notwithstanding?

Well, as those who follow my blog will know I collect an Austrian army from the Napoleonic wars and am quite a fan of Archduke Charles, the man who was one of the only people to thrash the mighty Napoleon in a fair fight. The army that I am collecting and modelling is Archduke Charles' army of the Battle of Wagram of 1809

One little visit to Vienna would allow me to gaze upon the rather dynamic statue of this Titan of military achievement, the Archduke statue in the Heldenplatz outside the Hoffburg palace, seat of the Habsburg dynasty for 700 years, take a brief excursion from the city centre to the battlefields of Aspern-Essling, site of the aforementioned whooping and of course a little further out visit Deutsch Wagram where Napoleon got his own back on an inexcusably far too indolent Charles!

These things just begged to have three blog posts written about them. I thought I would share my visit to Charles with you first, packed out with a little biography work on the man himself!

Now, one thing can be guaranteed when I travel to a European destination to see a statue or monument that I particularly want to see... and that's that it will be festooned with scaffolding for some bloody music event that's happening the day after we leave... and that's why there are no photos of Charles here with the Hoffburg in the background... cos it was all covered in scaffolding!

But without further ado... ladies and gentlemen; I give you his Royal Highness Archduke Charles!

Karl Ludwig Johann Josef Lorenz of Austria (commonly known as Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen) was born on 5th September 1771 in Florence, Tuscany. The third son of Emperor Leopold II and his wife Maria Luisa of Spain. He was the younger brother of Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor (until Napoleon dismantled the Holy Roman Empire following the disaster of Ulm and Austerlitz!) and despite suffering from depression and epilepsy Charles earned widespread respect as both a battlefield commander and as a reformer of the monolithic Austrian military juggernaut! He has been considered to be one of Napoleons most ablest opponents and is frequently alikened to the Irish Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington.

He began his career fighting the armies of Revolutionary France. Early in the wars of the First Coalition, beginning with command of a Brigade at Jemappes in 1792, he saw victory at Neerwinden in 1793 marking him as one of the officers to watch in Europe, before tasting defeat at Wattignies, 1793 and Fleurus in 1794,at which he was present but did not command.

In 1796, at the age of 25 and as chief of all Austrian forces on the Rhine, Charles out-generaled future Marshall Jean-Baptiste Jourdan at Amberg and Wurzburg and forced Jean Victor Marie Moreau to withdraw across the Rhine. He pursued a strategy of falling back carefully and avoiding a decisive main force engagement he left mere light infantry screens to cloud his movements before pouncing successfully. This mixture of strategic, operational and tactical genius marked him amongst his contemporaries as one of the greatest generals in Europe!

In 1797 he was sent to arrest the victorious march of General Bonaparte in Italy and he managed to extricate the overmatched Austrian forces from annihalation with great skill. In the campaign of 1799 he once more faced Jourdan whom he defeated in the battles of Ostrach and Stockrach, following up his success by invading Switzerland and defeating the mighty Massena in the First Battle of Zurich, after which he re-entered Germany once more driving the dirty frogs across the Rhine!

Ill health forced him to retire to Bohemia at this time but he was soon recalled to undertake the task of checking Moreau's advance on Vienna. The results of the Battle of Hohenlinden however forestalled his attempts practically before he had even take charge leading to Charles striking the Armistice of Steyr. 

His popularity was now such that the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg (a provincial local government) which met in 1802 resolved to erect a statue in his honour and to give him the title of Saviour of his Country, but Charles refused both distinctions. (Humble AND Genius? See where hes different from Napoleon?)

He played little part in the military misadventures of the 3rd Coalition culminating with the catastrophic losses of Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805, only commanding the remnants of the Army of Italy which in the face of events elsewhere was subordinated to Germany as the primary theatre. Austria was whooped on the Danube (Austerlitz and Ulm) whilst  Massena had his revenge on Charles at the Battle of Caldiero.

Following the treaty of Pressburg following Austerlitz, Charles embarked on a radical and far reaching reformation of the Austrian military bringing into practise Corp organisations as opposed to the previous Wing system. He reviewed and adjusted Austrian infantry and cavalry formations, pioneering the use of Battalion Masses as a viable alternative to Square formations. At a serious disadvantage against artillery with such a close packed huddle of men BUT very easy for conscript troops to form and maintain in the face of Cavalry assaults.

In 1806 Francis II (who, following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Emperor was now Francis I of Austria) names Archduke Charles, already a Field Marshall as Commander in Chief of the Austrian Armies and head of the Council of War. Supported by the prestige of being the only general who had proved capable of beating the French he promptly initiated the far reaching reforms mentioned above, replacing the old fashioned methods of the 18th Century root and branch.

These army reforms were not yet complete when the War Party in Austrian politics managed to force a war with Imperial France against the vehement opposed wishes of the Archduke.

Even with incomplete reforms however the Austrian army of 1809 proved to be a very different animal of that encountered by France 4 years earlier, with Austrian troops proving time and time again capable of trading shot pound for pound without breaking... if only Charles had better, and more aggressive subordinates!

In the 1809 the initial conquests of the Austrian army's invasion of Bavaria were neutralised by defeats at Abensburg, Landshut and Eckmuhl but following the evacuation of Vienna the Austrian army, with Charles at the helm delivered a serious defeat to Napoleon at the Battle of Aspern-Essling. 6 weeks later though the war reached its climax at the Battle of Wagram on the sunny, green and verdant Marchfeld outside Vienna. The Austrian army of this day was a formidable foe, capable of soaking up far more damage than previous incarnations and in this battle was only defeated after a desperate struggle with an unprecedented loss of life by both sides... and even then Charles managed to extract his army from the field intact and withdraw effectively screened by his cavalry and light infantry.

At the end of the campaign the Archduke gave up all of his military offices.

When Austria joined the ranks of the 6th Coalition in 1813 Charles was not given any command and the post of Commander in Chief went to Prince of Schwarzenburg. Charles spent the rest of his life in retirement, except for a short spell in 1815 when he was the military governor of the Fortress Mainz. In 1822 he succeeded to the duchy of Saxe-Teschen soon after marrying Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg spawning many brats!

The caution which the Archduke preached so earnestly in his own written works on strategy, for which his contemporary Von Clausewitz roundly pilloried him, was displayed by Charles apparently only when the situation suited, even though his education certainly seemed to emphasise the defensive at all costs. He was at the same time capable of engineering and executing the most daring of offensive strategies whilst his handling of troops, whether in wide turning movements, as at Wurzburg and Zurich or in the masses of Aspern-Essling and Wagram was certainly the equal to any leader of his day with only a single exception. Napoleon!

His campaign of 1796 is considered almost faultless. That he sustained defeat in 1809 was due in part to the great numerical superiority of the French and their allies and in part to the unfinished condition of his troops with a war forced upon them far too soon. His indolence on the Marchfeld following his victory at Aspern-Essling is however inexcusable and open to much criticism.

As a military writer and thinker his opinion carried the greatest weight, however his opinions cannot be considered anything but outdated by 1806. He waged wars of territory whilst his main opponents were waging wars of annihilation. Caution and the importance of strategic points was central to his system. The rigidity of this geographical strategy may be gathered from the prescription that this principle is never departed from.

Again and again he repeats the advice that nothing should be hazarded unless ones army is completely secure... a maxim he roundly ignored in his stunning campaign of 1796. Strategic points he says, not the defeat of the enemy's army, decide the fate of ones country and must constantly remain the Generals main concern, a maxim never more roundly disabused than in the war of 1809 by the master of the War of Annihilation!

This statue of the mighty Archduke is modelled on a popular painting by Johann Peter Krafft in which Charles is seen snatching up the Colours of the Zach Regiment, rallying them and personally leading them back into the fray at the Battle of Aspern-Essling thus stabilising the centre of the Austrian line and preventing a complete collapse under the repeated charges of French heavy cavalry divisions!

Of course it wouldn't be seemly for a wargamer such as myself to do such a biopic of the mighty man himself without posting my own icon of the moment he rallies the Zach regiment... and here is my own Generals base for use with my Grande Armee Austrian army...

and just to sign off with, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a couple of shots of the Deathmask of the Archduke which is held in Aspern Church with one of the museums to 1809... so this is actually what the man looked like. Genius he may have been... but looker, he was not!

For me, now I'm going to go back and finish off my Austrian III Korp under Kollowrat! More on that later...

So this is an entire article taken from De Scriptorice's blog. It sounds like she has been through hell and back for the enjoyment of gaming.

What makes gamers turn into predators when they can sit and throw dice at each other? I really dont get it!

tabletop-gaming-has-a-white-male-terrorism-problem

...and the actual text:

Tabletop Gaming has a White Male Terrorism Problem

I am a gamer. I followed the call of Cthulhu and ran in the shadows with hackers and shamans. I traversed the ancient lands of Greyhawk, Faerun, and Eberron with companions new and old. I swung from an airship and buckled swash over London for the Kerberos Club. I threw dice and flipped cards and ground men into dust playing table-top wargames.

I don’t do that anymore.

Since July of 2015 fans of the game Malifaux have been attempting to overwhelm me with death and rape threats for no other reason than I am a woman who has opinions on the game. Wyrd Miniatures is silent on this matter and hangs up whenever anyone attempts to discuss the harassment. Given that a large number of threats identify the senders by name as Wyrd staff members, I do not find this surprising.

But that’s not what this article is about.

This isn’t the first time I’ve received an avalanche of threats from pathetic and insecure men. It isn’t the second time or even the third or fourth. At this point, I know that if I speak out against the abuses myself and my friends have suffered as a result of our participation in the “friendly gaming community” I can expect to be silenced with extreme prejudice. Section 83.01 of the Criminal Code of Canada defines terrorism as an act committed “in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause” and with the intention of intimidating the public “…with regard to its security, including its economic security, or compelling a person, a government or a domestic or an international organization to do or to refrain from doing any act.”

Astute readers will note there is no specific provision for internet harassment, although death threats are one of the most prominent and effective ways of driving women and POC from communities. While the topic of online harassment has centred around white women, it is not uncommon for any minority to receive death threats and other forms of intimidation when they express their concerns with the gaming community’s acceptance of racist, sexist, homophobic, and otherwise bigoted behaviour.

++++
I am thirteen years old and in a game store for the first time. I examine their selection of dice and take them to the counter to pay.

“How old are you?” asks the balding, middle-aged man behind the counter.

“Thirteen.”

“Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed!” he chuckles in glee. The Warhammer 40K gamers at the table behind him take up the refrain. “Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed! Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed!”

I run.
++++

Make no mistake that this is terrorism. The men who e-mail me rape threats have a vested interest in anyone perceived as “lesser” being expelled from the community. And the tragic thing is that it works.

Law enforcement is woefully unequipped for dealing with the multiple-jurisdiction headache of online harassment. Most police are unwilling to file a report without a name, address, and IP number and many regard “cyber-bullying” as unimportant. When combined with the sexist attitudes towards women and sexual assault, reporting rape threats is almost impossible.

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I am at Keycon, waiting for a friend to finish her Shadowrun game. One of my male friends hands me a pepsi. I take it and thank him.

I wake up in a hotel bed I don’t remember. A man’s hand is inside me, jabbing and painful. I try to scream but nothing comes out. I try to move but I cannot. After what feels like a lifetime, I stagger away, ripping his hand out of my jeans. The convention whirls around me like a nightmare kaleidoscope as I beg for help. Eventually, someone takes me aside.

“This is a safe convention. We have a reputation to protect. If you go to the police, we’ll say you were never here.”

I nod numbly. I think I am crying, but no tears fall. I stumble into a bathroom in the lobby coffee shop and sob until I can’t breathe. When I am calm, I call the police and report the attack.

“You sound drunk. Were you drinking? I’m not filing a report for some drunken slut.” The officer hangs up.

I have no more tears.
++++

Many men are under the fallacious assumption the police exist to serve and protect the population. They do not. They exist to keep the peace. Often this means intimidating women out of filing reports or pressing charges. I have no idea why this is the case. I only have twenty years of attempting to report gendered violence and having my concerns ignored. This is not a well-kept secret and the terrorists know this. They know that any woman attempting to report harassment or assault faces uphill battle and they count on it.

++++
It is 2009. A man at my game store has been sexually harassing me, talking about how much fun he would have raping me. When no one is in the store, he traps me against a wall and rubs his genitals against me. I call the police.

“This is a matter for your manager. If he touches you on the street, then you can call us.” The officer hangs up.

The owner refuses to expel the creep and fires me instead. Three years later I win a precedent-setting human rights case against him.
++++

What is shocking to me is that I am not particularly visible. I do not create, write about, or otherwise engage in gaming culture. Due to the years of persistent sexual harassment and threats, I maintain an incredibly low social profile and try to avoid gendering myself online. Just think for a moment how fucked up it is that I am not free to post about my hobbies, interests, or day to day life because I am a woman and the gaming community is so dangerous.

++++
It is 2015 and I am reporting the harassment to the RCMP.

“Is this like that WaterGame thing?” asks the officer. I smile in relief.

“Yes. Yes, it’s a lot like that.”

The officer sighs, “We’d have a lot less work if women just stayed away from dangerous, psychopathic losers.” I look at the evidence in front of me. I don’t disagree.

In every discussion of online harassment you will find men telling women to call the police. What you don’t hear is the police telling women to stay away from gaming communities for their own safety. What would gamers say if they knew that police told women to avoid game stores the same way they avoid frat houses?

“Why is this so important to you, anyway?” The officer is blunt, but I appreciate it.

“It’s my hobby. I love it. I’ve been doing this for twenty years.”

Her response cuts me to my core, “Find another hobby or you’re going to die.”
+++++

The response to the rampant sexual assault in the gaming hobby is predictably misogynistic. Women are expected to train themselves in self-defence and anything less is regarded as “irresponsible” on their part. This attitude is illogical, irrational, and deeply callous as it does not address the basic fact that, by the time a woman is forced to defend herself from sexual assault, a crime has already been committed against her person. Worse, any woman who has defended herself from sexual harassment in the gaming community can tell you that her self-defence was a precursor to ostracism as the men in the community embraced the predator and expelled his victim for “creating drama”. As if the perpetrator of the crime wasn’t responsible for the “drama” in the first place!

Amid the rise of lone wolf terrorism it is important for the ethical, responsible members of the gaming community to address and put a stop to it before anyone is harmed. Credit for foiling a potential mass shooting at thePokemon World Championship goes to an unnamed forum moderator who had the sense to notice the dangerous, violent rhetoric of his posters and alert the authorities. How many sexual assaults could be prevented in the gaming community by men extending that same concern to women?

White male terrorism is the white underbelly of the gaming community, meant to terrify and disrupt the lives of those who threaten the status quo by race, gender, or sexuality. It succeeds because the majority of men in the community are too cowardly to stand against the bullies and the terrorists. At best, these cowards ignore the problem. At worst, they join the terrorists in blaming their victims for the abuse. The point of online terrorism is that it is endless, omnipresent, and anonymous. I have no way of knowing whether the person with whom I’m gaming is safe or the person who wants to “slit [my] throat and fuck the gash until [I] drown in cum”. Knowing that the person sending those e-mails could be anyone and the community will not support me if/when I am attacked keeps myself and many others from the hobby.

The majority of gamers do not engage in online terrorism, but are instead complicit in lower levels of harassment. It is almost impossible to convince gamers that sexist and racist jokes are unacceptable and that they make others uncomfortable and drive people off. Indeed, raising this issue at all often results in threats and more terrorism. It is unsurprising then that people with conscience have come together to create Hater FreeWednesdays/Saturdays—a master list of comic and game stores and their relative safety for women and minorities.

Gamers bemoan the loss of the local game store while ignoring their culpability for its demise. Amazon is blamed for the death of local game stores, but few gamers stop to question why so many people are choosing to buy social games in such an asocial manner.

++++
It is 2009 and an aboriginal woman is looking at the metal miniatures on the wall. My co-worker helps her as I stock the display shelves.

“Do you have any models that look like me?” the woman asks.

“We only have normal models,” my co-worker titters, “I can order you the noble savage.”

The woman leaves. We never see her again.
++++
It is 2010 and a young black man with a backpack is talking to me about the comparative merits of Pathfinder vs D&D 4th Edition. I tell him we have drop in games and wave him over to a group currently playing.

“Sup, my n*****!” the white men shout.

I apologise but the man is already out the door. I report the incident to the owner.

“I’m not throwing away good customers just because someone is oversensitive.”
++++
It is 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and hands are on my ass and breasts and all over my body. Groping, fondling, feeling whatever they please.

The smell of print comics gives me flashbacks now.
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It is May and I am discussing the problem with gamers and harassment with friends over dinner.

“It’s strange to talk about a moral event horizon,” my friend says as he sips his beer, “but when this dude invited me to his house to play Pimp: the Backhanding that was the end of the friendship.”

Another man nods, “I used to really enjoy trading card games, but the community is so hateful I can’t bring any of my friends. Why play a game with people you can’t stand, right?”

“Everything changed when I had a daughter,” says a third, “whenever someone makes a joke, I think about them directing it at her. I can’t let my daughter grow up around those attitudes.”
++++
It is 2005 and I am arguing with my future husband about women in gaming.

“Women game as much as men,” I say, “they just don’t do it in public and don’t game with self-identified gamers because it’s too dangerous.”

“That’s not what my experience in the hobby has been.”

“Wait and see.”
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It is 2008 and women who have never gamed fight for a spot at our table. We play with a politician, a lawyer, a chemist, and many others. Most of us are women, although some are genderqueer. We commiserate over stories of groping and sexism at our “friendly” local game stores and laugh at the notion that women don’t game.

In 2014, when I can’t run games anymore, they splinter off into several different groups. They buy everything online and never set foot in game stores. They’ve learned the hard lessons.
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It is 2007 and I am discussing the comparative merits of the Circle Orboros versus the Legion of Everblight when I hear a loud crack and a sharp pain in my rear. I jump and shriek in fury.

“Relax, it’s a compliment,” says the Pressganger.

I curse out the offending player.

“Look, you can’t play with us if you’re going to get emotional over every little thing.” The rest of the players nod in agreement.

I leave. It will be a cold day in hell before Privateer Press gets any of my money.
++++

The prominence of white male terrorism in the geek community is obvious to everyone except straight white men. Gamergate, Sad Puppies, and the necessity of the Cosplay is NOT Consent movement, to name just a few, have brought to light the dangerously retrograde ideas espoused by the gaming community. If gamers didn’t think the harassment was justified or warranted, they would speak out against it. That the community and industry as a whole choses to remain silent in the face of widespread public condemnation of its bigotry speaks volumes.

Gamers want to believe that they are logical, sensible, and rational. But there is nothing logical, sensible, or rational about making your peers and customers run a gauntlet of bigotry for the dubious privilege of playing a game in a space where people like you (and the people sympathetic to you) are despised. When confronted with bigotry in the community, it costs nothing—indeed, I argue it is the moral imperative of the community—to shut it down clearly and unequivocally. “We are aware that some of our fans have had negative experiences in the community. Let it be known that Company/Store does not stand for any racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted behaviour. We care about providing a healthy and competitive gaming scene for everyone. If we see or hear any abuse, the offending player will be reprimanded, and, if necessary, expelled for an indefinite duration.”

Feel free to steal that, gamers. You don’t even need to credit me.

Harassment in nerd hobbies has been quantified and studied and the results are appalling. 25% of the respondents reported harassment, 13% reported unwelcome sexual comments, and 8% reported groping, sexual assault, or rape. If 13% of SDCC attendees receive unwelcome sexual comments, that’s over 17,000 people being sexually harassed every convention. You would have to be an idiot to think none of these people are going to talk to each other, and cavernously evil to dismiss everyone as lying. As for sexual assault? That’s over 10,000 people being groped at SDCC, and it doesn’t count people who are groped more than once. Many of my friends have given up their once-beloved con circuit because they can no longer deal with, as one prominent cosplayer put it, “men handling me like a piece of meat”.

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It is 2005 and I am at I-Con. I duck into the wargaming room looking for a demo and a place to spend my money. I lean over a table to get a better look at the game in progress and feel a hand slide up my skirt. I scream and turn around, but everyone is staring at their tables, heads down over their games.

“Someone grabbed my ass!”

The man doing the demo rolls his eyes, “Quit making stuff up. You don’t need the attention.”

I roll my eyes back and leave. That night, I find a constellation of five bruises on my ass.
++++

Men can shout all they like that #notallmen harass women, but as long as gamers defend their bigoted behaviour as a “sense of humour” (implying that women who don’t like being groped are somehow at fault), #allmen are complicit in the harassment. Predators rely on other people thinking they’re joking, and when gamers make jokes like “sleeping girls can’t say no”, those predators feel safe and welcomed in the community, while their victims are forced to flee for their safety. Even if the woman does press charges, the police report goes nowhere without the rest of the community willing to testify on her behalf instead of protecting their rapey friend. Predators know this, which is one of the many reasons “Go to the police!” is the constant refrain to shut down ANY discussion of safety in gaming.

Even though it always results in a deluge of threats, I am committed to speaking about my experiences with sexual assault, harassment, and rape in the gaming hobby. The most heartbreaking thing is that every time I do, I receive dozens of messages from men and women who have endured the same and do not feel they can speak up because the community is so hostile to their reality. I’ve heard from several people who, when trying to discuss their sexual assault, have it treated like a joke and laughed at by members of the community. I can’t think of better evidence that the gaming community is far too tolerant of goddamn monsters.

When the majority of gamers refuse to speak up in support of those marginalised, they send the message that the hobby is full of bullies and they like it that way. “There are assholes in every group” is the rallying cry, yet that statement is nonsense to anyone who has spent the barest amount of time cultivating a healthy community. “Asshole behaviour” only persists because the majority of men are too cowardly to call the assholes what they are. The women who speak up against bullying and assault are treated as solely responsible for their safety, while cowards pretend that “staying neutral” is a virtue instead of tacitly condoning the rampant harassment and bigotry. The gaming community has some of the worst excesses of rape culture outside of a Duggar convention.

But if you can’t hear it from a woman, maybe you can hear it from a man.

What can men do? They can support and believe women, POC, and anyone else marginalised by the hobby at large. They can refuse to stand for assholes in their community. There are good men who know their friends’ stories, but are fearful of sharing them lest their friends receive harassment. You don’t need to share the details. You only need to share that you know it’s a problem. (The aggressive digging into trauma is a bullying tactic meant to further silence and traumatise the victims. Do not fall for it.) I truly believe that if the good men in the community have the courage to stand up for what’s right, they can change the image of a gamer from a slavering neckbearded rapist anonymously e-mailing women death threats to something more positive.

As for Wyrd, despite this egregious and dangerous misstep I want to believe their hearts are in the right place. Call them at (678) 355-5055 or fill out a feedback form and let them know that you want a game free from harassment. If only they spent as much effort protecting their female fans from harassment as they do themselves from criticism.

French Indochina (The Dirty War) - Groupement Amphibie LVT's

During the French Indochina conflict Tonkin, the northernmost of the five subdivisions that comprised French Indochina, became the main battlefield of the conflict, but there was fighting at other places as well. 

One of the most difficult battlefields was the large boggy plain south of Saigon and the Plain of Reeds, where the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er Régiment Etrangers de Cavalerie) was used. Its units, the 1st and 2nd Escadrons, were the first to recieve the American M-29C Weasel amphibeans in 1947 (the French referred to them as “Crabe”). 

These vehicles were equipped either with the French Chaterrault M1924/29 light machine gun or the American Browning M1919 machineguns along with 57mm recoilless guns for some of the vehicles. At first, their deployment was unsuccessful, they were crewed by untrained men, they used wrong tactics and were deployed without infantry support. Their losses were heavy and the the French high command reported that “their burnt-out husks covered the entire plain”. 

In the end however, the legionnaires managed to use and master them after several months of fighting, but the most effective deployment of forces in these boggy areas was possible only when the French recieved the American heavy amphibeans – LVT-4 Alligator and LVT(A)-4 with a 75mm howitzer, in 1950. Through them, it was possible to move stronger infantry units around. 

In September 1951, first mixed unit (1er Groupement Autonome) was estabilished, consisting of two escadrons of Weasels (33 each), three escadrons of LVT-4 (11 each) and one fire support platoon of 6 LVT(A)-4 75mm self-propelled howitzers. Even the Weasels were heavily armed – in one platoon, five had machineguns, two were equipped with 57mm M18A1 recoilless guns and one had a 60mm mortar. Each Alligator carried four machineguns – two .50cals and two .30cals. Some even had improvised mounts for recoilless guns.

Later on, second such group was created in Tonkin – this one had several LVT-4, rebuilt in the navy repair yards in Haiphong to carry a 40mm Bofors gun and two machineguns. Both these groups also participated in Mekong and Red River delta operations and in landing operations on Vietnam shores.

For me the French Indochina war is somewhat of a passion project. I don't expect to game with anybody for some time to come as I am the only person I have ever met (in the person) who has any interest in the French conflict. For me, at the moment this is a project that is all about painting stuff I haven't had the chance to explore before and use it as an opportunity to try new painting techniques to see what I can get from them.

The painting techniques that I used for these vehicles were shamelessly appropriated from Ruben Torregrosa at Heresy Brush (www.heresybrush.com) who is quite frankly one of the best miniature painters on the planet to my eye... and he uses an airbrush for a lot of techniques which I have learnt a lot from so far.

These vehicles were done in three main blocks. The Hull painting, the transfers and finally the Track painting. The track painting methods are really shown to fine effect on wider tracks such as those found on the late war German tanks but works fine on LVT's as well.

To paint the hull these are the steps I went through:

Steps 1-4 is airbrushed and then hand painted from then on.

1) Airbush a basecoat all over the miniature of Tamiya XF58 Olive Green

2) 1st Highlight of Lifecolor UA221 Khaki Olive Drab in a panel highlighting technique. Panel highlighting is lightening each panel area of the vehicle at the centre leaving it to darken towards the panel edges. This assumes numerous sources of lighting which isn't realistic BUT I do think is the most attractive. Zenithal highlighting is one that assumes one lighting source which is probably the most accurate if realism is what you are chasing.

3) 2nd Highlight Lifecolor UA224 Faded Olive Drab (a)

4) 3rd Highlight Lifecolor UA224 Faded Olive Drab (b) + white.

5) Apply decals at this point (see below)

6) Apply a satin varnish

7) Apply AK Interactives Filter for Nato Vehicles all over the vehicle

8) Apply AK Interactives Wash for Nato Camo Vehicles on the areas that need detail profiling

9) Allow the Filter and Wash to dry and then remove the excess using cotton buds/ brushes with White Spirits.

10) Apply Vallejo's Chipping Colour using a sponge along the edges of the vehicles with dabs applied sparingly to the flat panels as well.

11) Accentuate some of the larger chipped areas with a brush also using Vallejo Chipping Colour

12) Profile some of the chipped areas using Vallejo Iraqi Sand and painting fine lines along some of the larger areas edges.

13) Using a very watered down Vallejo Light Rust paint streaks downwards from areas where rust will gather, and allow some to pool around bolts and hinges etc.

14) Apply your matt varnish.

Applying your decals:

Finding decals for use with the French Indochina conflict is simply impossible at 15mm so I found it necessary to make my own decals

the important thing to remember if you are using homemade decals is to firstly paint the area where the decal will be applied with Micro Set which is a solution that will help decals bind to the surface they are being applied to.

Once the decal has been applied and has dried thoroughly the area should also have a drop of Micro Sol applied to it which will allow the decal to form to the surface architecture avoiding raised areas on decals.

Painting the Armoured Vehicle Tracks

The method I use of painting the vehicle tracks is a little long winded BUT with tanks that have wider tracks it really shows why its the method of choice. I use it, quite simply because I am a creature of habit!

1) Paint the tracks with Vallejo Panzer Aces 304 Track Primer

2) Drybrush the tracks with Vallejo 863 Gunmetal Grey

3) Apply AK Interactive 083 Track Wash and allow to dry

4) Use AK Interactive 065 Afrika Korps Filter to the areas that you think need dust

5) Apply deep profiling to the bogies and tracks using AK Interactive 075 Wash for Nato Camo Vehicles

6) Apply AK Interactive 086 Track Rust Pigment to the tracks and use a Pigment Fixer

7) Apply Matt Varnish

...and there you have it. Super realistic tracks

The last step in the modelling process for me is the application of the bases. I like my vehicles on bases because I think it protects them from the occasional knock that could have been avoided.

I use exactly the same process on these as I used on my Commando Francois jungle bases without the excess sculpting on the bases using Green Stuff, garden twigs and brass etched foliage.  I just made sure that the scatter and the clumps were dense enough to imply what they were meant for . Job done!

So there you have it. If you have a close look you will notice that I haven't heavily weathered my vehicles with environmental mud or anything like that which I used on my Polish vehicles because I think the distressing that I have done on these already looks attractive enough to carry the vehicle image and I didn't apply any track pigments either as the available surface areas on the tracks just isn't big enough to carry enough pigment to create an effect so I had to settle with what they look like now....

On the whole though Im happy with what Ive got here... and my Groupement Amphibie is well underway!

Flames of War: How to create Jungle bases

Ive had a couple of gamers express an interest on how I did the jungle bases on my Indochina Commando's and as I was intending to do a blog outlining how I did them anyway I thought I may as well do my post whilst Im waiting for 'she who must be obeyed' to finish her work at the desk that we both currently have to share for our creative outlets so I can get back to finishing my LVT's

When I decided to take the plunge and start getting my Indochina stuff done I spent a lot of time looking around at the kinds of bases that people were doing for Asia and such like and there wasn't much that I could find that really inspired me, in fact a lot of the bases that I had seen were either very reminiscent of European terrain or else they weren't available for the 15mm scale so I had to sit back and have a think of what I wanted.

The majority of the fighting in Indochina didn't take place in the deep jungle (with the significant exception of the Route Coloniale 4 disaster, when the Union troops struck out into the jungle away from the roads in an attempt to escape the VM) so the majority of bases that I had seen are very passable so no problem there... but I wanted something a bit different. I wanted something that screamed jungle and rain forest.

Anybody that has spent time in a jungle and/or rainforest (and Ive done both) will immediately be able to say that there is more dead stuff there and than alive and the ground covering is a deep mixture of light brown and deep brown/ black and the foliage can be so green its like a slap in the face... and then of course in the right season there is, in parts, a riot of colour with flowers and blossoms and such like, as well as the trees root structure running rampant across all pathways.

Now, this creates a bit of a dilemma because a base that is done this way will look very dark and at 1/100 scale its really important to have a demonstration of contrasts to highlight and draw attention to the details. Because of this one of the choices I made is that I wouldn't just have dead ground covering and instead mix up some materials with some brighter and lighter choices to create a bit of a lighter contrasting texture.

The next big problem was how on earth would I be able to replicate the foliage of a jungle on each base? Well that turned out to be easier than I thought with the beauty of brass etched foliage for Architectural Models...

and so this is how I did the bases:

1) Mount the painted figures directly to the base that you have chosen to use. For me I always use 2mm MDF Flames of War bases from Tony at East Riding Miniatures (http://shop.eastridingminiatures.co.uk) and for those of you who are interested, Tony also carried the Platoon20 line of Vietnam miniatures for the American War.

2) Mount a collection of Rocks and/ or Tree stumps. The rocks that I use are the kind of small pebbles you get for fish tanks, or small chalk chips that you can cut to shape. For the tree stumps I headed out to the garden (fortunately it being winter here there is a lot of this stuff laying dead all over the place). I got a big handful of twigs and cut and shaped them to the sizes I needed to fit them onto the bases. The selection of rocks and twigs that I had chosen were then glued straight onto the base using PVA glue and left to dry.

3) The next thing to be dealt with was the tree roots that spread across the jungle floor and break through the surface. For these I used Green Stuff, made appropriate lengths of the stuff and then stuck them to the bases with the sculpted details being applied once the roots were positioned securely.

4) To provide some unification of all the details on the base a layer of tile grout needs to be applied. Different people use different things. When I was younger I used to use plaster of paris but tile grout is far better due to the way it deals with water. Plaster would crack, grout doesn't... and grout doesn't shrink at all when it dries so this is what I used. I apply it with a palette knife (a mini one) and cocktail sticks to work them into the awkward areas. The grout is then left to dry completely.

5) Now the tile grout is fine for areas of mud BUT I personally am not a massive fan of the texture and Im never convinced by the way grout/plaster with a coat of paint looks. Its always made my miniatures look a bit crap so now I put a layer of fine grade sand everywhere that will be left exposed using PVA glue painted on with a brush.

6) Once this is done and dry as a bone the entire base (including the rocks but NOT the stumps) is painted using Vallejo German Camo Medium Brown (826) and left to dry

7) The base then has a heavy dry brush of Vallejo Green Ochre (914) is applied and left to dry

8) Im a real fan of the static flock grass clumps that you can buy off of Ebay and I happened to have a load of choices that I had bought for my Polish army which I had decided were not appropriate for the basing I was doing for them so I had a lot left over. I had looked at my bases and noticed that with the brass etched foliage I was going to apply, it wouldn't have made the bases 'busy' enough for my tastes and so I used a couple of these clumps on each base to replicate the thick undergrowth you can see in the Asias.

9) The next thing to make choices on were the actual ground covering itself, the lead litter, biological mulch and detritus that is so characteristic of forests and jungle. I knew, I just KNEW that a layer of static flock would just look crap so I decided to have a look around for some more textured ground layers. I knew that the war-games market probably wouldn't be able to provide this so I headed over to the fine scale modelling corner of the world and soon found a company called Reality in Scale based in the Netherlands (www.realityinscale.com) who trade in a vast range of military diorama materials. They had a great selection of interesting ground materials of which I bought a good selection. When I had them in hand I mixed three of them together (1x Mossy Forest, 1x Fine Dark Forest and 1x General Green Scatter) into a plastic tub and shook it vigorously to produce my own mix. The final result wasn't as dark as I was expecting but nonetheless it was useable... and so this is what I glued (using PVA glue painted on) on all areas of the base that needed ground covering.

10) The next big challenge was the foliage that was raised from the base, and hanging from stumps and rocks. The only viable choice here, I believe, was to use brass etched foliage sheets. After a lot of looking around I settled with  buying a selection of sheets from Scale Link (www.scalelink.co.uk) choosing SLF 065 - Tropical Tree Creeper , SLF 040 - Bracken Fronds and SNF 032 - Pond and Canal Plants. They have a vast range of foliage options at different scales and whilst not the cheapest options in the world, are definitely worth their expenses in the final analysis.

These sheets were primed and undercoated black and then were cut from their sheets, and applied to the bases into pilot holes previously drilled into the bases and glued across the ground or across tree stumps and boulders wherever necessary and positioned to represent a good covering of the base.

11) The entire foliage mass is then painted with Vallejo German Camo Medium Brown (826) for the branches and woody parts.

12) The foliage is then firstly base coated with Vallejo Extra Dark Green (896) and then highlighted with Extra Dark Green mixed with Vallejo Intermediate Green (891) and the final highlight of Games Workshops Putrid Green to make the green really pop.

An easy way to paint the foliage is to firstly paint a thin line down the centre of the frond and then paint all of the frond lobes on each side together with one stroke leaving a darker green dividing line between the frond core and the lobes.

... and there you have it! Jungle bases done!

Marine Commando Francois - French Indochina "The Dirty War" - part 2

Modelling the Marine Commandos of the Indochina war was problematic to say the least! There is very little written in the English language at all, and certainly nothing that relates to organisational breakdowns from a war that has been, for all intents and purposes, brushed under the carpet by the French. My French is passable but sadly nowhere near competent enough to be able to competently translate military acronyms and such like.

However, this is where Google came to the rescue... and by that I mean Google Translate. I found a photo library dedicated to all of the Marine Commandos and there was so much photographic record in there that I was able to piece together an accurate OrBat for the Commando on the day of the battle.

The complete Commando Francois

Around this I structured a Flames of War based Commando company with the following organisation:

78 Combat Effectives (76 European & 2 Vietnamese Suppletifs) 
Commandant L.V Labbens in overall command

Command Group
1x Group Chief
1x Radio Operator
1x Mechanic/ Engineer
1x Medic

Protection Group
1x Group Chief
3x Riflemen
2x Vietnamese Suppletifs

Mortar Group 
1x Group Chief
6x Riflemen (Ive only found a photo of one Mortar Operator but would 6 Riflemen imply 2x 60mm mortars being used or only 1?)

One of the two 60mm Mortars held in the mortar group

Assault Group
1x Group Chief
6x Riflemen

The company 57mm Recoilless Rifle, held in the Assault Group

1st Section
Groupe A
1x Group Chief
13x Riflemen

Some of the members of Section 1: Group A

Groupe B

1x Group Chief
13x Riflemen

Some of the members of Section 1: Group B

2nd Section
Groupe C
1x Group Chief
11x Riflemen

Some of the members of Section 2: Group C

Group D
1x Group Chief
8x Riflemen

Some of the members of Section 2: Group D

This amounts to a total of 74 with 4 Europeans unaccounted for.

So that was the organisation, now what about uniforms and weapons? There are no miniature manufacturers anywhere in the world that produce Marine Commandos from the Indochina conflict so I had to rig them myself.

After much searching around I decided to settle on using Battlefronts British Commando figures with a serious amount of adjusting.

In my favour was the fact that the smock that was designed for the Marine Commandos was pretty close to the design of the British Commando Smock and they also wore British style berets and trousers... and at this scale the boots, puttees and packs would barely register a difference. 

Alternate headwear such as a naval beret and the French Chapeau needed headswaps... to which I went to Peter Pig and ordered some heads for Scottish Tam O'Shanter berets and Chindit heads.

Weapons were a ball ache with this project. The majority of Marine Commandos were armed with ex-German MP40 Schmeissers, well there just isnt anybody who manufactures these in 15mm. I did however find a company that makes 15mm US M3 Grease Guns which, if the sides were filed down would make pretty good approximations of both the MP40 and/or the Mat49 depending on how the paint scheme was done. The Mortars were perfect and the Brens needed only the slightest modifications to appear to be FM 24/29's

There were a lot of Commandos armed with the Thompson Sub Machine Gun on the Battlefront figures so I decided to get rid of most of them although I did carve away the foregrip on some of them so that they appeared to be Mas 38 Machine pistol... and of course I actually left a few holding the Thompson as well. I figured that there will come a time when I want to use Francois as Jaubert or Montfort so a bit of diversity wouldn't hurt.

A French Union Marine Commando

The French Marine Commando's of this era were one of the first armed forces in Indochina to receive bespoke uniform elements and in their case this took the form of jackets. These required some painting techniques that were a little unorthodox.

A detail guide for the Commando jacket

Because of the painting technique that was used the jackets had all of the base colours painted first.
A Vallejo Khaki (988) base coat was applied followed by Vallejo Luftwaffe Camo Green (823) and Beige Brown (875) was stippled over the khaki using small lumps of sponge.

The trousers were painted a Khaki Drab (Tamiya XF51) and then highlighted with Vallejo Khaki (988) mixed with the Khaki Drab.

The entire figure was then washed with an AK Interactive Filter (AK075) Filter for Nato Camo Vehicles.

The remaining elements were painted as follows:

Element           Basecoat                                  Highlight                 Extra

Jacket              Khaki (V988)                                                           Filter for Nato Camo Veh. (AK075)
                        Luft Cam Green (V823)
                        Beige Brown (V875)

Trousers          Khaki Drab (Tam XF51)        +Khaki (V988)        Filter for Nato Camo Veh. (AK075) 

Puttees            Graveyard Earth (GW)           +Khaki (V988)
Boots              German Camo Black (V822)
Packs&Webb: English Uniform (V921)        Green Grey (V886)
Rifle Body:     German Camo Med Brown    Beige Brown (V875)
Frapeau Hat:   Khaki (V988)                         Dark Sand (V847)     Filter for Nato Camo Veh. (AK075)
Beret:              Black Green (V980)               Medium Olive (V850)
Beret Badge:  White (V951)
Skin:               Snakebite Leather (GW)        Elf Flesh (GW)           + White (V951)
Lips:               Red (V957)  
Metal:             Gunmetal Grey (V863)   


So there you have it! That is how I painted the first of my Indochina troops.

The bases were a complex procedure that took me a while to arrive at and took enough work that they will warrant their own blog post about...