Friday Night Wine

So...

I'm having 'another fag', I've cracked open the Friday night win (Bastide de Garille, 2008), and will probably have another fag... a cup of tea... another fag....

All of this bidjing is displacement activity to put off from making a final decision with regard to the list I am going to take to tomorrow's WFB tournament.

As it is the first time that my Ogres will hit the table, any decision can hardly be considered informed. I will probably go the route of leadbelchers and a gorger, rather than the scraplauncher - though part of me wants to take my giant.

Part of me considered dropping out earlier in the week - in part because my kids are going to a birthday party, and it might have been fun to tag along. But the main reason is that the tournament is for prize money - *yawn* - but let's face it, I didn't choose Ogres because I am obsessed with winning. I just wish that instead of giving the 'winner' money, they could be given a trophy and if there are other prizes then decide these with a raffle.

Meh....

(The Bastide de Garille, 2008, is very pleasantly fruity - £4.99 reduced from £11.99)

Today I have been mostly working on my Dragoons.

The horses are base coated and I have started working on the highlighting.

Apart from that I have been doing quite a bit of reading.

Part of this research is to decide on how I am going to paint the second brigade. The first brigade is going to be all French, but I thought I might have an allied brigade made of Swiss, Germans and maybe some Italians.

What struck me when trying to research OOB's was how often the British OOB details the regiments, yet the French simply say 'Soult 6700 men.' Maybe French websites - and/or books - would have more details, but if they do, it seems odd that English sources would simply choose to ignore these - especially given that Gerry Embleton is often mentioned as the researcher and when I knew him he lived in a Swiss castle and to my untrained ear spoke fluent French.

There are of course any number of reasons for this. The French might not have been so beaurocratic in their army organisation, they were operating in hostile country which took a heavy toll on reports and communication, and conversely they had less pressure on manpower, so they didn't need to maintain such accurate returns.

Yet the oddity is less pronounced in the later battles - in which the French OOB is more precise as to which regiment was present.

I will probably go for the option of mixing some Swiss into the French brigades to give them a little colour - rather than go for the full allied brigade

For those following the thought process of drawing up my BoB rules - I am moving towards a card based system, with very limited use of dice.

Right time to dig out the list.

peace:)