Throwing Thunderbolts- A Wargamers guide to the war of the First Coalition 1792-1797

 The Napoleonic War is without doubt ( next to Ancients) is a favourite period of mine and whilst all the campaigns and battles fascinate me over the years I have found myself focusing on 1815, the Peninsular War and the War of the First Coalition. The rise of France and Napoleon are intriguing, the campaigns are great to Wargame and the uniforms in transition.So whilst I have a number of ‘proper’ histories of the Wars and the Campaigns when I saw that Helion was releasing this guide I was intrigued.

Garry Mills clearly shows his love for this period and he has refought battles using his 15mm collection at Partizan and on YouTube  so in the end buying this was a no brainier. So what do you get for your £35 ( Helion price) or £23 ( Amazon price).

Well the simple answer is a lot it’s an A4 publication, soft back of 300 pages and weighs a lot.

So you can see from the contents that following a brief scene setting of the French Revolution there is then a 100 pages year by year account of the war. Sufficient detail is provided of the actions, theatres etc. to give you a good understanding of what took place and encourages you to go look up some of the engagements referred to. 

This is then followed by a chapter on the Nations involved, again this is a pretty comprehensive chapter giving the organisation, the forces involved etc of not just the major players ( France, Great Britain, Prussia, Austria) but the minor nations (Sardinia-Piedmont, Bavaria, Naples,Hesse Kassel to name just four) a very informative chapter. It also includes details of the Navies involved in the war.

The next two chapters cover what to consider about Wargaming the period , ( scales, opponents, rules etc) and building the collection including painting suggestions and so on. To grizzled old boys like me this may not be too relevant but I always enjoy reading how other people go about things and you’re never too old to learn something new!

Then it’s onto the scenarios, there are 10 in total and Garry has really delivered in this chapter he hasn’t favoured one particular rule set so for example the first four scenarios use Black powder ( although he also suggests that scenario 2 could use Gen de Brigade)  Scenario 5 is a Sharp Practice game of French v Royalists

Scenario 7 is the Battle of Castiglione and he suggests using Volley and Bayonet or DBN.

For each engagement there are full orders of Battle, maps, Scenario ideas and details of the historical outcome.

The last three scenarios are naval engagements from fleet action ( Glorious 1st June) a Frigate action and an individual ship action. Again he suggests a rule set and provides all the details of the vessels involved and the information pertinent to the rules but all the scenarios have sufficient information to allow the reader/ gamer translate them to their own rules.

The book then moves onto providing the reader with a list of suppliers of figures, terrain rules etc.again very useful for anyone just getting started in the period.

There is an extensive bibliography and links to online resources which again are very useful.

There are plenty of photographs of miniatures, the majority are of 28mm figures from the collection of Colin Ashton and for the Castiglione game they’re of Garry’s 15mm. Lots of inspiration for sure.

So in terms of content Garry has delivered what he set out to do and it would be nit picking if I were to try and find fault

There is however one thing that irks me a little as I said at the start it’s a big book and a heavy one, it’s size,  plus with it having card covers makes it a little difficult to hold comfortably, I generally like to sit back in my chair and read a book like this whilst having a drink this book is a little unwieldy but it’s manageable.

All in all if you have an interest in this period you won’t be disappointed and the significant discount offered by Amazon is certainly worth pursuing.