Category: History

  • Shooting Napoleon era Muskets

    Next to wargaming, I also have another hobby. Target shooting. Just before the Covid-19 period I recorded some black powder shooting. It is one of the greatest disciplines to shoot. Especially flint lock shooting, as it is quite unpredictable, a lot of smoke and a loud bang. So some Napoleonic era shooting with some explanation.…

  • The Battle of Scherpenzeel

    Last year I have done a lot of reading and searching on the battle of Scherpenzeel and the days leading to this battle. For this moment, I will skip the political landscape, and focus on the scenario I think is most plausible at the moment. The battle of Scherpenzeel was part of the Sticht (Utrecht)…

  • Geography of a Battlefield – “The origin of the Dutch landscape”

    Geography of a Battlefield – “The origin of the Dutch landscape”

    The origin of the Dutch landscape In this post I hope to provide a quick overview of the history of the Dutch landscape. The Netherlands before the Roman occupation was partly sand and partly a marchy, swampy peat landscape. The southeastern parts (in light yellow and ochre) is higher and mostly consist of sands. The…

  • Geography of a battlefield – “Modern day Gelderse Vallei”

    Geography of a battlefield – “Modern day Gelderse Vallei”

    In my research on the Battle of Scherpenzeel and the Stichtse oorlog from 1481, I have recently digged into the topic of geography. If you want to wargame this war, you need terrain, and it would be nice to know how it would have looked. Because this already quite long ago more than 500 years,…

  • Book Review: Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy

    Book Review: Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy

    A while ago this book was part of an discount of ebooks bij Pen and Sword. I bought and downloaded it, hoping to have some 15th century warfare stories inside. So I would have a better period feel for the 15th century projects. I am not really interested in the Italian wars, but it is…

  • Ethiopia Campaigns

    Ethiopia Campaigns

    After reading the books on the Ethiopian history and air force actions, I hope to create multiple campaigns. Trying to simulate the different wars and operations. I think I will play most of these campaigns in solo mode. Testing out the Missle threat Solo rules and the Missle threat mercenary air campaign. I have divided…

  • Human rights in wargaming

    Human rights in wargaming

    In my research for the Ethiopian-Eritrean-Somali conflict, I encountered a lot of stories which are violating human rights. It started with reading the book Ethiopian-Eritrean wars Volume 2. As my interest is mostly on the aerial war, I didn’t bother that much on the ground war. I had already read the first volume and the…

  • Mustering a Retinue

    Mustering a Retinue

    1629, During the siege of ‘s Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, the Spanish and Imperial troops launched a diversion attack on the Veluwe area. This attack was performed to relief the threat of the Siege, and try to create panic under the civilization. It raised to several Siege to several cities, but also sacked a lot…

  • Africa@war books arrived

    Africa@war books arrived

    The books I ordered arrived. I already spotted some nice photos and pictures. Hope to read them coming days. Probably i will write a review when finished.

  • Dutch air war 1940

    10 may 1940, Germany invades the Netherlands as part of the second world war. Starting with the bombing of different airfields, the first airborne assault on different bridges and airfields. And a mass bombardement on the city of Rotterdam, which did force the Netherlands to surrender after 5 days. Alltough the Netherlands is quite a…