Friday, July 31, 2015

Re-Imagining my ImagiNations (Part I) - Le Grand-Duché de Gourmandie

It came to my attention several months ago that many of my blog photos had disappeared from their posts. A quick investigation made me realize that they were irretrievable (I work in IT and know a lost cause when I see one). After a further look, it became apparent that I have neither the time nor the inclination to go through all the affected posts and replace the photos from those I still have or replace with new ones. Thus, most of my ImagiNation project, although chronicled in word, has few photos to show. 

Luckily, this has coincided with a re-imagining of my ImagiNation project as a whole. Originally I had a fairly sturdy plan for building the armies and collecting the figures. I started with Le Grande-Duché de Gourmandie and Das KaiserReich. Later I acquired the forces of Il Ducato di Libagioni from Phil. The first two were envisioned as redoubtable foes but with no particular overall plan for uniform regulation beyond a vague adherence to red and blue. Lately, I've undertaken a bit of a reorganization and moved a couple of units about among the armies. This will now conform to an older school of organization, RED & BLUE armies. Moving forward, Le Grande-Duché de Gourmandie forces will be predominantly RED (with a few exceptions, as there always are in any army). Das KaiserReich will now be the BLUE army. And of course Il Ducato di Libagioni will remain the GREEN of Phil's original ImagiNation.

To chronicle this change and to make up for the loss of photos in previous posts, the extant  forces of le Grand-Duc Pierre Louis are listed below.

Le Grand-Duché de Gourmandie
Army Commander: Jean Lafitte Roquefort, Marquis de Fromage
Le Grand-Duché de Gourmandie is ruled over by Grand-Duc Pierre Louis. His armies are commanded by Jean Lafitte Roquefort, Marquis de Fromage. The Grand Duchy is a hereditary territory, having passed from son to son for more than 300 years. The ruling family is notoriously conservative and the Grand Duc normally sends Arch-Bishop Ambroise de Chabichou du Poitou into the field with his army to ensure adherence to God's Will and the moral rectitude of the men.

Le Grand-Duc Pierre Louis

Jean Lafitte Roquefort, Marquis de Fromage, commander of His Excellency's armies in the field.
Le Marquis is flanked (on the left of the photo) by Georges leRoque, Comte de Villenveulle (commander of Les Grenadiers à Cheval Boursin) and (to the right) Phillipe Grand-Nez, Comte de Roquefort (commander of l'Infanterie Roquefort).

L'Infanterie Roquefort, with battalion guns. 
Roquefort is a two-battalion regular infantry regiment sporting the traditional Gourmandie red coats and commanded by Phillipe Grand-Nez, Comte de Roquefort (see above).
(Crusader figures) 

The colour party is sporting GMB flags. Here also can be seen the red hat lace of the grenadier division of the first battalion (left of the photo).

 4lb battalion guns 
(Crusader guns and figures with Front Rank limbers and wagon)

 Grenadiers de Camembert, a one-battalion regular regiment sporting lovely mauve uniforms and commanded by Jean-Jacques LaPierre, Comte de Champagne (not shown).  Each of the three divisions of the battalion have unique facing colours.
(Crusader figures)

  Camembert colour party.
(GMB flags)

'Red' division of les Grenadiers de Camembert.

 Three squadrons and colour party of les Grenadiers à Cheval Boursin, commanded by Georges leRoque, Comte de Villenveulle (he of the bronzed cuirass), and sporting the traditional Gourmandie red coats. As with les Grenadiers de Camembert, each of the three Boursin squadrons have different facing colours.
(Front Rank figures and GMB flag)

Colour party of les Grenadiers à Cheval Boursin.

 1er Artillerie de Gourmandie, commanded by the mercenary Cameron von Müller. 
These are professional gunners decked out in royal blue to distinguish themselves from the infantry gunners who man the battalion pieces of the infantry regiments. This is a heavy artillery battery, equipped with 12lb guns.
(Crusader gunners, Front Rank limbers and wagon, Sash & Saber Napoleonic French 12lb guns)

The professional von Müller directs the operations.



2 comments:

  1. Any Grand-Duché which allows its commander such a fine carriage is one which has my full endorsement. Vive le Grand-Duché de Gourmandie!! Well done, Sir - some lovely brush work!

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