An obstacle made of felled trees with the branches facing toward the enemy. An abatis was difficult to navigate and slowed down an attack.
Abatis
September 7th, 2009
Balaclava
September 7th, 2009A hood covering the head and neck usually made of wool. The balaclava was first worn during the Crimean War.
Balaclava, Battle of
September 7th, 2009
Busby
January 18th, 2010
A busby is a tall, cylindrical hat usually made of fur. Often worn by Hussars and certain guard infantry units of the Napoleonic Wars.
Carabinier
December 29th, 2009
Originally a carabinier was simply a carbine-armed cavalry soldier.
Chasseur
December 17th, 2009
Chevau-légers
December 29th, 2009Chevau-légers is a general term for light cavalry of various types. Lancers, for example, would fall into this category.
Cossack
January 18th, 2010
A cossack is a member of one of a number of tribes from the Ukraine and Southern Russia. Superb horsemen, they were semi-nomadic and among the finest ligth horse in the world. While not well suited to acting as cavalry in a set piece battle, as mounted skirmishers they had no equal. Napoleon is often quoted as saying “Cossacks are the best light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them.”
Dice Notation
December 23rd, 2009
In order to simplify and make clearer the different ways in which dice can be rolled and modified, game designers have developed a system of dice notation. These semi-formula looking notations indicate how many dice of whihc type to roll, and how to modify the results.
The most common form of notation is simply the use of Dn to indicate the type of dice being used, where n is the number of sides the die has. Thus a normal six-sided die is noted as a D6, while a die with 20 sides becomes a D20. A number prior to the D indicates how many of that type of dice should be rolled. Thus 3D6 means to roll three six sided dice. 2D12 means to use two dice each of twelve sides, and so on. When using this notation, it is generally (but not always) assumed that the dice should be added together to generate a single sum.
It is also common to indicate modifiers to the dice rolls. These are numbers that should be added to the sum of the dice rolled. Thus 2D10+3 means to roll two D10 and add three to the sum. This creates a range of outcomes from 5 – 23. Of course, modifiers may ask you to subtract or multiply the dice. These notations can even be strung together like a mathematical formula. For example, 2D8+2D4 means to roll two eight-sided dice and two four-sided dice and add the dice together.
The use of parenthesis can indicate how to roll and modify the dice. For example 2D6+(D10+1) would mean to roll a ten-sided die, add one to it, and then add that result to the sum of two six-sided dice.
There are more esoteric possibilities but these are rarely used in most gaming situations. The simple 2D6 or 3D4+2 notations will cover most die rolls a gamer is likely to come across.
Dresden, Battle of
September 7th, 2009
Fought on August 26-27 1813- with Napoleon defeating a combined allied army. Dresden was a titanic battle- following the armistice of 1813. There are quite a few web pages devoted to the battle. A good place to start is with the web page here.
.

