Saturday 11 February 2012

Some explanations... and an apology

Some of you have thanked me for the background info I provided about the last unt I painted, the Turtles (see previous post). I had developped a background for this particular unit, with some battle record. The thing is... It was only my imagination at work. Indeed, I don't know if there was nay unit called the turtles, and if there was a battle at the Red River. The problem comes from the Chinese sources. From what I gathered, from second hand I don't read ancient Chinese, most of what we know about the period is quite bureaucracy-centered. So we have names, numbers, sometimes names of battles, but that's it.

But, to my defense, this is what we know for sure:
- Chinese units had names, 
- Rewarding units after a battle, even with a new flag, or a slight change in name, was a comman practice.

So, with this scarce info at hand, I wrote a small background for my new unit...

I hope you don't mind fellow reader, but I felt compelled to do it.


Certains d'entre vous ont apprecie l'historique de ma derniere unite peinte, les tortues. Cependant, il ne s'agissait que du fruit de mon imagination: je ne sais pas si il y avait une unite appelee les tortues, ni s'il y eut une bataille de la Riviere Rouge... Le probleme vient des sources chinoises. De ce que j'ai pu obtenir, de seconde main malheureusement ( je ne parle pas chinois), les sources etaient tres orientees vers le fonctionnement de la bureaucratie. Donc nous avons des noms, des chiffres, mais peu de compte-rendu de bataille. Ce dont nous sommes a peu pres surs:

- les unites chinoises avaient des noms
- la pratique des recompenses apres une bataille etait monnaie courante, avec octroi de nouveaux drapeaux, ou bien petit changement de nom.

A partir de la, j'ai elabore un historique plausible pour cette unite tres vraisemblablement fictive.

J'espere ne pas vous avoir "froisses", mais je me sentais oblige de m'excuser.

6 comments:

  1. You naughty person!!!!!!!!! :-D I thought it was great...and why not invent "history" for your units..I do it all the time :-D
    Salut
    Paul

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  2. Pour ma part, j'ai apprécié...

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  3. Your a bad boy....go and stand against the wall!!

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  4. You know what? There's a real tendency in historical gaming to get pedantic, and argue that the only things we're allowed to do and say are things know to be "true". I love that you're getting into the story of your army in a way that's consistent with, but not determined by, the available history.

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  5. Agree with everything here. You've brought these figures to life within the broad strokes of what we know and owe nobody an apology.

    Having said that, I've spent the last hour tying myself in knots researching a future post on Hermes and Charon in Rome's Gladiator games. I too worry that I will post something wrong! Best to just let it go and have fun!

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  6. That's very naughty of you. I'll have to spank your Qin with my Sarmatians in the tournament to punish you! *lol*

    It's definitely fun to create a story around a lovingly painted unit.

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