Napoleon's Other Wars by Mike Broers
ISBN: 9781906165116
Publisher: Peter Lang Ltd
Then I read this book. I knew a little about the Spanish Ulcer, had heard of the Tyrollean revolt, and knew the Vendee exsisted, but I never knew how many little wars Napoleon had to deal with. There were many uprisings in even France, and that doesn't even count the many bandit/disserter bands. The official French history was that everyone loved Napoleon, when in fact many fought him, rebelled against him, stole from him (once the entire payroll for the Army of Italy was robbed!!!!), and did whatever they could to avoid being in the army. Tyrol, Italy, even Belgium gave him plenty of problems you rarely hear about in regular histories. Most of the more successful uprisings (none actually won, not even in Spain) used tactics developd by bandits and smugglers. Spain, of course is covered, as is the wars in Latin America. My only complaint about the book is that after it covered France, Tyrol and Italy the coverage thinned out. It really needed another 100 or so pages, to give me the details I'd have liked to have on Spain and Latin America. He could have dropped the whole section on Ali Pasha and it would have been fine with me (though it was a good section also).
The small battles and skirmishes he covered interest me as a gamer. A couple hundred figures would cover everything you need for a dozen battles or even a campaign. Many games could be handled with just 6 figures on each side. Some of the rebel/bandits would be hard to find figures for (Tyroleans in Lederhosen), but others could be just generic 18th century/early 19th century peasants and armed riff-raff.