Throwing Thunderbolts: A Wargamer's Guide to the War of the First Coalition, 1792-1797

‘Peoples do not judge in the same way as courts of law… they throw thunderbolts!’ — Maximilien Robespierre.

Throwing Thunderbolts is a unique guide to wargaming the wars of the French Revolution that both the beginner and experienced wargamer, new to the period, will enjoy and find useful.

This is a book for wargamers based on history rather than a history book. It will explain how the battles of the revolution can be recreated by some of the different wargame systems available at an appropriate scale.

The focus of this volume is the War of the First Coalition, 1792–7, which involved more than one hundred and fifty battles and actions, all of which offer potential scenarios for different wargames.

The armies of France, Britain, Spain, Austria, Prussia, United Provinces (the Netherlands), Sardinia Piedmont, Hannover, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse Darmstadt and the Two Sicilies (Naples) are all involved in this great conflict, involving action on all the borders of France as well as the internal counter-revolution. The navies of Britain and France also fought in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and in the West and East Indies, where their armies also fought bloody campaigns.

To capture the full benefits of this focus the Second Partition of Poland (1792–3), the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) and the Third Anglo Mysore War (1790-1792) are excluded from the scope of this work.