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Osprey: Warrior 77
French Soldier in Egypt 1798-1801
By Terry Crowdy: Illustrated by Christa Hook
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Napoleon's Oriental Adventure is one of those fascinating short stories in history that seems "romantic but wrong"! With the luxury of hindsight the whole expedition seems a ridiculous waste of resources, for no tangible result. But as Terry Crowdy points out the drivers for this great adventure were far more than just military. There was a morale imperative that a new nation might undertake a romantic and scientific endeavour of this size. Diplomatically, success may have upset the balance of power on the Middle East and Mediterranean, disrupting British trade, and developing French maritime and economic power.
The impact that the expedition had on the imagination of the European peoples, and inspiring an interest in
archaeology cannot be underestimated. For the wargamer however, whose thoughts are usually on issues that are a lot less
high minded than art and paleontology, the campaigns in Egypt and the Middle East have a wealth of exciting possibilities. First the French expeditionary force is small in comparison with the Corps d'Armee of later years, putting the recreation of the campaign within the resources of the average club. The campaigns themselves involved a variety of different and novel troop types, and were fought over areas of a limited geographical area.
Terry Crowdy has done a fine job in pulling together the information necessary to inform the general reader, and the dedicated wargamer, to a high degree of understanding of the campaign, the troops types, and commanders involved. Extensive use is made of contemporary source materials, letters and diaries which add depth to the account of the campaigns related in the text. The illustrations are technically excellent, though I think for a wargaming market the subjects have not be particularly well chosen. There are eight full colour plates, of which only four have a direct military context and one of these is an illustration of a deployed square. I would have like to see more details of uniforms and equipment. That said their are also a whole host of black and white illustrations that include a host of detail.
All in all a good buy, especially for the Napoleonic enthusiast, or for the wargamer looking for something a bit different.
ISBN 1-84176-628-3
Format Softback 64 pages
Price £10.99/ $16.95
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