A few (more) brief thoughts on Tolstoy

I finally read War and Peace back in 2010 (and previously posted brief thoughts in this space), and am presently reading Anna Karenina. Both works feature Russian aristocrats beset by debts and the need to raise money to support their accustomed lifestyles (and if I remember my Dostoevsky, there was something of the same sort in The Brothers Karamazov). As Anna Karenina opens, Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky is contemplating the sale of a forest on his wife's property in order to pay his debts.

In other words, he seeks to mortgage tomorrow, by disposing of a productive asset, for the comfort and amusement of today. Has a...familiar ring, doesn't it?

Another holiday, another battle

General E____ claimed victory this afternoon, as he turned General G____'s right flank, occupied a key hill in the left center of the field, and blunted General G____'s attempt to turn his right. The hill in the left center was the real key to the action, and General E____'s deft use of his light infantry (the Rafiki Rangers) helped him hold his position while General G____'s aggressively handled cavalry wore itself out.

Figures were 1:72/20mm Crimean-era (mostly), rules based on Joe Morschauser's How to Play War Games in Miniature. As the young gentlemen return to the whirl of skating lessons and online schooling on the morrow, a miniatures game seemed a good way to close the holiday season. Time permitting, we'll do some painting this weekend on their next regiments (and Dad's army of 19th-century Scandalusia).

General E____ insists the next clash of the armies to be recreated will be the Battle of Schrute Farm. Perhaps I ought to set about getting the hedgerows and farmhouse done.