Soissons

Um, I could have, you know, s- named some modern ones as a, uh, current breweries, things like that.

But out of doing a little research, I, I decided to go with, uh, Saint Arnold, uh, Soissons.

Nice.

He's the patron saint of brewers from almost-

Yeah.

Uh, and while, while, while we said that artillery exists off the table, you'll still be putting, uh, stuff up to the famous Soissons, Soissons quiz or Soissons six, I don't remember how you, the trend.

Don't remember the specific number French, French gun on the table, which, uh, I would maintain does not belong on a 28 millimeter table as anything but an objective.

But, uh, yeah.

Clovis soon made himself feared as the most ambitious, the most unscrupulous, and the most energetic of the new Teutonic founders of states.

Ten years after the fall of the Western Empire, seven years before the rise of the Gothic kingdom of Theodoric, Clovis challenged the Roman patrician Syagrius of Soissons, who had succeeded to Aegidius, defeated him in a pitched field at Nogent near Soissons in 486, and finally crushed Latin rivalry in northern Gaul.

Ten years later, in 496, in another famous battle, Tolbiac, Zülpich, near Cologne, he also crushed Teutonic rivalry and established his supremacy over the kindred Alamanni of the Upper Rhine.

Then he turned himself with bitter hostility against the Gothic power in Gaul.

Please enjoy responsibly.

Their prevailing and monotonous brutality was only checked by superstitious fears of the wrath of St. Martin of Tours.

It was only varied by good-natured licentiousness and perfidy such as that of King Guntram of Orléans, or by pedantry like that of King Chilperic of Soissons, the Nero and Herod of our time, as Gregory calls him, but who also dabbled in heresy, tried to add new letters to the Latin alphabet, and wrote Latin verses which would not scan.

But the Frank race with their territorial chiefs, still Teutonic in the main, though in the west and south becoming less so in each successive generation, preserved the vigor, the audacity, the fighting qualities of their blood.

Um, Michel Auder is a French-born filmmaker and video artist who has spent more than 50 years turning everyday life into cinema.

Born in Soissons in 1945.

Did I say that correct, Soissons?

Yeah.

Well, yes.

Yeah, sounds like, uh-

[laughs]

... somebody from Soissons.

Not even a little.

The 1st Division was thrust right into the meat grinder at Cantigny, then the Soissons offensive in mid-July, and then Saint-Mihiel in mid-September.

They're just being battered over and over again, taking immense casualties, barely reforming their lines before they're pushed into the next offensive.

And all of this culminates on October 4, 1918.

What isn't a mystery, though, is how terrifyingly capable he was once he actually deployed to France.

Right.

Because by the time that grim October rolls around, he's already been cited for bravery at the Soissons offensive in July and cited again during the Saint Mihiel offensive in September.

The man is a tactical machine.

Clovis soon made himself feared as the most ambitious, the most unscrupulous, and the most energetic of the new Teutonic founders of states.

Ten years after the fall of the Western Empire, seven years before the rise of the Gothic kingdom of Theodoric, Clovis challenged the Roman patrician Syagrius of Soissons, who had succeeded to Aegidius, defeated him in a pitched field at Nogent near Soissons in 486, and finally crushed Latin rivalry in northern Gaul.

Ten years later, in 496, in another famous battle, Tolbiac, Zülpich, near Cologne, he also crushed Teutonic rivalry and established his supremacy over the kindred Alamanni of the Upper Rhine.

Then he turned himself with bitter hostility against the Gothic power in Gaul.

Their attempts at enlarging their domains at one another's expense were usually as feeble and stupid as they were unscrupulous.

Their prevailing and monotonous brutality was only checked by superstitious fears of the wrath of St. Martin of Tours.

It was only varied by good-natured licentiousness and perfidy such as that of King Guntram of Orleans, or by pedantry like that of King Chilperic of Soissons, the Nero and Herod of our time, as Gregory calls him, but who also dabbled in heresy, tried to add new letters to the Latin alphabet, and wrote Latin verses which would not scan.

But the Frank race with their territorial chiefs, still Teutonic in the main, though in the west and south becoming less so in each successive generation, preserved the vigor, the audacity, the fighting qualities of their blood.

Accept the volunteer act, said the queen at last.

Let the camp be at Soissons, where the general says he will gradually draft them off out of the way.

And well, we will see about the decree aimed at the priests.

Du Maurier has your promise.