Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Tweaking the Plan

I haven't got my room tidied up yet or the dark sloped wall/ceiling beneath the eaves painted bright white but I've finished the butternot Oerberg battalion and the rest of the Belmont Rifles have been cast and primed. I have also spent time rebasing for consistency and flexibility rather than need and fiddling with the rules and contemplating how best to justify having ACW and contemporary British & fictional troops in both 1/72nd & 40mm.

The obvious answer of fighting bigger battles with the smaller figures only had 1 small snag. Both use the same organization, same rules, and can fit the same number of units on the table at 1 per grid.  Ignoring that, I intend to fight mostly smaller actions with the 40's but as was always the case with MacDuff, the larger games will be the same as small games of the bigger battle collection but I can live with that since I already have the 1/72nd and so many of the 40's.

A Modified Model Major General  will be used for the 1/72 ACW games with the same basic structure but angled to make bigger games faster and easier. After much tweaking and untweaking and some reflection, the rules for the 40mm games will bear the Square Brigadier name since the name well is dry and it shares the basic concepts, play sequence etc. An untested draft under the name Square Brigadier 2016  The Tin Army can be found under links or here.

 Organizing and painting continues with plans for a solo test by the weekend. Should be ready to think about PBEM after that if all goes well.

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Taken All in All, this puts my plans back some time to this:

Major Collection:  Atlantica. 40mm wargames set in the 1850's to 80's (Single shot rifles)

Secondary Collections: Each hitting the table at least once every 3 years and most getting out at least once a year. Occasional addition of new  figures

Prince Valiant 40mm Elastolin fictional dark age.
5 Kingdoms. OS 25mm fantasy medieval
Rough  Wooing. 16th C  Anglo-Franco-Scots Wars in 40mm
Not Quite the Seven Years War. PA homecast semiflats and Charge!
War of 1812. 19thC print version. 40mm
ACW 1/72nd plastic
Old Soldiers. 54mm vintage Britains + compatible figures, NW Rebellion + NQ Zulus.
The Great War. 40mm homecast early WWI

10 comments:

  1. Room? Oerberg Army? Room? Oerberg Army? You chose well.... After all, how can you fight a battle with a 'wall' for goodness sakes? There will always be time to paint a wall but how soon will it be before the forces of Oerberg cry out for reinforcements?
    All the very best and may you continue to understand what is really important!
    Jerry

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    1. Thanks Jerry, the thing is, I think its going to help reflect light on to the table and make it easier to take pictures. Well it can wait till after a playtest anyway.....

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  2. Ross, I meant to ask - where did you get your 54mm Zulus? Are they plastic or metal?

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    1. Plastic from a Call To Arms. Not very popular with the plastic 54 crowd because they are a small 54mm, lucky for me so are the old Britain's so they are a perfect match.

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  3. And only four pages long. Ross, I like what I see.

    Greg

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    1. Well, there's at least another page or 2 to come, more weapons, unit types, fortifications, explanations........

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  4. Good to see that you are concentrating on economy - plenty there to Game with ROSS ...do like your new castings (previous post)...excellent. Regards. KEV.

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  5. Mind a rules question, Ross? The unit definitions talk about Battalions, but the chance cards refers to Brigades. Did you mean Battalions (I.e. Individual units) there, or Brigades (which I would imagine would be a collection of units under a commander perhaps)?

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    1. Ques always welcome Will. Yes groups of units under a leader and within his command radius. The idea is that its a subordinate general who is being either very efficient or the opposite, not a rogue colonel.

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