Saturday, September 30, 2017

Skirmish at MacDuff's Crossing (Teaser)

Its trees you need really, when you think about it. For Napoleonic wargames you need a Waterloo Farmhouse, for 18th and early 19th Century wargames set in Eastern Canada, you need trees.

For a small battle you need at least one tree per soldier and twice that would be better. For a skirmish you ought to have three to five trees per model soldier. I'm nowhere close to even 1 per soldier for a skirmish. I need to at least double my collection of trees. For Lower Canada I really should add some White Birches and Maples too, and then have them in Autumn colours like I did for my 1997 Chateauguay game. I'm ok with  going into winter quarters though and skipping the snow clad bare branch look.
Somewhere near the Quebec/Vermont border during the Autumn of 1812. (Just before the leaves change.....)
Anyway, enough troops have been shuffled back into their original 8 figure companies and based accordingly to have a small game. To save table space and headaches I've based them two figures per 30mmx30mm stand rather than individually on 25mm wide washers. Should have thought of that years ago. I'll still need some casualty caps but not as many as with the larger multi-figure stands. I've left the skirmisher only figures on washers though.

Might be a few days before I get a chance to play but the table looks better than it did covered in heaps of old, leftover castings and spare bits, books, scribbled notes and the shambles of three armies being taken apart and reorganized.

15 comments:

  1. Always get mine direct from China - still wondering how the toy sellers can send you something for 99p and offer free postage! Though trees usually cost more than this.

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    1. They are still pretty cheap and pretty tough. My ACW and later guys use some, esp nice for neatly trimmed trees along a road. but they'll happily sell you the same trees as both HO & OO and they don't look terribly forest-y.

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  2. I once read that for ACW a gamer should buy as many trees as they can .... and then buy some more!

    I am really not a fan of single basing.

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    1. Sounds about right.

      I've swung back and forth over the years and have settled (for now) for some form of multi-base for all except 1:1 "skirmish" games. I've made an exception here for dedicated/irregular skirmish types merely to save myself some rebasing.

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  3. You can get some rather nice cheap ones off EBay , they come without bases though

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    1. I have some but even the O gauge bags provide smallish trees and very neatly trimmed. They don't really say "primeval forest" to me. I've still got a number of old, defoliated woodland scenic skeletons that I am going to try to refurbish using lichen or something for a first step. After that...well cheap Christmas village trees can be had even cheaper in the after Christmas sales and what says "wargaming tree" better than a conifer?.

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  4. Never heard the rule of thumb on the ratio of trees to figures in skirimish games. Very interesting concept.

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  5. You might be interested
    http://stores.ebay.ca/SfcDirect/Model-Tree-/_i.html?_fsub=1967329013

    I've ordered from them in the past.

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    1. Thanks. Ive got a dozen or to Woodland Scenics skeletons and various tall but baseless firs to refurbish first but eventually there will be buying.

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  6. There is a reason why I play battles set in the western desert.

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    1. Sometimes I seem to go well out of my way to avoid the easy way.

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  7. Yep: you can't have too many trees. I think I probably have 80-90 trees of various types in my inventory... Western Desert? Yep: 8 palm trees and assorted other bits and pieces to make the battlefield interesting.

    No olive trees, though. Hiatus maxime deflendus...

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