"Once more dear friends unto the base...."

 or perhaps "All my life's a circle"...... 

Yup, narrow magnetic bases again instead of big round washers or glued down figures.

"PreeeeSENT!"

I had tried this flexible approach a decade or so ago but living in the 'boonies' (quiet, beautiful, friendly, neighbourhood though) I had trouble getting the right mix of materials for magnetic bases and had to depend on mailorder across the border, while keeping my armies aligned with my usual convention co-host and the remaining handful of my local wargaming friends.

 

Then COVID hit the continent.. and for a couple of years I was playing solo (which removed restraints....) and having a hard time getting materials so I turned to scavenging for materials to 'reuse' for basic materials (wooden Clementine crates made great basing and building materials until the thin wood was replaced by a type of pressboard. which is thicker and much harder to cut.) 

Experimenting with magnets for temporary group bases in 2010!
(click here to see the post)

 
Then there was the matter of more periods than time and energy could handle as I crept up towards the end of another decade. Anyway, while consolidating armies and periods, I started with the goal of having similar rules etc to make it all as quick and easy as possible but then, some part of my brain decided that if I was going to have armies for various wars, then each collection or 'period' should have a distinct feel rather than just having different hats. Different rules, organisation, basing etc. but that was a quick way to a quagmire with few things being finished and games and campaigns slowing down.   

I've come to the conclusion that I was wrong. I'll be able to play more games if I just used as few rule sets/styles as possible and let the scenarios, the look of the figures and how I use them to give the game a period feel. 

Yay! Bases making for easy maneuvering but allowing figure removal instead of little dice to track hits.

Since I still don't have a local supplier, money is scarce, (the Canadian$ exchange is currently way under the US$,) and my pension is shrinking every year, I was in a bit of a pickle until it occurred to me to have a look at Amazon and Poof, I found some inexpensive packages of thin plywood for crafts, and some cheap magnetic backs for business cards. I still have a couple of unused 15 year old packages of Litko base bottoms that adhere to magnets, and a heap of small metal washers from the local hardware store.....

We're on!

"SERGEANT MAJOR! Get those men onto proper bases!"

The End Of The Crossroad

Well, this wasn't what I had in my mind when I sent drummers around the 19thC shelves to beat the assembly in preparation for a game, but its over now and about 4 sets of rules have been tried for a couple of turns each. I now have some evidence and recent experience for the committee (yes, yes, the usual: Me, Myself and I).  

The Queen's troops got to the town first but the Republic's troops deployed quickly and launched a two prong attack. (Random turn and road of entry.)

The grid is off though. It has its merits, but my 40mm Horse & Musket are too big to work properly with the grid that is painted onto the table and I am NOT going to repaint it AGAIN!  Anyway, I like my table the way it is, and the way the troops are based. So, the grid is off, but it would be anyway for these armies.  

A passing balloon caught this bird's eye photo as the battle progressed.

Over the last year, I've been investigating different approaches to the rules for these lads. All of the versions had something to say in their favour and some problems. In some cases I've found acceptable compromises and in other cases I have still to decide on different approaches (eg sequence of play, variable length moves vs activation, ranges, how resilient should the units be, etc, etc...)  Some of those options have been decided,  but there are still some decisions for me to make.  

The fighting got fierce and victory hung in the balance.

In any case, I'm ready to let it ride for the moment and turn my head to another collection/period.

As the day wound to an end and a bugler blew "Last Turn", the Boys in Blue (and Grey) launched a forlorn assault on the town but the Lads in Red held firmly onto the tavern, and the bulk of the houses.

The question now is: "What should I play next?"  It'll have to be one of my 8 active collections, but requests by comment or email will be considered.

Oh Well....

..At least I tried.

By the time I had played through roughly half the game, I'd had my fill of the gridded game, soooooooo...........

A quick shuffle here and there, a few tweaks to the off grid rules I used for the last couple of Oberhilse and Faraway games, and things are going smoothly again.