I was rather eager to try out the draft rules to see whether or not they were a good start. A quick survey of remaining WWII stuff in hand, in any scale led to a quick conclusion that we would be looking at mostly unpainted plastic. I could mix in the AK47 and CWC stuff but I suspected that would just highlight the unpaintedness of the other figures and anyway, the mix of figures on bases was awkward if I wanted to look at individuals..
A fudged late 19thC game of 40mm figures was tempting but begged the question of whether or not 1/72nd was going to be satisfying.
That left the RCW 1/72nd despite the bases. I don't have enough painted figures to field 2 armies except in the Portable Wargame, so once again my ACW troops were called to stand in and some Zulu War Brits thrown in for the feel of single figures.
When I started to fiddle with ideas for a 20thC game, I was tempted to start with Hearts of Tin mechanisms and update them. Instead I tried slotting in some older rule ideas from my Lawrence of Arabia game-in-a-box (now gone) with hits and pins but since I was borrowing the concept though not the detail of Don Featherstine's anti-tank rule, I figured I'd also try and adapt his infantry firing. Even toned down a bit, boy its bloody! Anyway, by turn 2 I was already confusing HofT and what I was playing and since it wasn't hordes of tanks and things, I started thinking, wouldn't it be easier adopting common mechanisms where I can? So I played a few more turns improvising on a HofT base
Conclusions so far:
A. The 1/72nd stuff is OK but.....something seems to have tipped inside me. It may not be just a phase that I'd rather play with a few single 40mm toy soldiers than a horde of 20'mm figures (or 40's) on bases. This doesn't bode well for vague plans of using 1/72nd ACW to fight big battles. . Not sure what it means for the unpainted RCW either though the PW still looks like a good use for both these.
B. An adaptation of HofT for early 20thC looks perfectly feasible. I'm just looking again at play sequence for fire and movement, some thing that periodically bothers me anyway. I have experimented in the past with reaction/opportunity fire options and with revised sequence of play such as A moves B fires. or else both move and then all fire. I need to check options farther. I'll add in anti-armour rules but the odds that I'll go big in 40mm WWII are pretttttty slim. Boer War & WWI/post WWI are more likely. (still allowing a tank fix of sorts).
One of the things that I've been thinking about recently, Ross, is how much I have been enjoying the look of your recent 40mm games.
ReplyDeleteEven though they have far fewer figures than say Olicanalad's games, the action in your games looks better.
Now I wish that you would concentrate on 18th and 19th century games (I've no interest in tanks, etc.), but I do like the look of your individually based small units of larger figures.
-- Jeff