The Unwatched Pot

When we last saw my Prince August 18thC figures I was excited but deadlocked and put them away to simmer in the background until I found a satisfactory solution. Well, six months later, they have come to a boil.

Flagged and based for Battles.

There were three key issues:

a) I want each part of my collection of toy soldiers to provide a different gaming experience and to be used.

b) I wish like crazy that Prince August had done almost anything other than more Tricorne troops, but I wish to support them buy buying and using their new range of moulds anyway.

c) I wish to maintain a Prince August contingent for Charge! games with the HAWKS but don't have room on my table at home, or a need  at conventions, for more than what I already have so it doesn't really make much sense to me to just keep adding more of the same to my Charge! collection hoping that once or twice in my life I might once again get to use more than a fraction of them all at once.

The Raid on St. Michel game 3 from Cold Wars 2010

My next idea was to use the new figures for Seven Years War in North American games but there is just too little difference other than uniforms between musket era games in North America from 1755 to 1814 to justify the duplication with my War of 1812 collection.

However, one of the things I lack now that my 15mm French Revolution armies are gone, is the ability to stage Horse & Musket era pitched battles involving a substantial proportion of said Horse. Once the new cavalry figures come out, hopefully this year, the Prince August figures are my best source of figures to fill that gap but it can't be done to my taste on my existing table using full Charge! organization and 1" wide bases.

The alternative that I had been thinking of was to go off grid and field each Charge! Company/Squadron as a battalion/regiment under a new set of rules. This would allow them to remain available for Charge! games while providing something slightly different from any of my other games. This was the option that I successfully tested in June.

An enjoyable Hearts of Tin game in June

However,  the last game at Ron's has been in my mind. The units were small and the table not crowded but it still felt more like a battle than a skirmish and reminded me of my old 15mm games.

Chubby Minifig 25mm figures on Hexon terrain. 

Well, the semi-flat Prince August figures are taller but not broader than 25mm Minifigs and the same number  of infantry and cavalry figures can fit in a 4" grid area and allow me to  pack enough units on my table to offer myself a different feeling game.

Over the last 2 days I've been comparing the pros and cons of the two options and what the difference would be in the probable feel of the games and in the shelf & table space requirements per figure. It was a hard decision, heart over mind, but I've decided to go for more smaller units on the grid rather than fewer larger units off grid.

So now, a new set of rules to develop!