Having finally exhausted my fund of attractive options to explore, I'm now focusing on getting these toy soldier armies up to scratch with standard organizations and basing protocols designed to work with the 4" grid and the expanded version of the Square Brigadier. Only took a decade of exploration and trials.
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| The Rebel Sappers prepare to defend their earthwork against twice their number of Dominion troops. |
My trial deployment of proposed Sharpshooters was not a success and any future experiment will adhere to standard unit organization but with the option to split designsted Sharpshooter units into two detachments. So, I painted up an extra figure for each of the two units and rebased them to standard.
Meanwhile, I have reduced the Square Brigadier to a "two sides of a page" Quick Reference sheet and have begun the process of writing a full set with more complete explanations, more unit types, and laid out with stats, options, special rules and notes for each unit type. This will allow for a greater range of unit types with more "personality". To distinguish the two sets I am expropriating the "Model Major General" for the full version.
Past experience suggests that its going to take a while to finish.
Lovely.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your little updates.
Thanks, always good to know that someone reads them :)
DeleteAs long as it was a (mostly) enjoyable decade of exploration and trials, it wasn't time wasted!
ReplyDeleteLove the look of the earthwork. I am considering something like that for WWI "trenches".
These are the corner posts from Clementine or Mandarin orange crates. They're just the right height for 40's, a little short for 54's. That's one of those minor issues that I've shelved for later consideration.
DeleteHi Ross,
ReplyDeletePlaying around with figures and rule sets, IMHO, is never wasted time. Does it make you happy? Does it hurt anyone? The fact is that getting your figures and gaming sorted is quite an achievemnt of which I am very, very envious.
I noticed that your sharpshooters (The guys in green?) are assigned to your regulars. In the ACW the Federals had two regiments of Berdan's Sharpshooters which were always split into detachments and aattached to smaller units like regiments and brigades. If you look very closely to the approach of the 20th Maine to Little Round Top in gettysburg you will notice that there are about a dozen sharpshooters in green attached to his unit. In fact when they and one company that Chamberlain detached to guard his flank popped up and fired at the Alabama boy's flank, that was the thing which made the charge down hill successful. If I am not mistaken, the CSA usually assigned a small regiment to each brigade or division to fight as skirmishers.
My suggestion is to create two separate means for them to fight. Let your red coats split the sharpshooters, Scharff's Rifles , no doubt to add to the firepower of each unit. The opposition force can fight as the boys from the CSA with a unit covering the front in skirmish order with enhanced musketry to allow for sharpshooting prowess.
I hope that all of my friends and acquaintances who live in "the land of sanity" AKA Canada are healthy and well. It is a bit concerning to hear that there have been resurgences of the Covid-19 infection in places distant to us like France and the UK.
All the best,
Jerry
ReplyDeleteThanks Jerry, I said I had "THIS" lot sorted! not everything! :)
The experimental Sharpshooter rule (version 10 or 12) was aimed primarily at Boers, Metis etc, irregulars with a for marksmanship, but I was also thinking about small units of regulars with a reputation for Marksmanship.
During the 1885 NW Rebellion, the Governor General's Foot Guards (a militia unit) sent a section of sharpshooters (normally entered in shooting competitions but by default sort of an elite or picked force ). Ironically it wasn't their shooting that got them honourable mention at the Battle of Cut Knife Creek but their brave attempt to rush a Cree position whose fire was pinning the guns, hoping to drive them off or at leaast cover the withdrawal of the guns.
My game is set in the period after your civil war and all of the trained troops, regardless of coat colour are assumed to be armed with breechloaders and normally fight in a skirmish line with supports, firing aimed shoots, all according to the book. These were the approved tactics, by the book, used during the contemporary 1st Boer War but it was soon obvious there that the Boers were better shots and more flexible and that some senior British officers didn't "get it" yet.
Rifle green was a common choice of colour for Canadian volunteer militia units and don't signify a different tactical role or training. In Toy Soldier fashion, I have fielded composite units with 4 "companies"(units) grouped into "Brigades" 1/2 the size of battalions so as to maximize the variety of uniforms and regiments represented on my table. (That's the sort of explanation I can fit into the intro of a full length version of my rules!)
As for Covid, I'm afraid it'll be around to some degrees for a long time to come. Hopefully a vaccine will emerge before long to at least tame it a little.
take care!
Stay healthy, my friend. Have a great time with this morph of your rules set.
ReplyDeleteJerry
Always good to have a chat, esp in these days!
DeleteI use rubber backed battle mats, which I divided into 5 1/2 in hexes from a template made by seweasy (seweasy.com) and marked with a fine green Staedtler permanent lumocolor pen. This has the amazing effect of hardly being able to see the hexes at a distance (for photography for example), but perfectly discernible when moving troops.
ReplyDelete