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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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, you can't really go wrong with the War of 1812 or the American Civil War, can you? A nice report, by the way. I do love seeing your toys out and about.
ReplyDeleteEric
The ACW is definitely "due" as they haven't been out since last May. But I should really paint those new dismounted cavalry so they can 'see the elephant'.
DeleteAgree with Eric also suggest French Revolution.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Hmm, a quick look tells me that while the FR in the West Indies has been on the table, a game in Europe hasn't happened since 2023! I'll think about that, maybe back to the Low Countries c '93.
DeleteFIW!
ReplyDeleteThey are due, but I want to paint some more Highlanders and finish reading a couple of memoirs. Besides, March is still a miserable time to campaign here. I'm thinking May.
DeleteFrench Revolution sounds good to me.
ReplyDeleteThat one was from me - used the wrong browser to answer...
DeleteWell, its hard to resist freedom, friends and equal rights. But back to Flanders possibly.
DeleteWe haven't seen 'Fight for a Continent' for some time and McDuff must have been having some adventures. Or 'Atlantica 1870' perhaps?
ReplyDeleteHook's Farm might have been the last Atlantica 1870 game though the North West campaign against the native tribes is expected to linger and appear now and then.
DeleteOh, and I want to finish my battalion of Highlanders, once the weather warms up enough to cast!
DeletePassing comment, take it for what it's worth. When I retired, removed to the American interior, finally had everything under one roof for the first time in--15 years? Maybe more like 30?--and saw what a hash I'd made of it all, I (a) sold or relocated with a fellow wargamer maybe half the total, and then (b) decided that 25mm and up would be individually based, 6mm and under would be on a constant-frontage base with guns and sometimes skirmishers permitted to be exactly half of the constant frontage. All rules and terrain would have to adapt to this, because I was never rebasing again. So far, it's worked. Coming up on ten years this fall.
ReplyDelete(The alert reader will have noticed the loophole. In real life, it consists of a matched pair of 10mm ACW armies, based to let me play On to Richmond, Fire and Fury (Brigade) On to Richmond or anything else compatible with infantry based 2x2. It was too much to give up for the sake of absolute uniformity.)
Happy to paint figures. Happy to build terrain. Willing to try new rules. But whatever part of the brain manages rebasing just flat died.
Sounds familiar. For years I collected armies to match what friends and I agreed to do next but I live in an area where a lot of people come and go depending on Her Majesty's orders to those in uniform, or on the availability of jobs, so I ended up with one side of various things in.......5+? scales and 20 periods.
DeleteOnce I retired (over 15 years ago) and moved to the boonies, I began to learn how to play solo and started collecting both sides of everything I wanted to play. Also made it easier to run convention games when my usual partner and I couldn't make it to the same con. (1,000+ km to meet 1/2 way sometimes complicates things )
I also got really good at rebasing though when the controlling committee (Me, myself and I) couldn't decide what I wanted without trial games! Almost as enjoyable as playing solo :)