Marauder Moments: March 2019

Hi there,

long time followers will know that we have been working on a secret new project at Marauder HQ for about two years now. Yes it is Napoleonic and yes we will continue to write big battle reports, hopefully with a renewed vim & vigour.

Those mystery multitudinous wraps - your questions answered.

Dresden at Marauder HQ.
Spectacular? Yes.
Crowded? Sadly also Yes.

Firstly some background. Various factors have led us to seek a different way of playing our games. Our mighty collections of glorious 28mm toys have sky rocketed in number in recent years meaning our mighty 14'6" x 14" table is too often cramped. The physical limits of Marauder HQ mean we cannot get a bigger table top, it can't happen! Our three visits to the Wargames Holiday Centre have confirmed that we want to play very big games - we can't. You see our conundrum.

Our answer has been to drop the figure size to 10mm. Understand this though... we are not giving up on 28mm. The sheer emotional and financial investment in those is too great to part with - some may go though. We could have used smaller units but that just looks wrong to us - we are 1:20 "Big battalion" wargamers.

Our table just got four times bigger as graphically illustrated above.

By dropping to 10mm many things happen.
The table becomes twice as wide and twice as deep relative to the foot print of the units involved. This means an increased table top equivalent of 29" x 28" in comparison.
The available battlefield space quaduples as each battalion, regiment, battery takes up a quarter of the footprint - magical mathematics!
We will switch to a metric measurement for movement, shooting ranges, command spheres etc. This means no "Nippy Nappies" - deployment and maneuver will be critical in time and space.
We have to amass a collection AT LEAST as numerous as the 28mm collection - we're nearly there. Our aim is to reach twice as many units thereby playing with twice the units effectively on four times the area creating vastly more maneuver space and realistic gaps between formations.
This all has to be painted - much is done, thanks Barry. Basing is underway.
A new collection of terrain is required. Woods have been purchased, buildings are being painted. Hills & rivers we have in bucket loads so our investment in scenery over 25 years has come to our rescue.

Lots of space to play with, we'll get some scenery photographed soon for you.

Sure we could have gone to 6mm, but my old eyes can't always see what's what! The detail on modern 10mm's is amazing & Barry Hill's painters have done them no less justice than they did the 28's. More on this to follow.

10mm Austrian Line - excellent detail, they are approx a quarter of this size in real life

More details.

Here's how they arrive. Note the details on the reverse of these Grenadiers bearskins.

A reserve brigade of three battalions of Austrian Grenadiers, note stripey flag poles.

We have chosen to start with French & Austrians to play the 1809 campaign in Germany & Italy. Next will be Russians opening up 1805, 1807, 1812 & 1813. Finally Prussians adding 1814 to the mix. The Peninsular suits our 28mm collection better.

The joys of the WHC. Stress & tension. We want to play with more toys on bigger spaces. The stress goes up, the decision making increases, the tension grows, the chance to make mistakes magnifies. All great ingredients for high stakes wargaming.

We can & will continue to play with the 28mm collection creating smaller one off games over a week or two leaving the BIG sweeping encounters to multi-week slugfests in 10mm! The occasional weekend games could certainly still be 28mm - they are just too pretty to forget about.

Beautiful scenery at WHC. We're working on villages. We have hills & woods. We might need lakes?

This project will also introduce a new kind of post for you - "The WIP". I'm not given to these but they might keep the momentum going for us and provide extra Marauder Moments content for you fine people - I hope. These might include new units, an insight into basing, painting scenery, table building, maybe even more insight into scenario writing.

WHC - We want to retain the masse - just not so crowded.

WHC - Deploying massed cavalry columns appeals to me immensely - just maybe not so tightly packed.

Having reread a lot of our most popular battle reports it reminds me that I used to write far more narrative background for battles, some of it tongue in cheek, but that style tickled my fancy - long live the "fluff"! This might include the socio-economic goings on in the region, naming of all towns and mostly a reason for each battle to be fought and consequences if won or lost. These could be loosely linked into a narrative series of games. I want battles with context - ones you remember.

An Austrian Brigade of five battalions minus skirmish screen, gun battery & commander.

This speaks volumes - quite literally.

That's it for now. I hope you welcome this change, I suspect a few will baulk at the heresy of "tiddly toys" - so be it. For us it's an exciting new chapter and has got us all fired up like nothing else in ages. We'll still tart about with 40k and Titans but the blog will remain Big Battle Napoleonic.