Our first game is underway. This one is literally a "line 'em up & go" affair. My goal is to get a feel for this new scale to see if it works for me or not. I am relieved & pleased to say that so far it does. The General D'Armee rules are perfect for larger games & the extra space created looks much more pleasing than the crowded tables of our 28mm games.
However, this post is about me reflecting on what needs to change & what we need to do next. This is a work in progress & I am not entirely happy with the aesthetic of the table top yet.
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| I don't think we've sacrificed too much in detail & quality of paint work. |
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| Flank companies from a French line battalion. Rearmost stand of three per battalion. |
All figures are Magister Militum & Old Glory and, unless otherwise stated, painted by Barry Hill's chaps - many thanks Barry, these look amazing.
This game is somewhat premature as the models aren't entirely finished. We need to get basing & sort out some flags to make these units really "pop" on the table top. We couldn't resist getting them out for a game though.
We have elected to use the movement distances & ranges for 28mm models in General d'Armee but using centimeters instead of inches. Hence a battalion column moves 9cm not 9 inches. This worked very well as time & space just gets bigger. We have the time & space to watch these battles develop so there's no need for "snappy nappy" at Marauder HQ..
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| The scene is set for game one of a new era for the Marauders. |
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| The armies deploy. For now we are only using the central table. |
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Our solitary building. This is a fruit farm surrounded by orchards.
We clearly need more buildings, a solution is in hand as I write this. |
Buildings
We elected to use 6mm buildings. We'll see how this pans out but initial feelings are that they work just fine. The farm above is from Battlescale Wargame Buildings, they sell on ebay & facebook. I have a few more of these to paint up plus a ruined church & a windmill. These will represent farmsteads or single buildings too small for large formations of troops to occupy. Basically they will look pretty, provide structure to the tabletop as well as obstacles to movement or anchors for flanks.
For towns & built up areas we have picked up some excellent pieces from Total Battle Miniatures. These are resin and come on attractive village bases complete with hedges, walls, etc cast onto them. I'll get some shots up soon. The 6mm buildings along side 10mm models look OK & means we can get a greater density of houses so towns look like towns where possible. They are also much cheaper than 10mm products!
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| The French right moves up with heavy cavalry in close support. |
Woods
We have bucket loads of trees for 28mm but they really don't transfer to this new scale of gaming. We ventured out to a show at Newark two years ago when this project was initiated & found some guys called Tree Fellas, they sell tiddly trees which seemed to fit the bill perfectly. In a surprising move we bought ALL the trees on the stand bar some palms! Feeling very pleased we went off the the bar for a lemonade. When we next passed his stand we found it fully restocked with some chap trying to buy a few - somewhat cross about this I barged in & bought ALL his trees again insisting that he reveal any others to me just in case. We now have plenty of trees!
The green bases we are using for woods just look like childish crap on reflection. So we'll revert to the brown flocked ones in use previously. We could flesh these out a bit with clumping flock or whatever that bushy foam stuff is called.
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| I like the trees a lot. I dislike the base of the wood and the hills - they are entirely functional but not pretty enough! |
Hills
My feeling was that these ancient TSS hills could do the job and to be fair they would. However, I think having looked at many blogs & demo games pics online, we can do better. Our scenery store room revealed a pile of better hills from The Scene which we picked up some years ago too. These will do as a start BUT I mean to "pimp" them! I spent an evening watching terrain tutorials on youtube and decided "if I can make a redoubt I can pimp a hill". To this end I spanked a few quid on various bags of sand & flock, found my tub of PVA & will begin tarting these up so they all look a bit more presentable & uniform in appearance. To be honest I'm a wee bit nervous about this but hey - what could possibly go wrong?
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| An Austrian infantry brigade prepares to scale the unsightly hill! |
The models
For the most part these are from Magister Militum & Old Glory. Barry Hill is painting the vast majority. We have about 70 battalions painted with about 30 more planned. Cavalry is more numerous than our 28mm collection with about 30 regiments available. Batteries & skirmishers we have loads of plus generals. We have dispensed with basing by companies & squadrons; rather than explain have a look the system in the photos - it works a treat. Chris wants us to get movement trays & I suspect he is right, he is about to have some time on his hands so perhaps he can order some?
I am conscious that the units don't "pop" just yet but in my experience the addition of flags & a pretty base makes them look exponentially better. For future battle reports I may use the odd close-up of 28mm models mixed in, what do we think about that?
The forces are initially French & Austrian. The French are already reinforced by a Wurttemberg brigade painted by Tony plus he is working on a Westphalian brigade. A division of Poles is with Barry Hill for painting. No doubt we will add other French allies in time. Lastly for the French I am sat on 3 x 32 dragoons, 3 x 24 hussars, 3 x 24 chasseurs a cheval plus 32 Dutch Red lancers. The Austrians have another twelve battalions in the wings plus more cavalry. When this lot is done we'll take stock.
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| French Old Guard cavalry in reserve. Grenadiers a Cheval & Chasseurs a Cheval complete with Mamluk squadron.` |
Roads & rivers
As of today I have no idea what to do about roads! We don't technically need them but they add a logical network between villages and farms & structure to the look of the thing.
Rivers we have plenty of & in two widths so for now we'll stick with these although some "pimping" might be in order here too! Not sure yet.
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A Wurtemburg brigade complete with limbered artillery & flags, these just need basing & they're finished.
Brushwork by Tony. |
My hope is that this project will look amazing & provide some really interesting epic battle reports for you. This post has allowed me to solidify some thoughts on where we are & how to move this forward. I am usually very certain of my plans but this is new territory & a massive investment so any comments & pointers would be gratefully received.
Hopefully everything we have started will be finished this year - if we keep up the momentum it will be. In the meantime we'll keep playing & maybe even write up a few reports for you - who knows!
Best wishes,
Jeremy
