I have been thinking about.....

what stuff looks like!

In fact, what do I want my stuff to look like? The cause of this unusual navel gazing is the quantity of unfinished things on my desk. Do I really have a clear vision of the appearance of the toys that I want to play with? Fortunately, the answer is yes, its just that I have not expressed it nor codified it. 

So, over the past couple of weeks I have been collecting examples of things that I like the look of so that I can get a better feel for the direction I want to go in. What do I really like then.....

I like shiny

Here are some great pictures of shiny troops on a hex grid. Not any just any old troops but Bavarians!

These are from the Douglas Miniatures blog which features lots of old figures. These are Minifigs and Garrison. I especially like the simple bases. The pictures show a hex grid conversion of the Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules, how cool is that.

I like grids

Here is a nice square grid conversion of the CnC Napoleonics game with nice toys.

I really like the way this looks, very picturesque from the air!

And equally nice at ground level. These are from the blog by Epicetus.

I also like this irregular grid, just used as scenery, from the Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles blog.

I like non-shiny bases

More from Douglas Miniatures.....

Shiny troops and non-shiny bases. The latter issue is one of my current problems. I quite like these!

Here come the wooden tops....

and not the Met Police Annual Parade!

I have come across something really interesting, MDF troops in 6mm. They are available from Commission Figurines. Basically, its £2 for 96 infantry or 36 cavalry or £1.50 for four guns with limbers and crew.

The major exponent of these guys is Robert De Angelis who is using them for Blucher. Check out his blog and also these pictures of Bavarians from 1809.

I think this is just brilliant and I'm going to buy some, lots actually!

Painting success!

Completed WSS infantry

Sadly not at WMMS today, busy with chores and recovering after a nasty fall off a ladder (entirely my own fault). Never mind, I'm making some progress with my Baccus 6mm troops for my Cocked Hex rules. As usual, units consist of three bases, each 40mm across and 20mm deep. First up, four units of Bavarians, pretending to be the bad guys:

Here are two British units to go with the Dutch:

Horse next on the list.

New One-Hour Wargames hex grid variant for WSS

Its quite exciting!

I have finished my two Dutch units from my painting experiment and I am very pleased with the result. In the end, the different painting techniques made little difference in this scale and, probably, increased the amount of time taken to complete them. I'll keep it simple next time!

Nice day for a parade

I have finished them off with gloss varnish and some flags from Warflag. The units represent the Ostfriesland Battalion (front) and the Salisch Battalion (rear). I like the toy soldier type look that the gloss gives. This will fit well with my wooden scenery.

Nice sashes guys

I have also made a lot of progress with my latest hex grid version of the One-Hour Wargames rules by Neil Thomas. This time its a version of his Horse and Musket rules for the Spanish Succession. What is really good about these rules is that they require so few troops, being a slow painter isn't a problem!

Like all of my rules and variants, I regard these as being at play test stage. Doing sums, drawing diagrams, rolling dice and pushing bits of cardboard around is great but its only when other people have a crack that you know whether or not they work. You can find the draft here. if you give them a try, let me know how it went.

Napoleonic hex grid game part 4

Some prototype components

I found some Fab Foam sheets in my study today which I had totally forgotten about. They are green A3 and so just the right size for some 125mm hexes in the style of a Kallistra 6 hex piece. I have marked up a couple and will do the rest this week.

Excuse the awful lighting

I have made a lot of progress with counters. Here are some paper Bavarians....badly printed on paper at this stage but still looking quite nice.

I am working on counters for the Allies and French forces for Waterloo and will now be able to play on a full sized 8 by 6 hex grid. Not to worry, I have other plans for my rather nice small Waterloo map from last week.

Napoleonic hex grid game part 2

And not without some diversionary activity!

Earlier this month I completed my first attempt at turning Neil Thomas' Napoleonic rules into a hex based game using an 8 by 6 hex grid. I have now had a chance to reflect on this at the seaside and have brought home some further thoughts as well as lots of extra sand....

Waterloo on an 8 by 6 hex grid

One of my earlier issues was how do I test out the rules before my Wurttembergers are ready? The answer is to knock up some counters and play on a hex map. I found that the map I drew at the beach bore a close resemblance to the battlefield of Waterloo so that is what I have ended up doing. I have also developed an OB which sees 14 French units battle it out with 13 Anglo-Dutch and Prussian units. More on this shortly.

One solution is to simply use the tiny chaps from the Worthington Games' 100 Days game as illustrated above. This looks good and formations can be shown. Another option is to make my own counters. I have had a go and come up with some nice Austrian and Bavarian types.

Corporal Jones is second from left

The Bavarians are considerably smarter!

These are based on nice images from the Junior General website and these are by Daniel Harper and J Bignell respectively.

Last, but definitely not least, I have pondered the rules and made some changes in the new v2. I have reduced the movement distances for cavalry and have generally made it easier for units to change facing as well as removing quite a few other restrictions. As with the first attempt, the idea is to have a simple game with lots of rock, scissors and paper effects. We will see how these play out but I suspect further work will be needed.

Bavarians for 1809

Not there yet, just prepping

I have purchased some Bavarians for the 1809 campaign. This was a long time ago and I feel the need to get on with painting them. The rules will be Neil Thomas' Napoleonic Wargaming, or such an approximation as I can get together. The troops are from Hat.

First things first, have we got an army list? Well, we do now:

Bavarian 1809
Line infantry	2-4	(Close Order Infantry (Musket), Average)
Light infantry	1-2	(Light Infantry (Musket), Average)
Tyrolean Jaegers	0-1	(Light Infantry (Rifle), Elite)
Dragoons	0-1	(Heavy Cavalry, Elite)
Chevaux Legers	1-2	(Light Cavalry (Carbine), Average)
Artillery	0-1
Notes:   1.    Only the elite company of the light infantry had rifles so the whole unit is treated as musket armed. 2.    For the Tyrolean Jaegers I plan to use the Hat Austrian infantry in shakos in a suitable paint job. Strictly they are 1807 only but I couldn’t resist them. 3.    Dragoons are horse cavalry only, they do not have dismounted ability. 4.    I have no special rules for the Bavarians, although I am tempted to build in a Black Forest Gateaux moment as a command and control limit when Bavarians are fighting anyone other than fellow cake eaters, such as the Austrians!

And what colour do we paint them? Lets look up the book (Osprey 106 Napoleon's German Allies (4): Bavaria):

Bavarian Paint Chart 1	Infantry	Light infantry	Artillery
Coat	Light blue	Dark green	Dark blue
Facings (Collar, Cuffs, Lapels)	Red, yellow, poppy, green	Black piped red	Scarlet collar and cuffs, black lapels
Turnbacks	Red	Red	Scarlet
Bandoliers	White	White	White
Trousers	Grey	Grey	Dark blue
Gaiters	Black	Black	Black/yellow buttons
Musket sling	Red	Red	Red
Cartridge box	Black	Black	Black

Bavarian Paint Chart 2	Tyrolean Jaegers	Dragoons (1st “Minucci”	Chevaux Legers (2nd “Koenig”
Coat	Dark grey	White	Dark green
Facings (Collar, Cuffs, Lapels)	Light blue	Red collar; cuffs and lapels red.	Red
Turnbacks	Red	White piped red	Red
Bandoliers	Black	White	White
Trousers	Grey	Dark grey	White
Gaiters	Black	NA	NA
Musket sling	Red	Red	NA
Cartridge box	Black	Back	Black
Saddle furniture		Red , white/blue border	Grey, white edging
Sash		Red	Grey

And what colour is Bavarian blue? Some say it is a dark blue, some say the dark blue faded to a cornflower or grey blue, others say that the blue turned purple from the soldiers perspiration. Well, one guy says use Vallejo Andrea blue (841 (65)), another says do something different. hey ho, nobody knows! I'll have a look at Deep Sky Blue (844 (66)) and Sky Blue (961 (67)) as well.