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I have no excuse… no ideas other than to post some nice pics!… you see… I am too busy by now with other projects and this is just to keep you entertained… even if it is a small proportion of you (the readers of this webpage) amused for a while…
Enjoy!
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Remember I am still experimenting devices and mechanisms (NO AI thanks GOD!). It is interesting (maybe) the things I have cumulated over the years thinking they would be useful for a wargame. Some had not even 6mm in mind at the time!
I still have no definite (read exact or concrete) idea on how to use the playing cards… but usually “chance” and “resolve ties” are already on my mind! And NO I do not know if they are still produced Google on FOURNIER PLAYING CARDS and investigate yourselves (Any set of cards would do really… but it satisfies my aesthetics senses). Dice you know are basic in any wargame…
I first calculated the average men per Brigade at Antietam using OSPREYS, ALTAR OF FREEDOM and SEARS books… Confederate Brigades are smaller but the stands are of equal measure as Union one’s (bigger Brigades, smaller divisions, smaller Corps)… so the value proportion is around 6/4 (or evidently enough 3/2).
I still doubt if I will generalize to ALL Brigades or give some a + and others a – … keeping the whole balance jus to add variety… still working on that! (looks like Altar of Freedom but it is not).
Been a solo player I decided a lot of automatisms would help the flow of the game… no fancy micromanagement of brigades… they search and fight each other matter of fact!… More on that in the future. Attrition and Struggle foremost in my mind… also the notion (IMPORTANT) that Tired and Spent Brigades are very important concepts!
I do not like record keeping, I do not like dice on the table, (I will throw dice and turn cards on another auxiliary table)… but experiments are getting closer… will probably use too my own version of the BELLO LUDI Cards…
Well, enough for today…
Enjoy the pics!
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This is the future of wargaming IMHO.
BTW I use square bases for my command units… never understood the need of “round basses”.
They have a great painting job!
So (while I am still experimenting with Antietam…)
Enjoy!
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As you know this is not my period at all… but from time to time I have to “clean The Vault” from pics that have impressed me in Facebook.
So here there are… hope you like the craftsmanship involved and the work on the flags and banners… I did
So
Enjoy!
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A word of advice… I am doing my own thing so do not expect to enjoy this (the pics maybe)…
A bit of an explanation (not excuses)… I have a lot of ACW Rules, even 6mm specific one’s but SOLO wargaming is not on the designer’s minds at all… I understand and not complaining at all… I can not BID against myself (see POLEMOS) the best presented are ALTAR OF FREEDOM (one cheer for the USA chaps of Little Wars) but I have to make adjustments to play them solo…
NOT that I will use them as my basis at all, but I mostly agree with several concepts… let’s mention an example… BRIGADES of UNION and CONFEDERACY had NOT the same number of men at all… one bigger one medium one small whatever… if McClelland had 82000 men present at ANTIETAM and Lee (around 44000) and the number of brigades is lets say 45/37 something has to be done to “adjust” the numbers. The numbers in each brigade of the Confederacy has to be “reduced” to get the desired balance of forces (I will try to do this with small coloured dices in the rear of each Brigade). YOU have been advised! I am still experimenting.
To avoid an absolute GOD attitude in which I will represent each Commander in Chief (both sides), each Corps Commander, and even Divisions and Brigade decisions… some way to introduce “chance” “fog of war” and “several impromptus” must be decided by the turn of a friendly (or NOT) card… more in next chapters or Posts… got plenty of those cards (as you will see).
BUT
It is a big BUT … my main approach to enjoy myself is acknowledging the fact that everyone of those little toy soldiers KNOWS perfectly why he is there… to fight the enemy… everyone of them is holding to his musket and saying his prayers… but he is determined to fight it out! (So no need to encourage them at all to do their business… they know)… When those Armies met it is for deciding an outcome (Lee’s first Invasion… say no more… read History… no place here for History lessons)… (McClellan worried to lose the engagement and permit the fall of Washington!… always too worried by the numbers of the enemy!).
If you follow this posts you will see my trial and error… I do not care to make mistakes… I am learning myself!
So there you are… enjoy the eye candy!
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At last! I could do it…
Finally I must say the choice (difficult) I did to sell my 25mm Collection and go 6mm has payed off! (I know not everyone’s taste 6mil) what you lose in uniform detail you gain in playable surface for the scale… same table… but lots of room to manoeuvre if you know what I mean…
A couple of thousands of minis but it does not look crowded at all. Mainly Baccus and Rapier minis (mainly painted by Robert Jackson (90%) and Turbil Miniatures), Leven and Baccus buildings (REVEILLE by Daniel Hodgson), Trees are Baccus as Bridges and “fields”.
I will use this FIRST Wargame to develop my Own House Rules (SOLO or MULTIPLAYER) mainly adapting and reforming mecanisms of POLEMOS (BACCUS) ALTAR OF FREEDOM (Little Wars TV) Fire&Fury… and what not!
Making the river is quite cheap. And the woods are not “compact” I can move the stands of tress to make them passable. The Cornfield has no corn because I do not like troop stands floating over scenery… MY taste!.
Interested in the concepts movement, attrition, spent forces, General’s limitations, and mainly Historical Reenactment, Fictionnal Wargames with more freedom will come later.
Absolutely satisfied (if such thing exists) with the layout and minis… at last Armies look like Armies and terrain is wholesome…
I will probably do a movement a day not decided with 1/2 hour or whole hour’s span of time of a wargame period… will remain experimental for a while until satisfied. Trial and error etc.
Enjoy! (I do)
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Just for the sake of the artistry… well painted miniatures and excellent pics!
Nice way to start a Sunday.
I can promise ANTIETAM in 6mm for tomorrow if all goes well… Union is deployed… but Confederates yet to do so… SOLO wargamers like me have a lot of work on their hands… even if sometimes the results are satisfying…
So,
Enjoy today! (and wait for tomorrow!
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Big Navy, Small Army, Diplomacy and financial support… and many coalitions!
In the end it produced the ultimate Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars (why not the Old Monarchies Wars eludes me).
Thought I would give you some pics of a quite profesional Army that was nearly defeated at Waterloo… and rescued by the Prussians in the nick of time!… to do not mention the Allies (Dutch&Belgian, Brunswickers, Nassauers, Hannoverians, and KGL to just mention a few whom in general terms fought as hard as the Britons…).
Enjoy!
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Guess I have to thank again the collections of the Wargames Holiday Center and Mark Freeth (for the Facebook pics).
Wargamers are a very varied and multicultural breed… see those examples (or pics) below… One can be a fan of a period and utterly unimpressed by others… the impermeability of influence syndrome… it is very difficult to start a new period!
The more yo cumulate information about the cherished one the more you tend to have a lazy and (quite to the point) uninterested feeling for what for others in the hobby is the topermost!.
Talk about studious “normal” people obsessed with the Little Big Horn (me included)… have read more than a hundred books (in my collection) about it and when I buy a “new” one I already know Custer will die at the end (to be fair in some he dies about the middle of the book!)… LOL (I am laughing at myself not at them fans).
So here you have it from Marlborough to the Seven Years War a very interesting period and colourful armies.
Enjoy!
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Nothing is so spectacular as the Franco-Prussian War for wargaming the Old Style… still gaudy uniforms… you are in command (instead of those incompetent French Marshalls)… and not the gore of the XXth Century.
The other alternative is Dorking of course… but that was really improbable… BUT… fantastic alternative for gaudy redcoats!… the book is not really compulsory reading (I have it and did… but not indispensable to wargame the period… The Riddle of the Sands come true etc.)
Enjoy!
