Knowing that there is no chance of my managing to paint up all of the armies in all of the eras I would like to, I have been exploring an alternative approach. While I have a decent collection of ancients armies, I have nothing for the horse and musket era, and little chance of having time or spare money in the near future to be able to remedy that.
So what is a person to do?
Well, I've decided to experiment with craft products and boardgames.
I'm thinking of using wooden or cork sticks, circles and squares to represent various troop types, and either Battle Cry or Commands & Colors: Ancients boards and tiles for the battlefields.
To test whether the look would work I played the 1st Bull Run scenario from Battle Cry using these projected stand-ins.
Just for my own reference, here is the key to what each of the pieces represents.
I don't think it looked too bad, and it was easy enough to differentiate between the two sides. Obviously, for games which have more troop types and in which troop quality is represented, I will need to make some changes, but my initial reaction is that it seems worth pursuing.
I have already picked up from Wargame Vault Sean Chick's first game in his Hollandspiele-published Horse and Musket series, and we'll see how it goes from there.
What you've come across for materials works great for linear combat. What's cool is you can make labels and print them and then place them on with elmers glue (white glue in case elmers isn't a product on your side of the world). You can even paint each side a generic color. A friend of mine and I did that and it really looks cool, especially if you use a map style background. Just like the history books. Good luck with project.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Kevin
I've been down the counter route myself and I think it's very sensible. You could paint the blocks but then you're back to painting. Labels, as Kevin suggested, are the way to go. If you use self-adhesive labels you won't even have to glue them.
ReplyDeleteRichard
I created ACW armies for Battlecry using mdf stands with unit id (NATO symbols) printed out and glued onto the stands. The strength is indicated by 3 painted stands under the ID stand, stacked. As a miniatures player, I'm totally turned off by the bad plastic figures that come with the game.
ReplyDeleteA sensible solution. Have you read David’s posts on his block armies on A Wargaming Odyssey?
ReplyDeletehttp://awargamingodyssey.blogspot.com/2021/08/block-changes-or-why-didnt-i-think-of.html?m=1
I can’t remember the name of the bloke who does them (google will no doubt help), but he started a range of 6mm MDF for H&M and ranked up they look good. For this kind of project, I am guessing they would be no dearer than buying in blocks or any other crafting solution.
ReplyDeleteFound Him!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commission-figurines.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Commission-Catalogue-2021.pdf
I've assembled armies for ECW based on matchsticks. The bases are rather thick and I would recommend thinner ones. Here is a battle report with pictures of them: https://wargamingeverything.home.blog/2019/12/06/for-king-parliament-campaign-august-1643/
ReplyDeleteAnother idea is to buy larger wooden blocks or sticks and paint them up like in the old PC game Waterloo: https://www.squakenet.com/game/waterloo/
My first thought would be generic Red and blue armies with 6mm or 10 mm figures, or the Perry's plastic Travel Battle figures (8mm). The blocks/shapes will work just fine too. Then there are the old System 7 Cardboard "Napoleonics".
ReplyDeleteJunior General has free top down and side view figures that you can print and glue to counters for almost every period.
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ReplyDeletehttps://juniorgeneral.org/
ReplyDeleteI quite like the "Kriegsspiele" look of painted wooden pieces, and it has the added benefit of allowing more accurate depictions of unit/ground scale and especially unit depth, which is pretty much impossible with miniatures at anything higher than a skirmish level.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting project. Painting a large collection of miniatures from scratch is a significant undertaking.
ReplyDeleteWe use Volley & Bayonet in a variety of scales, but mostly 6mm. However, one of my regular opponents is not a keen painter but has produced a couple of Seven Years Wars armies in 2mm. They have come up well. I believe he is working on Napoleonic armies now.
Wow, thanks all, some great comments and suggestions. I'll look forward to working through them over the next couple of nights! Thanks again, Aaron
ReplyDeleteGreat suggestions above! Lot's of fodder for your future games, Aaron.
ReplyDeleteWe are an arrogant lot, aren’t we, making suggestions for figures to use?! I guess it is the inherent bias of people who blog about wargaming and figures.
ReplyDeleteI was going to make the same suggestion as William of the Junior General website. The range of good looking, easy to cut out figures/units/armies is amazing.
There are now the WoFun figures too, not to mention the Helion Paper Soldiers series.
A young fellow on YouTube who goes by ‘Tom the Wargamer’ suggested getting a copy of Risk with the pieces as infantry, cavalry and gun figures and using those.
Many of the 1/72 plastic figures look good ‘au naturel’ and come at least somewhat colour-coded (I’m a bit biased as I use this scale/figures anyway—madly painting most nights—and love the scale as a balance between small and large figures as well as the proportions of each figure.
All that said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using wooden pieces and who the hell are I/we to tell you? They have their own appeal as Pat pointed out.
The only thing that I would say is that, you will be surprised but, all going well, you will have more time and disposable in a few years and will be amazed at what you will be able to ‘churn out’. So, perhaps look to a short-term approach that has long-term potential.
That’s enough pontificating from moi!
Regards, James
Hi Prufrock,
ReplyDeleteI am new to miniatures wargaming and took a cheap/easy route to get going. I made two armies out of 3x5 index cards with specific folds in them to give the “impression” of the type of unit (foot, horse, artillery). All were created initially for use with the “One-Hour Wargames” rules/scenarios: https://cheapskatewargamer.blogspot.com/2021/11/whats-in-tabletop-wargame.html
I have since moved forward with using Peter Dennis’ paper soldiers to the same index cards as a start to my ACW project, but I still use the original armies to explore rules from the other time periods in the OHW book.
Cheers,
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteCould not help but notice that you have not posted in a while. Here's hoping that it's just a case of "life getting in the way" and not a result of circumstances/things more dire.
Looking forward to reading more news on your experiments with the alternative approach.
Best wishes for a safe, satisfying, and successful 2022!
Cheers,
Chris
Thanks all, and thanks for the jolt, Chris. Yes, just life getting in the way!
ReplyDeleteHope all is well and I must get round to posting an update one of these weeks!
All the best for 2022, all.
Cheers,
Aaron