Sunday, April 27, 2008

More Fences

Okay another six sections of fence are done. I got a little carried away by doing my first four sections of picket fence. That was a lot of work and looks great from two or more feet away.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Fences

Again I spent last evening working on more post and rail style fences. I assembled six sections of fences approxiamtely 7" in length. I would like to get another six sections done this weekend including painting.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Jim's 3rd Maryland Regiment

Tonight I finished painting up Fitz's 3rd Maryland Regiment of 16 figures. The old glory figures are hunting shirts and round hats. Continuing with my recent trend the hats and pants of the figures became much more random they have painted in the past.

Funny thing about the unit, last year I painted up 16 figures in hunting shirt for Jim to be the 1st Maryland Regiment. I discovered a problem with my painting while researching the 2nd Maryland Regiment, seems the first was in a WHITE hunting shirt trimmed blue while the subsequent regiments where in blue. Figures. So what I painted last year became the 2nd and this became the third. I guess no one but Jim and I will know and of course he will point it out every time they are on the tabletop.

Jim primed the figures for me with Games Work Shop's Ultra-Marine Blue primer. I have not had much luck, or rather I dislike painting over the top of that primer. For some reason the whites and white based paints don't want to stick well. This creates some crappy belting and of course me without any ultra marine blue the figures need a couple touches of paint to clean up a few smudges.

Jim plans on getting me the next batch of figures on Friday so I can have them (and my 24 Figures for 1st New York) to paint over the weekend. I also might paint up a few British figures to paint everything I currently own. Maybe even a few Native Americans will get painted.

Friday, April 18, 2008

A strange thing happened on the way to the market

Okay I took a little detour while prepare the first New York continental regiment for painting. I started pulling out all my spare march attack figures and cleaned them up and started painting. While I am not completed painting them yet as painting random and disheveled uniforms is time consuming but the 1st North Carolina Continental Regiment is coming along.

This weekend I should run out of figures to paint if you can believe that. Well maybe, I have 24 figures of Delancy’s Brigade to get painted. However they may get transferred to the Marine Corps as I would like to get a couple blocks of Marines Painted. But soon I will be waiting for my figure order to come in at the Source.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

BAR and the SYW

There are a number of individuals in the Twin Cities who have expressed an interest in playing Batailles de l'Ancien Regime or BAR for short. BAR is a Seven Years War game played in 25mm at a 1:10 ratio. This of course is a HUGE game in terms of the number of figures required and space requirement to play. I am not the biggest fan of the SYW period due more to the attempts to ram the period down my throat several years ago (several players wanted me to paint both sides for them to play) rather than a actual dislike of the period.

I of course did what I was do, I picked a battle (Rossback) and choose the command right smack in the middle that was involved in all the action and in this case because Commander was probably some distant relative of mine and of course it turns out that the command was too powerful for what people wanted to play. Yep 4 battalions of Infantry and 2 battalions of Grenadiers were too much. And according to Jim not even right campaign of the conflict.

So I switched to the correct central Europe Campaign (battle of Luethan) and for the most part my choices were either more powerful or of equal strength and yet again my command was still too powerful.

This of course is my usual problem, I always pick something somewhat obscure and always pick something too god like. Yet when I try and choose something from a historical order of battle it continues. Very frustrating.
So to satisfy Fitz my plan is to paint Major-general Kahlden Brigade for the Luethan order of battle.
Grenadier Garde Retzow (1 bn)
Kannacher (2 bns)
Pannwitz (2 bns)

It still has a Grenadier Guard Regiment but it more along the lines of what Fitz thinks is appropriate to paint and play. I know I will be chastised for that but life goes on.

Last Night's Painting

I began painting Fitz's 2nd Maryland Regiment last night. We might however have to talk as I discovered the 1st Maryland wore a white hunting shirt, I painted them a year ago in a blue hunting shirt, again a misidentified image was the culprit that lead me astray. Oh well only myself and the four of you that reading my blog would catch my mistake.

I got the first eight of the sixteen figures painted last night. I like how about five or six of them turned out. A couple figures are difficult to paint due to the pose of the figure and well the unit will look good those two or three figures want get high marks on close inspection. The other eight figures are primed space marine blue and have some of the basic colors already applied so I should be able to finish those up tonight. Afterwards I will start cleaning up the next block of figures. I am not sure 100% what I will make the next unit, I am leaning towards the 1st and 2nd New York Continental Regiment but I kind of have an inkling to paint something a little more crappy like maybe a North Carolina Continental Regiment, but that might take too long to paint at this moment.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Biggest Challenge in Gaming

Recently I was asked what I feel the biggest challenge to my gaming hobby is. My answer was quick extremely quick “The inability to complete projects”. Of course that led to further questions so I better expound on my answer.

Years ago figures were packaged with specific games in mind, when you bought Minifig Napoleonic figures you bought two packs and had a complete unit, one command and one trooper. Later when economy of scale increased the size of the packs a single command pack could be meshed with three or four packs of troopers and you would have entire divisions. However as the games evolved and the pack sizes got larger it creates difficulty in ordering for the stores. No longer could you order one command pack for each pack of troopers you have to guess I mean gauge a better ratio. The problem is customer one wants a command pack and three packs of troopers and customer two a command pack and a single bag of troopers.

Now when you visit stores, whether it the Source Comics and Games, or Tower Games, or the Last Square in Madison it is difficult to find exactly what you are needing to do the next unit in your project, one might have the command pack you need and another the troopers but unless you get to the stores right after they order they probably won’t have both.

My solution is to mostly do special orders.

Additional Figures for May 17th

I of course have additonal figures in my box that I won't be using, or more approperately haven't currently included in the order of battle for the game.

British

  • 2 Stands 1st Guard Battalion
  • 3 Stands 2nd Guard Battalion
  • 3 Stands 4th Regiment of Foot
  • 4 Stands 20th Regiment of Foot
  • 2 Stands 23rd Regiment of Foot
  • 3 Stands 33rd Regiment of Foot
  • 4 Stands 64th Regiment of Foot

Continental

  • 2 Stands 1st Pennsylvania
  • 3 Stands 2nd Pennsylvania
  • 5 Stands North Carolina Militia
  • 5 Stands North Carolina Militia
  • 6 Stands Minutemen
  • 5 Stands Minutemen

Each of the extra figures from the British Regiments could be used to create additional units. The Guard could become Delancy's Brigade, the 20th and 64th could become the Marine Battalions, and the 4th could become the 84th Regiment of Foot.

2nd Pennsylvania Regiment

Another unit down as I completed painting 24 figures (out of the 32 I own) this evening for the troopers in the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment. When the coomand pack comes in at the Source I will get the two command stands done as the unit will be two divisions in size.

I think I will go back and paint up the last eight figures just because I can and want to match paint jobs.

Things for the May 17th Game - Comments

The list actually seems much longer than it is. Things like flags for the units will be an hour of set up time and some time to apply but it not like painting 200 figures.

I was actually surprised at how few figures I need to paint up. Now that doesn’t mean I won’t paint more just how few I need to get done to have a balanced game.

As of Today I need
8 Figures Hessian Chasseurs
8 Figures for Second Pennsylvania
8 Figures command both Pennsylvania Regiments
12 Mounted Commanders
15 British Legion
15 Debney’s Legion
16 Figures for Jim’s second Maryland Regiment
16 Artillerists
24 Figures Delancy’s Brigade.
32 Figures 3rd Virginia
154 Figures

That’s a very doable number and I can get away without painting some of the figures up if needed.

I really need more terrain for the game, that includes Tree, Fences, and Buildings. Building are probably the hardest thing to come up with, I will be begging Jeff Knudsen to borrow what he has done in paper since I won’t be getting mine done. Trees well I guess I will be buying a couple of packs and mounting them up. Fences will take a little time but I should get them done in time.

Things to do for the May 17th Game.

For the May 17th Game
· Flags Needed
o Two Flags Erbprinz RegimentCOMPLETED
o Three Flags von Bose RegimentCOMPLETED
o One Flag Starkloff’s DragoonsCOMPLETED
o Two Flags 1st Guard BattalionCOMPLETED
o Two Flags 2nd Guard BattalionCOMPLETED
o One Flag 1st Pennsylvania RegimentCOMPLETED
o One Flag 2nd Pennsylvania RegimentCOMPLETED
o Two flags 3rd Virginia RegimentCOMPLETED
· Figures to Paint – Already have
o 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment (24 Figures) COMPLETED
o Jim’s Maryland Regiment (16 Figures) COMPLETED
o ADDED 1st North Carolina (24 Fgures)COMPLETED
o 2 Artillery Pieces Anspach (8 Figures and two artillery stands)
o 1st New York(24 Figures)
o Delancy’s Brigade (24 Figures)
· Units to dip
o Two Stands Starkloff’s Lt DragoonCOMPLETED
o 2nd Pennsylvania RegimentCOMPLETED
· Stands to flock
o 1st Pennsylvania RegimentCOMPLETED
o 2nd Guard BattalionCOMPLETED
o von Bose MusketeersCOMPLETED
o erb Prinz FusilersCOMPLETED
o Starkloff’s Lt DragoonsCOMPLETED
· Figures to Paint - When Figures come in
o Washington Command Stand (3 Mounted figures)COMPLETED
o Lafayette Command Stand (2 Mounted figures)COMPLETED
o Lincoln Command Stand (2 Mounted figures)COMPLETED
o Stueben Command Stand (2 mounted figures)COMPLETED
o Continental Mounted Command (3 Mounted figures)COMPLETED 1 Stand
o Hessian Chasseurs (8 figures) COMPLETED
o Command Stand 1st Pennsylvania (4 figures)COMPLETED
o Command stand 2nd Pennsylvania (4 figures)COMPLETED
o Command stands 3rd Virginia (8 figures)
o Continental Artillery (20 figures five artillery bases)COMPLETED
o Dabney’s Legion (15 figures)COMPLETED
o British Legion (15 figures) COMPLETED
o Command Stand Delancy’s Brigade (3 Figures)
· Figures to Paint – When Jim gets them to me
o 1st Virginia Line Regiment
o ADDED 2nd Virginia Line Regiment

Other Projects

25mm Greek City State – Isle of Lesbos – Warhammer Ancient Battles
25mm Wars of the First Triumvirate / Caesar’s Gallic Wars – Field of Glory
25mm Gladiatorial – One to One
25mm Fall of the West – Field of Glory
25mm First / Third Crusade – Field of Glory
25mm French and Indian War – “The Invasion of Quebec 1759” – Drums of War along the Mohawk
25mm Seven Year’s War – Oldenburg Brigade - Batailles de l'Ancien Régime
25mm American War of Independence - Wilderness Wars
25mm American Civil War - Gettysburg Campaign- Fire and Fury
25mm Lion Clan – Fantasy – Clan War
25mm Dragon Clan – Fantasy – Clan War
25mm Bretonnian / Questing Army – Fantasy – Warhammer Fantasy Battles
25mm Lizardmen – Fantasy – Warhammer Fantasy Battles
25mm Black Templars – Sci-Fi – Warhammer 40K

15mm Successor Army – Field of Glory
15mm 1798 Russian Army – Swiss Campaign – Horse Musket and Gun
15mm 1810 Russian Army – Finnish War – Piquet
15mm 1810 Swedish Army – Finnish War – Piquet
15mm 1812 Russian Army – Army of the West (Winter) – Napoleon’s Battles
15mm 1812 French Army – Grandee Armee (Winter) – Napoleon’s Battles
15mm 1812 British Army – War of 1812 – General de Brigade
15mm American Civil War - Army of Northern Virginia - 1:30 Fields of Honor
15mm 1870 French – Franco Prussian – TBD
15mm 1870 Prussian – Franco Prussian – TBD
15mm WWII – Herman Goring’s Panzer Division - Sicily Campaign – Spearhead
15mm WWII - Russian - Kursk - Broadsword
15mm WWII - Island hopping - Broadsword
15mm WWII – A Bridge too far Scenario – Spearhead


Micro WWII - Japanese Navy - General Quarters

Micro Modern – French Corps – Corps Commander / Modern Spearhead
Micro Modern – Czechoslovakian Armor Division – Corps Commander / Modern Spearhead

Monday, April 14, 2008

Rules in the Mist

As long as I have been in the hobby the discussion on how well or poorly rules work has been a topic of much discussion.

Lately Jim Fitzgerald and I have had many a long discussion on the one real sore spot in Wilderness Wars and that would be the interaction of Continental Militia and British Regulars.

The issue goes like this:
British line unit of 4 stands of 16 figures, in conjunction with two others in its brigade, is moving up on continental militia unit made up of five stands of 15 figures.

In the first turn the units are just less than 12” apart.
The militia unit because there is no reason not to fires a volley. (Target is in the open, formed troops in line, each strength factor over 4, D class troops, long range). Result on four dice is 14 -1=13, resulting in two casualties on the British.
The British are penalized heavily for moving and firing and than giving up the +2 first volley don’t shoot.
No Morale Check for either side.

The second turn the British move to just under 6” apart.
The militia unit fires again (Target is in the open, formed troops in line, each strength factor over 4, D class troops). Result on four dice is 14+2=16, resulting in three casualties.
The British return fire (British First Fire, Target is in the open, B Class Troops). Result on four dice is 14+4=18, resulting in three casualties.
Militia Morale Check (Rear Support, D Class Troops) resulting in 25% chance of failing morale. Law of averages says no failure in the first round
British Morale Check (Rear Support, B Class Troops, -25%) resulting in a 14% chance of failing morale. Again the law of averages says no failure in the first round.

Third Turn British move to under 3” apart.
The Militia unit fires again. (Short Range, Target is in the open, formed troops in line, D Class Troops). Result on Four Dice is 14 +4=18 resulting in three casualties.
The British return fire again (Short Range, Target is in the open, B Class Troops). Result on three dice is 10+5=15 resulting in three casualties (61% chance)
Militia Morale Check (Rear Support, D Class Troops, -25%) resulting in 38% chance in failing morale. Law of average says one of three will fail.
British Morale Check (Rear Support, B Class Troops, -25%) resulting in 14% chance of failing. Law of averages says one of three British Regiments will fail morale check.

Assuming continuation of this pattern for each militia unit that fails there will be a corresponding British unit to fail, the exception is that a fourth continental battalion with fail with the third continental/British pair assuming it is in the line and can be shot at, which generally it is not.

To further skew the result you are more likely to only become disordered rather than rout or even break.

Another option for the British is to stay out of range in turn one, move more than half in turn two, but the result is more skewed to the continentals as the British first fire will cause one maybe two casualties and the second round three casualties while taking five casualties at the same time frame.

The Third option is to try and charge, but the British will have two morale checks and as most of their units are shock infantry the units fail.

As you can see this is really something hanging over us like a dark cloud. We have already instituted some house rules to alleviate the issue. First we went to three figure bases for most militia, making them either formed or unformed. We changed the rear support rule so that the supporting unit must be of equal or greater level than the supported unit. Finally we ruled all bases in the period would be considered "open order" as terms of targeting for small arms and artillery.

We are going to try a forth house rule out and it will be in play on May 17th. A strength point is represented by four figures rather than a base. So the militia will be worth three quarters of a strength point rather than a full strength point. As with Wilderness Wars any partial strength point would be rounded up; ie 15 figures is equal to 4 strength points.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Starkloff's Troop of Light Dragoons

Starkloff's Troop of Light Dragoons is a loyalist unit from South Carolina, the only uniform detail we have is they wore green jackets. For this project I used 10 different greens, a couple different yellows and reds to give an un-uniform uniform look. I think the figures turned out okay.



Well I guess I should have known that 10 Dragoons wouldn't take long to paint. Any ways the 10 figures are painted and I will be moving onto another project, maybe more Continental Line of some variety or another.

Saturday May 17th

I have not been one to celebrate my birthday. Other than my close family, I am not sure anyone else knows when it is. Heck, I am not sure my family remembers when my birthday is any more. Over the years I have quietly spent my birthday volunteering at a number of soup kitchens, homeless shelters, food banks and other similar places to remind myself of how wonderful my life is. That is a tradition I will be continuing this year. However, as I have grown older and the more I realize how good a life I have, I would like to do more to celebrate it.

To those who don’t know I enjoy the spectacle of gaming, I mean large games. In terms of gaming in my mind there is nothing like looking at a table with several thousand figures marching across to do battle. I guess that alone makes me a gaming megalomaniac, if not I am sure we could find several other reasons. To do large games not only do you need lots of figures you need many players to push those figures. And that’s where you can come into play.

On May 17th in conjunction with the Centurions normal miniature game day I will be hosting a 25mm American War of Independence game using “Wilderness Wars” at the Source Comics and Games to help celebrate my birthday. I would like to invite everyone down to come join the game. There should be plenty of commands available.

I would like to encourage everyone with figures to bring them down for the game. Currently I have over 1,250 painted figures and with Jim Fitzgerald’s and Ray Knapp’s figures we will have in excess of 1,500 figures out. Heck, if I can convince a couple of other players to come out of hiding we could have more than 2,000 figures in play. If the Source gets in some more figures I will probably be adding to my collection of painted figures between now and then.



Hope to see you all on the 17th and may your dice be good to you.
Jeff Johnson

Von Bose Musketeers

Today I finished painting 40 figures of the Von Bose Musketeers for the American War of Independence, still have to finish the three stands of Grenadiers but I'll get to them in a few days.

I'll be dipping them later today and hopefully over the weekend getting the flocking done.

Now onto Starkloff's Troop of Light Dragoons, a loyalist unit out of South Carolina.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

AWI Southern Campaign

Base Mounting

  • Close Order Infantry: Four Figures mounted 2 x 2 on a 1 ½” x 2” deep base.
  • Open Order Infantry: Three Figures mounted 3 x 1 on a 1 ½” square base
  • Irregular Skirmish Infantry: Three figures mounted randomly on a 1 ½” square base.
  • Regular Skirmish Infantry: Two Figures mounted randomly on a 1 ½” square base.

Close Order Infantry

  • British Guard
  • British Grenadier
  • British Regiments of Foot
  • German Grenadier
  • German Musketeers / Fusilers
  • Continental Line
  • State Line (Optional)

Open Order Infantry

  • Tory Infantry / British Legion
  • Later Continental Light (Optional)
  • State Line (Optional)
  • Trained Militia

Irregular Skirmish

  • Untrained Militia
  • Indian (Optional)

Regular Skirmish

  • British Light Infantry
  • Rangers
  • Unmounted Legion Infantry
  • German Jagers / Chasseurs
  • Continental Light Infantry (Optional)
  • Indian (Optional)

British
Guard

1st Battalion of the Guard

2nd Battalion of the Guard
Grenadier Company
Light Company
Line
1st Battalion of the 4th Regiment of Foot
1st Battalion of the 20th Regiment of Foot
1st Battalion of the 23rd Regiment of Foot
1st Battalion of the 33rd Regiment of Foot
1st Battalion of the 64th Regiment of Foot
1st Battalion of the 71st Regiment of Foot

1st Battalion of the 84th Regiment of Foot

1st Battalion of the 105th Regiment of Foot

German
Erbprinz Fusilers
Von Bose Musketeers
Loyalist
Royal North Carolina Regiment

North Carolina Highlanders

Light Infantry from District 96
British Legion - Dragoons
Starkloff's Troop of Light Dragoons
Continentals
Maryland Brigade
1st Maryland Regiment
2nd Maryland Regiment
3rd Maryland Regiment
5th Maryland Regiment

1st Deleware Regiment
Thanks to a mis-identified image I believed the Deleware Regiment was in a Brown Uniform rather than a Blue Uniform in the Southern Campaign. The real unit was the 1st Canadian Regiment. When I get around to painting up the correct uniform this block will become the 1st Canadian Regiment.

New York Brigade
1st New York Regiment
2nd New York Regiment
Pennsylvania Brigade
1st Pennsylvania Regiment
2nd Pennsylvania Regiment
Light Brigade
1st Composite Light Battalion
2nd Composite Light Battalion
Legion
Armand's Legion - Dragoons
Armand's Legion - Mounted Infantry
Lee's Legion - Mounted Infantry
Militia
1st North Carolina Militia
2nd North Carolina Militia
1st Virginia Militia

1st Militia

2nd Militia
3rd Militia
4th Militia
5th Militia
6th Militia
7th Militia
1st Minuteman Battalion
2nd Minuteman Battalion
Artillery
Continental 6lbs Artillery

Fences

When I started wargaming we were lucky to put tape on the floors to mark out our Terrian features. We thought 3M's blue painters tape was a god send to mark rivers rather than laying down masking tape and righting "river" on it.

Now I think I spend 25% of my painting time working on terrian features. Today project was more fences for 25mm periods. A couple more 6" sections of Zig Zag fences and four sections of split rail style fence sections at 7 1/2" inches a piece.

After the glue dries I prime them black. The Zig Zag Fences will be dry brushed Dark Brown, than a mid brown than Austrian Ochre. The Split Rail style fences will just be white washed.

Newly painted British Officer used for Scale.

You'll notice that several of my fences have some "damage done to them" to begin with. I think this gives a slightly more realistic look than the prestine and perfect terrian some people use.

More Figures

I stopped in to the Source Comics and Games today to pick up a few pack of figures. Yes I know I have over 50 lbs of unpainted lead for the Napoleonic period alone, but I just need to fill some holes in my collections. While I had a list of 7 packs of 15mm Old Glory Napoleonic Figures and interest in some 25mm Seven Year War figures I ended up purchasing 1 Pack of Old Glory 15mm Figures, one pack of F&IW Indians with club/hatchet, and one pack of AWI Continentals.

The pack of Old Glory 15mm Napoleonic figures is a pack of Hanoverian Hussars which I split into two Regiments of 15 figures, the Lueneburg and Bremen-Verden Regiments. This leaves the third regiment of hussars for the Hanoverian Army, my heroes, the Duke of Cumberland Hussars, but they where Shako so I am figuring a pack of French Hussars is in the future for them.

The French and Indian War Indians will be added to my collection of Indians for the F&IW group. This old pack, the date on the price tag was 1994, will be cleaned up and mounted three figures to a 1 ½” square base as irregular infantry for Wilderness Wars which is becoming the defacto standard for the period.

The Continentals will become the regular troopers for the First and Second Regiments of New York for the Southern Campaign. These figures will be mounted four to a base as close order infantry on a 1 ½” wide by 2” deep base. I will add the command figures later when bob gets them in stock.

I ran into Bob Brynildson, aka Barbwire Bob, and was regaled with stories of horrendous dice rolling on his part at Little Wars. As Jim Kilbane quickly pointed out what gamer doesn’t complain about his dice. Never mind the fact Jim has had a dice smashing party and might be the only person on the planet who consistently rolls worse dice than I do. Bob confirmed that he would be ordering the packs of figures I need for the AWI period in the next week or so. Considering it is one of the few periods the Source has practically sold out on three times I don’t know why they don’t do a better job keeping the figures in stock.

Figures to be ordered from Old Glory:
AWI-01 Continental Infantry Command
AWI-17 British Command
AWI-33 Continental Artillery
AWI-40 British Colonels
AWI-42 Continental Personalities
AWI-54 Hessian Jaegers

I need command for 4 Continental Regiments, 1 British Loyalist Battalion (Delancy’s Brigade) and officers for the Continentals for the game on May 17th. So hopefully these will get here in time and I can get them painted up.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

New Period Rant

I was shopping at my local game store, The Source Comics and Games, and was working my way through the Old Glory Seven Years War figures in 25mm when another customer decided I was the perfect victim to begin a conversation with. The gist of the ten minute conversation was as follows:
Them “Hey I see you are buying Seven Year’s War Figures that is a project I really want to get going.”
Me “Sorry Hessians for the AWI”
Them “So you are not interested in a SYW project.”
Me “Not really, but what do you have in mind?”
Them “25mm SYW it the bomb.”
Me “What rules and basing”
Them “TO BE DETERMINED”

Now there is nothing wrong with spotting a guy checking out the SYW figures in the store and going “Hey I see you’re checking out the SYW figures and I am kind-a interested in the period can you help me out?” But “To be determined” gosh dang do I hate that answer, it drives me insane [short drive and I know the way]. if you are SOOOOO interested in a specific period you must know what caused your interest. Did you see a game and like the figures, do you like the uniforms, did you find the perfect rule set, is that what your wife demanded you paint? If you can’t answer what you’re interested in how do you know you’re interested?

So you want to get me interested in a project here are some helpful hints:
1) Have a plan. A plan is more than I want to do SYW a plan is a sketched out idea on what you want to accomplish. I want to do 1:50 SYW game using Piquet is a plan. It is just as important to know what you don't want to do for the period. Not interested in a skirmish game, not interested in 1:10 game and you want units to be battalions rather than brigades. All that information is extremely helpful.
2) Paint some figures. Yes it is your plan so you need to take the lead. Paint up at least one playable force. That means if you want to play BAR (1:10) you better be ready to have 300 plus figures painted, or if you want to play Fredericks Battles you only need to have 120 figures painted.

25mm Problem

Ten years ago sitting in the Bar at Ciatti’s we began a discussion on what we would want in a rule set for 25mm Napoleonic game. Jim, BJ and I all huddled around some bad beer writing notes on cocktail napkins. I am sure Super Dave, Violence, and others were there Friday Evening but to them the drunken discussion on the beauty of 25mm Napoleonic Figures marching gloriously across the table was just that drunken talk.

It’s hard for me to believe that it truly was ten years ago, well actually it was 9 years 8 Months and 20 Days but other than me whose counting. Okay I guess that proves I am one hell of a geek. I remember details almost as clearly as I do that of meeting my wife, the birth of our child, or life changing event; but I suppose in a way it was a life changing event. That evening I went from player to game designer; but I didn’t know that then and wish I didn't know that now.

The Napkin list included:
25mm Figures
Multiplayer Game
1:30 Figure to Men ratio
Each player commands a brigade
Playable on a 5’ x 10’ table

We started by listing all the games we knew and what we liked or disliked about the games as published. I suppose it was telling that we knew the answer before we even started, for what we were looking for in 25mm there was nothing published [that we knew of] that we were interested in. Games either were the wrong scale or too cumbersome or even worse too simple.

That night began an incredibly painful gaming journey to write a set of rules to meet our desires. The problem was over 10 years our desires changed, our group changed, and in the end our commitment changed. I suppose that it was impossible to meet the desires of three completely opposite end of the spectrum players like Jim, BJ and I but back than we believed we could. Jim desired big games, the spectacle and grandeur of 1500 figures a side. BJ desired open gaming play what you paint. And I wanted a game you could play somewhat historical in 5’ x 10’ space.

Over time I kept re-evaluating our requirements and slowly but surely I dropped 25mm from the requirement. So what the heck do you do with a 1000 painted 25mm figures if you no longer have a project, find a new project of course.

After much soul searching and staring at figures I decided to use my 25mm Figures for Napoleon's Battles, 1813 Campaigns in Germany. This is not everyone's favorite choice, matter of fact I don't think anyone other than I really wanted to do that. But with NB basing and half basing the Cavalry I can play most games, I am just organizing primarily for NB. Leipzig in 25mm would be so awesome.