Wargame Rules, Ratios, etc


RAISING MINIATURE ARMIES FOR THE LATE 18TH CENTURY

I am very keen to keep my wargame rules as simple as possible, yet capture the character of the 1790s. Morale dominates the games as the opposing sides are very different. Most of the French troops are 'levee' battalions, which I have chosen to base in column as their ability to change formation on a battlefield must have been limited, nor do I believe their volley fire had any great value. Of better quality, able to change formation, will be white-coated regular and blue-coated volunteer battalions, aided by a fair number of skirmishers. The British, Austrian, Dutch and German armies are often outnumbered, but they maintain the discipline and order of typical 18th century armed forces. Interestingly, French revolutionary cavalry have little in common with their later Napoleonic counterparts, the former are few in number, often poorly mounted, and no match for those in the service of the Allies. All figures are 28mm in scale, using a 1=25 ratio.

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Saturday 22 September 2018

Finally, A Road System I'm happy with!

My lack of roads on my main table has long been an issue. Commercial products are costly and often fail to provide a suitable flat surface for figures to cross over. Decided to use a piece of moleskin-cotton fabric I had in my store of cloth, which was uncannily the same colour as my brown bases. Chris (family/wargamer) felt it provided the answer but hardly looked anything special. So I decided to texture and seal the edges with wood glue and green static grass. But then I tested out some acrylic paint to create tracks on the roads, using brown, sand, and white combinations. To my pleasure, it not only soaked in perfectly but is totally permanent. What I also like about this material is that it stays snug and lays flat on the static grass covered board, no movement whatsoever. Did I mention the border edge is only 1mm high, and has little impact on multi-based figures. I'm very pleased with the results and have more than enough for any possible projects. The cloth was actually given to me by a lady friend in the trade.
MGB
(ps. recently put together this home-cast cart and some odd wheels which fortunately were the same diameter, decided to make a small vignette............... I blame the roads lol.)








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19 comments:

  1. Jonathan Freitag22 September 2018 at 09:00

    That is a clever hack to produce good looking roads!

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    1. MGB22 September 2018 at 09:14

      Cheers Jonathan, many years ago I had 'Gilder' style boards covered in sandtex, and plaster roads. But they were cold, and heavy too. My new system, with the ability to change my road layout is so much warmer.
      Regards,
      Michael

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  2. Chris Gregg22 September 2018 at 15:55

    The roads look really great Michael, what a clever idea. Hope the little guy doesn't have to wait too long to be rescued from his cart break down!

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    1. MGB22 September 2018 at 16:33

      Hi Chris, well someone has to guard Captain Brown's baggage. Yes, the road system is very practical, and has little or no effect on the bases of formed up units, a common problem which always spoils a scene to my eyes.
      Regards,
      Michael

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  3. James Fisher23 September 2018 at 03:31

    What a great idea Michael and the result looks magnificent!

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    1. MGB23 September 2018 at 07:46

      Thanks James, have just completed another five sections. This moleskin-cotton is much better than ordinary sheets of material. Its a bit like felt, but takes acrylic paint with ease.
      Regards,
      Michael.

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  4. Chris23 September 2018 at 08:44

    Hi,

    My buddy and I may be trying this, assuming we can find the basic material and our wives don't object to the possible mess in our houses when making the road sections! We do have a question about storage: do the road sections roll up? Or are they short enough to store conveniently on a shelf or in a container?

    Best regards,

    Chris Johnson

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    1. MGB23 September 2018 at 10:02

      Hello Chris, I have purposely cut mine in different lengths, from 6 to 16", also curved sections, junctions etc. My only standardisation being the 2 1/2" width, My intention is to simply dump mine on top of each other in a small plastic tray. Concerning rolling, after painting the tracks and wood glueing all edges, they are no longer like floppy cloth, but they still naturally prefer to settle, which means I can use them over hills too. I suspect they would allow rolling for very long roads (20"+) but I would always discourage the upper ends rising up by rolling the other way ( if that makes sense).
      Regards,
      Michael

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    2. MGB23 September 2018 at 10:10

      Chris, when you look at my close up photo of the cloth, note the left side is the reverse of the cloth, I have found the right/upper surface is slightly better, as you would expect. And disregard the colour, which came out grey for some reason.

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    3. Chris26 September 2018 at 08:02

      Many thanks! We're going to try this for sure--will let you know how we do.

      Best regards,

      Chris

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    4. MGB26 September 2018 at 13:19

      Hi Chris, hope you find the fabric, and it works for you too.
      Michael

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  5. Phil24 September 2018 at 00:00

    Superb...and very impressive!

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    1. MGB24 September 2018 at 02:00

      Thank you Phil, I didn't want any permanent roads on my boards, I think these are as good as I will get with temporary layouts.
      Regards,
      Michael

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  6. Duke of Baylen25 September 2018 at 23:35

    I really enjoyed your post this morning. The scenes are quite evocative - is charming the right word? - as well as practical in showing your achievement with the road sections. I look forward to more,
    Stephen

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    1. MGB26 September 2018 at 13:17

      Thank you, Stephen, for your very kind words, hope you find future posts of interest.
      Michael

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  7. Snuffles30 September 2018 at 17:44

    I still use my Gilder inspired boards and do like their organic quality, but I still need the occasional top-dressed roads and these look superb. Your site is inspiration. I also love seeing the Hinchcliffe models on both your blogs. I have been really toying with the idea of starting a John Ray inspired collection of AWI and wondered about the X_range. Unfortunately I have not seen any of these models in the flesh/raw metal. The ones you post here are superb, but is the entire range good? Are they still well cast? I was wondering about them or the SYW Hezzlewood created, now sold in the US. Any thoughts? Thanks, Chris

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    1. MGB1 October 2018 at 01:06

      Hi Chris, several thoughts came to mind when I read your comment. I originally had an XR AWI collection which I sold. A friend then started collecting Perry figures, so I decided to recreate an XR collection. The figures do not suit everyone, even JR who new Hezzlewood and collected XR, now casts his own and they are much more akin to Front Rank, in my opinion. The XR has problems, some figures are good, but the standing private is slightly flat (still elegant in bulk), and many of the advancing figures, including the private advancing (mistakenly coded as nco), have problems with their hands, many needing heavy scalpel work. Lets be honest, if I had the time, resolve, and finances, I would be buying Eureka......... but I haven't. And, I also like owning some nostalgic figures, they are part of my wargaming past. Yes, I am very happy with my XR range, I prefer anatomically correct casting to the caricatures produced by other makes. (Eureka tries to seek a balance between the two styles.) The RSM figures sold in the USA would provide a useful and nicely matched range to the XR, they are also mainly Hezzlewood designed. However, Fife and Drum have now produced a range of AWI which, in my opinion, are very compatible with XR, and these figures are well detailed and totally flash free.......... wonderful. And don't rule out a visit to Crann Tara, their Jacobite and WAS ranges are sublime, and also uphold the "Anatomical" castings originally devised by Stadden, Willie, and Hezzlewood. Hope this helps.
      Michael

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  8. Snuffles1 October 2018 at 08:44

    Thanks so much for your observations. Crann Tara are my likely "new" figure option, but thinking of AWI perhaps Fife and Drum are the way to go. My only concern with both of these are the fragile design of the muskets for war-games use -- they seem very long and slender. Perhaps not a worry and the figures look fantastic. Of course, I still have a soft spot for Gilder's figures.....and those Xrange figures you post look excellent. A nice problem to have. Thanks again, Michael.

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    1. MGB1 October 2018 at 09:54

      Chris, one thing I liked about the X-Range was both the cast-on muskets, and the separate muskets for open-handed figures looked correct in scale. I have owned many brown bess muskets, when you fix a bayonet, its like having a half-pike in its length. With XR, I always ask for spare muskets, and choose the best, converting the poorer into carbines or even rifles.
      Michael

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