Instant Napoleonics – Just add Blocks!

Sadly for a variety of reasons my planned visit to Navwar this weekend was postponed and so this will be a pleasure deferred for the time being (it also means I can amass some more funds!). In the meantime though I have managed to get a few gaming related chores tackled – mainly in respect of my plans for Command and Colours Napoleonics. I have managed to solve the block storage problem and am now using one of those multi-compartmented plastic boxes (I had a couple of these kicking around crying out for a use!) for the French and one for the Anglo-Portuguese rather than plastic bags. There is a little spare space in the French box which I am using for the counters and the special combat dice included in the game but this will disappear when the Spanish expansion arrives as there are some additional units for La Grande Armee included.

I was also able to try a little experiment using the unit blocks with my Hexon terrain and the buildings from the 'Town in a bag' set available from Past Times. I wanted to try this because the larger terrain hexes will enable units to adopt more aesthetically pleasing formations – lines, columns and even squares. Skirmish units can also be deployed in a swarm as well which adds to the representation and the look of the thing.

The picture shows a small town covering two hexes and a single hex wood (I will replace the trees with something a little better looking in due course!) with a unit of British infantry with a commander, a light cavalry unit and a battery of horse artillery. I think the result looks pretty impressive, albeit in a purely representational way and so I intend exploring this idea further – to the extent that I will run an actual scenario using this method as soon as I am able. It is not a figure wargame I know but for me it is a viable alternative to painting hundreds of figures and it does not look too bad. Of course I would prefer to use figures but the prospect of acquiring meaningful collections is a daunting one and I am not going to pursue that particular avenue. In fact, I could now safely say that I own a couple of Napoleonic armies – albeit in an abstract fashion!