Tuesday, 24 July 2012

Thoughts on recent games and a nice surprise

Despite a rather busy day yesterday - both on a work and a domestic level - I managed to give some thought to the two games I recently played over the weekend. There are a number of points arising that will require attention in due course, with suitable terrain being at the top of the list. As it stands at the moment my NW Frontier and Balkan battlefields are, well to be honest, a little on the green side and so some rocky outcrops and perhaps some more arid looking terrain tiles may be order. From the Hexon range you are able to obtain examples of both of these types and so an order may be on the cards at some point.

I will also need to add in to Bob's Memoir of Battle rules a few additions of my own - so that it is easier to remember them as much as anything - that I have been regularly using (the 'battle back' rule mainly) as well as clarifying the rules for concealed units and spotting. Nothing major, just a couple of tweaks as the core set is robust enough to stand any amount of well intentioned 'tinkering'.

The blocks worked out as well as usual and I really must get the other labels printed and attended to for the 20th century kit - together with the revised artillery labels. As I am taking collection of the vast quantity of blocks from Tim Gow's Command and Colours sets tomorrow I shall be knee deep in labelling of one sort or another for some time to come!


Ooooh, shiny! Not to mention very colourful indeed!

Some time ago, just before we went to Turkey in fact, I ordered a copy of the above Osprey title to round out the small South American section of my library and it finally arrived yesterday morning. Glancing through the colour plates (and lets be honest, the colour plates are  usually the first port of call when opening an Osprey - at least they are for me!) was a very inspiring experience and the thing that struck me was how relatively easy it would be furnish the armies for this period using ordinary Napoleonic troops. Of course there are a number of exceptions but nothing that should be a challenge for even the most modestly capable modeller - in fact I reckon even I should be able to cope but of course that is probably not going to happen any time soon....;-)

Why do I keep seeing converted 28mm Perry Plastics when I look at this?
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10 comments:

  1. Kaptain Kobold24 July 2012 at 09:02

    Who needs 28mm? Grenadier Productions does a lot of stuff for the Liberation campaigns in 15mm:

    http://www.grenadierproductions.com/

    I used Irregular 6mm for mine :)

    It's an interesting period. Small battles and very gameable.

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  2. Peter Douglas24 July 2012 at 13:34

    DC

    Simple answer: because converting plastic napoleonics is the obvious thing to do!

    Enjoy the new shiny book.


    Cheers
    PD

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  3. Balkandave24 July 2012 at 19:54

    Not a difficult task to convert from 28mm Napoleonics. I did it in 2007 for our display games of that year.

    Details in Aug 2007 edition of Wargames Illustrated or on Balkan Military History website http://www.balkanhistory.com/south_america.htm

    The uniforms are the attraction.

    ReplyDelete
  4. David Crook24 July 2012 at 22:12

    Hi Kaptain,

    Thanks for the heads up and certainly the 'small and very gameable' angle is one of the attractions - that and Cochrane and his escapades of course!

    All the best,

    DC

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  5. David Crook24 July 2012 at 22:12

    Hi Peter,

    I knew I could rely on you for the one single good reason!

    All the best,

    DC

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  6. David Crook24 July 2012 at 22:14

    Hi Balkandave,

    Your interest in the sublime and the ridiculous is legendary and I just knew you would have dabbled at some point! Thanks for the heads up and I will wander past and take a good long look in due course for some extra inspiration!

    All the best,

    DC

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  7. Kaptain Kobold25 July 2012 at 03:39

    "The uniforms are the attraction."

    It certainly seems to be the case, based on discussions on the Liberators Yahoo group. Personally I don't find uniforms to be a draw in any period; I think it's the obscure exotic setting and history that interests me in this particular period.

    My 6mm figures are mostly painted in a generic manner - being told that in the particular battle I'm refighting the dragoons had blue coats rather than red would elicit a 'so what?' from me ;)

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  8. David Crook25 July 2012 at 05:51

    Hi Kaptain,

    I would say that the uniforms are more accurately part of the attraction for this period - certainly the exotic setting and some great characters also have some bearing.

    Luckily using block armies tends to remove any such uniform based considerations for me although this period I would enjoy tackling with figures.

    All the best,

    DC

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  9. Monty25 July 2012 at 18:06

    Yes, You can always rely on Osprey for a bit of welcome inspiration ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. David Crook25 July 2012 at 21:19

    Hi Monty,

    I know - and usually a whole lot of expenditure inevitably follows!

    All the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete