Thoughts on the Del Prado Collection

Del Prado Polish Guard Lancers - very nicely painted by Old Painter Bob from the original Dutch Lancer figure

First of all I hope everyone is well and thriving. I have been a little on the quiet side for a few days, not for anything serious, just that we have been rather busy on the domestic front. We Are embarking on refurbishing and redecorating our lounge which has meant ripping out two sets of units, sanding around 35 square meters of flooring (only 25 of which are the lounge, the balance being the hall and the home office) and lots of filling and painting. I have been tackling a few gaming related projects but nothing too onerous.

The main thing I have been involved with is reorganising my collection of Command and Colours Napoleonic blocks. I recently took delivery of the blocks from the base game and several of the expansions courtesy of that very nice chap ‘Lee so my collection now consists of virtually three complete sets. You could be forgiven for asking what could I possibly want with this amount of blocks but there is a method in my madness. I am fully prepared to fight some truly humongous Napoleonic battles - Leipzig anyone? There is a further expansion pending that covers this type of action in more detail and includes not only named commanders but also some extra units - highlanders, KGL and French Allies so the series should be complete.

On the subject of the whole Napoleonic thing I have been giving my Del Prado collection a lot of thought. The upshot of this is that I think I may have missed a trick with it. I based up the entire collection on individual bases with the intention of ensuring that I had the maximum amount of flexibility in respect of the rules I could use. This is perfectly sound and practical but it does come at a price. I have been thinking about the collection in terms of units rather than figures and this means not only numbers as well as organisation of command elements etc. This is not a problem as such and indeed I have mentioned often enough about what I want to add in due course - extra units, command figures etc. These are very much staples in respect of raising armies in most quarters but it does raise the question of what figures to use. I have more or less answered that one but it will require a certain amount of time, effort and resources on my part.

I have allowed the collection to take on a life of its own and in a much larger way than I initially intended.  If you recall my original plan was to stick to Command and Colours (1 figures = 1 block) or the stylised unit approach of the Portable Napoleonic Wargame. I seem to have moved away from this idea, presumably because of the ‘Ooh shiny!’ Nature of seeing all this Napoleonic loveliness in the man cave.

In retrospect I think I would have been better off sticking to my original plan as it would mean that the collection would remain within reasonable bounds. I am a huge fan of what I would call smaller wargames as my gaming needs are now firmly planted in the 5ft by 3ft table bracket. Anything Portable or grid based will hold sway so the forces used will be smaller - certainly smaller than the way the Del Prado collection is heading!

Anyways, to cut a long story short, I am planning to reorganise the collection along the lines suggested in the Portable Napoleonic Wargame. It will be usable for other rules but the key thing is the collection will have an initial focus rather than trying to be all things to all men.

Tumbling Dice 1:600th figures alongside Travel Battle buildings and Renendra bases

I have also been looking long and hard at my 1:600th collection and there are a few ideas that are gradually coming together. No details as yet but suffice it to say there will be a post in due course. What I will say though is that they will involve Travel Battle and the Portable Wargame in various ways.