Wargamer’s Block(s)

The block types as they stand. Those nine on the left with number ten at the head are the traditional horse and musket types - infantry, cavalry and artillery with black bands for heavy and white for light types - whilst the five on the right are machine guns, mortars, anti tank artillery, wheeled vehicles and armour.

I slowly seem to be emerging from the cold induced lethargy of recent weeks and so one of the projects that is on the ‘to do’ list appears to be nagging me for some attention! I am of course referring to the planned repurposing/refurbishing of my block armies - an example of which you see in the picture above.

I am more than happy with these - at least for the classic ‘horse and musket’ period - and as you may recall I have sets available in red, blue, green, light grey and brown as well as those above. As well as these seven colours I also have a mixed set that I use primarily for tribal types for Colonial era games.

The full ‘Army Khaki’ set. Each section contains six blocks except for the two sections by the handle (on the right) which contain three apiece. The red, green and blue set have machine guns but no other ‘modern’ types. They also have more standard infantry and cavalry blocks.

I am keen to upgrade the ‘modern types’ in some way and thinking about this led me to consider how I use the entire collection. The units you see are effectively a ‘Jenga’ style block cut in two and with a self adhesive label designating the type stuck on the top. Originally my plan was to use them for Command and Colours/Portable Wargame style games on either square or hexed grids. One block would represent a strength point and so a combat loss meant the removal of a block from the unit. It worked ridiculously well and I have fought a substantial number of games using them.

Sometime ago I had the beginnings of an idea to use a selection of MDF shapes to designate units that were equipped with a specific weapon type. For example, a unit of infantry archers would have a bow and arrow token placed on the unit somehow. On the face of it the idea was a sound one but hen I had visions of vast numbers of tokens falling off units and confusion on the tabletop abounding. I have not binned the idea but I have been rethinking it. 

For both the pre gunpowder and mechanised periods I need to be able to more effectively represent specific troop/weapon types and the idea I ask pursuing will free up a number of blocks that can be repurposed into another set. It is quite radical and will involve copious amounts of MDF but I think I am onto something. No details for now but I shall be positing the designs in due course so you can see where my head is at.