Love me some 10mm Imagi-Nations, but I was trying to find a way to use them with Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles. I designed these wooden slot bases to hold the troops and track their strength. I can pull the individual bases out make them in line for attack or in column of march. Nifty!

Designed them in Adobe Illustrator and then lasered them out. These could work for a number of games.

Wee lads for ECW

Just finished these guys for Simon Miller's English Civil War variant of To the Strongest. These represent 1:2 pike and shot base. They're 10mm Old Glory on one of bases. I put small magnets behind the soldiers to hold a name plate (more on that in a later post).

10mm Troops

Hey, actually got some painting done. These boys are for Maurice/Might & Reason. They represent the Grand Duchy of Volborg's 2nd Regiment (Zweck's Own) and will hopefully see battle in our long stalled Second War of Unkerlant Succession campaign.
Since Wednesday night has proven to be lighter in the participant section, we played a game of Maurice. It's really a 1 v 1 game, but we used teams of two.
It started as a smashing success on one flank. We should have just sat tight and burned cards. But, our blood was up to drive the attack home and we paid for it. Barely squeaked out a victory.

A lovely night for Maurice

It snowed last night. In May. I mention this because said snow kept most of the Basement Generals home. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've really been wanting to give Maurice another go, especially run the campaign system with our group. Rather than wait the year it will take those involved to paint armies I went with paper troops to give everyone a feel for the rules and field some troops.
So, rather than getting the whole group together to run through the rules we only had 5. Turns out, that was just right.

The serried paper ranks

We did the whole she-bang. Drew cards for terrain, scouted for advantage and who the aggressor was, and drew Notables. The only thing we didn't use this time was National Advantages.
Based on scouting rolls, Purple was the Aggressor. Their Notable was particularly good at Rallying troops.
Blue was Defender and got a hothead Notable who likes to charge.
The terrain was Plains. Seven pieces were rolled for and placed. The result was pretty open, but still caused problems for the Aggressors. They had a town to take.
The game moved along really fast. Cards were earned and burned. A cavalry force charged and was repulsed. (Have to wear those infantry down first).
The infantry in the middle annihilated each other. Here's where the "do I volley?" question was learned. A deck was gone through.

All of the sudden Purple was down to 3 morale points left, and Blue 5. It was late, the weather was getting worse, and we called it.
Love these rules. Can't wait to get some "real" troops on the table. Also has me VERY excited for Longstreet. Until now I have held firm against painting 28mm ACW. But, for how long?
The warring Factions, again based on barnyard animals:

Orders to Eagles

The Basement was jam packed last night, despite the icy roads. Nine people showed as Nick put on his 10mm Napoleonics and it looked great. Two photos survived the cat knocking the camera off the bar to the floor. Hoping Nick can send more. His rules will soon be commercially available. Anyway, here's the valiant Prussians fending off the French hordes.

I had themed beers, Kronenbourg for the French:

 and Stiegel for what I thought was to be Austrians, and later turned out to be Prussians.
So there, Lead Addict, bad intel on both our parts.
Either way, most of generals were thoroughly lubricated. Nice way to spend a cold evening.

Heavy Metal

The Arch Duchy of Volborg gets some artillery. Four stands of 10mm to be exact. These fine lads will be doing double duty for both Might & Reason and Maurice. Does that mean I decided on a scale? No, not really.

Maurice, 4 ways

I've played it. I love it. Now, for the figs. I mentioned in an earlier post I have miniatures for this period in 4 scales. An appeal to the internets went out. I have costed all possibilities (6mm & 10mm winning out). But, it really comes down looks on the battle field doesn't it?
I mounted up bits and pieces on blanks just get a visual. Disregard the mismatched troops. I also didn't want to pry the little 6s off their bases just yet so use you imagination. They all take up the same footprint, except the 15s which I put on 40mm bases.
The results:

Proposed basing.

All can be used for multiple rules sets (Might and Reason, Black Powder, Maurice), so that's not an issue. They all seem to give the mass you want from the period. The 10s especially, and as you can see, I already had the 10mm Cavalry and Arty based right so that would be a time saver.

28s and 15s would give you more place to play in the Imaginations realm to pull off whatever made up uniforms you have.

Blogosphere, opinions? What would like to play with?

Thursday Napoleonics

For the fourth Thursday in a row I have somehow escaped being the one putting on the game. This time, Basement General Nick brought his own rules "Orders to Eagles". He also brought his fine collection of miniatures and terrain. It was a semi-fictional fight between the French and Saxon allies vs the Prussians (I think. I had been to a Happy Hour right before, so some details are fuzzy).

Prussians along the road.

The French move to meet them

"That way boys!"

In the distance, squares are formed.

I think, as usual most folks had fun. And that's what matters.

Next Thursday, Nappies again. This time 6mm and Fast Play Grande Armee.