Fescennia is my "imagination" continent for my 1805-1815 Napoleonic figures. However, although the figures I use are Napoleonic 25mm/28mm, the uniforms are not; these have all been designed by me according to particular national colours/styles and as realistically as I could, avoiding garish or improbable combinations. So none of my figures will fit in at all on a regular Napoleonic table top battle!
This was a deliberate choice on my part. I wanted to go back to the rules I had enjoyed so much in the past that were written by C. Grant; I wanted individually mounted figures; and I wanted to use the boxes of old style figures (added to where gaps were evident) which I had had stored in the garage for decades awaiting disposal, but could never bring myself to carry out. My first plan was for four principal states: the County of Northland, the Duchy of Westland, the Marquisate of Eastland, and an area loosely called Southland which would included a number of small countries that may or may not find a role in the events of the continent.
I drew up a simple map, marking on capital cities, main towns, key roads, ports, rivers and mountain ranges and gave them all names. However, I soon realised I had to give each country a national character, so Northland became Germanic, Westland became French, and Eastland became Spanish. These decisions were based in part upon the nationality of the figures I already had (Prussian, French, Austrian, Russian) and my limited knowledge of those languages.
The Northland troops are mainly in red uniforms, the Westland forces are mostly in white or yellow, and the Eastland army is in dark blue. Facing colours are used to identify units of the same type from each other if their basic uniform is the same. It has to be said that most of the colour combinations looked fine; rarely did I have to reject one as too garish or improbable! Each unit also has a regimental standard; for these I originally drew upon the excellent range of flags produced by Warfare Miniatures, but recently I decided to change to homemade flags with images individual to each country. For most of the Northland and Eastland units, their standard is related to the national flag; for most of the Westland units, their standard is an individual one. As for the Southern Confederation, at the moment I have ideas for an Afghan/Turkish country, an Arab/African country, a colony of a state outside Fescennia, and some odds and ends.
The actual figures I had available in those boxes in the garage were almost all 25mm Hinchliffe models from the 1980s, with a few 25mm Essex Miniatures figures from the 1990s. The great majority of those were infantry figures, but also a lot of artillery pieces and crews. There was a significant shortage of cavalry. Keeping in mind the size of my normal gaming board (6' by 4'), I decided that I could not organise the units to the size of those suggested in C. Grant's rules, so I halved the number of figures. Infantry units range from eight figures (rifle companies) to twenty-four figures (line battalions); cavalry units are all twelve figures; artillery units are one model gun and four crew. Northland got the Prussian figures; Westland got the French and Austrian figures; Eastland got the Russian figures.
Then I drew up a rough order of battle for each of the three main countries, based on giving each type of unit a points value, with a maximum number of points allowed per country. At the same time, I had in mind the fact that a 6' by 4' gaming table can only take a certain amount of units for a successful game. In the end, each country had about ten to twelve infantry battalions of varying sizes, six to eight cavalry regiments and four artillery batteries.
Looking at the figures I already had, there was enough for over half the infantry units and all the artillery batteries, but I needed a lot more cavalry. Given the fictional nature of my campaign, I decided that 28mm hard plastic figures was the answer, supplemented by metal figures if necessary. I have no problem with hard plastic figures, I think they have been a fantastic boon to wargaming and I only wish more were available! I can paint them to an adequate standard (they look fine to me on my gaming table!), they are so reasonably priced, and I can do a few conversions fairly easily to produce some unique units. The 28mm cavalry figures do look a bit out of size, especially by some of the old 25mm Hinchliffe mounted models, but I can live with the difference. And I have also added 28mm hard plastic infantry figures to start filling the gaps amongst those units. So far, Perry Miniatures, Warlord Games and Victrix Limited have all provided figures for me to use. Future convention visits may provide other unpainted figures off the "bring and buy" stalls or those boxes of mixed up metal figures kept under their table by some sellers of second-hand figures!
As to campaign rules, well, having gone down the road of complexity to exhaustion in previous campaigns of the last forty years or so, I have kept it very simple, since the main aim is to fight battles on the table top, not drown in paperwork. Therefore, I generally pick a campaign from real life, construct a narrative to set it going, then work my way through the actual battles, scaled down and adapted for a wargame, one by one. Casualties, etc. are not carried over, there is no map movement, no supply rules, I just keep the narrative going based on the result of the battle. The units that appeared in one battle do not always appear in the next. It works on the idea that units come and go, get detached, get replacements, and that, ultimately, I want to have a wargame!
Thinking that I should try for names rather more interesting than Northland, Westland and Eastland, I found inspiration in the Labours of Hercules! Northland became Nemea, Westland Arcadia and Eastland Erymanthia. The Southern Confederation became the Electorate of Lernea, with the various smaller states within it having particular names as well - Hesperides, Gades, Augeas, Geryon and Stymphalis.
P.S. Since first writing this entry, Hesperides has acquired a small army of three infantry regiments, a cavalry regiment and an artillery battery. Green is the dominant colour of their uniform, though the latter are more 18th Century in style, the Duke being a traditionalist in military matters.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment