Custom Card Deck - ECW

Custom Card Set for ECW Activation

For activation in most of my in-house rules I've been using a deck of playing cards, and have a command figure with the relevant hearts/clubs/diamonds/spades suit and number to indicate the formation being commanded - see almost any of the AAR photos.

Whilst it's simple and works pretty well, there is always the issue of hunting around the table to try and work our where the four of clubs is.

I'd heard from a number of people that it was getting pretty cheap to have custom playing card decks made. Whilst Artscow had been mentioned I was put off by its US pricing, but a quick Google turned up Personalised Playing Cards, based in the UK.

Whilst their web design app seems a bit old fashioned and clunky it does the job. You specify a common card back, whether you want the playing card symbols in the corner, and then a unique image and text for every card (52+2 jokers).  The biggest downside is that there is no way to see all the cards in one go - so you have to be careful to make sure you've defined every card, and haven't duplicated any - especially since the Copy function is very useful, There are also options for having unique backs on each card, and a cheaper option of having 40 Top Trump style cards if you just need simple numeric parameters. My card deck cost £15.99, not bad.

The cards are "Bridge" sized, so marginally smaller than the more common "Poker" sized. The card feels a little thinner than standard cards, but they are coated and shuffle well, and I reckon they'll last at least a couple of years - by which time I'd probably want to update them anyway,

For my first ECW deck I used Hearts and Diamond for the King's Army, and Clubs and Spades for Parliament. King was the CinC, Queen the guns, Jack the Dragoons, and the rest assigned to generic roles of infantry and cavalry, left, centre and right, and first, second and third line. There are enough cards for two in most roles, so one pair of suits was dominated by Edgehill era commanders, and the other pair by Marston Moor/Naseby. I wasn't too precious about who commanded what, I just wanted some suitably contemporary commanders.

For the pictures I tried to source images of the named commanders, OK for key roles, but poor the others. So for the rest I just took a load of photos of my 20mm ECW figures. The two Jokers I made special event cards.

Overall I was really impressed by the result. Delivery was under a week, and I can't wait to play a game with them. A set for Medieval is underway, and then after that Napoleonics.

Imperial War Museum

Isn't it great when a client decides to hold a briefing at the Imperial War Museum!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dice Frames and Movement Trays

Like many wargamers I'm always in search of that elusive best way to show damage, morale and disorder on units. I don't want a paper rosta - I want to look and the table and see what is going on. I also don't want on-table cards I have to mark off - they tend to be too big and need reproducing for every game.

My current solution is small smoke puffs for damage/morale (which look good on table as they show where the fighting is), and red markers (vertical not flat as easier to pick up and blend better with figures) for disorder. But the problem with both is that you place them by a unit and then have to remember to move them - and as battalions start to bunch its easy for the markers to get mislaid.

I'd seen some dice frames at last year's Salute, and decided to pick some up at WMMS to experiment with. I bought a 4mm (green dice) and 7mm (black dice) set. In the image above shows the frames on the back of a couple of 6mm battalions and a 20mm company.

They certainly look neat, and the 4mm naturally fits better with the 6mm figures. I also had the idea that I could use dice colours to reflect unit quality, which I currently do by a paint mark on the base.

But when I used a couple of dice framed units in my Waterloo refight I found that the 4mm ones were just totally impractical. They were far too small to pick up and change without picking up the whole unit and amost using a set of tweezers (or a wet finger!). And the dice was easily dropped whilst changing from one value to another. Things would be a little easier with the 20mm/7mm combination, but I doubt by a lot, and bigger dice will just start to look odd. The other issue at eitehr scale was that I lost that immediate sense of a unis state - I had to deliberately read the dice rather than glancing at a large cluster of smoke puffs.

So back to the drawing board I think. The dice frames may still have a role, but right now I'm not quite sure what that is.

I also picked up some movement trays which actually fitted my non-standard basing. They will be great for my Brigade scale games (2 elements per Bde), or for my planned Mega Battalion games (6 elements per Bn).

West Midlands Military Show 2016

Managed to get across to WMMS having missed it last year. Apart from a huge order from Hexon I picked up quite a few bits and pieces to experiment with, posts to follow. Some good games, and the most interesting game mechanic was a Napoleonic game using playing guards to place on an activation sheet which defined the options you had for different units/troop types. Would have liked to have the time to try it out.

Only took one photo as it didn't strike me the look of the games were as stunning as some years, but this was a nice WW2 game.

Wish that more of the games had had clearer signs of who they were and what rules they were using - I want to join another Birmingham wargames group but apart from asking would have had no idea if any were there.

Campaign: Battle of Corunna

After the Battle of Valencia Nick and I fought the smaller Battle of Corunna, which in game time had actually happened about a week before Valencia, but being so isolated we could play it afterwards.

To recap, I started out holding Corunna with a sacrificial force. Nick took it about Turn 60. Given the speed of communications it wasn't until Turn 70 or so that Marshall Massena is southern Spain heard the news. He then sent orders to Valladolid to send the next reinforcement Brigade to retake Corunna. When they arrived around Turn 105 the city was very lightly defended and easily taken. The British then mustered a force to try and retake the city, but the force was not particularly large - but battle was given.

 Starting positions, Corunna village at bottom

Since the forces involved were much smaller than at Valencia we were able to use 20mm figures and Hexon at 100m per hex.

Initial deployments, view from behind the French lines

My troops held a solid line across the neck of the peninsular. Nick's cavalry came on but were sent on their way by my two batteries. He then pushed light infantry against my left flank, and my forces fell back through the wood. He also pushed his RHA batteries right up to my guns, and then charged them from the woods. A struggle ensued over several turns with first my guns then his guns being over-run and retaken by repeated infantry assaults until finally I sent his guns home. With shattered cavalry, no guns, and much spent infantry the British pulled back and Corunna was safely ours.

British Infantry and Cavalry move up for the attack

French Chasseurs and Legere prepare to advance whilst guns see off a British cavalry probe on the left flank

Peninsular Campaign: Battle of Valencia

The French deploy onto the table. There are a few more units off on the right flank.

After 108 turns of our 120 turn Peninsular Campaign Nick and I finally got to the first (and only?) big battle.  He'd made a (slow) dash across the whole of the Peninsular to strike at my undefended eastern garrisons - Valencia and Barcelona. My field Army had been just north of Toledo when it heard the news, so it was able to turn about and head for Valencia. Only one of my two Corps had time to deploy, and they were facing a gun heavy, but otherwise weak, British Corps. The game was fought in 6mm, battalion scale, on 4cm hexes using our Steady Lads Steady rules.

The assault on Valencia. Gold tagged units are Old Guard.

Time being of the essence, and the lateness of the game in the campaign meaning that the forces were unlikely to be engaged again, meant that I could through the Imperial Guard straight into the assault. It was a pretty bloody battle, with lesser battalions sacrificing themselves against the British gun line to limit casualties to the Guard units. Valencia was defended by Foot Guards and Fusiliers, so it was a tough fight.

Valencia back in French hands!

I kept pressure up on the right flank too with the Guard Light Cavalry trying to get behind his lines, but a couple of RHA batteries caused them too much damage to be able to exploit their position.

The Guard forced their way into the first Valencia hex on turn 15, but it was on Turn 22 (the last move of the game as night fell) that they ejected the final British unit form the city and claimed the victory.

We had a lot of troops out, but the game cracked along and given that Nick had driven up from Surry that morning we didn't start til about 11am and were finished by 7pm in time to join the wives for dinner. Not bad.

20mm English Civil War Figures

I'm busy trying to put together a set of custom playing cards to use for unit activation in my wargames. I mostly play with 6mm, but photographs of individual units lack the impact of the bigger scales, so I decided to dig out my old 20mm plastic ECW figures for the photoshoot. Actually bothered to set up a back drop, shoot with the (natural) light behind me, and add a bit of scenery. And for someone who's never really majored on painting or photography I was quite pleased with the result. Here are a few choice images.

Dragoons

Royalist Artillery (Orange coats I believe)

Cavalry

Commanded Muskets

A Russet Regiment

A Green Regiment

White Northern Foot

A close up of the Russet Regiment

A Grey Regiment

Close up of the Green Regiment

Haselrigs Lobsters