|
Post by Brian Cameron on Mar 21, 2022 11:02:02 GMT
"You might have a hard time making a wargame out of the Mounties chasing a few American bootleggers out of Fort Whoop Up "
Ross - I'm afraid I take a rather 'liberal' approach (I may mean 'I take liberties...') to 'fun' games. I figure if they needed to form the NWMP to deal with outlaws etc there's more than just a few whisky traders. So I think the scenario is: Whisky traders try to get the whisky wagons off the far end of the table. The road, err track, will present some obstacles such as deep ruts to vary the wagon movement. The mounties are in pursuit. Various outlaws will attempt to slow the mounties down / ambush them so the whisky traders can get away (they're set for lots of free whisky). And then the Indians, who have been over-charged for the whicky, show up. The numbers involved will be small but that's ok. What do you think?
Brian
|
|
|
Post by Brian Cameron on Mar 21, 2022 11:15:28 GMT
Hi,
The figures from Steve Weston turned up yesterday. The Call to Arms figures are nice but four of each of four poses, two of which are pretty naff is disappointing. The light horse would be ok with as lot of converting. Armies in Plastic, which Steve no longer stocks, might hsve been a better bet.
Anyway, this set me to considering what I want from larger figures and I've decided that the appeal for me is the glossy toy soldier aspect. That's expensive in metal 54mm and modern plastic figures just don't have that aspect which is why my 'little wars' set up is in 42mm (Spencer-Smith). I'm giving some thought to trying to get hold of enough of the old Britains/Herald grenadiers (the ones on the oval plastic bases, not the ones on the metal bases) and swop heads or at least make some masters and cast from there. That will be very time consuming so I'm tempted to do the project in 42mm where I can do a glossy toy soldier paint job on more Spencer-Smith figures. I'm a bit conficted on this as I really wanted to have 54mm figures like all the big boys :-) I'm going to the London Toy Soldier show on Saturday so I'm leaving the decision till the weekend as I may see something there which may influence my decision (ok, change my mind yet again).
Brian
|
|
|
Post by Mike Lewis on Mar 21, 2022 11:27:53 GMT
|
|
|
Post by rossmac on Mar 21, 2022 12:25:12 GMT
Brian, sounds like a western movie and good fun as such. (And I've seen a few old, old b&w Mountie western movies with that sort of shoot out, usually resolved by some sort of cleverness on the part of the Mountie hero to avoid excess blooodshed and make the mounties look good)
Of course these are the guys who sent 2 Mounties into Sitting Bull's camp to disarm and arrest a Sioux warrior accused of murder and they did despite some grumbling and threats.
Bottom line these days, as far as I'm concerned, is that I like to start by researching the history a little, but after that...its my table, my toys, my imagination, my storyline.
|
|
|
Post by Brian Cameron on Mar 22, 2022 13:57:29 GMT
Ross, I very much agree with that view. As I've written about in the Lone Warrior I want to a game to be a story and often view a game as if it were a film.
Brian
|
|
|
Post by tradgardmastre on Mar 22, 2022 14:00:24 GMT
Do you have a link to the Lone Warrior article? I agree with your story/ film understanding very much.
|
|
|
Post by Brian Cameron on Mar 23, 2022 9:43:32 GMT
My apologies Alan. Having kimmed through the articles I can't where I mentioned that - perhaps it was in something else.
Basically, I always look at wargames as though they were a film; in my mind's eye there are solderis marching up to ther attack, officers shouting orders, lots of smoke is reducing visibility. That's particularly the case for skirmish games and rpgs where I amy draw on incidents from movies. I remember, years ago where one of the players in 1920s England was trying to keep a policeman at bay by threatening to shoot him. I then drew on the scene in, I think the Blue Lamp, with George Dixon as the policeman, who just kept saying "don't be silly son, just give me the gun" I just played the scene through with that in mind. In case you're wondering, the player eventually handed over the gun.
I think it's why a lot of skirmish systems for the Pulp era, etc, use a 'stars, co-stars and extras' style system for the structure of the rules. I particularly liked a variation I saw recently where an extra can never kill a star as it just never happens that way in a movie.
Film imagery can also be useful to help picure what happens in a battle - the Red Badge of Courage has, I think, a great depiction of what might happen during an infantry attack.
Brian
|
|
|
Post by briancarrick on Mar 29, 2022 14:30:10 GMT
|
|
|
Post by aducknamedjoe on Mar 30, 2022 4:15:58 GMT
What I do for putting pictures on here is upload a picture to a free image host like Imgur (https://imgur.com) and then you can click the little "Insert image" button at the top of a new post and paste the link in where it prompts you to. That will put the photo in the post without using up any storage on the board.
|
|
|
Post by rossmac on Mar 30, 2022 9:11:15 GMT
Brian C, Brian's answer to your picture question is good. I have trouble when using my phone so I log in from my laptop and then when I create a post or reply (but NOT a Quick reply) a row of little boxes/icons appears at the top. The picture of a globe with a letter lets you put in a link something on the internet like a blog post or picture while the picture of a picture allows you to upload picture (not too big in storage terms plse).
If anyone needs clearer instructions, let me know.
btw, thanks for posting those pics, I was surprised that I no longer had any pictures of them. Probably stowed on a backup cdr that none of my current devices can read!
Ross Mac
|
|
|
Post by Brian Cameron on Mar 31, 2022 8:28:17 GMT
Brian (carrick) good to see you again at LTS. Thanks for posting the links, definitely inspiring. 1812 has long been a firm favourite of mine and the various raids and rebellions into Canada are proving really interesting so the time period which will be covered by this project (and the figures) is likely to be rather elastic. Ross Mac's blog has been an inspiration for my wargaming.
Brian
|
|