The start of something new (only not)

Hi all,

Waaaaaaay back in the day, before the Cub came along, I lived and worked in St. John's, Newfoundland.  A gaming buddy, who it turned out was the Canadian distributor for Baccus at the time, introduced me to some teeny-tiny fellows who've gone on to be my favoured scale for historicals (more or less, anyways).  Our main thing at the time was napoleonics, in the peninsula to be precise, and I amassed a reasonable collection of French (some of which appear in the first edition of the Napoleonic Polemos rules).

Muromsk and Reval Infantry

At the time, we had many a discussion about that eternal issue, basing.  My buddy advocated using larger bases, inspired by some of the fantastic stuff people were producing for Grand Armee, but in the end, we opted for 60x30 Polemos "standard" basing, as a method that would give us maximised flexibility (in that the rules allowed for 2 gaming scales, and 60x30 let us play both).  The idea of larger bases, however, had always stuck with me.  Then came Blucher.

As I'm sure I've said before, I'm a unreformed fanboy of Sam Mustafa's games, and have yet to find one I don't actively enjoy playing.  When Sam announced he was releasing a grand tactical napoleonics game, it's fair to say I was intrigued.  I picked up the .pdf, printed the sample cards, and even talked the Cub into a game (which only lasted about three turns, it wasn't his thing).  After that though, it kind of petered out.  No one local with which to play, a host of other gaming priorities, and a huge painting queue, meant that grand tactical napoleonics kind of fell by the wayside.

Might eventually see about working in some actual jaeger figures.

The thing is, though, I have a fair whack of assorted 6mm napoleonics, mostly Russian, from the same Big Buy that's been driving the expansion of my SYW collection (which I got through the same aformentioned buddy in Newfoundland who was getting out of the business).  I also have the time and space now to putter about with a large collection, in multiple periods, and damn the torpedoes.  I also had some of those Russians primed up, and glaring accusingly at me from the shelf, where they were unpacked into the light of day last week.  So, this happened.

Next time, I might try to get in the cords on the Kiwer as well

Behold, the first base of Russians for Blucher (among others).  Bases are 80x60, roughly the same size as the cards used in the game (Blucher can be played with cards, and uses them as a partial blind deployment mechanic).  They're the old Russian figs from Baccus, the ones that are a bit smaller, and with the fiddly bayonettes, but once I adjusted to them (and the fact that my eyes are around 15 years older than the last time I painted Napoleonic 6mm), it went fairly smoothly.

Units in Blucher, as with most SM games, are loosely scaled, but one base corresponds roughly to one multi-battalion brigade, so that's what I've tried to represent here, more or less.  What flags to use was a bit of an issue, but I'm loosely assuming each base is a couple battalions from two different regiments, and including a royal and regimental colour for each. Flags are monstrously oversized; I tried to match the size of flag I've been using from SYW, but as they came from a different source, they ended up bigger.  Might try with smaller, or just leave it, haven't yet decided.  No doubt I've made errors with the pom-poms, but life is short ;)

Still playing around with basing.

One of things I'm looking forward to with this project will be playing around with different formations on the bases, and ideally trying out some dioramic stuff.  I'll work with what I have for now in the way of figures (which might mean some historical anachronisms), in the hopes of getting in some solo games.  If I get enough painted, I might even be able to tempt some of the local historical gamers (with whom I'm finally making contact) to play?

On an unrelated note, I've recently been catching up on the "God's Own Scale" podcast.  It's relatively new, but is doing a bang up job of generating content.  If you're into 6mm, or just wargaming in general, I'd recommend listening (can be found here). 

FMB