Thoughts on Maurice campaigning...

Some thoughts on our proposed Maurice campaign:

1) I've created an army creator spreadsheet that calculates unit and national advantage costs. An snapshot is included below, showing my proposed army:

You can see that I am one point over the 100 point allowance (the cell changes colour when exceeding the maximum allowance). Either I persuade Phil to accept this extra point or I need to re-arrange and re-calculate. How generous are you feeling Phil?

2) I realized it was necessary to add a calculator for Principal Arm ratio (see the bottom right of the image above). Maurice requires an army commander to declare a Principal Arm, infantry or cavalry. Whichever is chosen, the army may not have more than a 3:1 ratio of principal arm units over the other arm. In my case, I first realized that with all of my infantry units, I was well over the 3:1 ratio (actually closer to 5:1). Then an inspiration came. I added the Saint-Felicien Dragoons and brought the ratio under 3:1. More about these dragoons anon...

3) The unfortunate thing is that in order to include all of my army (and satisfy the Principal Arm requirement by adding the extra cavalry unit), the entire army would need to begin the campaign at conscript quality. But this doesn't really bother me since it seems somehow appropriate that I start from scratch with this army and I'll have an opportunity to watch it grow in experience and quality.

Note: Phil has only one cavalry unit so far so an exception will need to be made. Maybe in exchange for my extra army creation point?

4) How to include Michael (who has no army)?

a) He could paint his own army (clearly not an option...let's be realistic).

b) He could "create" an army from my units and use it to fight against Phil's army. This, of course would create an imbalance of two armies v. one (not necessarily a bad idea).

c) He could create an army from my extensive Carlist Wars collection. It is our ImagiNation world after all and we don't need to follow any particular parameters except those we impose. This option may have a snag, however. I am contemplating selling this collection. But more of this anon...

5) Dragons Saint-Feliciens: How do I represent this unit in order to satisfy the Principal Arm restriction? Well, my revelation was that I have two 8-figure Front Rank units of Spanish Napoleonic dragoons painted and sitting in a box waiting for me to complete their brethren. These units were part of a stalled Napoleonic Peninsula project (OK, realistically not stalled...forgotten). The Spanish dragoons of the time had very 18th century style uniforms and will fit quite nicely into my ImagiNation army. And the yellow uniforms are so pretty!!