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!!



Campaigning in my ImagiNation

So, after my excursion to Kingston on the weekend and my highly enjoyable ImagiNation game with Phil & Michael, I've come home re-energized about the hobby (we'll see how long that lasts). Over the last couple of years, Phil and I have pitted our growing ImagiNation armies against one another several times, often with help from others. We've sort of kept track of our armies, but not really seriously. I've proposed to Phil that we start a Maurice campaign and follow its progress here, from army creation to final victory. Again, we'll see how it goes but it promises to be fun.

My first order of business was to create a spreadsheet to calculate possible initial army creations. Not so onerous a task as one might think, since I do this for a living. Maurice recommends using 100 points to spend on unit creation and army characteristics. I think we'll follow that recommendation to start. There are of course options to build on your basic army, but that would also require the painting of more figures. Hmmmmm, not so easy.

And rather than bog down the blog with detailed descriptions of the rule mechanisms, I think the better approach would be to go forward in an anecdotal and descriptive fashion. But to each his own, since Phil is now a contributing author on the blog. Of course Michael is too, but he has no army. But I have a few ideas to get him in the campaign as well, despite that rather significant shortcoming. But more of that anon...

Kingston Gaming Weekend, part 2

Some more lovely pictures of our game (First ImagiNation victory in two years..)

Kingston weekend gaming

Spent an enjoyable afternoon gaming in Kingston with Michael and Phil, pitting my ImagiNation army against Phil's wine-soaked olive-eaters! A selection of photos of the game below...

The might of the the Grand Duchy!

 

Irregular forces meet on the flank of the main armies.

Les Grenadiers de Boursin rashly attempt to charge the main enemy line!

Stepping back into my ImagiNation

Having dived back into the painting, I elected to try my hand at some of the enormous lead pile that makes up my ImagiNation project. I accomplished three things in my first foray back into serious painting (my previous post about adding WWI ships notwithstanding). First, I finished the command figure below. This is a Crusader figure that will command one of my KaiserReich regiments but I have not yet decided which or even his name. I was happy enough just to complete him (although he was already half-painted). My apologies for the quality of the photo (not sure where my camera is and my iPhone had to stand in). Second, I started on some musketeers of Regiment de Pont L'Eveque for the army of the Grand-Duc de Gourmandie. That was a bit more of a struggle. Many of my paints have dried out and need to be replaced. And while I was pleasantly surprised to find, when painting the figure below, that my hand was as steady (or unsteady, depending on the interpretation) as ever, painting in an assembly line format will take some discipline again. Audio books will work well in helping with this, I think. Lastly, I pulled out some of the gorgeous Crusader SYW hussars to clean and prep. I may be a little optimistic about getting at them with a paintbrush, given my output over the last year, but they are so pretty that I'm happy just to have taken them out of their dark hiding place under my desk.

Back in the Saddle?

After almost a full year of painting inactivity, I finally returned to my desk with some trepidation. Of course, cleaning the accumulated dust and paraphernalia of several months took more time than I expected. But, with several hours to kill, I dove into the unfinished projects that had been staring at me every time I went in my office. First up we're some GHQ WWI boats to add to my Royal Navy contingent. These had already been based and primed so the painting took little time (mainly dry-brushing). Finishing the bases took a bit longer; this requires wood filler for the bow and stern waves and several layers of paint and dry-brushing. You can see the result below of two new battle cruisers, HMS Queen Mary & HMS Princess Royal, to go with the pre-existing HMS Lion. I need only one more for David Beatty's battle cruiser squadron, HMS Tiger (but that will require an order to GHQ or a trip to Cold Wars). Also added to my Brits are HMS Phaeton and HMS Undaunted, both light cruisers. Now to put them to sea...

Imagination 2012...still here

It seems as though months have passed since my last post...lo and behold, it's true. A major shift of focus in my life has had me absent from the hobby for the most part although I've still been paying attention to the comings and goings in the hobby. Most especially I was struck by Old Glory's and Crusader Miniatures' decision not to renew their manufacturing and distribution agreement for North America. I took full advantage of the remaining time before December 31 and ordered the rest of my planned ImagiNation collection, knowing full well I was in a deep painting funk and wouldn't touch them for a very long time. But the 40% discount was difficult to ignore. Luckily, I'm now set up for quite some time. And we won't talk about the WWII Fallschirmjaeger platoon I also ordered

So, having said all that, I've been able to generate a little more interest in the hobby over the last couple of weeks. Of course, this may be the result of my impending trip to Cold Wars in March. I'm hoping the trip will fully rekindle my hobby interest. In the last couple of weeks I've been able to finish the basing and standards for a couple of new ImagiNation units that were painted way back in October & November. The largest addition is the Regiment der Grenadiere Oettinger, my first unit for the Das Kasierreich, arch-enemy of Le Grand-Duche de Gourmandie. 

Once again I apologize for the quality of the pictures. My trusty camera is on its last legs and must soon be relegated to the scrap heap.

  

Regiment der Grenadiere Oettinger. Crusader Miniatures painted by Karl Friedrich. 

I particularly like the sapper on the right side of the picture. If you'd like to contact Karl about painting commissions, let me know and I can pass along his email address.

 

Regiment der Infanterie Kromabacher. Crusader Miniatures.

This is only the first division of the battalion. When finished it will have three divisions of eight figures each, plus command and a 3lb battalion gun and crew.

 The might of Das Kaiserreich, as it stands so far.

 

And the breadth of power available to Le Grand-Duc de Gourmandie.