Prototypes of 28mm Napoleonic Unit / Casualty Markers

Like a lot of gamers, I like to keep the tabletop clean of dice, measuring tapes, rule sheets, pets, soft drinks, etc., but I know that concessions have to be made for marking unit status and displaying other game mechanics. Nonetheless, I really don't like casualty caps, especially anything plastic, as they seem to break the aesthetic of the painted miniatures and scenery. I've always liked the look of casualty figures, but in several rule sets a unit can take numerous 'hits' so it can seem that there is a cloud of casualties following along, and if they get too close to one another confusion can occur in determining to whose casualties belong to what unit.

So I'm playing around with how to compress as much unit information into as small a space as possible. Here are a few unit status markers that I've mocked up that combines a small vignette, a 'fin' for mounting a unit ID card, plus a few slots to fit small (7-8mm) six-sided dice to track hits. 

Here is a shot of the base showing the ID fin and the slots for the D6.

These were built on 50mm steel bases with bits of plasticard to build-up the slots and fins.

These two castings are from Offensive Miniatures. I quite like the wounded drummer boy.

The slots work reasonably well to keep the dice all in one spot and prevents accidental mix-ups when units are compressed together in a scrum. For a game such as 'Black Powder' the dice can be of different colours to track Disorders, 'standard' hits and Shaken status. We've also come up with a simple protocol to move the stand from the back of the unit to the front to keep track of which stuff has been activated - pretty straight forward stuff really.

Foundry Rifle officer with Perry plastic British casualty.

I've noticed that Litko has a new casualty base featured in Jim's Lab that has a numeric dial which looks quite promising. If I could get them to prototype one that incorporates a couple dials in it then it naturally would be able to track two different sets of information and I could get rid of the dice - something to ponder...

Victrix plastic British officer along with a Offensive Miniatures drummer casualty.

Victrix plastic French officer with a Perry infantry casualty.

A New 'Painting Challenge' Recruit - Paul from Scotland

We have a fresh new volunteer to add to our merry band of hobbists who are in pursuit of the vaunted laurels in the Spring Thaw Painting Challenge. Please welcome PaulP from Scotland (also known as Paulalba in 'blogspace')!

Paul has an excellent blog that documents both the progress of his 15mm Napoleonic collection and the gaming from his local group.  I really recommend you check it out - it can be found here:

http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.com/

I'm quite impressed with Paul's painting style as it is smooth, distinct and clean - very, very nice stuff. We have a couple entries from him featured here. First up is a battery of Bavarian artillery. The castings are AB miniatures 15mm (though often referred to in the hobby as 18mm). Paul uses a mix of acrylics from GW, Vallejo, Humbrol, Foundry, and Coat d' Arms. His bases are MDF sourced from Warbases.

Next up is a late-period Prussian command stand featuring an infantry General and an officer from a Landwehr regiment. The General is a converted Battle Honours figure and the Landwehr officer is from Old Glory.

What I find particularly impressive is that Paul is just 3 years back into the hobby after a long hiatus. Pretty inspiring stuff. These two entries gives Paul a tidy eleven points. I expect we'll see much more from him in the coming weeks! Welcome aboard, Paul!