Cork Hills

(Corunna, inexplicably sideways and resisting all attempts to turn it)

The hills of Cork....

...which are as nothing compared to the bewildering and irrational behaviour of their rivers, which seem to conceived solely with the purpose of upsetting innocent Dubliners.

The last few days have been very eventful and I can't say that I'm unhappy to see the back of them, they have however left precious little time for wargaming or indeed sleep.

Bob Cordery over at Wargames Miscellany has been experimenting with foamcore for use as hills in his portable wargames project. I have had some success with using cork for the various Command & Colours games. You can see above the Corunna scenario laid out using my 2mm figures, woods and buildings and using some of the river tiles from the game.

As you can see the look isn't too bad and I've found the cork a very durable and hard wearing material to work with. I've traced a card hex from the boxed game onto a cork tile and then cut the resulting shape out with a sharp craft knife. Sticking a couple of hexes together allows you to make larger hills, though after experiments with bespoke hills, I found that it was generally easier to produce a variety of shapes of between one and four hexes in size and put them together as needed.

Donogh has commented that the 2mm figures are swallowed up by the board. I can't say I mind myself, but I can see his point and have been looking over the options offered by Irregular Miniatures. They offer blocks of troops up to 96 men strong, which might be a little too big for the hexes, but would certainly make it easier for the uninitiated to manipulate them.

There is of course, the option of placing the figures on larger bases and using a marker system, but this would miss the point of using figures in the first place.

Oh and by the way, one of those clever Johnnies over at ccnapoleonics.net have come up with another Corunna scenario, this one using the Breakthrough format. You can find it here.

Command & Colours: Napoleonics Travel Edition

First attempt at a travel edition of C&C: Napoleonics 2mm figures from Irregular on a standard game board

A thought struck me this evening while I was fixing aperitifs for the family Von Kinch. I had been musing over the problem of how to make a travelling version of Command & Colours: Napoleonics. While I will in a few months or so have a home with a dedicated wargames room and table where I can set up my 6 x 4 foot hex mat and use my 20mm figures.

Wargaming is a social activity, the much missed Paddy Griffith compares hosting a wargame to hosting a dinner party in the closing paragraph of Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun, one of the finest short works on the hobby ever written. He was absolutely right. I play with my fellows because I enjoy their company and having never taken an interest in football, my conversation would be sadly limited to work or talking about a funny, little war that you've probably never heard of.

One of the chief virtues of the Command & Colours series was that they were simple, boxed games that could be played to a conclusion in the course of having a few drinks and small enough they could fit on most pub tables. It was possible to replace the plastic figures with 6mm chaps and dolly up the set somewhat with the addition of model trees, buildings and hills and still have a game that fit in a satchel or briefcase. Command & Colours: Ancients never really took off in the same way that Battlecry or Memoir '44 did amongst my social circle simply because sorting blocks is a dreadful bore.

The Frence left, 2mm miniatures from Irregular

What you can see above is a set up of the Maida scenario from ccnapoleonics.net using 2mm figures from Irregular miniatures Horse & Musket collection. Each base of 24 infantry or 12 cavalry represents a block, artillery blocks are shown as a gun team and limber, while general officers are a small base with some individual riders on them. Lazy swine that I am, I haven't painted the generals yet.

British line infantry are shown in line, French in column, Light Infantry for both sides are arranged in open order with skirmishers painted green as rifles.

I think the smaller figures answer admirably, though there will be some difficulty in distinguishing between similar troop types, like for example Guards and Grenadiers. I had thought that 6mm figures originally, but then realised that they would be unaffordable at present. The 2mm figures give a pleasing impression of mass, however I shall have to set myself to the task of determining how exactly to distinguish between the Portuguese infantry and the French in this scale.

An initial investment of £30 provided all the figures (and more) that you can see here. I think we shall have to have some playtesting to see how well prospective players cope with the smaller figure while struggling with the manifold challenges of the stress of command, poor pub lighting and being slightly toasted.