Ever since I started following other gamers who play C&C N with miniatures on the board I have had this in mind. While some choose to use 4 or 5 20mm figures to represent the blocks on the board I wanted to still be able to use playing pieces that looked like blocks of troops. I also wanted to still reflect the basic tactics of the unit involved, columns for the French and line for the Brits etc. I had to lose a few figures per base on average, but now it's done I am extremely happy with the overall look, just what I wanted. The skirmishers removed from the front of the old bases have been incorporated into 'light' units to show the distinction on the board. I'm about half way done so far, but should be finished by the end of this week when I intend to play the very first scenario 'Rollica' and the plan is then to work through the entire scenario book writing up each battle for the blog and for CCNaploleonics forum. I enjoy reading different accounts of the same scenarios and they keep a tally I believe of victories over on the forum site.
Overall now this will keep me happy for the foreseeable future, at last I can play games and shift the board around the house as I need to. I can play upstairs in my painting room or take the whole thing downstairs to play on the dining table, my preferred space to relax. This has been motivated by many of the 'portable table' games and ideas from a round the blogs I follow, Ross in particular has been a great source of inspiration in proving that small games can be every bit as much fun as bigger games.
It's been hard going over the past few days, painting by day and working on this in the evenings, but the result is well worth it. I know this wont appeal to some gamers, but its perfect for me! My next planned purchase will be the Russian expansion of course and the start of the Russian units. As said before I still have in my mind the Waterloo project long term and infact this rebasing will now allow me to deploy 4 or 5 of these bases together on a purpose built terrain board, but that's for the future.
Here are some pics for now, hopefully the next post will feature a write up of the first scenario.
Looks great Lee. I really wouldn't worry about what other gamers think about using a mixture of figures and game board... it's your hobby to do as you please with so enjoy!
ReplyDeleteHow will you be registering losses on the bases?
All the best mate,
Steve
Cheers Steve. I'm using the old markers to track block losses.
DeleteLee.
I think you made the right decision there Lee and the whole thing looks great. I'm looking forward to reading your battle reports!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian, I'm rather pleased with it myself!
DeleteLee.
Looks absolutely brilliant, Lee - like the ultimate luxury boardgame, which I suppose is what it is! Certainly the use of the flat printed terrain tiles gets around the normal miniatures problem of how you represent a unit in a wood, or in a village. I like the Leader bases - can you get a Leader in a hex with a unit?
ReplyDeleteIntrigued also by your mention of multiple bases - would like to hear more of this.
Great work - this will really shake up the guys who hate miniatures - the game is the best of all hybrids.
Cheers - Tony
Thanks again Tony - the multiple unit idea will be to use one base to represent one block for the planned Waterloo scenario game.
DeleteLeader stand only just squeeze onto the hex when attached but its not too bad.
Cheers,
Lee.
Looking damn sharp there Lee.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sir.
DeleteLee
I think the new set up looks great. Remember, Battlecry, which was the first game of what has become C&C, used 20mm figures on the board. Your 6mm bases work really well and and the boards + figure are attarctive as well as practical. A good combination.
ReplyDeleteThat's not ot say that a large board with lots of figures can't be good too but I like having a practical alternative and this is 1st rate.
Thanks Ross, your games inspired me to try this, but as you say bigger conventional games are great too.
DeleteLee.
Well done with this, it looks really impressive and I suspect will look especially so for the larger scale battles. I will follow future reports with interest. I'm also looking at adapting the C&C Napoleonics but coming at it from the opposite end, in that I'm looking at creating a wooden board with a magnetic surface and hexes of varying height each with a steel base, so as to create a 3D battlefield. I'm initially planning to use the supplied wooden blocks but may emulate you in creating some 6mm bases later, as I have a box of Baccus 6mm Napoleonics awaiting painting.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of questions if I may:
1)How do you plan to handle the units with an attached leader where both the leader and the unit need to be in the same hex?
2)Have you considered having some units set up in a square formation to swap with on-table units when they go into square? This would look well, I believe, and remove the need to have an 'In Square' token placed by a unit. Of course it would mean having a few extra units but given the cost of 6mm figures would not be too onerous. Just a thought :)
Thanks Keith, I like the sound of your project too.
Deletere your questions, as said above leaders are a tight squeeze but I wanted to keep the 3 figure command bases.
Square bases are something I have talked about here some time back, I'm keen to do it and I actually have a pile of left over infantry trimmed off during rebasing so I might well try a couple using those to begin with.
Cheers,
Lee.
What size bases did you use for this?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark
Well done Sir.
ReplyDeleteThey look great!
I have done something similar using 28mm figures on a 6x4 grid mat. I use 4 x 40mmX40mm with 4 figures each to represent each block. Obviously is not as portable as the actual game board, but we enjoy it very much. Also we play the game using the original format as well, we like it both ways. It is a great game either way. Happy playing!!!! Regards.