Re-reading some rule books, and getting in some sample minis from Pendraken, I want to revisit Maurice. I had originally started working on building my first army for Maurice a few years back, even got some painted, but then a post-office hiccup ended up losing the majority of the models I had purchased and it kinda killed my enthusiasm for the whole project. Looking back at the rules, and reading through some lovely campaign blogs, got the juices flowing again, and I think this is a game my group can get into, and it has so much room for creativity in building imaginations.
Now I have about a half army (about a unit plus a few characters for nobles painted even) in 15mm, Old Glory figs from long ago with alot of character. But the variety is not huge, and I wanted to try out something new, maybe faster to paint up, and honestly, I just love sampling from different ranges. So I made a small order from Pendraken to check out what 10mm would like like on my planned basing ( I still had all the basing for the 15mm models, save a few bucks on something a little less exciting than new miniatures).
The models are quite nice, with much the same flavor and look of the Old Glory, just smaller. The ranges they have are abundant, and I can use some AWI jagers, with SYW musketeers and Napoleonic hussars to build my imagination army out of the uniforms I like the look of and not feel guilty.
I have started painting up some hussars, not only to see how quick I can go and get a result I like, but also to loosen up the old painting muscles, as it has been awhile. Another order has been placed to bulk out some infantry, and get a few guns and some nobles (hopefully pics soon).
That takes care of the the something old, now for something new, sort of. I have to admit, I bypassed this rule-set when it first came out, as it did not sound like what I wanted out of a Napoleonic game, but TooFatLaries grabbed my attention with the soon to be released second edition of Sharp Practice. The less fiddly use of cards (or tokens this time as well) and the fact that an actual deck is being produced definitely has me looking at this.
- As an aside, on the use of cards/decks in your rules. If cards are going to be a huge component of how your game plays, as activation, or abilities, or command and control, please make them available for purchase. I know many will not care they have to print out a pdf and cut out some cards, and the effort isn't the problem. But some of us are trying to introduce new products and games to a game-store environment, we want to show off a professionally made product, that the regulars are used to. Pdf only rules, or black and white only rules are fine for use, but some color and a little pizzazz goes along way into grabbing the more "big-name" manufactures players. Having a nice official looking set of cards goes along way in demoing a game, for better or worse, it just does.
But I digress, back to the game! The upside of journeying to the land of Lard, is that I already have all the models I need, a few boxes of Perry or Victrix, make up a full standard force so entry for others that want to go beyond a participation game is easily affordable. I have enough boxes of Perry french that I could hand them out and everyone at the shop could have a french army if they wanted just from the stock of stuff I bought originally for larger Napoleonic games like Black Powder. The leader/character-centric rules play into getting people invested in their armies, and open up a wide space for backstory and I really like the aspect of the pseudo-historcal/Imagination gaming.
The new rules are set to come out this April (23rd I believe) and I will be snagging myself a copy and some cards the day they become available.
So a new rule-set with old models, and an old rule-set with new models, and both my "play a Lardies game" and "play a Mustafa game" all rolled up into one. It feels good to have a plan, and one that has realistic goals. I am eager to get them to the table.
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