I rebased two units of Napoleonic French infantry from single based in sabot trays to four to a 45mm x 45mm.
Also getting individually based are some of Des's medieval troops, a bit like Norm, Des gets rid of stuff periodically and because he lives in a flat prefers smaller scales, so hes passed on all his medieval figures, pike and shot and his Napoleonic British , Portugese and Brunswick troops, as he says he only uses them in my shed, so they may as well live there all the time! Meanwhile, at the club, there has been a move to try and play a few games broadly around the punic wars in 28mm in the not too near future. Of course I welcome this, not that I have a Carthaginian or Polybian Republican Roman armies ( although I am of course tempted by yet another Roman army!) What I do have is the Victrix Celtic army I bought one late night in a Jamaican hotel, which is handy as I can field them as a Galatian army, complete with my existing seven chariots. The rule set chosen for this, campaign/ collective gaming project, is Swordpoint, Gripping Beasts ancient/medieval mass battle rules, which has been around for a while and is currently in its second edition.
In addition to the classical army lists, I also picked up the war of the Roses supplement, as while I dont have much in the way of ancient armies, I figured I would be able to field two medieval armies to try the rules out with one of the other Ians at the club. I started working out army lists based on the supplement and with the standard 1000 point armies needed about 250 figures for each army, which to be honest pushed me a bit, I had my two basic Impetus armies, plus Des's DBA army and his single based figures and I still had to dig out my elderly 25mm 100 years war figures out to fill them out! The infantry basing is 4 figures to a 40mm x 40mm base, my 1p based figures on sabot basing gives me something a bit under 50mm x 50mm but I figured we could cope with it. Two similar armies, two units of dismounted men at arms ( who count as being part of the horse, which you can only have 33% of the total of, two units were 312 points) a unit of retinue archers at 240 points, then for the Yorkists three units of retainer bills and three units of retainer bows at 66 ponts a unit, each bill and bow forming a mixed unit, for the Lancastrians, two retainer bill and two retainer bow, a unit of skirmishing Welsh archers, an artillery gun and a unit of levy Bill and Bow at something like 36 points a unit forming a mixed unit like the retainers and my favourite unit as its composed of citadel figures from about 1979 that I painted in enamel and are finally taking part in a battle! Some of the archers having been used in Frostgrave and the odd Hail Caesar action.
Shooting is simultaneus , the gun didnt do much, you need to accumulate four hits on a unit in order to lose a base and taking 1/10th of the unit strength makes them discouraged, not great , we used wavering chits that Ian had to mark this, he did lose a base from shooting when a retainer and the Welsh skirmish unit ganged up on a unit. There are saving throws for armour but theyre not, in my opinion excessive, light armour gives you a save on a 6 on a d6 , plate armour is quite a bit better but the men at arms still took hits, but not enough to lose a base , I won the initiative ,so advanced but was unable to charge and was duly charged by Iain in his go, except where his retinue archers had been discouraged, they had to pass an activation test in order to advance which they failed, melee was again simultaneus, we couldnt find any special benefit for these troop types and each unit fought, depending on the difference once saving throws had been counted, the loser either pulled back four inches and carried on combat or had to do that and pass a break test and if the difference was six it was an automatic break and flee, the battle line got a bit broken up as different units got pushed back. I spent three momentum points. ( which are a feature of the rules, you start with 5 and can win more during the game) on the melee between the two generals units, wasnt sure what would happen but wanted to see, I won the conflict by a matter of three, however the momentum points get added, which made it 6, automatic break and flee, game over in for instance valour and fortitude, not so much here, Ian rolled for fleeing distance and got two 6s in two d6, so I didnt catch the unit and capture his general but he is still fleeing! The levy billmen went up against Ians other men at arms unit, they lost but hadnt lost a base,yet! We'd run out of time by this point, its hard to shake off pre existing rule sets ,I think, so were going to have another go with essentially the same armies, maybe with some mounted troops, just to see what their rules are and also Ian hopes to have got the rules by then and be a bit more familiar with them, worth perservering for a bit longer. Valour and fortitude is coming out with a war of the roses version soon and we both said we would see how that compares, meanwhile Ive got to look at making up lots of plastic celts!
Got a backlog of AARs which is nice, almost ready to clear four or five units off the painting table soon, not sure which one is going to make it!
All the best
Iain
