Remember that a typical 6-8 gun battery of the period would roughly take up the frontage of an entire infantry battalion and the support infrastructure behind each battery (literally) was very large (typically 70-80 men plus, limbers, caissons, forges, etc with around 60 horses to maneuver it) all of which had to be carefully dispersed so not be too much of a target to counter-battery fire. So in fact the footprint of a battery on a game table is usually too small, not too large (especially in depth). I know this will not temper your rage in having to collect and paint artillery but at least you know you're doing it for a good reason...
February 25, 2011 at 2:01 PM
Well, it's been a while since I last added some stuff as part of my Napoleonic Challenge, but given that Curt C has fired up a Napoleonic spring thaw painting challenge, it was time to get back at it. My goal-list for this project still stood on the blog, and I finished off a pair of 6-pounder guns with crew this week.
As Curt notes in his blog, I absolutely hate painting artillery. Consistent with many of my views on the hobby, there is no rational reason for this. I just find the effort/reward ratio really low on the guns. While the Black Powder game still hews to what I call the "get-over-yourself-re:artillery" school of thinking and lets one gun and crew represent a battery, other new "grand manner" style rules we are looking at need several guns for a battery. Forty infantry models can represent a 500 man battalion, but to abstract 10 guns I need eight guns and crews? The amount of painting an modelling needed just to get a damn gun battery on the table is totally out of whack to my impatient pea-sized brain.
There are all sorts of "rules" reasons for having the big batteries which I'm sure are quite sound (the gun batteries actually took a lot of space on the battlefield, the other rule sets like Shako are too casual in letting units maneuver near them, it makes you as a player think a lot more about where to lay the guns etc.)I still can't stand it, but if we are going to blast Napoleon's lackies, I'll have to get over it and pile in several more pieces and crews! A fresh order for more figs is already going out today...
Meanwhile, to keep up some momentum, a skirmish unit of Jaegers is up next. These are Foundry as well. Here is a picture of the first "test" figures...
"And back to Napoleonics..."
1 Comment -
Very nice Greg!
Remember that a typical 6-8 gun battery of the period would roughly take up the frontage of an entire infantry battalion and the support infrastructure behind each battery (literally) was very large (typically 70-80 men plus, limbers, caissons, forges, etc with around 60 horses to maneuver it) all of which had to be carefully dispersed so not be too much of a target to counter-battery fire. So in fact the footprint of a battery on a game table is usually too small, not too large (especially in depth). I know this will not temper your rage in having to collect and paint artillery but at least you know you're doing it for a good reason...
February 25, 2011 at 2:01 PM