Monday, February 23, 2009

On we go

More activity, but all a bit lacking in focus - perhaps the result of now not having any workable SYW armies to put on a tabletop! Still, the 'To Do' pile continues to get nibbled away at. I finally managed to collect my delivery of MDF bases from the post office. It seems my idea of the postal service bringing stuff to me now seems quaint and backward in their eyes, and it would be far more convenient for them if I came to their depot to get stuff rather than the other way round. I tried to explain to the man there that they might like to hire some sort of delivery, or

'post-man' to go round peoples' houses, but he seemed unenthusiastic. Even when I explained that most people tended to have a slot in their front door to allow things to be placed inside without them being there, he seemed unimpressed. >:-(


Anyway, the long and short of it is that I've finally got my bases! They're getting painted up now with a green undercoat, which gives me the literal base' for the two reformed armies - and it's a lot! It's certainly brought home to me the sheer scale of the proposed expansion. There's some busy months ahead. Having bases gave me a few more easy hits for rebasing existing painted figures. I concentrated on bringing Aschenbach up to a better nominal strength, so I've now added:
2 bases of Aschenbach Cuirassiers
2 bases of Aschenbach Dragoons
1 base of Aschenbach Dragoon HQ
1 base of Aschenbach Hussar HQ
1 base of Aschenbach Infantry HQ
Overall, the Aschenbach force is small and very lopsided in favour of cavalry (the infantry have been too scarce on numbers to rebase, and I also lack all mounted officers required for more HQ bases!)
Still, it's got me thinking. The campaign, as you'll recall (possibly - I had to go look it up anyway) is currently hanging at the aftermath of Aschenbach's victory just south of Spitzburg. Luftberg's General Von Hentsch now has to withdraw from the enemy's presence and the gutted city of Spitzburg, but his flight eastwards will be a fraught one. By necessity, he will have to flee eastwards along the course of the Rotenwasser river, but this will lie to his immediate north (his left flank as he marches.) If Aschenbach pursue and try to cut him off, then they will be attacking on his south (right flank) trying to cut through the road and pin him to the river. This sort of thing would give us a chance to stage a small encounter battle, between a mixed Luftberg rearguard trying to keep the road open and an Aschenbach detatchment, mixed but favouring cavalry, trying to cut off the escape route. I sense a fight coming up...

Bluebear & Adik pointed out in their blogs about the cyclical nature of wargame interests, and I believe the necessary pause to rework the armies may lead to one of my own. I point the finger of blame squarely at Wargaming Miscellany, which wantonly led me on to buy a copy of Table Top Wargames, which I am planning to use for a fictional 1914/Balkan-style war between other ImagiNations (which may include the future incarnation of Luftberg as one participants in the war to end all wars.) I've not decided if I'll post it as a blog, or if running two would be a distraction and I should just keep it to myself. Plenty of time to ponder however, as I'm still only considering the rough background as yet.

Oh, and terrain has finally been resolved in my own mind - green cloth mats, completely blank, no modular terrain. It seems so simple and easy now, after a week of agonising!

3 comments:

A J said...

Interesting you should mention 1914. I've had a flight of fancy (pardon the pun) of WW1 style aerial combat between my two nations.

Bluebear Jeff said...

If it were just an occasional post it would be one thing . . . but if you're planning on a WWI campaign, then I'd suggest a second blog.


-- Jeff

CWT said...

Hi,

AJ - it's strange the turns of coincidence, isn't it? There's always a few areas guaranteed to have people interested (ACW, WW2, etc) but for some reason most of the blogs I've seen are either quite general gaming ones or just 18th C. I blame the books by Grant & Featherstone - most people seem to have never developed the same ImagiNations idea for other periods!

Jeff - I agree, definitely a second blog would be needed. I know some other bloggers do multiple ones, but I'm not sure how much I could manage it! I think I could be all right if I kept the second one very simple, though.

C