When you are choosing what units to use in a Wargames army what criteria do you use? Do you choose by - order of battle diligently researched, uniforms you like, flags you like ,regiments with interesting background or what?
I ask as I have gone to the plastic/lead mountain ( in the Shed of Doom/Horror/Rampant Untidiness and came away unscathed ) with a view to completing a project rather than spending money on new figures.
I do research uniforms, unless I want to make purely fictional units and even there I might be influenced by real ones.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am most influenced by uniforms and units I like the look of. Then I have a proportion of army branches with an aim have it balanced between cavalry, infantry and artillery with some weighted more according to the type of army. For example, a Mongol army will mostly consist of cavalry.
I have to admit, that with my ACW armies I might have units from Western and Eastern theatres intermixed but then most of my battles are generic rather than an attempt to replicate an actual battle. I once tried to replicate every uniform worn at First Bull Run. Then it was the war in Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas, then the war in New Mexico and Arizona. Now, likely as not, my historical units get roped into being part of Ruritania or Gerolstein's armies.
I usually start with an OoB or two from real battles which give proportions of different types, but then selection of units is from interesting uniforms or names.
ReplyDeleteAs an example, SYW Austrians roughly based on Lobositz for size, but units chosen for facing colours (inf), uniforms (grenze, dragoons) and /or name (cuirassiers as uniforms similar).
Others easier such as French - line based around regulars in Canada as small so can field all.
Neil
Mainly uniforms and flags - eg recent Great Northern War collections - both the Swedes and Russians were selected almost exclusively on their uniforms - the Swedes in particular, I looked for a bit of variety eg wearing Karpus caps rather than tricorns and/or facing/cuff/stocking colours other than yellow - blue coats faced yellow being the de facto "standard" uniform.
ReplyDeleteI did the same about a decade ago with my Napoleonic Austrians - some in helmets, others in shakoes, two thirds "German" and the rest "Hungarian" - but actual battalions were chosen simply to get as big a variety of facing colours as possible - its quite possible half of them NEVER served together on the same OOB - I dont really care that much!
Regiments with interesting background after I have written the background.
ReplyDeleteI typically start with a real battle and orders of battle in mind. With my 6mm SYW collection, my starting point was to build up enough for both sides for the Battle of Lobositz (like Neil). C30k a side. Then I expanded up to Torgau (c60k a side). I didn’t base the units on specific regiments as at this scale it’s very difficult to see the distinctions, except maybe the Garde. When I decided to add French and Anglo-German armies I had specific battles in mind too. Units for the British are roughly based on real regiments. But it all soon goes to pot when it comes to laying out the table. As long as the right type of unit is in place.
ReplyDeleteUnits tend to be fairly ‘vanilla’ until I get an army large enough to justify branching out to exotic units.
I’m even more free and easy with my ECW collection as uniforms were honoured more by exception, changed with new issues of clothing, and evidence of who wore what is sketchy. But proportions of troop types were initially based on the OOB for Edgehill.
Chris/Nundanket
Anything in 6mm aims to convey the 'typical' appearance of the armies so eg my Austrian 18th C infanrty are white-ish coats and a variety of historical facing colours - there's no added effort involved apart from changing the colour of the paint I'm using occasionally. My 15mm Shleswig Hosltein figures are based on actual regiments, whatever took part and appealed to me but intending to be typical uniforms of the period, nothing too exotic. My recent 28mm Boxer Uprising is more detailed layer painting and definitely drawen on as much historical information as I could find. Thus the allies are all represented and there are Boxers and Imperial troops which are pretty accurate.
ReplyDelete