Thursday, December 11, 2008

Small Breastworks - British Skirmishers

This is another of the terrain pieces my friend James made me a few years ago. This one was designed to hold a single unit of infantry based for The British are Coming! (TBAC) rules. We played TBAC for several years, but for the past few years have been playing Volley & Bayonet exclusively. We played a modified (house rules) version of TBAC which converted it to a turn, counter-turn system instead of the simultaneous movement system that it was designed to use. We found it worked more smoothly than the original design. In the end switching to V&B seemed the natural thing to do as our club has basically standardized V&B for all black powder periods. Having one set of rules for multiple periods means we don't have to teach the rules each game and we can get right to playing. Besting your opponent more often comes down to better battlefield decisions rather than a superior expertise in the rules. The V&B figure basing is slightly different than The British are Coming! but this terrain piece still seems to work nicely.

The British skirmishers are three stands I completed recently in order to prepare for a Brandywine Creek game I wanted to run. I needed to represent several small battalions, so I needed some extra skirmish stands. Knowing that this circumstance would occur often, I painted these three stands very genericly so that they can be used whenever I need such units. They're Old Glory figures from their 'British Firing Line' pack. I like this set of poses a lot and I've used several of these packs of figures to sprinkle throughout my other units to give the units a look of being in action instead of at parade rest. The rocks on the stands are small pieces of broken cork primed black and dry-brushed gray. They don't add much weight to the stand and fill the stand nicely giving the skirmishers some terrain to hide behind.

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