A long time ago I purchased a couple of boxes each of the Revell WW1
French and
Germans simply as an excuse to buy the fantastic Revell
WW2 German artillery set, with vague notions of WW1 skirmish action. These sat unopened and undisturbed for years with a little reinforcement by
Emhar, until a combination of the novels of
Alan Furst,
Beevor’s book on the Spanish Civil War, the appearance of ‘
A Very British Civil War’ and some fantastic sets of plastics (one by
Pegasus and
two by Caesar) produced an unstoppable momentum towards gaming the interwar period. Hät provided the hallmark of the era:
useless tanks, Italeri chipped in with
German motorcycles just begging for conversion, and my ‘Furst Wars’ project was born. ImagiNations are courtesy of a well known
Belgian reporter.
(A brief aside on the insanity of the wargamer. If I were a military modeller I would have just purchased a box of the Revell artillery, used it to build a diorama or two, and then moved on to other things. As a wargamer, I have required umpteen additional boxes of figures, suitable terrain, rules and that’s before anything hits the table, let alone the artillery….)
I wanted this period to give me something a little different in terms of scale and feel, especially once I had embarked on the whole WWII thing at platoon level. Not seeing any rules that hit that particular spot, I tried writing my own, but simply proved to myself that it’s harder than it looks. So, given the apparent infinite adaptability of
Chain of Command, I decided to use that as a base chassis and simply upscale figures to bases of 3-4 figures and see how it flowed. These games will act as the playtest, so expect a few changes. Reflecting the Too Fat Lardies’ love of the acronym, they will be called Chain Of Command UPscaled.
This period is indispensable for those scenarios involving trains but will get used elsewhere too:
2, 13, 14.
Well this is all fascinating and insightful - really enjoying what you have written so far and I think it’s given me a kick to do a bit of refocusing rather than just sitting painting and planning
ReplyDeleteThanks Graham. This project certainly has brought much more focus and intent to my painting and planning. If only it would deliver quality too...
DeleteOooh Trains! And why are you dissing the most excellent 37mm? Finest French Engineering!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you model RR folks will be impressed by what happens when I go to work on that Hornby set I have tucked away. And yes, in your hands the 37mm is absolutely lethal. No need to remind me.
ReplyDelete