I love Black Powder but I have a major problem funding the large 28mm armies that it is meant for. To be fair, the rules work well with any scale of figures and unit size, so the funding issue is a little self-inflicted; I just like 28mm figures and the look of large units! My pocket does not.
I am merrily working my way through a 28mm Front Rank Marlburian army, an expensive and long winded project of course, but I was prepared for that and organised myself accordingly. But I still want to play with the rules.
One aspect of the rules that particularly appealed to me was the lack of figure removal, the addition of small markers meant that your nice looking units stayed looking nice and the battles impressive. This led me to consider using a single base for a unit, a mini diorama, for some armies (particularly my ancient Greek Hoplite units in the Hail Caesar version of Black Powder). This then led me to consider using smaller scaled figures, perhaps 10mm or 6mm, on that single base, a good option for financially challenged gamers like me. However, a trip to Dunelm Mill (of all places) suggested another option; artists mounting board. I wasn’t thinking of the basing material for the figures, rather a replacement for the figures. Sacrilege? The very concept of not using figures in a figure game is anathema to many, even me if I’m honest, but needs must. For just £3.50 I had a huge board that could be cut into unit base sizes. At this price I could even afford to buy different coloured boards, one for each army I wanted; red for British, green for Russians and so on. Once these sorts of idea take a hold they tend to take on a life of their own and expand.
It was not long before I decided I could make better use of the boards, and my large coffee table at home, if I was to make the units smaller than the 28mm frontages; so I made all my units one quarter of the published size. I printed of some small unit i.d. tags that listed the units name and stats, even the special rules if any, laminated them and stuck them onto the units. Ok, not pretty, but effective and efficient. I had bought a copy of ‘The Last argument of Kings’, which gave a really neat campaign for the 1745 Jacobite uprising, but this needed dozens of units to play through each stage of the war and many hundreds of figures. My new card armies would be perfect and I could afford to make every unit the scenarios called for and still have plenty of card left over. I could even have units in different formations....all for £3.50 and a laminating pouch! Within a long afternoon I had built a huge British army in red card and a Highland one in buff card, all of which were small enough to play a decent sized battle on my coffee table.
I could never afford to buy the figures this would require, or find the time to paint them all, but I had workable, if inelegant, solution. I am now considering making such forces for periods that I would not consider buying armies but still had an interest in, such as the Waterloo campaign. This means I can play solo at home at weekends without the storage issues and the hours of setting up or packing away. I can even make terrain to suit specific battle fields.
Dunelm Mill, who’d a thought it?
Sorry if I have freaked anyone out!
Iwade Village Hall,
