Monday 5 October 2009

Many moons ago!

Back when i was at college ,in fact,i remember reading the "Military Modelling Annual" circa 1983 and i was very taken with an article about a skirmish game set in America in the 1750`s during the French and Indian wars.Now,i don`t have much interest in the FIW,but i remember thinking about setting the game in mid 17th century Ukraine and having a fort garrisoned by Poles or registered Cossacks attacked by rebel Cossacks supported by Tartars.At the time the only 28mm range available for this was the one by Essex minis and to be honest there wasn`t a great deal of variety in the figs available.
Now,earlier today,as i was killing time before setting off to work i was flicking through my back issues of "Battlegames" when i came upon Stuart Asquith`s article about an attack on a fort in the FIW and i got to thinking about TAG`S ranges of 17th century Poles,Cossacks and Tartars.I`m very tempted to make a serious investment in time and figures in this period and TAG make a very very extensive range,the figs are very well detailed and they don`t charge postage,which is all very well and good,but really all that armour and all those horses,but here`s a small project with only a few Tartar cavalry to worry about,my initial plans would require:
44 Cossack infantry
12 cossack cavalry
8 Tartar infantry
12 Tartar cavalry
and for the defenders:
12 Polish infantry
8 Wybraniecka infantry
4 command figs
4 Registered Cossack infantry
and maybe a small gun.
Small enough forces to start with,but i could expand to include relief forces and in time build up a Muscovite garrison and move the game further east,we`ll see how it goes.
My next purchases will be some Russians,Turks and Bulgarians from Outpost to paint up as test figs for the war of 1877-78.
I`ve got up to the equipment stage of my Hungarian inf and i expect to finish them off over the next couple of days and the prepare the next six for painting on Wednesday.I`ve got an early start in the morning so i`d best get off to bed.

cheeers,Andy

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