Saturday 30 May 2020

WSS paper soldier dragoon unit completed

During the week I was able to complete a paper soldier dragoon unit. Actually two units were cut out and based, one of mounted dragoons and a second of dismounted dragoons. While designed for the War of Spanish Succession, I will be putting them to use as Government dragoons for some Jacobite Rebellion games.
Mounted dragoons
Dragoons on dismounted
The current project has completed so far:

  • French - 4 infantry and 2 cavalry
  • Dutch/British - 4 infantry, 2 cavalry, and 1 dragoon

As much as I try to line up both sides of the cut out paper soldiers there are occasions where the front and back can be out of line. This is particularly so for mounted units. One trick I use is to colour in with a felt-tipped pen the out of line area. While not perfect it certainly helps to disguise these areas.

Out of line after cutting.
Touched up with felt-tipped pen.
Effect once all based up and finished.
Looping back on the Jacobite Rebellion paper armies, which I completed about a year ago (May 2019) with a one or two later unit additions. I have had a number of games with them to develop and tryout different rules and these seem to be reasonably settled for the present. So I was thinking it is time to use these armies in a campaign.

The rules created in a zine style.
The layout of the zine.
While my main campaign focus is the WW2 Western Desert currently underway. It is always fun to sneak in a small campaign of a few battles or smaller engagements. Having recently completed a area based campaign with my English Civil War and the WW2 Western Desert being a linear style campaign, I though a different style of campaign would be good to do.

The campaign approach I am planning is going to use ideas from the children's snakes and ladders game. The snakes and ladders will be replaced with red and blue arrows and represent the success and tribulations of campaigning. For example: muddy roads, supporters join the cause, desertions, no pay, intelligence arrives from spy in enemy camp, etc.)

Snakes and ladders game example
The arrival at the finish by one side or the other will result in a final and decisive battle. Obviously, getting to the finish first will be beneficial in terms of troops and/or terrain placement on the tabletop. Along the way there will be engagement squares which will unlike the original game will have both a snake (tribulation) and ladder (success). When landing on these squares a battle occurs and the campaign moves to the tabletop. Win and you ascend towards the finish, lose and you descend back towards the start.


17 comments:

  1. Hi Peter- I like your Snakes & Ladders idea for evolving a Campaign - it sounds quirky - but it all makes perfect sense. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. Hi KEV, I am drawing up the campaign this weekend. It should be fun.

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  2. Peter, always a novel idea from you. Snakes and ladders for a Wargaming campaign? Who would have thought of that? I like your paper armies. Good stuff.

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    1. Thanks. I am looking forward to drafting up the campaign board.

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  3. An interesting idea - looking forward to seeing how you actually implement it as your campaign systems are a pretty good balance between the simple and the effective.

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    1. Thanks. The challenge will be determining how many squares have snakes or ladders, or both in the case of battles.

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  4. Brilliant, just brilliant!

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    1. Thank you kindly. I am looking forward to drawing it up and testing it out.

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  5. Replies
    1. Thanks, I am eager to draw it up this week.

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  6. Some very nice ideas here and watching closely. I have in mind not just Jacobite, but the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685. I think your ideas would work very well there too.

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    1. Thank you. I am working on the Jacobite campaign over the week, but have a WW2 campaign game to play first.

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  7. Another great idea Peter. Where do you get them all from?

    The zine idea for the rules is a nice touch. Excellent stuff.

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    1. Thank you. Th ideas seem to come when I am either bicycling to work or going for a lunchtime walk.

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    2. Just goes to show exercise is good for you!

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  8. A great idea to use S&L for a campaign and am looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

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  9. Thanks. I hope to play between 6-10 games in the campaign.

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