Planning 19th Century 6x6 challenge campaign games

I originally had some WW1 games listed as part of the 6x6 challenge, but with the completion of my Imagi-Nations armies I have decided to go with these instead of WW1. I have found with some of the pervious 6x6 game challenges, having a campaign structured around the games helps with the enjoyment and encourages the playing of games.

For the 19th Century European campaign I am trying out a mapless campaign. The idea of not using a map came from reading the blog Come on! My Brave Fusiliers!

19th Century European game being played to test out some new rules

As with all my campaigns to date. I will try and keep the rules to minimum at the start, merrily begin the campaign, then add to the rules if a situation demands. Being a solo wargamer does have some advantages.

The campaign setting has Greater Novia and Ustorian battling over the disputed territory of Scailand, which sits between lands of the Ustorian monarchy and the Novian states who have come together politically under the banner of Greater Novia.

As there is no map to this campaign. Victory is determined by public opinion in the home country or states. The level public opinion goes up or down after each battle and is determined by:

• Defeat
• Glorious action
• Valiant defence
• Past glories
• Casualties

At the end of 6 games the side with the highest public opinion wins. The type of game played is selected randomly with dice: 1-3 is a pitched battle and 4-5 a small engagement. After any pitched battle, the next game must be a rear guard action. 

I will be using the rules for determining units involved in a game from Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe by Neil Thomas. Note - first game in the campaign must be a small engagement.

A flanking manœuvre in progress

Both sides start the campaign with a 50 percent public approval rating. After each battle this is adjusted by the following game outcomes:

1. Defeat - the first side to lose more than fifty percent of their force in a game loses 5 percent from opinion.
2. Glorious Action - a side that captures and hold an enemy objective gains 5 percent to opinion. As the home press write about the bravery of the troops in capturing the enemy position.
3. Valiant Defence - a side that denies the enemy and holds an objective gains 5 percent to opinion. Correspondents write about the defiant defenders and foreign sympathies starts to have an influence.
4. Past Glories - a cavalry unit successfully attacks and destroys an enemy unit gains 5 percent to opinion. Dramatic lithographs in the newspapers depict the cavalry charge rekindling memories of past victories, and nobility support of the regime is strengthened.
5. Casualties - for each lost unit roll a dice and lose 5 percent for each dice score less than 4. Early photography of the horrors of war and the high casualty lists start to appear in newspapers and working class pamphlets. Public sentiment is starting to change.

The tabletop terrain for each game will be randomly selected using a dice roll:

1. Scailand foothills - 3 x hills, 1 x building, 2 x woods
2. Scailand farmlands - 1 x hill, 2 x fields, 2 x buildings, 1 x wood
3. Scailand industry areas - 2 x hill, 3 x buildings, 1 x wood
4. Scailand plains - 2 x hills, 2 x woods, 2 x buildings
5. Scailand woodland - 1 x hills, 3 x woods, 2 x buildings
6. Scailand marshland - 3 x marshes, 1 x woods, 2 x buildings

And randomly placed on the tabletop. More on the approach in a later post.

Basing Spencer Smith figures

Having printed my second unit for my imagi-nations armies I have been playing around with how best to base units and the base sizes themselves. I am not yet decided as to whether I will use a grid for these armies or not.

The armies themselves will be a combination of ACW and Napoleonic Spencer Smith figures.

My memories of Spencer Smith figures are all in black and white from those early wargaming books borrowed from the library on multiple occasions.

My basing constraints are:

• A unit must fit into a 6 inch square. (I have no desire to rebase if I choose later to use a grid.)
• Must be big bases. (My recent basing has been one unit all on a big base as I don't like moving fiddly units.) 
• I want to be able to show units to be in line or column without the need for a marker to indicate this.
• A want as many figures as possible on a base. (Spencer Smith figures have similar poses and grouped together look wonderful.)

Infantry Column

Infantry Line

So after a few basing trials I have decided upon two bases for all units and two different base sizes.

• 3x3 inches for infantry and cavalry.
• 3x2 inches for skirmishers and artillery.

I was unsure on the artillery basing. Should it be one stand big based or two smaller bases. After a bit more playing about I went for the two smaller bases. All bases are made for good old 3mm MDF at a couple of dollars a sheet.

Infantry and cavalry use 3x3 inch bases and skirmisher and artillery units 2x3 inches. This photo shows artillery options - I went for the smaller base size.

Artillery on a smaller base size.

Artillery unit

Artillery unit limbered

Cavalry unit in line ready to charge onto the painting table!

I started this project with the idea of using my remaining ACW units which had not become brittle. Thanks to a swap of figures I have now some Spencer Smith Napoleonic figures. A lot more than expected which will add to the variety of units. The cavalry show in the above photos are lancers.