At the foot of Lead Mountain - My 15mm Pre-World War II mole hill & a ramble

In this video, I discuss army collecting in terms of modularity, and share some thoughts on skirmish gaming. We then delve into the box of 15mm pre-World War II miniatures and see what I have to look forward to painting.

[@RalphAstley]

You made that point about the unhistorical nature of most skirmish rules much better than I did. I still have an unfinished project to paint up two armies for the Russo-Japanese War based on Principles of War. The army sizes required were daunting and in more recent times I decided to try Age of Valor (sic), a spin-off of Age of Napoleon which in turn is a spin off of Fire and Fury, but there is still a considerable amount of painting required. A recent set of rules that I think has a nice compromise is Soldiers of Napoleon, where you are gaming a divisional sector of a much larger battlefield. So you are obliged to field a basic force but can then be reinforced from reserves which might include guard units etc. Even Napoleon or Wellington can put in an appearance to monitor your performance and provide encouragement or reserves when required, which is perfect as most wargamers have personality commanders for their armies which in the real world would have been commanded by junior officers.

[@ZenMiniPainting]

I shall have to go back and watch your videos on “Soldiers of Napoleon” and see if that mechanic is mentioned in there, but I am certainly interested in what you have described.

[@RalphAstley]

@@ZenMiniPainting Be warned, a friend of mine has just tried out Soldiers of Napoleon and was "not impressed". I got quite annoyed with him as I think he was predisposed to dislike it, being something of a 'grognard', and he and his opponent don't appear to have read the rules properly before playing. He was equally dismissive of Black Powder.