Easy Armies

Following up on my experiment with little block armies, I created a new portable wargame kit

It consists of:

• An 8" x 10" gridded battle mat (cut down from a Pathfinder battle mat)
• A pack of dry erase markers (to draw terrain on the mat)
• 2 dice
• 2 tins with the unit markers

I originally cut my own markers from craft wood, but I was unsatisfied with the uneven dimensions that I achieved. I then ordered some 3mm bases from Litko and painted them up.

 I am very pleased with the Litko bases. They are regular is dimension, in contrast to my misshapen attempts. They are 3mm thick so they have some height and are easy to pick up. Additionally, the sides are a dark brown (burnt from the laser cutter perhaps?). Initially I tried to paint the sides but they did not take paint well. I found that it was just easier to leave them unpainted. Because they are dark, they don't seem obtrusive.

Here are 2 armies - Red and Blue

Rectangles represent infantry, squares are cavalry, and the circle is the general. The square that is half-tan is artillery. My thought is that if the tan half faces the enemy then the artillery is limbered otherwise it is ready for action.

The dots are unit identifiers. Rather than numbers, I marked a dot on the left, center, or right of each base.

So far, I have painted 6 armies and plan a couple more (green and perhaps yellow).

For years, I've been wanting armies for each of the countries of my Francesia imagi-nations, but I never got around to completing the project. Now I have armies for Redgrave, Bluderia, the Empire, Grayrock, and various barbarian tribes that the Francesian powers shall discover on the continent of Rapala. I just need Greenglade and Drakendorf.

I'm still working on rules for this kit.