Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Some Thoughts on my 1683 Project

Just some random thoughts on my project after I've done a little research.

Uniform Colors
They aren't uniform, and that is a problem with 3mm.

For 3mm wargames, I have found it easiest to distinguish sides based on color. For example, red army will fight the blue army.

In 1683, there is a lot of color variation among units on a side. Some examples:
  • Janissaries are often depicted in red or blue while Azabs are green
  • Polish infantry seemed to favor blue while the hussars preferred red
Because of this, I am leaning toward a decidedly non-historical approach (or call it alternate history if you will). I'm thinking of doing the Polish army in red, Ottomans in blue, and Imperialists in white. If (more likely when) I add Russians, they'll be green.

Battle of Vienna Scenario
I found a really good scenario for Jan Sobieski's relief of Vienna. It's in Wargames Illustrated # 204. I was able to get a copy via eBay.

Here is a map of the scenario, with the Turks in orange:

The order of battle is for the DBR rules, but I can convert quite easily.

The scenario is quite large. Even if I scale it down a bit, it will be too big to handle on a single board. Therefore, I think I'll run it as three scenarios - left, center, right.

Bye Bye Byzantines
When I first got bitten by the 1683 bug, I mentioned that I planned to finish my Byzantine project first. Well, I've thrown that plan out the window.

How did that happen? When I received my recent order from Magister Militum, I put the Byzantines aside and began rummaging through my pike & shot figures. I then realized that I don't have the motivation for the Byzantines right now.

With gaming, I generally have the philosophy of just going with the flow. If I am in the mood for pike & shot, just do it. Don't try to force something else because I won't enjoy what should be a fun hobby.

So there you have it. My 1683 project moves to the top spot. I plan to keep it small at first and just paint what I need for my Pikeman's Lament-ish campaign.

But don't worry about the Byzantines. I'll get back to them. Those Sassanian elephants are really tempting.

3 comments:

  1. Why waste time on something you don’t enjoy? Quite rightly, concentrate your gaming efforts on what you will enjoy & provides fun/entertainment.
    Good luck with your efforts to “turn back the Turks” at Vienna.
    Geoff 😀

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  2. Oh, I enjoy the Byzantines, but it's just not my passion right now. But with my Gamer ADD I'm sure I'll be back.
    And I haven't posted it yet, but expect a bit of a detour in my Vienna project.

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  3. You can bet your bottom dollar that, if you decided to dispose of your Byzantines for some reason, you would find that in a very short time indeed that you had developed a sudden desperate, yearning need for some Byzzies… That’s just the way it is ;)

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