New School Imagi-Nations?

Following my previous post about The Skirmish at Sprengenhof, I received a fair bit of email correspondence and some general interest on a few forums and the like, all of which has prompted me to give a little background into the whole WVS project...

Introducing the Fosseway Indie-Fencibles...

This is a loose alliance of wargamers, dispersed along the ancient route of the Fosse Way in England who meet on an irregular basis, to collaborate on wargaming projects that take our fancy.

Well, ok… in reality, it’s just a couple of middle-aged blokes playing with toy soldiers…

In fact, most of what we’ve been up to so far has simply involved meeting up for a pub lunch and waxing lyrical about the hobby, as I’m sure many do.

We do, however, have a certain vision, an unwritten set of criteria, that is the filter through which we have decided on the projects we wish to embark upon. And this, we hope, will become clear …

Whilst embarking on an “Imagi-Nations” style project, we decided that we wanted to avoid the “old school” label in terms of figure choice, painting style, terrain, unit organisation, and rules, amongst other things.

Imaginary countries don’t have to have Spencer Smith figures, or Staddens, or even Mindens, painted in an older style, with battalions of 60 figures. Not that there is anything wrong with that either. But, it can be done a different way… and that’s what we’ve decided for this project.

Our desire was to have a setting in which we could play a number of “teaser-style” games, starting with modest forces and building from there. And we also decided that although we do have an outline schedule, we would take as long as we wanted to paint the figures – no deadlines or painting pressures. It’s a hobby.

We, therefore, present for your enjoyment (we hope) our take on what we’re terming …

“New-School Imagi-Nations”.

 

 

Some thoughts and criteria for our venture

During one particularly interesting and valuable PTSD session (that’s PTSD: Post-Traumatic Salute Discussion), we began piecing together what we wanted from our gaming.

Salute 2017 had been, in my eyes, absolutely crap! Just a personal point of view... But, it certainly felt like a completely different hobby than the one I wanted for myself. Our discussions revealed that I wasn’t alone. It wasn’t just me who was out of step. For quite some time I mused on this, and started to consider why I felt that, and what I wanted from the hobby.

So...

What did we want our wargaming to be about?

Here are some of the outpourings of our conversation…

• Skirmish games are ok… as the wargaming equivalent of an amuse-bouche, or an after-dinner entertainment over cigars and brandy. But not as a "main course."
• Having said that, games don’t have to have 1000+ figures to be enjoyable. In fact, a couple of forces of half a dozen units can give as much fun, if not more, and with carefully crafted scenarios can produce interesting tactical challenges.
• Units need to be large enough to be representative, but not so large as to be over-cumbersome on the tabletop. The thought of a unit arriving on table in column and almost reaching the opponents deployment area seems just wrong. It stunts the game.
• Let’s avoid “Biggism”… the trouble with many horse and musket periods is the desire/ requirement to make it huge… so not for us an amorphous mass of 1805 French infantry; 12 battalions of 36 infantry before your orbat allows a squadron of cavalry. No thanks. Partly because, we are realistic enough to know that the days of painting in such numbers are over. 
• Tables don’t have to be huge either. We decided to limit the number of figures per unit, the units in our orbats, and the table size to create something eminently achievable by anyone… we hope to be emulated, but that’s up to you, dear reader. So, the ability to play on a 6x5 table, expanding in time to 8x6 max seems about right for us. 
• Terrain: keeping it simple, effective, and attractive, without being cluttered or diorama quality.
•  Fast-play is a turn off! Yep, there I’ve said it. Getting the game over quickly is not a deciding criteria. We want games to last as long as they need to… and we want to take the time to enjoy it, not wizz-bang, you’re dead, game over, next… draw a card, and off we go again.
• Painting and building the forces, the scenery, the buildings is to be pressure-free, and as enjoyable a part of the hobby as the gaming.

This is not an exhaustive list of the things we chatted about, by any means. To know that we had the same ideas, the same ethos, was very encouraging, and comforting.

Driving home after this chat, it was as if all was suddenly well with the world. And as I switched on the radio in the car, they were playing an old classic. I hadn’t remembered it from before, but when I arrived home, I downloaded it. “Sebastian” by Steve Harley/ Cockney Rebel. It just so happens that St Sebastian had already been ear-marked as Patron Saint of Vaubaria. A sign?

The sun was shining, and I felt I had a hobby again…

Over the next few posts, I'll talk more about figure choice, choice of period, rules and so on...