The Grande Age of Hyboria

Black powder wargames between imaginary nations (or imagi-nations as they are often called) have been a wargame staple for decades, popularised by the likes of C.S.Grant in Charge! Taken with the idea and the availability of cheap 28mm scale Napoleonic plastics I have decided to have a go at my own imagi-nation games, but rather than devise my own pseudo-Europe I have taken Hyboria, the wonderful creation of Robert E. Howard, as a template for my games. Conan may now be long dead and his exploits just the stuff of legend, but the land he knew is still gripped by war...

Sunday 22 August 2010

The Aquilonian Army

I've been working out a rough plan for the composition of the Aquilonian army using the Black Powder rules system. I like the Black Powder mechanics, being familiar with them through Warmaster and whilst they might be for "big" games, there is nothing wrong with being ambitious, especially in plastic...


Consequently I'm working on the idea of a three brigade army, each with three infantry regiments, one cavalry and one artillery battery. This will probably change as time goes on (possibly grouping the cavalry into one brigade), but the thing about Black Powder is it flexibility in this area (I may also use Barry Edward's Playable Napoleonic Wargames for some smaller Brigade level games if I can dig out my old copy).


Armed with a plan I then had to decide on unit sizes etc and I have (for the time being) decided to go with 36 figure regiments for the Aquilonians. My initial idea was to have six figures on a 40mm square base but even the slender HaT figures are too big for this so I've had to switch to four a base. I've got 8 bases now ready for undercoating, the (ninth) command base will have to wait until HaT release their (28017) French Chasseur Command as the Voltigeurs only have one officer figure and no musician of standard bearer. I may end up converting some figures for command bases with future regiments but have enough figures now to paint with this regiment and the Carabiniers who will probably form a Poitainian Guard regiment (current plan is each regiment will come from a different Aquilonian province).


Luckily this issue with command looks like it will only affect these early boxes as all subsequent releases seem to be in three box sets, marching, action poses and command. That said, converting the HaT plastics is very easy, especially head swaps and I took the opportunity to decapitate and switch a number of heads between the Voltigeur and Carabinier sets, as the uniforms are identical with only the headgear differing.

2 comments:

  1. Just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying coming along for the ride on your new campaign. These HaT figures look like a tremendous deal. Looking forward to see what you can do with them, by way of painting them up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like the organisational idea, though I'd be tempted to call each 3-unit formation a Division. At any rate, with 3 formations of all arms, you certainly have the basis for a campaign of considerable strategic interest.
    Personally, I go for 24-figure foot units (Your 4-figure per stand scheme would go well with this), which gives me more units for a given number of figures available, though this is influenced by what command figures are available. That HaT produce separate command packs gives the gamer a much freer choice on how to organise the armies...

    ReplyDelete