LIMITS

"That's alot of Dervish!"

"That's cause Lad they are full sized 20 figure units!"

Which is why is time I am writing about the number of figures on the gaming table, which wherein lies the "Limits" I refer to in the title of this blog. The Zareba and other games I have run as well as the scenario I plan to test run for February's Strategicon have has issues with too many figures on the table.

"The Patrol", the scenario for February has 120 Pathans on the board, plus buildings, plus 40 Sikhs, 3 British Officers and a Gatling gun. All this on a 4' x 6' table. It just maybe too crowded.

What to do????

Well, in a current order from Brigade Games I received a copy of a new set of Sudan Rules, "A Good Dusting" (look OK so far) and a copy of the Colonial Campaigns: Zulu War 1879 by Mark Fastoso. He designed the "Fastoso' Variant for The Sword and the Flame. This was used to run the scenarios in the book and instead of the usual 20 figure infantry units, it uses 8 figures, 7 soldiers and 1 Leader figure. His explanation in the forward I re-read a couple of times and it did indeed make sense. Due to the number of figures on a table, and the fact a table larger than 4' x 6' is not usually available, either the number of units or the number of figures per unit had to be adjusted. And I have read of many people using smaller, half-sized (10 figure) units due to space and cost.

The Plan

Which will be to finish the last 20 Pathans (they are half done) finish the Sikh gun crew for the Gatling Gun (which is also half done) and the telegraph poles. But a least one of my play tests I would like to try with either 10 or 8 man units and see how it goes. Smaller units could go a long way to making it easier on my 28mm TSATF games, as units can then maneuver. It would be easier on my pocketbook as well to use smaller units...

TTFN