FIW Game Table Try Out

Just a quartet of photos showing an early practice set-up for a game:

Above is an overall shot of the 4' x 12' table - near the center is a creek and there is a French company on the far side off to the right and on the near side of that creek on the left is a unit of Rangers.  The Rangers are based as skirmish capable, the French as regular line troops.

There are only 91 men and one horse in the photo above - there will be over 1,000 total figures when the game is run, including available casualty figures.

The road will probably be omitted, it was my first somewhat crude attempt at making my own roads.  When time permits, I plan on making up a whole "suite" of roads for my games.

This shot is a bit closer view of the rangers who, because they are clad in green, are a bit hard to make out in this phone photo (all these photos with my iPhone).

The French regulars, La Reine, are easier to see, each company is composed of 14 stands: 12 line troop stands and two command stands.  Some of the companies have an optional stand with the commander on foot with a horse holder holding his horse (or drummer if there is drummer on the mounted stand).  This gives the option of better command radius mounted but easier target versus poorer command but harder target if dismounted.  Even the natives adhere to the 14 basic stands plus two casualty stands.

For other than foot units, the organization may vary.  I have a whopping two units of cavalry at six figures each without dismounts - one light horse from the British colonies and the French messenger unit along the St. Lawrence.  There are also a variety of higher level command figures - especially for when the "companies" are used as battalions for some games.  All told, when completed, there will be 28 companies, 12 for the British, 9 for the French, and 7 for the native Americans.  Current project will leave only six companies to finish and four of those already have a platoon each already painted (a platoon is 12 figures, the company is 3 platoons plus 6 command figures - one of which for many units will be the commanders horse where appropriate).

Each foot command gets two stands of 2 casualties per stand.  These will be used to mark each loss of four total stands - including command - and when both casualty stands are used up for the unit it will no longer be capable of offensive action, essentially down to one third original strength.

That lump in the terrain is because the ground cloth wasn't completely smoothed out and flattened.  It's been rolled up and then semi-folded for a while.

Just a closer shot showing the stepped hills used at each end of the set-up (with some lighting fluctuation).  The ground cloth and hills were originally for my pirate extravaganza back in 2012.  Still going strong - and adding elements for varied terrain options.

And, yes, as can be clearly seen with the French, I use multiple figure basing for my 15 mm FIW collection to avoid having to individually move what, ultimately, will be closer to 1800 total figures or more (adding in civilians, native villagers, artillery men, engineers, pioneers, canoers, bateux and raft men, and long boats, all with appropriate casualty figures.  Many of the latter will be useful for my pirates and my AWI as well as with the FIW.

I'm also working up some stands for the British, French, and Natives of Heroic/Villainous figures for use in games, think Nathaniel Bumpo and Magua and you'll get the right idea.  Hard to kill (they are the stars of the show when on the table) and with some special skills.  Still very much in development.

That's it for now except to say the set-up is on top of my personal gaming table - cleared off just for testing out this set-up.