After doing a unit of French infantry, I started thinking about the old Column, Line, and Square games I had played as a kid, and how impressive it looked with all those miniatures. How much more would it be with 42mm figures? Of course, a small command was about 165 figures, so that would be about 330 figures, so the requirements were growing rapidly in my imagination. The unit pictured above, is only 2/3rds of a single battalion (24 figures), so I had a long way to go.
As I started making more figures, I found that I received most pleasure out of making them, painting them, and gaming with them, in that order. Yes, believe it or not, gaming was last! I am one of those guys that takes pleasure out of "creation", and finds it relaxing, so I spent more time "experimenting" and individualizing the figures than in "grinding them out".
The problem was, my goal was to grind them out, so it became less and less enjoyable making and painting them, which caused me to set them aside. It is only recently that I realized the true problem, that my goal was unrealistic – at least in the short term (i.e. anything measured in less than years) – so by changing my goal, I found I could get back into this part of my hobby.
So, I like Ganesha Games rules, and for the most part they are skirmish level, meaning maybe a dozen figures per side. So that is doable in a relatively short period of time. And that gives me more freedom to personalize each figure and spread out into several genres. (Right now I am doing Shadowsea, which has fantasy elements mixed with early gunpowder and steam-powered, clockwork constructs. The Three Musketeers and Flashing Steel is probably up next.)
For the more "mass produced" stuff I will probably continue building 28mm armies, using the same techniques as Matt Kirkhart and John Acar (tip of the hat to these two), but for DBA.
So, hopefully you will see more soon.
Fantastic work Dale - they are magnificent. I would love to see a command and colours game with them.
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