6mm Update

First off, four units of Swedish cavalry. A Baccus pack contains 45 and I have before made 12-men units, but this time, to be more sparse with the figures, there are ten riders on four bases in a 2-3-3-2 setup. And the formation is not a strict line as known of the GNW Swedish horse. Probably a bit anachronistic for the timeline of Schultze-Böhnstadt, too.

As usual, I've painted the figures using a dark grey primer, a high contrast brown shade and highlights on the yellow and blue uniforms and the horses. The picture above is not the best to show detail but the mass effect comes through I think.

The current status of the whole Swedish/Varangian army. I will most likely boost up both cavalry and infantry, add an artillery battery from the Baccus WSS range and it'll be complete. The army is currently 140 infantry and 52 cavalry strong (plus command). Compared to the 800+ figures amassed for the German Imagi-Nations this is a very small number, but I never expect to field all those figures in a simple 1vs1 game. I'd like to organize a multiplayer Maurice game, but I'd need one and a half more armies and three players who have a hint how the game works and don't need to be guided all the time. Maurice is that typical game that needs a thorough explanation and then at least one game to get the basics right, but once somebody gets the hang of it, it is very easy to put the pieces together. It's the combination of cards and orders that may become confusing, and the turn order is rather unusual, but that is one of the strong points I like the rules for.

Anyway, I have also planned to triple the use of most 6mm units: they will be part of the Schultze-Böhnstadt ImagiNations end of things, historical armies for the GNW/SYW and imaginary forces for the Jackewlinese Civil War - Maurice can be used for all three "periods". Logistics at its best. 

Once I have enough armies I may just launch a campaign using the Maurice campaign rules, which reminds me I wanted to read them again.

Disruption markers, courtesy of the Swedes, with blue edges and the usual dead figure and numbers 1-4 painted on a buff half-circle. I make these using a small coin, pushing the sand+PVA mess inside and removing any excess. I could reverse the colors and paint a bright number on the brown surface but I feel this is more distinct from the rank and file (actual "bases") and also more visible. 

Some terrain already featured in the Blücher AAR, perfect for very small scale just as well as 6mm. If you revisit the 'Battle of Kleuthen' game you can see that the ditches there were made of a tiny strip of paper, now this could not stand for anything but a temporary solution, so I created a good length of narrow waters to obstruct and disrupt troops. 

The hill I've talked about there, it's a piece of cardboard covered in paper and sand. The piece of green card can be a swamp or bush for 6mm tables, also very useful for the card titled 'That's not on the map!' in Maurice. 

The green pieces can be hedges or vineyards, but their end use is cover for the figures manning them. And on the two left-over pieces of plasticard I built two camps, with tents made from balsa wood and some accessories: wooden sticks for barrels, matchstick pieces for chests and a surplus chariot piece from my 6mm Ancients foray. The entire camp has a sepia quality to it as the tents are a light cream color, and I've used three types of browns to highlight the most used areas between the tents a little more. The camp may serve as an objective or just a scenery piece.