Naming the Generals -- 

I have now generated names for several Generals and many Brigadiers for the Alpian Wars.  All Alpian officers have Italian names while all of the vile Stagonians have French names . . . nothing against the French, it is just that by keeping the names distinct helps readers know which side they are on.

The 18th century Stagonians had mostly French names, so I decided to keep those.  And while the Alpians could just as easily (and probably more realistically) had German names, I wanted to keep those for the Saxe-Bearsteiners (even though they were not in existance until the Thirty Years War).

Why so many names?  Well the rules that I'm using are Clarence Harrison's "Victory Without Quarter" and one of the optional rules allows for officer personalities for Brigadiers (of which there are six) and some other people who use the rules have added a couple for the C-in-C.

Each side will usually have one General and three Brigadiers for each battle of the mini-Campaign . . . and while it is unlikely, it is possible that three brigadiers might have the same personality.

Also all officers might be changed after each battle.  What I'm planning on is dicing for continuation/replacement.  Victors (each diced for separately) will stay on a 1-4 and be replaced on a 5-6; losers will only have a 50% chance of staying on -- 1-3 vs 4-6.  Replacements will be diced for as normal -- 1-3 being Steady; 4-6 having to dice for their personality.

Anyway here are the officers for the first battle:

Alpia:

• General Giovanni Rossi    (Steady)
• Brigadier Luigi Franscioni   (Steady)
• Brigadier Paulo Lombardi  (Steady)
• Brigadier Flavio Buffo  (Buffoon)

Stagonia:

• General Maxime Murdeau   (Steady)
• Brigadier Maurice Gilbert   (Reckless)
• Brigadier Eugene Delage   (Steady)
• Brigadier Jacques Arnoux   (Cautious)

And where did I get the names?  Well some years ago I constructed several "name generators" for WWI pilots . . . which included both French and Italian as well as several other nationalities . . . so I simply used those.

-- Jeff

Action Deck Built --  

Clarence Harrison's "Victory Without Quarter" rules, which I am going to use for my "Alpian Wars" mini-campaign, use an "acton deck" of playing cards to activate units and/or brigades.

To the left you can see what some of my cards look like.

I will note that while the Alpian cards are in red, those of the vile Stagonians are printed in black . . . the color of the hearts of that foul Imagi-Nation.

These cards were then trimmed and using clear packing tape, and taped to playing cards.

Including other units there are 15 cards for each Imagi-Nation including the four commanders (one General and three Brigadiers per army).

And, finally there are six "neutral" cards printed in green ( two artillery actions, two reload cards, one Event card and one End of Turn card).

So anyway now the action deck is completed . . . and that is one less thing to be finished before I can contemplate a game.  Next up is gluing weapons into the hands of the open-handed "Swordsmen".

-- Jeff

Pikes?  Yikes!  --    

The armies that I have for my "Alpian Wars" were purchased pre-painted many years ago (at less than lead cost I might add).  And while I'm not thrilled with the color palette that the painter used, I'm not about to re-paint them.

However I am concerned about their current "pikes".  The figure height is 30mm to the tops of their hats/helmets and the "pikes" are thin piano wire spears of 60mm.  They do not look like pikes to me.  They are too short and almost invisible.

So I am thinking of changing them.  That, of course will entail painting new pikes, removing the old ones and gluing in the new ones . . . all of which will delay any gaming.  I know, that doesn't sound like a lot but the chemotherapy doesn't leave me with much energy.

Now I have two obvious choices for new pikes.  Both are 100 mm in length and I have enough of both (I will need 72 of them).  I have some steel pikes and I have some wooden ones.  The steel ones are a bit thin for my taste and have very sharp points on them.  The wooden ones are perhaps a bit too thick but are less dangerous to the hand and will be more visible.

So right now I'm leaning toward the wooden ones . . . but also wondering if I should just accept the short "pikes" and not worry about it.

What do you think?

 -- Jeff

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Changing the Plan Again --  

Not a lot of change, really.  I've switched Stagonia's opponent around to the south, creating a new I'magi-Nation . . . the Duchy of Alpia.

They will be quasi-Italian/Swiss and this will allow me to rename the project to "The Alpian Wars".  (One of the reasons for this being that upon reflection the GNW Swedish flags looked too modern to me for the Late Renaissance).

Both Imagi-Nations will have the same size armies:

• six units of Pike & Shot
• one unit of Commanded Shot 
• one unit of Swordsmen
• one regiment of two squadrons of Cuirassiers
• two regiments of two squadrons of Trotter/Pistoliers each
• artillery -- two light or one heavy gun (plus artillery guards)
• one General with one Aide-de-Camp
• three Brigadiers

Their will actually be more Command Officers than the four listed as I will be using Clarence Harrison's optional rule for officer personalities . . . but only three for any one battle.

So that's where I sit currently.

-- Jeff