Skip to main content

Here's an interesting e-mail from Belgium!


I had this e-mail waiting in my in-box this morning from a visitor in Belgium (of all places)! Thought it might be interesting for your Stollen regulars to contemplate. . . especially you fans of 1/72 plastics:


Dear Stokes Schwartz,

After reading your Battlegames article with avid interest, the latest entries on your Stollen blog prompts me to write in.

- Cavalry, to begin with: Your article prompted me to seriously consider 20mm plastics again, rather than 15/18mm metal figures, for historical gaming. In that line, I wrote to HäT abut some of their 1806 sets due for release, and also mentioned a possible matrket for Seven Years War figures. Here's what they replied:

"The 7YW is indeed one of the periods we are contemplating for the future, and once we clear some of our current sets we will definitely look into it!"

Perhaps some encouragement from you and like-minded friends might help tip the scales? With Revell hussars and dragoons still widely available, I should think cuirassiers would be one of the most obvious complementary sets to make if they decide to enter the period (with Prussian infantry, esp. fusiliers, a close second). In any case, it may be worthwhile holding on to your war chest!

- Charge! gaming, coincidentally, is something a friend and I have picked as our project for this Winter. After reading through the elementary version several times however, I can find no mention of officers' role in the game's mechanics (nor in the advanced version, for that matter). - Yet the Brigadier explicitly mentions officers in his orders of battle and unit rosters. Have we overlooked something, or how do you and your opponent intend to handle this matter?

Your occasional thoughts on these and any related items would be much appreciated as we develop our imagi-national armies. Thank you again for a most inspirational article, and best wishes from Brussels,

- Stefan Schulz -


Wow! The possibility of 1/72 SYW plastics from HaT! Now, wouldn't that be something? Time for all you other plastics enthusiasts out there to begin politely badgering the HaT offices and encourging them to move ahead with this particular project. Dank je wel/Merci beaucoups Stefan!

Comments

Martin said…
Hi Stokes,

Speaking of plastics, the Zeveda Swedish Cavalry of Charles XII are available from the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company. They are excellent looking figures. I'm glad that HAT has the SYW on their radar. It will be nice to have some variety of choices when it comes to plastic.

Yours,

Martin
11:59 AM
Anonymous said…
Yep, I periodically chase them for 7YW and get the same favourable comment, so I reckon they will come along next year if we are lucky.
12:52 PM
guy said…
Stokes,

Now that is good news especially if they will do some of the 'missing' areas such as grenzs, fusiliers, frei korps etc. Your Belgium correspondent says the hussars can be found. Where?! I've been searching endlessly!
6:17 AM
Steve-the-Wargamer said…
...and for those plastic fans there was also mention of Warlord Games possibly doing some AWI in plastic in a discussion about Guildford Courthouse on the TMP 18th C. board...
7:00 AM
Snickering Corpses said…
Ha! That is awesome. I've been starting topics on HaT's forums encouraging Seven Years War figures sized to fit with the Revells about once a year or so. They usually generate about a dozen approving responses, but that's the first I'd heard any rumor of HaT actually doing it!
10:54 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And We're Off!!!

  Arrrgh!  Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus.  Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown.  More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart.   I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands.  In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands.   As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff.  Depending on ...
5 comments
Read more

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

    A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century.  And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed.   The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area.  Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are.  Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors.  Grrrr.  As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered.  For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...
3 comments
Read more

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text .  I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well.  Now, we're getting somewhere.  I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas,  Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave.  I can't do that." -- Stokes
1 comment
Read more