"Commands & Colors using 18mm figures on a printed mat." Topic

I have been working on this 'sit down and play' small space project for several months and everything has now come together. It's Commands& Colors Napoleonics using 18mm AB & Blue Moon figures all based on 50mm x 35mm bases to fit the 3" grid of the printed mat by TinyWargames. Buldings are by Hovels, trees etc by S&A Scenics. Hills are home made from foamboard with a printed top shot from the mat and glued on. I use 15mm MDF circles painted green with numbers added to show 'block' losses.

The main aim was to create a game that could be easily set up and packed away and played on the dining table, sitting down to save my old back! Currently playing solo of course. but hopefully one day in the not too distant future I can find a local opponent :)

A few photos, more information on my blog of 10 years:

napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com

Cheers,
Lee.

Looks very good. I like it.

Maybe you could try to make the hills with sloped sides. Your unit bases are smaller than a hex, so you dont need such a big top.

With 5cm bases you can play all brigade rules (VnB, GA, Blucher, using one base=2 bases even AoE) and with four bases per unit variants of bataillon rules (with small armies).

10 figs in 2 ranks of 5 gives a very nice look for line infantry. Enough figures to give the sense of a full unit. I'm doing the same with 15mm Naps, but on bases 45mm wide by 30mm deep. Would also be great for playing DBN on a small table.

Decebalus – Good point re the hills, they are the one thing I am not entirely happy with so am still experimenting.

Durban Gamer – I also play DBN, it's a good little game with quite simple rules but tactically challenging and gives me the opportunity to use formations of 3 or 4 bases together which looks pretty effective. I started with DBN on a folding card table but missed the more conventional shape battlefield.

Appreciate both your comments :)

Lee.

DBN – same figure bases forming larger formations, on the 75cm x 75cm card table.

Nicely done! My "portable" is 5mm Napoleonics--24 formed infantry to a 2"x1" base and modified Wessencraft. I use free form terrain on a card table, but the armies would work with your 3" hexes and C&C.

Excellent! Great! Way to go! Combines the beauty of miniatures with a fast-playing game with tons of scenarios. The same could be done with C&C Ancients.
Enjoy!

Great looking game and figures. The older I get, the more I think something like this is the way to go.

Beautiful figures!

Very nice and very practical! I love it.

Welcome to the club.

flic.kr/p/2jQYxjJ

I chose 10mm and 2.5 inch hexes.

Lovely looking figures. The 50mm hex is similar to the 55mm used in Commands and Colors. So do you always play C&C with miniatures? I've just got into C&C, but I need some more french infantry blocks . So I'm tempted but as I'm a lousy painter I think I'd just find it too frustrating.
Paul

So do you always play C&C with miniatures?

I like looking at Napoleonic figures, but have never played C&C with miniatures.

It's a fun game and I have played every scenario at least twice in the entire Napoleonic C&C series. It might almost be harder to play with figures. I play the game like I'm playing a game of chess and think the blocks give the game a clean look.

Beautiful, I've played C&C with miniatures a couple of times and this is the best looking setup I have ever seen. I actually like the edges on the hills, not sure why

My 18mm armies are slowly lurching into playability .. Yours look fantastic

John

Certainly has all the attractiveness of the era and functionality of purpose. Now go mass produce them and make million$$$.
You'd fill the 'Toy Shop' shelves in no time!!
cheers d

Play testing included using 25mm and later 15-18mm castings. I played Talavera in 25mm many years ago, almost two decades. So it will work if you can find a hex map. I still see minis used. At the last show one game was using 6mm.

Great job on converting C&C into a miniatures game.

Very creative; Beautiful work. Our local club did this for the ancients version of command and colors.

Very. Figures are the only way to play any of the CnC games:)

Thank you to all who commented on my modest effort :) Just to try to answer some of the points raised above.

The printed hex mat (from Tinywargames UK) is actually a 3" grid (75mm) so my 50mm frontage bases fit well with just enough space to place a bit of terrain. I do also play the game straight on the C&CN board for variation which is a rather nice clean look (see pic).

I was introduced to C&C around 9 years ago when my enthusiasm for conventional wargaming was flagging and I never looked back. The fast turns with only limited numbers of units being activated means you really have to think on your feet and react quickly according to the command cards that you hold. I really like the way they handle fighting in square.

I do intend to work on the tops of the hills at least to achieve a better match to the cloth. I would also like to do something to the sides if I can. Otherwise it's pretty much come together.

Cheers all,
Lee.

And a few close ups of the bases, 50 x 35mm for foot and horse, 50 x 50mm for artillery.

With CC a unit starts with say 4 blocks and a block or more is removed when casualties occur. When you use several miniatures on a stand for CC how do you deal with casualties?

Hi PaulB – Having been playing C&C for about 9 years now I know the 'starting values' of every troop type so I don't need to mark the number of 'blocks' to begin with – even though I use miniatures I still instinctively think in terms of blocks.

I use 15mm MDF circles, painted green and marked with a number value, so for example when a unit of French cavalry loses a casualty I place a '3' marker beside it, works very well and not too visibly intrusive :)

The photo at the top of this post shows the markers in action. Once reduced to zero I remove the unit and it becomes a Victory Point.

Lee.

Fiendishly cunning. I envy your painting skills and the look of your games. Sadly I think I'll have to stick to blocks, I just wish I could get more French without having to buy another expansion. Sigh.
Good gaming
Paul

Hey Lee I was wondering how you deal with/incorporate the reality of slopes for the hills. I see some troops are right up against the edge of the hill, but that is the slope of the hill, all around the hexagons, right? What do the rules say about troops on slopes?

There are hills and flat ground, no slopes in the game. Troops attacking a unit on a hill lose a combat die.

Thanks again for the comments :)

PaulB I actually sold off all my labelled blocks from all expansions to a friend who has 'Epic' plans for them! I use miniatures exclusively these days.

companycmd – the hills are one thing still bothering me! C&C rules troops are either on a hill or off, of course you can still fight from hill hex to hill hex, but fighting uphill means you generally lose a combat dice.

The combat dice are in my opinion the best feature of the game, each dice has 2 infantry symbols, a cavalry symbol, artillery symbol, a 'flag' symbol (which causes retreats unless well supported) and a cross sabre symbol (for officer casualty rolls), a hit is scored when the relevant target symbol is rolled and you generally get to roll one combat dice for each 'block' remaining in the unit, moving fires are halved rounded down, Brits get an extra dice for firing stationary and French get an extra dice for attacking infantry in melee combat, there are lots of such nuances which make an apparently simple game tactically challenging.

Back in 2012 I put together my first C&C set up with 6mm miniatures, I tried to make it as 'conventional' as possible for a hex game by only dotting out the hexes in yellow paint and then texturing the entire surface. Still impossible to disguise the hex hills though :)

A couple of images of my set up back then (long since sold off). I do prefer playing with 18mm figures now.

Cheers,
Lee.

We play on Hexon with figures, and have ended up often using straight sided hex hills as the bases in the bigger units can slide off the standard sloped Hexon hills.

wow – awesome – inspirational in all aspects.