After finishing my Infantry and cavalry, I am bound to add the guns to my 28mm french army... But I´m really stunned about the cost.... building over 75€ for the guns alone, even without crew anfd limbers!.
Only plastic option I know for artillery is Victrix, but they only produce british guns... anyone knows an economical option for frenchies? or tried to convert the Victrix´s british guns?
One alternative is to build dioramas around one or two artillery pieces per battery. I have notced in our games that once deployed, artillery uses mainly prolong for most of the battle. With this in mind, why do you really HAVE to have 4 artillery pieces per battery? Simply base two pieces on two halves of the frontage and you've got yourself a battery. Ex: We use 2" basing for our 28mm figs @ 4 inf, 2 cav or one gun per 2" base. Typical French foot battery of 4 guns = 8" frontage. Take two 4"x2" "sabots (bases)" and mount a gun per sabot. Better yet, make a nice diorama for each 4" frontage sabot and you will have a nicely done battery. By doing this,you can form compressed frontage or full frontage with ease. You could even do this with one 8" sabot w/ one gun per battery, if you dont use compressed frontage.
I actually think that this will give you a more to scale look in 28mm that having 4 guns per battery - 4 bases w/ 4 guns just looks gun heavy to me, especially w/ 28mm figs...
Just a suggestion....
Interesting approach. Cuts in half the needed investment and can be rebased in the long run , when finances allow...
How do you depict howitzer proportion? , and 6 guns/3 bases horse batteries?
If I were going this route, I wouldnt worry about a "proper" mix of howitzers, rather put one in every two or three batteries for variety sake....as to horse gun batteries, you would have to go with a single 6" sabot in my example (assuming a normal HA btty is 3 stands @ 2" under my mounting system)...one or two guns on the single 6" sabot...downside would be that you couldnt use a compressed frontage...
Or could you? Would having two 3" sabots (one gun each) really change anything?
Again, 90% of the time in our games, once a battery was unlimbered it has never limbered back up....and we have never seen a need to deploy in compressed frontage artillery (optional rule anyway)
If this is a common experience in your games, why couldnt you use two 3" sabots for HA?
Again, just thinking out loud...
Here is my solution:
http://assortedminiatures.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/missed-these-french-artillery/
and here is a shot of a Spanish 3 gun battery:
http://assortedminiatures.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/2010-01-10.jpg
J
The other option I am using is to cut down on crew. I am not mounting my guns with the crew and then painting only guns of different calibres. So I have 8 bases of British guns but 6lbers, 9lbers and howitzers as required.
The Old Glory guns aren't a terrible price and they sell them seperately.
Very kind from all you providing those ideas and examples
@Basilhare, I think the 3" sabots could be misinterpreted if/when charged in close combat by a single-base column if they are "caught" in compres...but thats probably so bizarre as to be left out of account
@drferling , yours seems the same solution as basilhare´s , I specially appreciate the spanish photos as I mount infantry in three figures/base myself (not cost but painting time being the constraint for infantry) .it allows me to see final effect
@TodCreasey that seems another good idea, even convined with the previous ones, adding flexibility at low cost. As a side question, I ´ve read Old Glory guns are a little downsize related to their own artillery crews, is that true?
Thanks again to all of you, I promise showing the final results!
OG guns seem fine to me. I'm not keen on their figures though - my figures are from other manufacturers - I just round out the guns with OG.
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