I wanted to do a reasonable sized unit as well so for $400, Wheat's Tigers.
Most of the time these guys get represented on the table as Zouaves, but only 1 of the five companies were equipped as Zouaves -- and then only at the beginning of the war. The other companies were outfitted in "salt-and-pepper" weave trousers, red firemen's shirts and both fezzes (which they apparently left in camp) and straw hats. I really liked the idea of the straw hats, so that's what I did them with.
The figures are Redoubt with 'bare' heads and the straw hats are a mix of plastic and metal parts from Warlord's ECW range.
There's a bunch of riflemen, a sergeant, lieutenant, drummer and flag-bearer. All the riflemen are Zouaves (higher pluck than regulars); it turns out that in larger LotOW games, it simply gets too annoying trying to have different skill/pluck ratings within the units, so the recent additions are units with all the figures the same. It makes it a little more tricky to juggle the unit to fit the cost, but I think it's worth it for the better playability.
Dear Katie,
ReplyDeleteMy "read" of the valor of this unit is that when sent to seize an objective, they would go all out - or die trying. Since you painted these, I would say that you could balance them by creating a high morale value unit for the Union in the same numbers. For example, the Iron Brigade had five regiments - simply raise one regiment with Hardee hats for balance. On a whole other level, I would not worry too much about army lists. In the over two thousand battles of the US Civil War no one had an army list. You did a lovely job with these figures. My one reservation is that some of the trousers are described as being white with red and blue stripes, made as they were from mattress material. My guess is that after about six months they'd be wearing whatever they could get. The straw hats are prfect for these figures.
Jerry
Ah, now funnily enough, $500 of Iron Brigade are in the painting queue. I just got sidetracked by the Flintloque figures...
ReplyDeleteThe Iron Brigade are slightly lower in morale (the same level as regular infantry) but tougher (harder to wound both in melee and ranged).
The worrying about the army lists is more that we tend to play these as group games on weekends, and a lot of the players are new to the system so I don't want to give them something too unbalanced for their first game.