Table clutter.

[fsn]

Gentlemen of the Forum.

Before we start, may I suggest we take a few moments in silent contemplation of the Dark Lord and his works.

Shhhh!  At the back! Fenton! Ithoriel! It'll be the casting pits for you!


Again!

Anyway. Gentlemen, I as you are aware am a solo wargamer. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, I can't be bothered to learn rule sets    , secondly because my condition often flares up and thirdly because of the incident at the Sheffield Triples in 1984. (I know I shouldn't have got on the table, but it was the quickest way to get to him.)

This is fine. I have my own rules and they work. I use army lists to keep track of what's going on, but I want a bit more of a visual representation. I have settled on a system of marker bases placed around the unit. Now, I don't mean dice and I don't mean brightly coloured counters. They offend my aesthic sensibilities. For modern-ish warfare warfare, smoke/explosion type markers e.g.:

• "bullet spatter" - pinned
• yellow smoke - morale fail
• brown smoke - gone to ground
• black smoke - routed/retreating
• white smoke - new pope elected

This is all well and good, but I am pondering how to make this work in a pre-gunpowder affaire.

Any suggestions?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

White smoke - Pope elected
Black - rout
Brown - shaken/change trousers
Yellow - disordered
Pink - annoyed
Red - furious
Green -jealous

Bullet splatter - under artillery fire
Beer splatter - Totty thread

[getagrip]

Condition?  You okay?

Arrow storm: pinned
Yellow shield: morale fail
Brown shield: gone to ground
Discarded weapons/shields: routed/retreating
White smoke: new Pope elected (some things you just can't change).

That's my 10p's worth

[fsn]

Condition?  You okay?

Yeah. It's a silly form of agoraphobia. Tends to get worse in time of stress (like being put at threat of redundancy). Just means I'm not good in new places, particularly crowded places.

I like the coloured shields idea. Must give that a go. 

[getagrip]

Yeah. It's a silly form of agoraphobia. Tends to get worse in time of stress (like being put at threat of redundancy). Just means I'm not good in new places, particularly crowded places.

I like the coloured shields idea. Must give that a go. 

Nothing silly about agoraphobia, stress or mental health at all!

My fave was the discarded weapons which I'm going to work on

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Too right about mental illness.
I've a mates wedding in two weeks, not sure how I'll cope.

Have a look at Warbases for interesting token ideas too!
Shaken - cocktail glass!

[petercooman]

What about making single based banner/icon bearers with different colours for flags/icons and place them by the unit? Just write down wich colour banner/icon represents wich condition and you're good to go!


And i can only repeat, nothing silly about mental illness.

[toxicpixie]

Casualty figures on pennies for hits/pinned/wavering/what ever!

Enthusiastic blokes charging (again on pennies) for troops that have gone out of control/impetuous.

White smoke for having fired first volley for horse & musket (if significant!).

Warbases do many shields and bits and bobs - really useful for many, many things!

Hit dials with an archer/crossbow/musketeers on to track ammo, or a casualty on to track hits.

[fsn]

Thanks for the support, chaps.

Single standard bearers also a nice idea.

[getagrip]

That would look really good!

Nice little painting project too

[paulr]

the incident at the Sheffield Triples in 1984. (I know I shouldn't have got on the table, but it was the quickest way to get to him.)

So at the Sheffield Triples in 1984 you were the table clutter  

Best of luck for Monday

[Leon]

Little terrain items always look nice to me, so shields as mentioned above, little bases of rocks, a pile of ammo or a barrel (in our ECW range, code EC25), things like that.

[Ithoriel]

Personally, I prefer small brightly coloured dice.

Small enough not to get picked up and rolled, bright enough to see from a decent distance.

I'm tired of losing troops because the marker I though was brown is actually a muddy shade of purple so the unit I thought was suppressed is actually hidden  

[getagrip]

Personally, I prefer small brightly coloured dice.

Me too.

Anyone know where I can get 5mm dice?

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Me too.

Anyone know where I can get 5mm dice?

Irregular and Magister Militum. The irregular ones can seem to have 2 x3's due to molding faults.

IanS