The new figures and adapting the range to the regiment

An email this morning on the Yahoo Group asked if the new releases will allow the building of armies for Carabobo.  In the course of answering that, I figured I should expand a bit in a blog post.

One of the new releases is Venezuelan infantry.  They will look very familiar to most of you because it includes a large chunk of figures that have already been released: Chilean infantry.  The uniforms, especially at 15mm, look almost exactly the same.  I had Mike sculpt only the uniforms that differed, specifically, the cazadores and captains.  The reasoning was that, like many people in the US (and the UK, Spain and everywhere else!) I'm going through some tough economic times.  Mike and I discussed the situation and agreed it made no sense to sculpt new references that would look exactly the same as existing references.

This thinking carries through to the rest of the range.  The range is now complete enough that I will only be having new sculpts made for figures that you couldn't reasonably assemble using existing figures.  I line with this, we need to develop a way for you guys to think in terms of "what figures, regardless of what the label says, best resembles the unit I am trying to build?"

Here's an example that's a little ahead of where we're at in the series but that demonstrates the point.  In building the armies for Carabobo you will need a large number of Royalist Lanceros del Rey (King's Lancers).  These troops look, at 15mm, almost exactly like the existing Argentine Granaderos a Caballo in terms of uniform cut, features, etc.  Their uniform is red instead of blue but that's a painting thing, not a sculpting thing.  So instead of paying the hundreds of dollars to have sculpts made, hundreds more to have moulds made, etc. it is far better to simply say "use Granaderos a Caballo".

As an old school gamer who grew up in the days where my only options were whatever Airfix figures my local hobby shop had in stock, I got used to the idea of "stand ins".  "Roman Infantry" was every type of Roman infantry for every period of Roman history while "Ancient Britons" was Gaul, Briton or every Germanic tribe Rome ever fought.  The hobby has changed since then and if people need 12 figures of "Granaderos de Casa Grande" they expect to see that figure in the catalog.  What I'm talking about is splitting the difference.  If the "Granaderos de Casa Grande" look 90% like the "Cazadores de Casa Pequeño", then you should use those figures.  If it's a case where the "Granaderos" look substantially different than anything else, then I'll have the sculpts made.


The difficult part is building a system that will tell you exactly what reference you need for what unit.  I have started such a system with the current catalog listings but it needs to be much more accessible.  In the past people have asked for break downs scenario by scenario.  I have resisted this as being too cumbersome but am beginning to think such a system is, indeed, the way to go.


It also impacts things like packaging.  In some cases the only difference between units is, say, how the sergeants look or whether or the way officers wear their epaulets.  I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to put packs together that get you the figures you need with a minimum of "extra" troops or unwanted figures, etc.  I also have to think in terms of castings, spins, wear on moulds, etc.  It's a pretty big headache, especially as I am pretty ignorant of the whole manufacturing side of the hobby.  Mike has patiently explained things to me (repeatedly) but it's still a bit of a mystery and I'm certain that I've made mistakes over the time I've been building this range.  But that's my headache to suffer outside your view.  For you guys, the key is thinking in terms of the figures, not in terms of the labels.


I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get such a system established.  For years I've seen Napoleonic gamers happily adapt figures to fit whatever regiment they're trying to build, be it an obscure Austrian militia regiment or minor German state infantry battalion, and you guys know that you can email me with any questions and we'll sort out the best selection for you.