Paper Little Wars

Some time ago (good grief...it was almost 3 years!) I was tempted at Salute by a demo game using the Paperboys paper armies designed by Peter Dennis and  published by Helion Publishing.  I  bought and built 2 Jacobite armies and (unlike some projects) they actually made it onto the table for some excellent games (they can be found HERE).  Round about the same time I'd painted up a load of 54mm Northwest Frontier figures (and again, managed to get several games in with them...links HERE).  I thought I'd scratched the paper soldier and 54mm itch and hadn't felt the urge to develop these any further.  You can see where this is going...

Late last year I was looking online and came across the Paperboys 'Little Wars' book.  Now I'm not really a fan of the toy soldier look and have no great nostalgia for these kind of rules...my introduction to wargames rules was with WRG 6th Edition... but these had an instant appeal and for some reason I was quite tempted... the figures have a real charm about them.  Then I discovered that the book includes model Martian Tripods for a War of the Worlds game and that was that!  My wife kindly bought me a set for xmas and I have started on a major cutting and sticking project.

The book contains 2 armies... Red (British) and Blue (French).  There are a good range of troops included ranging from infantry, highlanders, light and heavy cavalry, Zouaves, Algerians and artillery crews.  These are to man the large elastic band powered cannon that you can build with the rules and use to knock over your opponents figures!

Mr Wells and co. hard at play

I've started on the French and I'm very pleased with how they look

Now I need to give some thought on how to use them on the tabletop.  I love the look of 54mm figures but unless you have a very large table some compromises are needed to make them fit without the table being overcrowded.  I'm not particularly interested in using the Little Wars rules included with the book, although they make an interesting read.  The Sword and the Flame rules often get suggested for this scale and period but having played a couple of games a few years ago I'm not a fan.  I'm thinking that either The Men Who Would be Kings or Rebels and Patriots from Osprey would work well... TMWWBKs has an option to reduce units to half size for large scale which works well and I can't see why this wouldn't also work for R&P.

In terms of actual games there are a few options.  The Paperboys website has a download available for purchase for an equivalent Prussian army and that immediately opens up the potential for a Franco-Prussian War game.  The FPW is a period I find fascinating... partly because of the clash of technologies and tactics... but also because it was a war that I, rather embarrassingly,  knew nothing about it for quite some time.  I suspect it's one that has passed lots of non-wargamer/history nerds by, certainly in the UK.  I have had 2 6mm FPW armies for many years so shifting to the other end of the scale could be fun.

The Prussian army also opens up the option of a Battle of Dorking scenario with the beastly Hun battling redcoated British troops just down the road from me in Surrey.  And then of course there are the tripods....