Skirmisher Reorg

Rebasing and reorganization, the bane to many.  Me?  It is nothing.  Well, almost nothing.

Since my 28mm Napoleonic project confines itself to actions in the Iberian Peninsula, not a lot of different nationalities or troops are needed.  I rarely field more than 20 infantry battalions per side.  Therefore, tackling a rebasing project is not too onerous.   

The question some may ask is, "why rebase and reorganize at all?" Reasonable question.

The main reason for undertaking this activity is that my battalion-level (where a BMU is one battalion, two squadrons, or a section of artillery) rules have evolved over the years.

The first rules' iteration saw no company skirmisher deployments out from the parent battalion.  After much play with that scheme, I decided this level of action ought to include the ability to deploy skirmishers and have skirmisher interactions as a part of the battle narrative.

That decision resulted in fielding two skirmisher 'markers' for line battalions and four skirmisher markers for light battalions.  Each skirmisher marker was represented by one, singly mounted skirmisher.  This version of the rules allowed for opposed and unopposed skirmisher actions.  It worked but I found moving so many individual markers and conducting combat between the skirmishers was tedious and slowed play.

My dissatisfaction resulted in removing individual skirmishers entirely and abstracting their value into the parent's combat effectiveness.  No more skirmisher markers.  This situation worked well, sped play, and simplified combat resolution.  Still, I had this large pile of painted skirmishers that was leftover from the previous version.  It seemed wasteful not to bring the skirmishers back into the game.  This realization led to the current iteration of the rules with respect to skirmishers.   

Reorg/rebased British and allies

Under the current (and final?) iteration of the rules, each battalion receives one two-figure skirmisher stand.  This helps to solve the problem I faced in the second iteration of having too many markers to move and fight.  Wherein line battalions had two skirmisher stands and light battalions four before, now all infantry fields one two-figure stand.  Differentiation between the capabilities between light and line is resolved through varying the skirmisher stand's intrinsic combat effectiveness.  Skirmish markers continue with the notion of opposed vs unopposed combat but light battalions do so with more efficiency since their numbers are greater.

Reorg/rebased French and allies

Of course, I kept fielding new battalions throughout these different rules' iterations.  Units fielded during the "no skirmisher" phase, had no separate skirmisher figures painted.  This necessitated going back and painting about a dozen skirmishers in total before this reorg could be completed.  Luckily, for better or worse, my painting style never seems to change much so the new recruits fit in with their more veteran brethren.