Home Forums Terrain and Scenery Aesthetic casualty markers…

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  • #104662
    Avatar photoAutodidact-O-Saurus
    Participant

    I’m looking for ideas for casualty markers. I’ve been using short lengths of pipe cleaners in different colors to represent different factors. Right now I’m focusing on Impetus which requires knowing if a unit has been disordered and how many VBU it’s lost. Pipe cleaners are practical, but not very pretty. So I’m thinking about using a 1″ round base with battlefield detritus on it, probably discarded shields and two spears jutting up from the ground. I could put beads on the spears to keep track of values. Also thinking about creating dials but have less enthusiasm for that idea. Still in the “mulling it over” phase.

    But I was wondering what other creative and aesthetically pleasing ways of tracking values on the war gaming table are in use. What do you do?

    TIA!

    Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
    More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

    #104667
    Avatar photodeephorse
    Participant

    The vast majority of my wargaming has been 20mm WWII.  I have based my figures so that one or more are simly removed from the table.  Where that is not possible, e.g. a heavy weapon base, then the old white plastic curtain rings come into use!  When I played Peter Gilder’s “In the Grand Manner” roster sheets were the way to track casualties.  The only other game I can remember having to record losses from a figure block was “Blucher” where we used 6mm dice in tiny 6mm dice ‘trays’ stuck on the unit’s base.

    Creative and aesthetically pleasing doesn’t really bother me, it’s more the practicality that I need.

    Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

    #104668
    Avatar photoRuarigh
    Participant

    I game in 6mm and use the Baccus casualty figures based on small circular bases. I have bases with 1, 2 and 3 casualties on so I can swap out counters as needed. I was tempted by the dials you can get, but they are generally too large for my purposes and would look odd with 6mm figures. I’m thinking about making some disorder markers with individual spare figures to mark various things. Routing might be marked by placing it behind the main stand while charging might be marked by placing it in front, and so on.

    Your idea of battlefield detritus sounds good. Maybe you could make a series of them with different numbers of spears to indicate casualties/disorder instead of using beads which might be visually distracting. Or assign a value to each type of battlefield detritus: a shield = 1 casualty, a spear = 2 casualties, etc. Mixing the different types would then offer the opportunity to have counters of various values.

    Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

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    #104669
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    A coin based to blend with the table with stones or rocks.
    1 stone = a, 2 stones = b etc.
    Might not be as cool as discarded items. But much easier and quicker and you may be able to use them in other periods?

    #104676
    Avatar photoThaddeus Blanchette
    Participant

    Drops of blood.

    No, seriously, I use broken miniatures (common in 3mm) on a little landscaped wooden disc.

    We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

    #104679

    I thought I’d cracked it with those rotating disc thingy that recorded how many hit yer little men had taken… experience proved ’em a pain in the arse to use, you spend more time fiddling with them than fighting the battle!

    Beads on spears are great if you’re only recording a unit’s status, but we found no escape from different coloured dice to record hits/and status. I bit the bullet and multi based with a foxhole for a 10mm dice, all on one stand… seems to work OK for our shaky, gnarled and arthritic germans*.

    *german bands…. hands. 

    "Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"

    "I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"

    #104680
    Avatar photoRadar
    Participant

    After several attempts at not getting it quite right, I have a specific figure for different units – harquebusier for cavalry, musketeer for infantry, and a generic casualty for dragoons/artillery/engineers. My Covenanters have a dead Marty Pellow figure for foot, similar but with Scots bonnet for other units, and a harquebusier with bonnet for cavalry.

    All mounted on customised dials. Different slogans on edge for Parliament/Royalist/Covenanters.

    http://www.keepyourpowderdry.co.uk/2018/11/casualty-markers-take-3.html?m=1

    #104681
    Avatar photoWhirlwind
    Participant

    I use casualty figures on small bases or loose skirmisher figures, depending upon game and period.

    #104683
    Avatar photoDarkest Star Games
    Participant

    Most of my gaming is individually based skirmishing, so I have casualty figures that replace fighting figures where they get zapped.  They (mostly) aren’t based and there are dead figures (face down) and WIA-out-of-fight figures (face up, usually bandaged).  The difference is because generally if a Medic can make it to a OOF figure within 3 turns he may be patched up and sent back into the fray.  KIA figures usually need to be recovered before the game ends as well.

    "I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

    #104893
    Avatar photoAutodidact-O-Saurus
    Participant

    HA! The “drops of blood” comment reminded me of what I had done for F&I long ago. Dug them out to stimulate ideas. The pool of blood is simply PVC mixed with red paint. The prone figures are epoxy casts of commercial figures laid into a base which I made .

    After mulling it over for a week I think for Impetus I’ll probably try the ‘foxhole’ idea on the base of the unit using small, 6mm dice. While I like the dial and scenic exchange ideas I’ve decided they add more clutter than I’d like and I’m concerned they’ll get separated from the unit they represent. With the foxhole on the base, you only have to touch the indicator once–when it changes. It automatically moves with its parent. With the others you have to touch them multiple times, when the indicator changes and when the unit moves. The tricky part now will be retrofitting the bases I’ve already completed.

    Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
    More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

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