Three Musketeers using Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles?

[FifteensAway]

At long last, I am working on my Bluemoon (and a little more) Musketeers figures to be individually based on round steel discs. 
 
Wondering if anyone has used Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles for Three Musketeers?

Reason for Bigger Battles is I will have probably about 120 fighting figures (in addition to a good collection of unarmed men, women, and a few children to add color to the gaming table - some from ECW range from Bluemoon besides the ones from their Musketeer range). 

33 figures I have in both mounted and dismounted versions (the main characters and standard musketeers - both King's and Cardinal's Guard and highwaymen).  I have another 24 mounted figures (from Khurasan) which will allow me to 'mount' some of the Bluemoon characters like Rochefort, perhaps the king, etc.  While not designed to match, a little 'painting magic' will get them to be 'close enough'.  There are also 15 musketeers plus 10 more foot for each side.  Still sorting how many of the 'character' figures will count as fighters for grand melees which is why the 120 is 'about' rather than a certain number.

I've also got a good supply of dead and some wounded plus dead horses, mostly from Donnington Miniaures - and not quite sure how I will use these in games except as 'decor' but I'll figure something out - and welcome suggestions.

Architecture will, mostly, be from my pirate buildings which are 'close enough'.  I suspect it is the buildings issue that has kept a lot of people from doing more with musketeers.  Perhaps I've 'solved' that dilemma? 

So, again, like to hear from anyone who has used Fistful of Lead for musketeer gaming.  (I know of the Eureka rules and the Osprey rules but neither fits what I am planning.)

Thanks!

[NickNascati]

I regularly use FfoL for Three Musketeers games, but the standard version.  I do small games only.

[FifteensAway]

Thanks, Nick. 

I went a bit overboard but I wanted to do a battle similar to the scene in the 1993 Three Musketeers movie, the one with Tim Curry as Richelieu, where dozens of King's Guards rush at dozens of Cardinal's Guards.  Also, originally planned to do three figures to a base so that also lead to buying even more figures.  I guess I could reverse downsize now but since I have the figures, I plan to go ahead 'as is'.  Not so overwhelming since I am using the range from Bluemoon in 15 mm, supplemented with a number of packs from their ECW range and a small number of Khurasan figures and dead men and horses from Donnington.

At least by using individual basing I can also do more traditional small skirmish games besides my goal of a Very Large Skirmish game - and thus the Bigger Battles question.

In your games, what do you use for buildings?  And do you have photos you can post up to show us - or maybe link to a game report somewhere?  Any special adjustments you make using the rules for Musketeers?

Again, thanks.

[NickNascati]

Here are some photos.  Figures are 28mm Bloody Miniatures ECW, painted not quite correctly.  I’ve since sourced 20 of the great Redoubt Musketeers still being painted. The individual houses are dollar store mini doll houses. The bigger pieces are 3D prints.

[CapnJim]

While we've never used FFoL:BB for this particular period, we've used them for several others (War of 1812, Anglo-Zulu War, WW2, Vietnam, Modern, Star Wars, etc.).  And they've worked well for all fo them.  I see no reason why they wouldn't work for The Three Musketeers.  I would probably make the Three (Four, realy, counting D'Artagnan) Musketeers Veteran "Heroes"...

[FifteensAway]

Thanks, Nick, for the photo.  And below is a WIP shot of a portion of my collection - all now cleaned and ready for basing:



That is probably a bit less than a third of the figures I will have for this collection.

CapnJim, you may be one of FFOL rule's biggest fans - was searching for some other stuff and saw a good portion of FFOL posts were from you. 

[NickNascati]

My specific Three Musketeers collection consists at the moment of twenty figures.

[CapnJim]

CapnJim, you may be one of FFOL rule's biggest fans - was searching for some other stuff and saw a good portion of FFOL posts were from you. 

Yes, well, my group and I do like them.  They're quite versatile, you see... 

[FifteensAway]

Nick, if you are referring to your Redoubt figures then you have some beautiful sculpts to paint.

Now, "color me happy".  I was able this morning to match all 24 mounted figures from Khurasan to figures from the Bluemoon Civilians and Personalities pack plus the Cardinal and Rochefort (and three "damsels" as they call them) pack, 32 figures x 2 packs plus the five from the Cardinal pack which means 69 figures.  '

The Civilians packs: 29 of these figures are women - with only the three from the Cardinal pack being unique sculpts, all the others are two of each (the 32 figures in the personality packs are all unique, the duplication is from two packs).  I will probably use one of the three unique figures as Queen Anne and the hooded one as M'Lady - reminds of Rebecca de Mornay as the character.  Two of the women are kneeling about to be beheaded - and I have two matching executioners; one will be M'Lady and the Executioner of Lille, I think the other 'set' will be "Chopper Charlie" and his victim shall be Lily - both fabrications of my imagination (there was a real Chopper Charlie in France about a century too late for our period).  The other unique woman perhaps will be Constance Bonaciuex - rather than the one (plus duplicate) in the Character packs.  I think there are 16 unarmed men in the Character pack including the executioners - and only 4 of them are musketeers at leisure, mostly they are servants - though not all, some being 'gentlemen'.

I only matched armed foot figures to the mounted figures except for the duplicate king figures and the Cardinal, Rochefort of course is armed - that means 21 armed figures both mounted and on foot.  The minimum a figure needed to have to match was at least wearing a sword scabbard.  But the matches worked out pretty good, like the two musketeers waving their hats got matched to two mounted figures waving their hats, not perfect but pretty cool.

So, with the 21 armed and 3 unarmed mounted/foot pairs, I add that to the 4 armed Musketeers Athos, Aramis, Porthos, and D'Artagnan and the unarmed servant Planchet, and the three duplicate armed Highwaymen, and then the five packs of five each mounted and foot musketeers, I arrive at 57 sets of mounted and foot figures, 53 of them armed.  I have no plans to use dismounted horses as markers though I am tempted to perhaps add that in?  Hmmm.  Does mean adding 57 horses to paint?!  Hmmm.  (Zero chance I am going to not glue in place the mounted figures!). Maybe easier to just leave the mounted figure in place with a Marker to indicate it is just the horse.  Thoughts?

So, 53 armed mounted/foot and then 15 and 15 foot musketeers without mounts and then the 10 and 10 soldiers on foot without mounts and I get a total of 103 fighters!  That ought to make quite a grand skirmish game.

Off to keep gluing figures to bases - and I will need to label bases somehow.  Still to go are the actual musketeers and the rest of the King's Guard plus the Cardinal's Guard and the rest of the unarmed civilians - and then the dead and wounded men.

[NickNascati]

Oh, I was heavy into 15mm for a couple of years.  I had all of those Blue Moon musketeer sets.  Very nice they were.  As I enjoy painting as much as gaming, I made the decision to move back to larger minis.
Here though is a small scene I did with two of the Blue Moon personalities.  I give you the execution of Milaldy DeWinter -

[FifteensAway]

Nice vignette, Nick.  Not sure I'll go that route but it is tempting.



The 26 dead horses, from Donnington, not based, just primed the underside same color as the bottom side of all the figure stands.



And the next lot:

Second photo has 42 dead men plus 4 sitting wounded - the dead are mostly from Donnington, the sitting I think are mostly ECW Bluemoon.  On the far right in the back are the two teams of four horses for the coaches and in front of them are the five coach occupants/driver with their hands up (the other coach has seated driver and two pairs of seated passengers.  Last bit I will tackle will be assembling the coaches - a minor chore and likely not today.

In front of the coach figures are the three sets of Highwaymen - by painting each set with a different horse color and clothing theme color - say black, brown, and tan - they shouldn't look too identical on the table.

The first 'three wide column' moving left are 12 women and girls towards the back and 18 men and boys towards the front, I think of these as peasants.  Figures from Bluemoon ECW civilians pack, two sets.

Next 'three wide column' are 24 various working men such as carters, engineers, pioneers, etc.  The front row, behind the seated wounded, on the left, has the two figures as one casting - two men drinking.

Last 'three wide column' is another 24 various men like artillery, engineers, in camp at rest, and even - up front - a set of three men back from a hunting trip with one carrying a rabbit by its ears.

The Musketeer Heroes and King's Guard are glued to bases, just waiting getting the Cardinal's Guard glued to bases before taking a photo - not too far away today (hopefully).

Too stormy today to prime figures and probably the same tomorrow but hope to have all this stuff primed during this week.

After short break and a bit of storm clean up - blown over pot - back to glueing.

And a few hours later....



The King's Guard on the top with the hero musketeers Athos, Aramis, Porthos with D'Artagnan and Planchet.  Top right are four dead and four crawling wounded.

Bottom is the Cardinal's Guard and bottom left eight dead.



This is another view of items from yesterday and dead horses in one of the three storage containers that will be the home of these figures.

Except for assembling the coaches and gluing a halberd or two to the Khurasan foot figures, that is all the figures for this collection ready for priming.

Probably too hard to see but the significance of the last photo above is it shows the 24 mounted figures from Khurasan paired off with 24 figures from Bluemoon. 

Now just need clear weather for priming.  Far too windy today - trees getting blown down kind of wind.

[NickNascati]

That is a daunting project indeed.  Good luck.

[FifteensAway]

Well, yes and no on the daunting.  A lot of figures to paint?  Sure.  But a lot less than most of my collections. 

I have broken it down into being able to supply ten players each with three "forces" using Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles.  Every 'force' player will have a group of five mounted with matching dismounts, mostly musketeers/Cadinal's guards, another five just foot of same, and then a varied number group of "civilians" - as few as nine, as many as fifteen for the civlians. 

Each force side will have 50 total fighters: the King's and the Cardinal's.  The Highwaymen will be separate.

Almost everything is primed except for the two coaches, fiddly little buggers, and the three weapons I added to a few figures, spontoons and halberd.  I went with a camouflage sand color, dead flat, as my primer - I don't like white, too unforgiving and I didn't want to with black or my usual red brown this go round.

Responses from me will be sporadic until I get full computer access restored, actually at a public library to piggy-back onto their wi-fi and internet.  Monster storm means next date for a service call may be all the way out to the 20th!  But I will try and get by the library a number of times between now and then to avoid getting too far behind.

edit: seems computer access is restored!

[FifteensAway]

Computer access been back for a week, thankfully.

Already washed, need to file and 'blade' some newly acquired figures and I think I will call my Musketeer collection complete - if not yet painted.  Once new figures are cleaned up, will glue to their bases for priming tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

I shall, however, reserve the right to borrow some civilian figures from my Robin Hood stuff, even further away from being painted, I think they will fit close enough to bulk up crowds when and if needed.

Reason for adding some more figures, from Bluemoon's Musketeer range - two packs of King's Guard mounted and on foot (use for both sides for my purposes, red or blue), is that it will allow me to have those same 50 fighting figures per side plus five more for principal characters for both sides - even if I have to 'invent' some.  Not quite an 'invention' but I've added a fifth musketeer who will be known as Alber' (Albert).  Going to have to do some searching to determine who the King's Guards five will be - besides Rochefort, of course.  I think there are a few named guards in the Dumas books.  So that means 55 + 55 fighting figures for a total of 110.

My big challenge is sorting out the musket and pistol fighting from the sword and melee fighting in such a way as to not over "power" the missile weapons - they are all "musket"-eers after all, even the King's Guards.  Swashbuckling, first and foremost.  Welcome thoughts on that front. 

As consituted, I can readily provide a nice force for each of 10 players.  One "Main" Character, mounted and dismounted version, three groups of five mounted or dismounted musketeer/guards, and five groups of five foot only musketeers or similar for each player.  Most of the figures have a sword as their main drawn weapon but there are 10 for each side with muskets - part of the dilemma mentioned above about firing versus sword play.

The rest of the figures will be NPC types or scenario goals, etc.  Or maybe just 'mobile' scenery.  For some games, each player will also be tasked with running one or more groups of NPC figures.

[FifteensAway]

FORCES OF THE KING

King Louis*:               1/1
   Planchet*
   6 Ladies            1
   6 Male servants         1

Queen Anne:
   Constance
   6 Ordindary women         1
   6 Serving women         1

Athos*:      [2/2 - for the Five Musketeers with M. De Treville as fifth]
   5 Mounted musketeers*      2/2
   5 Foot musketeers      2
   6 Engineers            1

Aramis*:
   5 Mounted musketeers*      2/2
   5 Foot musketeers      2
   6 Pioneers            1

Porthos*:
   5 Mounted musketeers*      2/2
   5 Foot musketeers           2
   6 Carters            1

D’Artagnan*:
   5 Mounted King’s friends*   2/2
   5 Foot King’s muskets      2
   6 Relaxed in camp      1

M. De Treville*:
   5 Mounted King’s friends*   2/2
   5 Foot King’s musket      2
   6 Jovial men         1

FORCES OF THE CARDINAL

Cardinal Richilieu*:         1/1
   False Phillipe*
   6 Ladies            1
   6 Male servants         1

M’Lady d’Winter:
   6 Ordinary women         1
   6 Serving women         1

Comte de Rochefort*:      [2/2 - for the Five Cardinal’s Principle Fiends]
   5 Mounted cardinal’s guard*   2/2
   5 Foot cardinal’s guard*      2
   6 Engineers            1

Comte de Limburger*:
   5 Mounted cardinal’s guard*   2/2
   5 Foot cardinal’s guard      2
   6 Pioneers            1

Comte de Warde*:
   5 Mounted cardinal’s guard*   2/2
   5 Foot cardinal’s guard      2
   6 Carters            1

Brisemont*:
   5 Mounted cardinal’s guard*   2/2
   5 Foot cardinal’s ruffians   2
   6 Relaxed in camp      1
   
John Felton*:
   5 Mounted cardinal’s fiends*   2/2
   5 Foot cardinal’s ruffians   2
   6 Jovial men         1

UNASSIGNED FORCES (Game Master’s Choice)

8 Camp men including hunters bringing in the kill

3 Mounted highwaymen*                     1
6 Foot only highwaymen
Coach, 4 horses, 3 men, 2 women with hands up            1   
Coach, 4 horses, 3 men (driver, 2 passengers), 2 women passengers
2 executioners, 2 women kneeling awaiting beheading


Numbers to the far right are casualties, to right of slash is horse casualty
62 dead/wounded people, 26 dead horses

* indicates mounted figure(s) with matching dismounted figure(s)

45 total women/girls

201 total men/boys

246 people (67 mounted, 5 driver/passengers)

67 dismounted men for mounted figures

75 horses (mounts + coaches)

2 coaches

478 Total Pieces to paint

119 Total fighting figures / 82 non-fighting men/boys + 45 women/girls


And on the rules front, with FFOL and the task roll, I will be including significant Victory Points for players who engage in Cinematic/Dramatic actions with extra credit for those who really get into the character.  And 'might' let players vote on whether or not those VP points need to be awarded and how many but reserve the final decision to the GM. 

Oh, and for those who fail their task roll, I will be coming up with possible consequences - with mostly nothing bad but when the roll is failed really badly, then unpleasant to bad things might happen.

May, over time, get a name for every figure - from appropriate movies and literature and some members of our local gaming community as long as we can come up with a French variation.