In 15mm it is quite common these days to find musicians within command packs for Napoleonic and Renaissance figure lines. After a while you end up with quite a lot of these, and usually many are left over in the 'spares box'. In 6mm Irregular Miniatures actually produce a strip of Napoleonic musicians, and various Arab/Turk/Indian kettledrummers on horses and camels. Historically bands, especially in non-western armies, have been used to reinforce the morale of attacking troops, and we have developed rules for this. Now in 15mm we use a Fire & Fury variant for 1:20 figure scale battles for Napoleonics, and we hit upon the idea of allowing bands to be used. These consist of 4 foot or 2 mounted musicians on a 3cm square base. In a players movement phase, the band can be moved like artillery, i.e. without having to dice on the friction table, a standard infantry move (12") if it just moving about. However, to be considered playing, a band must roll 7+ on the friction table as normal, moving towards the enemy in roughly a straight line. Bands are always considered fresh, so count the +2 to the D10 roll. Purists may demand that the player sing/hum/play an authentic period tune at this point to reinforce the effect! Or perhaps get the cassette player out. Any units within 5" of a band that has moved forward playing then adds +1 to its D10 roll when dicing on their friction table. Quite handy at the critical moment, and a simple way of boosting morale in effect within the existing rules. In 6mm we play Napoleonics en masse, i.e. Corps level actions where the basic units are infantry brigades and cavalry regiments. We use a movement point system based on 1D6 movement points per 3 manouevre units, typically 2-3D6 per division. In this we allow one band per Corps. When just moving about, it moves as an infantry unit, with the appropriate costs in movement points. However, when playing, it it allowed to move 1-6" as desired for free, as long as it is towards the enemy. For every inch it is moved, add that many movement points to the DHQ or Corps Commander that is commanding the band that turn. These additional points can then be added to existing points to move other units within that same command that same turn. This makes them quite useful, hence the limit of one per Corps. For example, a divisional commander might roll double 2 for his 5 units that are simply attacking forward. A straight move costs 1 point, so one of his units could be left behind, disrupting his attack. However if he had an attached band, he could move it forward say 2", adding 2 movement points to his command, allowing his remaining unit to move forward and still have a point left over to change formation or execute a turn. For DBR/DBM players, a similar rule could apply, perhaps allowing a 1-3" move to add 1-3 pips to a command. At the moment I have a 15mm band for my 1805 Tripolitanian army, and 6mm bands for my Russians, Turks, Sicilians and Spanish Napoleonics. For Arabs/Turks, Irregular sell mounted kettledrummers separately, I mount 4 to a base for a band. The European band has no order code, but is a 6 figure strip with a variety of musicians in bicornes and shakos. My opponent wants one in bearskins for his Imperial Guard, but that may be asking a little too much. Right now I am building an 1812-14 American army in 15mm, and I am on the lookout for British (or US) musicians that would suit. Does anyone know of any such that are made? (as opposed to the usual drummers). Back to MWAN #101 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com