The Next Stage

 Well it’s been another lovely week here in the fens of olde England, and today has been no different. Taking the optimists view, today has definitely been a day for staying indoors and painting, much to my dogs disappointment. He’s been out but only for short walks. However, the painting of the one hundred and sixty Murid musketeers is now complete and the matte varnish is currently drying. They will be left over night. Then tomorrow the basing of them can begin. I am also three quarters of the way through Wargaming Campaigns by Henry Hyde. 

My plan is to start an imagi-nations campaign based on the Murids (Islamic highlanders) trying to drive the imperial Russians from the  Dagestan and Chechnya regions of the Caucasus whilst uniting all the various clans, and trying to form their own Khanate/Sultanate/Caliphate. The campaign will start in 1830. The more successful the Russians are, the more Russophobia grows in Europe, particularly within the capital of a European island who are currently carving out a vast empire for themselves in the east/Asia. The more successful the Murids, the more interested the Islamic empires become such as the Ottoman Empire and the Persian empire. But also, the Russians can , and will, massively expand the army of the south in order to counter Murid success, and loss of Russian prestige, which is very important to Tsarist Russia at this time. The Great Game will go hot at some point. However, it will be set in an imaginations world, with proxies for all powers with unique names etc. 

So I will be setting this all up from scratch, doing it solo, and on a tight budget, and in a relatively small space. I will therefore, be piecing together lots of ideas from various authors, especially Henry Hyde, Tony Bath, and, of course, Donald Featherstone. As well as Nordic Weasel Games. With a smattering of my own ideas. As well as trying to develop my own set of tabletop rules for fighting large skirmish battles in essentially colonial settings I.e a highly motivated and skilled, but irregular force, versus a large drilled, disciplined regular army.