ImagiNations - Possibilities

One of the best elements of creating ImagiNations is the ability of the Imaginator to use his/her imagination to its fullest extent. All one needs is the will to expand one's horizons and the ability to explain away any inconvenient lack of consistency.

For example, as I conduct my search for useful 28mm figures, I do not have to limit myself to the years 1756 to 1763. No, I can expand the period of figures to include 1702 to 1791, for soldiers and officers, and go back into the early 1600s, if I wish, for personalities.

The above Wargames Foundry figures would work well for minor powers in my campaign, even a less up-to-date major power.

These figures look good and share several features of uniforms fifty years later.

The main visible differences between the Marlburian figures and the SYW below them are, footwear and leggings, bayonets attached, coat length, and visible waistcoat. I suspect the SYW figures have queues, but that is merely a style difference that can be easily explained away. Would units of these troops look bad when alongside units of earlier soldiers?

While there are somewhat striking differences, these do not appear alien to each other.

If one's campaign allows for pike units or combined pike and shot units, then this is entirely acceptable.

Heck, one can even stretch back to the Nine Years' War and the soldiers and personalities are close enough.

It is quite easy to explain that one nation is the center of fashion and it takes decades for the new styles to become accepted by the nobility of their political opponents, or that some are cultural backwaters.

A part of why I chose to post this is that so many of us miniature wargamers have scads of unpainted miniatures laying around from false starts or other uncompleted projects. Instead of stressing over it, just adapt and overcome through re-purposing such unused miniatures.

I expect I will have uses for the even more specialized figures such as the Musketeers and the Cardinal's guards.

The above are from North Star, but I was not able to find the Cardinal's Guards figures there. They may have a line which includes them, but I did not have the time to search them all. Yet, Blue Moon has them in 28mm.

Still, since the point is to create reasons for wargames with consequences, and tell a story alongside the action, this allow an Imaginator to travel further back in time, which I plan on doing.

I have some 6mm Baccus ECW figures that I am painting and basing for Black Powder, these will work well for doing background storylines and wars prior to the "present date" of my ImagiNations project.