Bringing up the Bodies

 Alongside my hoplites, sparabara and other assorted ancient warrior figures I have a good handful of dead bodies to place upon the field of conflict.  Sometimes, as in the picture above, they have been mounted on information strips put behind units.  At others, as in the picture below, they have been put down to show where the fighting has been fierce.

The latter looks better, but does not convey any information that helps players with the game, serving only to please the photographer.

Having recently acquired some mdf casualty counters and seen how others have made little vignettes on these to add visual appeal as well as useful information, I have been experimenting with how best to blend the bodies and the counters.

A set of counters prior to assembly

A prototype.  The body has a magnetic backing and is placed in the centre of the counter, which is covered with some magnetically receptive material except over the window displaying the number.  Three cut outs to go around the body and which could have markers put on them complete the array.

The prototype was much too fiddly.  The bodies come with different shaped bases, so the surrounding pieces cannot be all of a standard size.  Furthermore, I can't think of a rule set that I would like to play that might require as many markers as this scheme would make possible.  The much simpler solution was to cut a 30mm diameter piece of magnetic material the same size as the receptive material now on the counter, with a similar cut out to go over the number window.  The bodies with their various shaped bases could then be fixed to two-thirds of this disk and the remaining one third cut off in a consistent manner and two or three extra pieces of exactly the same size cut out for each counter, on which any required markers could be placed.

Production of the new system

Close up of the production model.  You can just see the dividing line between the body bit and the small piece - in this case without any marking on it, just flock to blend it in.

Another view, this time with a yellow flower tuft on the counter and a blue and a red flower tuft on extra pieces.  This set of three markers, plus an unmarked piece, is sufficient to convey most additional information about unit status needed under either the Alala! rules or a couple of others used on my gaming table. 

The objective was to produce the minimum set of counters sufficient for the needs of my games by allowing each counter to take different bodies suitable for the particular battle being fought rather than having to have one counter and one body for each unit.  

I am indebted to a remark by Nick Dorrell on the Twilight of Divine Right Facebook page for the idea of using coloured tufts to code information needed to manage units on the tabletop.  I do think it looks good and all that is lacking now is a battle in which to use these old bodies in their new guise.