Casualties

[Gorgeous_George95]

Hi Guys,

What are your thoughts on casualty models placed when a model dies. Not just when a leader dies but actually any model.

I know it came up on the Oddcast, I'd just like other opinions.

George

[MLB]

I’m just in the process of creating some. The main reason I want to use them is for the AARs on my blog. I’ll often record a team wiped out and want to illustrate the event with a picture so readers know which team and where. Currently I take a picture of the empty space where the unit was, which is a bit weird and a rather sanitised view of what just happened.

Are there issues with this? Yes, of course. Firstly, from my experience it’s almost impossible to model dead people properly. When I was a kid I would have painted lots of blood, something I would not consider doing now. However we are gaming violence and a representation of its consequences on the table is not inappropriate. A trail of bodies often provides a poignant narrative of what happened and where.

I think it calls for compromise and something of a cop out - you need to do death tastefully. A contradiction in terms, I know, but if our tables and figures are already somewhat abstract and representative, then why not our dead?

[Truscott Trotter]

Plenty of casualties produced in 28mm but they cost the same as live ones so it adds a faor bit to the budget and the painting queue.
I have 8-10 shock dials per force and each one has a casualty on it and that has hard enough to do.

[cstoesen]

I try to get casualty figures for each army that I have. I like the look of the figures left behind as the action progresses. Peter Pig is great for providing them for. Their lines. It definitely adds painting overhead but in 15mm it is not too bad.

[Gorgeous_George95]

I imagine that in CoC it would be a bit more spread out, where as in SP you could have a build up of casualties?

I do like the extra narrative behind it though. A physical marker of the brutality.

[donglewwe]

In a CoC campaign casualty figs were placed (after calculating KIA v wounded) for the first-time-in-combat Americans for the second and third time they tried to take the table from the Germans. When the fresh platoon(s) came upon the bodies in the field or along the hedge of those that had gone before them they took a point of shock -nothing game-changing, really, but a bit to add to the narrative as the leader(player) had to choose whether to spend a CI to steady the men.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Good point - reminds me of the scene in "Saving Private Ryan" when Hanks and his men find some dead colleagues (including flies buzzing around) in front of the German machine-gun nest.

[shandy]

Interesting question. So far, I haven't used casualty figures, as I don't really feel comfortable about modeling the dead. Sure, it's sanitized, but so are almost all tabletop armies I've seen - very few people paint faded, dirty and ragged uniforms.

At least with SP, one would also have to take into account that not all figures that are 'killed' by fire or melee really represent dead people. Judging from contemporary casualty rates, most would be wounded, or guys helping the wounded get to the rear or generally making themselves scarce and straggling, or just fleeing. I really would love to see some walking wounded or fleeing (or even surrendering) figures (running away throwing away muskets etc), but no one seems to make those.

[cstoesen]

In 15mm, Peter Pig has those in their AWI line.

92. Hessian casualties
112. French wounded
44. Casualty markers

Are all pretty close to what you are talking about. They have outright dead guys too and one of the few that does dead Indians. They could make for some interesting figures falling back from the line of battle.

Their WWII line has medics hauling the injured.

Not sure if that is helpful to you or not.

[Levi the Ox]

I have some casualties and surrendering WWII brits and germans from Peter Pig that I might get around to using for CoC markers or just table flavor. I've seen a couple of 28mm napoleonic wavering or fleeing troops somewhere, but can't remember the manufacturer.