What do you use to mark hits in DBN?

[FOW1918]

Looking for a better way! We currently use small colored beads but they do not look all that great. Maybe an "L" shaped thing that could slip under the base and that is numbered? Not sure. What are you all using?

Chris

[qamie]

I use pipe cleaners cut into small 10mm strips (colour coded to match the army). I have also been thinking about this to; I thought about using laminated army lists. That way they can be marked to show losses and then wiped clean after the game (using whiteboard markers).

I will be interested to see what everyone else is doing though.

[Blake]

I thought about using casualty minis one with green on it for the first hit and switch it out with one that has yellow on it for shaken. That way you only have one extra piece behind the unit. However, that could have lots of extra stuff on the tabletop.

So I will just go with the pipe cleaner route when playing the Attrition system. Use a green pipe cleaner for one hit then switch it for a yellow one for the second hit showing shaken status.

cya

[Ammianus]

I use long map pins (about the length of a straight pin with a colored head), yellow or green for 1 hit (still good to go) and red for shaken. Most of my units have flocking & sponge foliage so sticking a pin in the unit is easy, otherwise I use felt terrain so I poke a pin near the unit. Works fine for me. I have a small sponge (from a hotel shoe cleaning kit) that I use to house all my pins. Cheers A

[David Kuijt]

I just take a small pair of snips and chop the head off a figure each time. Works like a charm. Although sometimes my opponents get angry when I do it to their elements.

[JamesLDIII]

Litko aero systems offers small plastic skulls you can place on or behind the bases of the damaged troops. They come in red and white IIRC

[The Last Conformist]

One is tempted to suggest using metallic bases, and temporarily attaching the minis by gluing small magnets to their individual base.

[Blake]

I like lopping off the head of the minis like David does :-)

Where are my snips?

[APHooper]

I take a small self-adhesive paper label and stick it to the bottom of the stand with two, three or four little circles drawn on it, depending on the quality of the unit. As I suffer recoils, I put a check mark in one of the little circles. One of my pet peeves in wargaming is the use of casualty marking systems that give the enemy exact information as to which potential targets are the closest to collapse. Hiding the circles on the bottom makes just a small gesture to correct this. After the battle, I can just strip the label off and replace it with a blank one.

I'm curious, is there anyone else out there who has experimented with demoralizing units rathert than instantly destroying them when they have suffered the requisite number of recoils? By "demoralized" I refer to the state that elements enter when their command has suffered four or more casualties under the Big Battle DBA rules. A unit receives a -2 in combat, cannot move closer to the enemy, and unless a PIP is expended to hold it in place, will make a full move to the rear on every turn until it leaves the battlefield, when it is considered destroyed. I find this creates wonderful dilemmas for the commander of such units, and seems to reflect the sweep and scale of Napoleonic battle in some way.

I'm also toying with rules to allow commanders to move into contact with demoralized units and restore one recoil to it through the expenditure of one or more PIPs....perhaps that is a trifle too much chrome, but it is amusing to speculate on.

Andy Hooper
Seattle

[Mike Demana]

I use actual casualty figures on small bases for my HOTT Lead games. Of course, my troop stands are a bit larger, so they facilitate a collection of casualties grouped around them (3" wide by 1" deep for my stands).

[orcafinn]

I use small plastic rings, nicely sized to fit over the head of a 15mm or 25mm figure. I get them at sewing stores - I hae no idea what they are actually used for, but they work well for stand markers.

Not as 'scenic' as other suggestions, but they work and I have yet to damage a figure.

But, a hard fought battle looks a bit like a ring toss game.

[Black Sven]

Has anyone gone to the effort of making mixed bases with 1 and 2 casulaity figs on them instread of the normal ones? Thus, making Ms bases with 3 normal and a casulty and then 2 and 2 for the second hit to replace a full strength base. It sounds like a lot of effort but cold look really cool...

The art would be to work out how many bases of casulaties would really be required to minimize the painting. It would work for most of the troops types in DBN - only skirmishers and light cav would have issues of numbers of figs on a base.