New Russo-Japanese range now available!

[steve_holmes_11]

Have none of you heard of Imperial Russia.

I'm also puzzled about which European power the OFS / Transvaal were proxying for.


Colonial seems OK for me.
But I don't regard Colonial as "Queen Victoria's lads against the world".

[Gwydion]

Germany and Russia both supplied arms to the Boers and Germany trained their artillery to professional European standards.

[Leon]

Can of worms well and truly opened then!

With all these kinds of things the simplest solution is usually the best so I'd probably group stuff by historical timelines and provide a search engine. 

3000BC to 500AD
500 to 1400
1400 to 1700
1700 to 1800
1800 to 1900
1900 to 2000

That seems sensible but would gamers find things under those headings?  And we've got some crossovers in there with ranges like the Sassanids (pre and post 500BC) or League of Augsburg which runs into the 1700s.  The Boer War runs across and is mainly post-1900 but doesn't really feel like a 20th C. war and has more in common with the colonial conflicts than WWII and others.

For 19th C. Europe specifically, ranges like the Bavarians, Prussians and Wurttemburgers are used for both the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War, so which do they live in?  Or do we duplicate the whole lot for both categories?

Another company uses a header of 'Age of Rifles' which covers 1816-1913 but also keeps Dark Ages and Medieval separate.

I think this requires more spare brain space than I currently have!

[John Cook]

I would have thought that gamers know when a period they are interested in took place but if you had a search engine that would help.  I take your point about the 2nd Boer War but you could use the date it started I suppose.  The 19th Century Europe is the probably the most confusing set of lines of all. 
No, I wouldn't duplicate lines, I'd just say in the blurb somewhere to the effect 'for 1866 Prussians use 1870 Prussians',  something like that, though some of the Waterloo British stuff is duplicated for the Peninsula, the Highlanders and Rifles for example.
I think The Dark Ages and The Early Medieval Period are the same thing are they not?  Your lists have evolved over time I think and in a way isn't consistent and doesn't lend itself to additions that well.  To cater for the Russo-Japanese War, you could have an 'Early 20th Century' top-line.

[steve_holmes_11]

Germany and Russia both supplied arms to the Boers and Germany trained their artillery to professional European standards.

A successful national arms industry does not make every customer an ally.

[steve_holmes_11]

Moving to a more digital / technical angle (And I seem to recall talking about this before).

This depends heavily upon the existing structure of the website.
I wouldn't advise re-structuring the whole site to enable this, if it isn't an easy switch.


Wargame ranges seem well suited to a multiple indices: 
Date (Chronology), Location (Geography) and another referencing specific wars (Because World Wars doen't really have a geography).


Anyway, I'm largely retired from the world of I.T. so while multiple indices are possible, they may involve more work than they're worth.

[Ben Waterhouse]

A successful national arms industry does not make every customer an ally.

But can have a nice side effect of poking a lion with a stick...

[Gwydion]

A successful national arms industry does not make every customer an ally.

True, but it does help a bit with the old Weltpolitik.
Unless you think the Kaiser's 1908 interview in the Daily Telegraph genuinely represented his views in 1896-1900?
That doesn't really explain the homicidal rage at the Jamieson Raid, the Kruger Telegram or the approach to the Tsar to form an anti-British league.

Of course once it became clear the Boers were going to lose the 2nd Boer War the Kaiser slid through neutrality to abandonment of the Boers and delusional claims to have masterminded their defeat.

[Leon]

I'll have a think and see what the best course of action is.  I'm trying to avoid lumping all of the 20th Century stuff under one top-level category, as it's probably over 25% of our whole product range and would add another level of clicks to find things.  I remember internet 'best-practice' used to be a maximum of 3 clicks until you get the product otherwise people get bored and leave.  We're already at 3-4 clicks for some of the SCW and WWI ranges, so we don't want to add more there if it's not needed.

[fred.]

Hi Leon

Can I check on RJR18 Horse Holders - the contents to the price seems off.

For 4 horses and 5 infantry, £3 would look in line with other packs (cavalry are normally twice the cost of infantry, so 4 horses x2 = 8 inf + 5 inf gives 13, which is close enough to half the size of a normal pack).

Sorry second question - are the photos for Frontier Guard and Cossack artillery the right way round? Frontier Guard foot seem to be in short tunics, dismounted Cossacks in long coats - but for the artillery they seem to be the other way round?

[Leon]

Hi Leon

Can I check on RJR18 Horse Holders - the contents to the price seems off.

For 4 horses and 5 infantry, £3 would look in line with other packs (cavalry are normally twice the cost of infantry, so 4 horses x2 = 8 inf + 5 inf gives 13, which is close enough to half the size of a normal pack).

Sorry second question - are the photos for Frontier Guard and Cossack artillery the right way round? Frontier Guard foot seem to be in short tunics, dismounted Cossacks in long coats - but for the artillery they seem to be the other way round?

Yep, should be £3 on those.  The crews were the wrong way round as well, the originals are here: https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,22232.0.html

[fred.]

Thanks for confirming

[hamsterking]

Really nice looking figures with lots of potential for "Back of Beyond" type scenarios. Cossacks, Frontier Guards , and Chunchu would all fit nicely into that kind of setting.

Dave T