Should I be killing the Fatted Calf?

Well, as I indicated in my previous blog submission, I am now once again, and I must stress completely unexpectedly, the owner of a decent sized Crimean War collection. The figures of course are all from Wargames Foundry's range, all sculpted by the Perrys, and painted by me back in the mists of time, probably the early to mid 1980's. As such of course they are both on the small side and painted in a different style when compared to current standards and would not readily mix within a unit to my thinking. However, in distinct units I foresee no issue. As I'm sure some of my regulars will readily recall, my view is that in the heat of battle no one will really notice differences, nor care I'd hope. Anyway, the prodigal collection as it was returned to its spiritual home ~

I've spent quite some time sitting in GHQ getting reacquainted with the whole collection and have formed a preliminary judgement on the fate of the various elements. 

First off, and a no brainer to boot, I'll keep all the cavalry and artillery. They are distinct elements in a game and so can stand alone comfortably alongside their new stouter relations. Besides which it will save a shedload of roubles as now I can field representative formations for both the Light and Heavy Brigades as well as the obvious Roossian cavalry elements of Hussars, Lancers, Dragoons and Cossacks. Another obvious gain is the British RHA which Great War Miniatures does not have in its range as on the North Star site. Here's a quick peak at the Roosian cavalry, four units each of twelve figures, together with the Roosian artillery ~

Turning now to consider the infantry elements of the collection reveals a less certain outcome. I seem to have settled on 16 figures or so in a unit back then while the new units are 24 figures for the British and 30ish for the Roosians. It seems to me that reorganising the Roosians into larger units will be possible, but with some wastage sadly inevitable. As I hope the picture shows I can depict another four battalion infantry regiment together with an understrength Rifle battalion in support ~

Whereas for the British element consolidation looks unlikely without serious repainting of facing colours. Certainly there are some British infantry I can definitely move on in the form of 40 or so Foot Guards  complete with Brigade command as the new element already includes the first two of three units making up the Guards Brigade. I'll leave it for now, more on the British part of the collection in a future post.