The Irresistible Urge...

... to tinker.

Lying in bed last night as I tried to get to sleep after a heavy evening of painting Union Infantry my thoughts turned to "The Rules".

There are all those great figures out there. Berdans' Sharpshoopters, all those Zouaves, Rush's Lancers; virtually no end to them, is there? The urge to tinker is very strong, so I'll tell you what. We'll create a rules annex in which to house all those special bits and pieces that make "The Rules" special.

They are only to be used with the agreement of your opponent. I'd suggest only one of these "super units" per side. They are optional extras. More chrome. More stuff to remember...

Sharpshooters
Super skirmishers.
May only operate in open order.
May only be present in detachment size - ie, an officer and eight privates.
Are subject to the morale rule for detachments.
May add one to their dice rolls when shooting vice the Skirmishing Infantry Musketry Rules.

Zouaves
Assault Infantry - rules pinched from the Supplementary Rules for Grenadiers.
May add one to their dice roll in melee.
No reduction for the Morale Index for rank and file casualties until losses have reached 25% (6 figures), when 1 id deducted from the throw for morale.

In further news, I'm nearly finished painting my first infantry unit to go with a couple of 12 PR SB guns I've had from another life. Just the trousers and metallics on the muskets to go. Black straps on a dark-blue coat are a pain to make stand out - you get a very dark figure. I'm really relying on the trousers to brighten things up, but have put in some fairly bright blue highlights to improve contrast. I expect to post pictures tomorrow.