Brief update today to showcase the new figures I’ve added to the 15XX collection – as well as some of the design choices I’m working through in preparation for closed playtest #4.
Please note that, yeah, these pics look awfully shiny. I hit the figures with a satin spray instead of matte and – even though I’ve sprayed a layer of Army Painter Anti-Shine on top – they remain more satin than not. Oops!
Arquebusier Group
I’m slowly continuing to build out additional Groups for 15XX with a goal of having enough options to field four Parties (i.e. warbands) for playtesting with a few options left over. I’m making some progress on that front and am now well beyond where I was a few months ago with only having two warbands to work with.
But I only had a single Group of Shot: the blue, yellow, and grey color schemed heavy musketeers. I still had five arquebusiers from my original Khurasan order (a friend had claimed the others) – enough to work with.
The original musketeers in blue with yellow foliage bases on the left; the most-recently painted arquebusiers in olive and red on the right.
NPC Figures
As I’ve worked through concepts for campaign play and scenarios, the more my mind has been drawn towards a fully narrative approach. I’m not ready to share much about the latest evolution to scenarios and victory conditions (suffice it to say I’m pretty excited), but what I can share is that NPC figures will be prominent in some scenarios.
With that in mind, I’ve painted up a priest, a packhorse, and a mother & child.
Playtest #4 will be releasing in early April, and its focus will be on locking down some of the movement and terrain questions that were uncovered in this most recent closed playtest. I’ll have two or three example scenarios within, but not the full-blown narrative campaign system.
That will come in Playtest #5 sometime this summer.
If you’re interested in playtesting these narrative-focused Renaissance-era skirmish rules, please fill out the playtest form or drop me a line.