Ensuring enough figures to match the cards

[Leman (Andy)]

Just had a bit of a light bulb moment. There are an awful lot of cards  with a lot of combinations to pull 6 from to produce a random army with veteran, regular and green combinations. This is a good thing but it will require a bit of planning to ensure enough troops are available to play WS this way. To cope with this at least 6 units of cavalry are necessary, and a good few guns, especially for the Germans. Where it gets tricky though is the infantry. This can be tackled by having a larger number of unit command bases than units, so that the same unit could be depicted as either veteran, regular or green:

Veteran - have the command base with a mounted officer. Many unit leaders still led their troops on horseback in this conflict, so this gives an opportunity to show that.

Regular - the usual officer, flag and musician on  foot.

Green - the command base has an officer and musician, but no flag.

There are other ways of doing this, eg. all Turco and zouave troops can be used for veterans. The cavalry had a greater variety of uniforms, making differentiation easier, eg use cuirassiers as veterans. They could also be differentiated by other additions, eg, the unit's dog mascot included  on a base. The German armies often had a wider variety of  flags, especially the Prussians. I often use units with the old style flags as veterans, the standard post Napoleonic flags as regulars, and the recently incorporated states, eg Mecklenburg and Saxony, as green. With the French Chasseurs I rely on the command colour flash on the rear of the command base. This can also be used with the German jaeger units, but some of the incorporated states had jaegers in blue with green facings (eg. Mecklenburg) so again these poor chaps get a green designation.

Does anybody else have eye-catching ways of differentiating veteran, regular and green?

[Stewart 46A]

For Bloody Barons and ECW I am using movement trays painted different colours, ie,Red - vet,
Blue - average, white - Raw

[Tony S]

For my WW1 Russians, I have an individual officer based on a round stand.  If the unit is professional, I put him at the back, on the basis that the troops are professional or veteran enough to know what they have to without someone needing to show them.  As well, if he's a veteran, then obviously he is aware of the officer casualty rates amongst those officers who lead charges, and doesn't wish to deprive Mother Russia of his highly trained self.

For reservists, the officer is put at the front of the unit.  "Follow me", he cries, not realizing what the modern Maxim can do to those that run towards them.

Regulars have no marker.

I originally thought about Martin's great way of showing troop types in "Civil War Battles" - ie might is right, having the command stand at the right side - but SB doesn't quite work the same.  And I'm far too lazy to paint up whole command stands like Leman! 

As an aside, for my French Napoleonic army my regulars have regular command stands, with officers on foot, veterans have officers on horseback and my Marie-Louise's or newly drafted young recruits are in greatcoats.  But I don't use rules for that period where the composition of the army can change like in Square Bashing, so my laziness factor doesn't come in to play!

[Smiley Miley 66]

Actually Tony you are wrong, you can apply the Might is Right in SB ? I did with the Mexican at the SB day the other week. Especially if the troops do "look" the same ? Or if those troops during  the "days to war" get an upgrade.
Miles