Cannon smoke

In the last Grand Armee battle, Mark used cotton wool to simulate gunsmoke (specifically from the cannons).  This is used as a visual reminder of which guns have fired in each phase (guns that have fired cannot move) in the rules - and definitely something I wanted to replicate.

I was in Hobbycraft the other day and saw some of these bad boys which I think will do the job.

They come in a variety of sizes and colours (but white is obviously the best choice).  The following pictures show how they can be used.

Before firing

Both sides have a pop at each other.  It's easy to see who's fired.

Both the left cannons have fired, but only one of the right has fired.  So they work well. 

I also experimented with colour to see if a grey smoke ball was any good.  They look OK but to be fair they are harder to spot on the field and aren't as effective as the plain white, so I'll keep them as is.  However the grey can be used to denote denser smoke (such as fires in buildings) so I'll knock some out anyway.

Grey versus white - OK but I think I'll stick with white for cannon smoke.

The smaller balls can also be used - small but perfectly formed!