Wargaming discussion

Duck Crusader · Wargaming discussion

Several of you have expressed interest in other wargames so I thought we could discuss them. Lets start with rules. These are of varing types and will often determine what scale you use.First, commmand level.

Skirmish: Small companies or squads, 30-120 models per side. This is the best scale for 28mm+, and usually represents a 1-1 scale (1 figure is 1 man). The easiest way to start, especially with the big guys.

Tactical: Batallion/Regimental level. Up to 250 models per side. Usually played with 15-20mm, though many dedicated 28mm players will expand their armies to this size as well. Scale is usually 1-10 or 20.

Strategic: Divisional level. 300+ models per side. Generally played with 10mm and smaller, though not impossible to do with 15mm. Only madmen like The League of Ausburg game 28mm or larger like this, but my god are they stunning when they do! Scale is 1-30 and up. Now bear in mind that 500+ models a side is not nearly as daunting as you're thinking if they're 6mm. We'll get to that later.

Complexity: Whole different issue than command level. Basically how 'historical' or detailed do you like your rules. Increases in complexity directly affect play and game time, not to mention how hard it is to learn.

Beer-n-pretzels: Fast and fun to play, if not terribly historical. Gameplay is the primary concern here. This is what the A&A series of games is.

Casual Gaming: Little more complex than A&A. Gameplay is still important, but historical accuracy increases. Takes longer to play but gives much more realistic outcomes. FoW falls into this category. Still pretty quick to pick up and do though.

Historically accurate: Game play sort of takes a backseat to reality. Every detail has been taken into account, from weather to individual levels of training. Often considered 'dice fests' because of all the things the rules cover, but units behave as close to their real-life counterparts as is possible for a game. Jagpanzer is a good example of this. Takes quite a bit of learning, generally best at the hands of someone who's already been playing for years, so a lot of these games are older. Some of these are so good the military uses the to train it's officers, and once you do learn them they can also be a lot of fun, even if they do take forever to play.

Now I'll bump scales, or the size of a man from foot to eye supposedly. In practice this varies widely from manufacturer to manufacturer. I have '25mm' troops that I use with other peoples 20mm...

40-54mm-Think army men. Rather popular in europe, in America you'll generally be considered nuts, which will be confirmed if you run anything more than a skirmish game. You can really get into doing the uniforms on these though, and they look awesome when you do. Availabiltiy and quality is high, but good figures in this size are really really expensive.

20-30mm-Standard size for skirmish, tactical level games are easily in reach here as well if you're as crazy as me. There are literally tons and tons of manufacturers here, and with the good new plastics coming out you can get a good looking army relatively cheap. Little less detailed but uniform junkies can still get their fix. 25/28mm is the one most often used in this range.

10-15mm-Standard for tactical games. Again there's lots to choose from here, with 15mm being the most common of these scales. Your armies can generally be gotten for the same price as a skirmish level 28mm force. Ironically, these are often easier to paint as well since there's less detail.

2-6mm-Yup, you guessed it. Most popular for strategic gamers. Also for Historically accurate rules. Again, much less detail makes these a breeze to paint, it's doing the details on their bases that really make them shine. 6mm is most common for ancients-ACW, 2mm for 20th century. Availability takes a hit here, but the buggers are so small it's easy to trim an bit and call a Hittite chariot an Egyptian one. For WWII through Modern this is not an issue, you'll find kit you never knew existed...

Painting: Now this is the issue I hear from people all the time. Doesn't have to be. There's an ocean of painting guides online, and I for one would never laugh at a newbies paintjob. If anyone does feel free to point them my way for attitude readjustment. Next there's pre-paints, though most factory ones are pretty awful. There are a few decent ones though, mostly in 20mm.

Last is the option to just buy someone elses painted figs. I'd suggest not using painting services unless you're rich as they can be expensive as hell, but there are a few who do good work for reasonable rates. A better plan is to watch bidding sites for an army you want. It'll still be costly, especially for good paintjobs, but yoou can get a good deal a lot more often than you think. One thing to keep in mind is that figures for the same unit painted by different people will look different, because of differences in painting style.

I hope that answers some of the questions, feel free to ask any others you have.