"WW2 figure/vehicle suggestions to spruce up Memoir44?" Topic

I just got Memoir 44 & would like to add a bit of variety to the board. So I'm looking for CHEAP figures that I can be substituted for the game pieces.

Metal 10mm vehicles are too expensive since I'd need about 50. The Walmart Millenium tanks are nice since they're prepainted, but still add up. I'm hoping to find something at less than $1, 10mm would be good, but 6mm might work too.

For infantry, I've already got a bunch of 20mm plastic sets which would work, but they're unpainted. Are there any cheap prepainted WW2 sets out there? The A&A minis would look nice, but with needing 80+ infantry, their price also adds up quickly.

Thanks in advance for your help

For 6mm WW2, two nice 6mm options for tanks are CnC and GHQ. CnC are the less expensive option ($2 a tank) while GHQ run more like $3+. Both come unpainted.

The only WW2 20mm prepaints I've seen are Forces of Valour and they are not cheap and you'd need several sets. Now that I think about it, there is another company that offers some less common figures (e.g., Hitler Youth) as painted figures. Again, not cheap.

Seems to me you either need to spring for more expensive prepaints or paints some yourself. I don't see an inexpensive solution unles syou strike it lucky on ebay.

Thanks. Sorry I was a bit vague. I'd like the vehicles to be 6 or 10mm & the infantry to be 15 or 20mm.

While visually it might be more appealing to have nicely painted minis, one of the big benefits of Memoir '44 is the quick set-up, play, and take down.

My box is crammed with two big baggies of the plastic tokens, all those terrain hexes, cards, dice, and boards. I can pour out the minis, and have a scenario set-up in 10 minutes. Play it twice (switching sides), and then put it all away, in perhaps 75 minutes.

If I had carefully painted minis stored in foam trays, it would take forever to set up and take down.

And I bought some sample 6mm, 10mm, 12mm and 15mm tanks (and infantry) once, as a test to see which scale I liked best, and found the gun barrels on the smaller stuff to be way to fragile. Which is why some folks who game with 6mm and 10mm base their tanks, so that you handle the base not the mini.

If you ALREADY have the minis, then yeah, I can see giving it a try. I've seen photos of people playing Memoir on a 4'x6' table, using 4" hexes, and larger scale painted armies. Did look nice. But I wouldn't buy minis just to replace the hardy plastics that come in the box.

Besides, I believe the options have already been listed. There are no pre-painted inexpensive troops. You can go pre-painted 15mm Axis & Allies minis, but you won't fit 3-4 tanks in a hex at that scale. And I'm not aware of any tanks in smaller scales that are pre-paints.

At even $2 USD a pop for a small tank, you would spend as much buying replacement tanks as you would on the initial game itself. Bette to spend that on the Memoir '44 expansions.

Steve

An alternative would be to use larger vehicles/guns individually and just record the hits/strength on the back using a mini dice or similar – same for infantry.

Personally I think one bloke laying down the same fire as four looks a bit daft.

As above, there are no inexpensive pre-paints in either 15mm or 20mm, OTOH if you aren't fussy then just get a basic box of e.g. Revell Panzergrenadiers and US Paras, paint the hands and faces flesh, guns and boots black and give them an inkwash. Don't bother painting the uniforms as the plastic is roughly the right colour anyway.

Absolutely agree with Martin.
We for instance play Memoir 44 on 4 inch hexes with 15mm vehicles and figures.

However 4 -memoir- vehicles become 2 and two additional crewmembers which are removed first.
And an infantry section of 4 Memoir figures becomes 8 15mm figures instead.

The only change we made to the rules is that a section of fires with half their strenght-rounded up unless an officer is present- a la Battlecry -in which case it's half (rounded up) +1
Also, a squad can only inflict as many casulties as there are men + eventual officer firing.

I play M'44 on 4" hexes and use my 15mm scale FOW minis. One vehicle/gun per unit, and use casualty rings to denote the hits on the units. Works great and allows me to use the minis that I painted up for FOW that I would not be using otherwise.

You may want to look at the Axis and Allies miniatures ranges

link

the first 5 sets, the vehicles were about 1/120, now they are 1/100, so many of the older size are appearing on ebay cheep.

its also a playable and enjoyable game on its own.