"What period would you start with $400 USD" Topic

If you had $400 USD or 200 quid or thereabouts to spend and you thought a new peirod was the go what would you start? What manafacturers and what rules etc?

I thought this would be a good discussion topic and it might help me out as well!

Dont give me any grief about crossposting either….its a cross period survey!

cheers

FM

FoW- Medievals/Ancients…- use Old Glory- 25!!!

For some unknown reason I have always wanted to do something during the French and Indian war, or something along the Last of the Mohicans type game. Figure 400 would get me the mini's the terrain and still have money to contract out the painting

seconded, FOW 25mm & old glory Army card. the other $350 USD will get you 2-3 starter armys. Pick two that can fight each other or combine into one mega army. Think Byzantine & Crusader. saxon and norman,

25-28mm SYW…and the OG Army Card….

40mm French and Indian War
40mm AWI

some scale of samurai maybe?

or maybe an ENORMOUS pile of 10mm. With $400.00 USD you could do quite a few armies.

I'd do Ancients with Wargames Factory's new Ancient Germans using WAB rules.

For $400 USD you could buy 600 infantry figures!! But you don't need that many.

A 2000 pt WAB army works out to about $200. USD

Which, of course, means you could spend your other $200 USD on a Roman army to match them. (evil grin)

Regards,
Bill

WAB rules? After what GW did to them? That ruleset has Titanic written allover them…

Oops- I DID mean FoG- Field of Glory…

15mm WWII France 1940, QRF, Quality Castings, OG, Gaming Models, for minis.

My brain would explode trying to make a decison.

Right now I'd be torn between 15mm SF and 25mm Napoleonic.

Or 25mm Samurai…

Or 25mm Late Imperial Rome and enemies…

Or…

Foundry 20% sale on ancient Germans, It's $477 USD and some change but what the heck.
VR
James Mattes

Leonardo da Vinci, using GASLIGHT rules, minimally modified. The Leonardo Plus rules are inspirational model-wise, but kind of clumsy.
I would get a bunch of the new Eureka Gendarmes.
Old school Warhammer Empire artillery would probably be heaper than current stuff.
Maybe get some Foundry armies for Landsknechts.

I know how you feel James!!…My head is about to explode, do i start a new Napoleonic army? or something new altogteher?

If you were in the Old Glory army $400 USD would get you around 630 figures, in metal with very little assembly,and a vast range to choose from!!
Regards,
Russ Dunaway

Another choice would be Flames of War Guadalcanal, using Old Glory and Eureka figures.
Lists are available on line.

I might want to do Wake Island or 1941-2 Philippines too.

Whatever I chose would involve contracting out the painting. I would be torn between the 1809 Napoleonic period with Austrians vs Bavarian/French or AWI or F&I.

Russ just reminded me to go to the Italian Wars and Turkish ranges for the really exotic stuff. They're pretty nice ranges.

6mm ACW using Bacchus figures and Polemos Rules. You have enough cash to get everything you need without any additional purchases and some extra to buy some reference books as well.

World war One. Early war period, 1914-195. French and Germans, with maybe a handful of Brits. Cuirassiers and MG's, Lancers and breechloading artillery. Horse-drawn artillery and airships. What's not to like?

The only other option might be for WW! Russian/German stuff, especially those lovely Copplestone Russian sailors.

Of course, the temptation would be to spend $200 USD on the army, and use the remaining $200 USD to restock my bar…

Probably some sort of late 19th century colonial gaming. Get some double-triple duty figures for the "enemy" and maybe drop 150 of the 400 on FFL and British/Egyptian figures.

Second choice would be Clive at Plassey style of figures.

No thoughts or prejudices on rules.

Old Glory 25's Italian Wars Renaissance (1494 – 1525, or so).

Probably Piquet for the rules, although there are a number of free sets that appear to be pretty good too.

A visually stunning period, with a good variety of minis.

You could also do it in 15mm, with Venexia and Mirliton minis too.

Can't do FoG, because that's how much the books would cost. Otherwise that would be my suggestion!

18th century

Italian wars renaissance (but only streetfighting/skirmishes), or Gladiators, or Samurai (again, skirmish-size games), or Ancient Greeks/Mythology: Any one of those in 40mm.
And I'd use the appropriate set of rules from Two Hour Wargames for any of those.

So can I have $400 USD now?

:)

If i got $400.00 USD for a new project i'd go with The Russo Japanese War.

I don't mean the Naval part this would be the land part of the War and $400.00 USD would get me a very good amount of Infantry,Cavalry and Artillery for both the Russian's and Japanese.

I've toyed with this idea before but money has been the big problem,so i've had to put it off time and time again.

As for manufacturers i believe the Old Glory range of 15mm Russo Japanese War figures would do nicely,at least for the bulk of the figures.

Now as for rules i'm not really sure on those maybe someone else could help me with the rules.

I myself would do the painting since it would'nt be that hard IMO.

Captain Gideon

Maybe a dice roll to settle this?

Roll a 1: Napoleonics
Roll a 2: ACW
Roll a 3: WW1
Roll a 4: Ancients
Roll a 5: SYW
Roll a 6: ECW

The second dice roll would determine which army in that period to go with, and the third dice roll would determine the scale… and so forth.

Hmm… maybe we could come up with a full fledged rule (complete with tables) for this?

10mm Seven Years War, Volley & Bayonet Rules (1st Edition, it's what I used to play), minis by Old Glory or Pendrakken.
I priced it out 2 years ago at somwhere around $340 USD to get enough mini's for the first scenario in the book (not counting paint or bases for the troops).

For $400, look at 1/72 (20mm) WWII. Plastic kits are plentiful and cheap, as are prebuilts/prepaints, and there are a wealth of 20mm metal and plastic soldiers out there that can allow you to do a wide variety of battles. If you're into platoon-level gaming, you could probably get two opposing platoons, a couple of support vehicles, rules, and all the paints you need for well under $200. USD

I'd be doing it myself except I've already invested in 15mm WWII. Wider array of vehicles and troops, but also more expensive.

Old Glory card. Pick a 10mm troop type, I'd do the Crusades and use Shattered Lances. Lists are on the wiki and the rules are priced near $20. USD I have both sides for 2nd Crusade and it ran me less than $150 USD (using the Army list wiki).

OK, since I'm limited to starting a new period (like I don't get myself into enough trouble with my existing periods of interest!!), I'd have to say it's a toss-up between the following:

15mm T'ang Dynasty Chinese from Khurasan, plus an appropriate op-for.

15mm sci-fi from Khurasan and GZG. I currently game in either 28mm or 1/72 scale, but the 15s from these two manufacturers are insanely tempting to say the least!

28mm Historical Ancients, taking advantage ofthe excellent plastics available from Wargames Factory especially, with all the bang for my wargaming buck I'd get from that most wonderful of companies!

Of course, being in the UK, I know you are equally spoiled by Warlord Games for 28mm plastics, so I'd say that 28mm ECW is equally tempting, especially since one can double duty them as fantasy humans for WHFB…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

$400.00 USD would get you a very nice start on

15mm WWII
15mm ACW

Neither are my favorite periods but they are very popular with others.

The new hard plastic 28mm are probably viable because the plastic figs cost less and larger figs = smaller armies because of playing space limitations (form most anyway).

Anything in 6mm can be done for $400.00 USD but this scale just doesn't do it for me.

Finally, 1/72 or 1/144 WWI aircraft can easily be done for well under $400.00. This is highly addictive once you get into it so you will spend a bunch more than $400.00 USD before you are done.

RISK 10mm figures look inexpensive: link

Btw, I'm afraid the very cheap plastic sets that were advertised in US comics *decades* ago (Romans, AWI…) are no longer in production?

something with a clear end point is essential for a 400 budget.

so, no WW2, no Napoleonics, probably no ACW, etc. – you can always keep adding to those, and you will never finish.

Sadly, something with a fixed army list (and not a FoW style one with add on brigades, either.) is the best budget option

after that, you choices have narrowed enough to ask a new question, I think

I would go with 28mm plastics. There is now a good choice of periods. For US$ 400 you could get two plastic armies and metal command.

e.g.
Wargames Factory – Republican Romans, Celts, Zulus, Germans and Vikings. (Germans and Vikings are best).
Perry – ACW and Napoleonic and soon War of Roses.
Victrix – Napoleonic
Warlord – English Civil War (I don't like their EIR Romans)

I have recently done Republican Romans and Celts using mostly WF plastic figures, cavalry, chariots but with Crusader metal Romans to fill in the units not available in plastic.

I have done 150 plastic WF Zulus to fight mostly metal 1879 British. I also built two small ACW armies with Perry figures last year.

Mick

Well it kind of depends what I/you already had and did.

So I would go for 1 of

20mm ww2 skirmish and AB miniatures infantry plus a mix of manufacturers vehicles using sg2 ww2 ( free)

or

20mm moderns, mix of miniatures, sg2 modified for moderns does larger engagements and ambush alley for the smaller ones. Hopefully the brilliant martello modern british will become available once more.

or

28mm FIW using Perry, Front Rank and Conquest.

or

Some other period depending on my interests. The 200 pound limit is a problem for the size of battalions I have chosen in my Minden SYW project but if you prefer 12 men battalions then that might be viable.

I'd suggest Sharp Practice – 28mm Napoleonic skirmishing using the excellent plastics available. That will get you going within the budget and still get you some basic terrain.

For me I had pretty much that exact choice a couple of years ago when I won some money in a raffle. I decided to get back into WWII and Flames of War with the idea being that it was the game lots of people played at my club and if I didn't like it I could sell my Grenadier company for at least what I paid.

Two years later I now have 10 or more full FoW armies and another 4 or 5 waiting to be painted. I have played in over a dozen tournaments and probably 160 or more games.

Was it a good choice? Not sure but it has been fun even if my other wargaming has suffered timewise as a result.

6mm naps.. you can do 2-3 armies!

TW.

10mm WW2 Late War for me – those Pendraken minis are just itching to be had!

Take a look at Baccus. A 'starter set' for Warmaster Ancients, for example, costs about £80.00 GBP and includes rules, two 1000 point armies, bases and painting guide. You can get similar deals for other popular rulesets and periods. Your budget allows you to throw in some reinforcements and terrain as well!

baccus6mm.com/index.php

As Andy says, it partly depends what you are already doing. There aren't any new periods I'd want to do that I don't already do, although the existing ones could do with some expansion.

Hmmm, a new period? That makes it toughe, I already have decent starts on most of the periods that interest me.

However, I would warm up the OG Army Card and kick my GNW/WSS project into gear at last with OG 28mm.

I did this with Arthurians when they had their 40% off everythin sale the year before they introduced he OG Army, I now have about 35 pounds of Arthurian lead that I am still painting my way through.

As for rules, I would likely stick with Piquet:Field of Battle.

The other option is scaling up my Bronze Age troops to 28mm instead of 15mm.

Or build a 12 foot table so I can finally play with all my toys at once…

40mm AWI would be a decent option. AWI loks great in that scale.

Any of the upcoming releases by Cavalcade Wargames!

In all seriousness, my next army that is not Cavalcade's will be Byzantines by Crusader. And once I finish my samurai, I'll be ordering more Perry Choson.

Steve
Cavalcade Wargames
cavalcadewargames.com
nycjadie.wordpress.com

Hmm…
What I'd really like to start as a new period is 15mm WW1 East Africa, with Schutztruppe Askaris, konigsburg guns, KAR et al. Sadly no-one makes the figures so I'd have to spend it on 15mm or 28mm Nappies for Sharp Practice.

Mmmm- that is a tough one

Probably toss a coin between 28mm Egyptian/Assayrian and 28mm Victorian Steampunk

For rules, WarHammer Ancients for the boys in chariots – not sure what SteamPunk rules to use

Feerangeegg,
Brigade/Artizan do WW1 in East Africa as do Battlehonors.

Paul

"20mm ww2 skirmish and AB miniatures infantry plus a mix of manufacturers vehicles using sg2 ww2 ( free)"

Ding! Winner.

I suggest Milicast for vehicles. Or Wespe (drool).

Rules-wise one might also consider TW&T or Face of Battle.

If you wanted to go with big historical conflicts, see above, but with that cash, you could easily get a mixed company of vehicles and Inf SF from Old Crow, GZG, Rebel Minis and some others, for both sides. Stargrunt II for rules.

1938 English Civil War or Zombies