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

Forgive my ignorance, but was there an English Civil War in 1938? Did I miss the memo? Was Mrs Simpson working for the roundheads?
As to my choice for a new period to start, I am torn between SYW in 15 mm or WWI trench skirmish in 15 mm. If SYW then I would go with Essex figures and use the Age of Reason rules.
If WWI skirmish I do not know what figures and rules I would use. Much research is needed here.
Rod Robertson.

I'd be tempted by Baccus' 6mm Great Northern War, or the RCW, or maybe get back into 15mm WWII, or maybe buy some of that great stuff that is coming out in 1/72, or …

Not much help, I know. I'm kind of in the same boat your in and can't decide what project to do next.

Civil War, 15mm (or maybe 10mm), using HOTT.

Lasalle and a 15mm Napoleonic army (of whichever nation you like). This is what I've just done (Austrian Avant Garde), though because I went for some fairly expensive figures, it came out to a little more than you have. You could easily use Battle Honours or Old Glory figures and do it for quite a bit cheaper though. That or go for Baccus or Adler 6mm figures.

nickthelemming.wordpress.com

15mm Ancients or 15mm ACW.

-Will

"Hold Until Relieved"

Anybody familiar with the motion picture The Longest Day? Many are I would guess. There are a lot of interesting scenarios that could be developed from it. My favorite is the glider drop near the Orne River Bridge, it's capture, defense versus a counterattack and the arrival of Lord Lovat's relief column. Easily done in 28mm under $400 USD I might guess.

Developing the idea might include making paper airplanes; good ones that glide well and sending them across one's tabletop to see where and how they land. Do they land far away, close by, in the river, do they have a hard landing or crash?

A creative fellow might be able to make and colorize some reasonable D-Day gliders too.

Four forces needed:
Glider troops.
Lovat's commandos
Bridge Guard
Wehrmacht counter attack force

Cheers,
Bill

based on the limited amount of money in the budget, many eras you can only get a taste of. For example, getting a full handle on FoG with all the supplements and the costs of armies will be hard.

An ancients system like DBA would allow you to buy armies in all eras and rules and terrain and be in your budget.

In World War 2, the costs of FoW and 15mm tanks would be staggaring.

The scale you like also influences choices. So I think a venture into skirmish gaming in both WW2 and Colinial (1800s) for that amount of money.

If I were starting from scratch, I'd likely try SYW (using Bill Protz's rules: BAR) in 10/12mm – $400 USD would buy more than enough infantry (2000 figures) and cavalry (500 figures) (Scruby/HistoriFigs N-gauge) for most purposes.

Hard question, I'm kinda allready doing all the periods I like.

I guess WSS 6mm would be the only one left to do, I could do blenheim with baccus for £200.00 GBP

With that amount I'd probably just add to scales/periods I already have started -- can never have enough, you know.

Or I might try 10 or 12mm WW2, as my 20s are kinda big and my 1:285 are kinda small, but I don't know the brands, etc.

Start with a look at pendraken, Don.

$400 USD would not get you very far with 28mm WWII but if I was allowed to supplement existing collections it would be late war 1/56 vehicles from JTFM and AGN.

I personally would do 15mm WWII Soviets but that is largely because I already have all of the terrain as I already do British and Germans in this scale.

Some great discussion guys and thnak you for the suggestions……I am now thinking about a small war which i can start off for my 200 squid…….thinking about Carlist war with Perry's using Black Powder which i already have…..keep them coming though!

15mm Japan, ca 11th century, maybe as late as 14th C.

Most of the battles are small enough to replay at 1:1 or not more than 1:10, and no annoying firearms to get in the way of your glorious assaults.

Now, if scifi is an option, Infinity. Rule book plus starter forces from all 5 factions, or nearly-complete collections from 2 factions.

There aren't really any periods left which I'm interested in that I don't have stuff for, so I'd probably end up just buying more kit for my existing collections.

If forced to pick a new period though, it would probably be WSS. 6mm, Irregular, good to go for £100.00 GBP Probably spend the rest on uniform and historical references.

Start with a look at pendraken, Don.

OK, if you'll provide the $400!

Start with a look at pendraken, Don.

OK, if you'll provide the $400!

We could easily get you over 2000 figures for that amount!

Dear Forum,

The Madhist Rebellion in the Sudan…..just read "Blue Nile/White Nile"….Chinese Gordon's stubborn but ill-advised defence of Khartoum….would have to go with 15mm scale miniatures, because of the number of troops involved.
Could have naval actions along the river banks, which would make an interesting augmentation of the land forces engagements which would run the spectrum of large set piece battles & skirmishes.

Regards,
Wayne

I have always wanted to game security forces in Yugoslavia WW2.I guess i saw the film Battle of Neretva too many times as a child.Something about hip firing an MG 42 from horseback appeals to me .

"Infantry (2000 figures) and cavalry (500 figures) (Scruby/HistoriFigs N-gauge) for most purposes."

That's cheating Mike, you get a discount!

15mm Flames of War North Africa.

Italian or British, base it on May 1942 Gazala.

Andy

50$ Kitting out my BFG Imperial and Chaos Fleets

around 250$ A FOG Byzantine Army Pack from Khurashan for Impetus and a two Samanid DBA packs

150$ 28mm Ancients or Medieval for Impetus or Klingon Armada with two small fleets.

We could easily get you over 2000 figures for that amount!

"Figures" as in infantry? How many tanks?

No question. . .

The golden age of the battleship! WWI naval.

Miniatures, either:
link
or
link
depending on your expected budget.

Rules:
navalthunder.com

I will say this about minis. I started out collecting 1/2400 Panzerschiffe and accumulated quite a few. Then discovered 1/3000 Skytrex/Navwar (above) were cheaper, and amassed another huge collection. Now I am going back and replacing everything with GHQ. So might as well save yourself the money and just start with the GHQ to begin with. ;)

Perry 28mm AWI. Or Sash and Saber 40mm AWI Brits to go with the bunch of Continentals and militia I recently got off Ebay!

Bob

AWI in 15mm at 1:10. Multiple battalions of 30-40 figures each stretching across the board would be awfully nice to see…

f some one would point me to good rules to use, I would buy my first French Revolution army with Eureka miniatures

Ok, I have infact taken a new projet on, 40mm awi, for 400 I could get 10 packs of AWI figs from sash and saber

£200? ..forget it……if I'm going to do it, I'll do it properly.

Was it me, I would check around to see what anybody in my area was either playing or interested in playing. I have way to many armys in different scales and periods that neve come out of the box, because nobody else is interested.

Which is why I got into Flames of War. Say what you will about them as rules( and I have said a lot), at least I can find somebody that actualy plays them.

"Figures" as in infantry? How many tanks?

Probably about 130 or so?

OK. All I need now are the $400 USD and a few extra hours a day to spend painting and playing with a whole new scale (without neglecting what I already have).

Doing this at present for Sudan Colonial.

Baccus 6mm army packs of British and Mahdi [and hopefully some of their Egyptian infantry when available].

link

A couple of history books,paints and a rule set [not sure which yet] and it should all come in at less than £150! [so I can afford a few buildings too]

25mm Seven Years War-RSM, Minden
40mm Napoleonics, Civil War, SYW, AWI, FIW; Sash and Saber, Trident, Front Rank
25mm French Rev Wars-Eureka (Buy the packaged deals)
25mm ACW Sash and Saber
25mm Old Glory 1812
25mm Old Glory Eastern Renaissance
25mm Connoisseur British Colonial or Old Glory
Read Wargames Illustrated 139 about choosing a period and then building the armies; he built Franco-Prussian and Napoleonics division by division in 25mm. He implies that with 500 figures one could do Franco-Prussian; Crimean, Austro-Prussian; Franco-Austrian; and Danish-Prussian. A very good food for thought article although I never figured out his figure ratio-I suspect 1/50. He mentioned having 100 Franco Prussians at the time and went from there.

15 mm scifi from a variety of sources primarily Khurasan, my collection is growing way too slowly for my liking.

AK-47 Republic it would get me ONE army with all the vehicle and infantry variants I would need. (I would still need to buy a second army to play with my best friend and once it caught on I know I could get 2-3 more people involved.)

15mm Colonial Africa TSATF rules I would spend about $150 USD on miniatures, spend the rest on terrain and I would be done!

15mm Mystri Island by Khurasan but its low priority because he hasn't produced enough to run a game yet so I will wait patiently for 2010.

I would plump for a (very short) period of strippers and vodka.

John

Well, I have to give my classic answer: If the figures were available (and it seems to be the only era that they're not!)I'd be investing the US$400 in post-Han, Three Kingdoms-Era Chinese.

For me, it's a toss-up between 6mm early Imperial Rome & enemies or 6mm Colonials.