"Largest wargame ever played?" Topic

What is the largest non-campaign 25/28mm miniatures wargame ever played? Period, number of players, number of figures/vehicles, table size, and result?

Any photographs?

Probably something to do with Games Workshop, they keep on trying to make more and more people play bigger and bigger games to expand their sales.

I saw photos in a GW shop of a table 60' in length and 8' deep. There were thousands of figures…no telling who was playing and who were just watching, but the table was packed…

I thought I saw a photo of a 40k game held in a basketball court or some sort of hall..end to end terrain and figures

Here's one I saw myself. 30 foot table, 3600 hundred minis.

link

Played (back in the 80s) a NATO vs. Warsaw Pact micro-armor game at a local armory. About 50 gamers, room floor (2 classrooms as one room) entirely covered with terrain and nearly every individual vehicle and platoon sized infantry unit (7-10,000 count with thousands more waiting to come on) for both sides at the multi-corps level, plus aircraft (fixed and helo) as well as the use of tactical (smile) nuclear weapons on surface launched missiles. Played about 12-14 hours straight before the NATO side won a debated victory (since a nuclear weapon was used).

Dan

Back in 1976 the Christchurch Wargames Scoiety in New Zealand put on a Battle of Guilford Courthouse game, which was played on the floor of an old church. It involved thousands of Airfix figures.

The game was open to the public as part of the American bicentennial celebrations, and was visited by many people, including the American ambassador and the famous author James Michener.

Sadly, I've never seen any photos of this game. But I find it hard to believe none were taken, so maybe there are some pics in someone's album somewhere.

The Bridge Too Far game a couple of Historicons ago was utterly massive. There must have been at least a dozen gamemasters for it, and it sprawled for something like 40 feet.

It was a bathtub of the whole campaign. So for instance, I played a company of Red Devils, who represented an entire brigade of the paras.

I thought it worked amazingly well. The refs were smart. All the players were on one side of the table, and all the refs on the other, so there was no running around: each ref could supervise a group of players. The game played in different "times" in different locations, depending upon the players. When events bled over from one section to another, the refs dialogued quickly to make sure they flowed smoothly.

One of the best examples of Monster Game management I've ever seen.

We had about ten of the convention tables side by side, I think 12 or 14 players, each with 1500 pt 6th edition armies, and every piece of terrain in th room.(well it sure seemed like it.) It was at one of the Orc Cons before 93.

That I've played?

8+ hour VOID game played over 2 days on a 6' x 6' table. Syntha vs combined VASA and Viridian. 300 figs plus vehicles.

That I ever heard of?

I have a specific recollection of my first visit to a miniature manufacturer in White Plains NY when I was 13. The owner said that he and his friends had re-fought the battle of Waterloo over the course of a week on a high school gym floor.

Not only do I remember thinking how extremely cool that was, but also that he seemed like a genuinely happy person.

I've been into miniature wargaming ever since that day.

I played in a 2nd Ed WH40k game at a Dexcon in NJ in the early 90s Played on the floor of a huge room, 50,000 points per side, if I remember correctly there were approx. 34 players and about 7000 miniatures, vehicles and titans.

Would have been Mini-Figs US if in White Plains, NY. Was it Steve Carpenter that you met (if I recall the operator at the time)?

Dan

My largest was a Fletcher Pratt naval game in College. We had 48 players and judges and we uses 1/600 scale ships. We used
a huge banquet hall.

Borodino 2002 was fought over a three day period, used 4 8' x 30' tables, (two were actually longer as I remember), used several thousand 28mm figures, and 90+ plus players. It was held in the banquet room of the Chamberlain Hotel at Fort Monroe, Va in September 2002!

If '25mm' can be used as synonym for 1/72nd scale, we did Waterloo with Airfix figs using WRG 16xx-18xx in 1981 on the floor of my flat. Took all weekend and we only had to double the standard figure ratio (1:100). The French won.

Done some other big 20mm games, but more in terms of size of forces engaged. Northern flank of Kursk, 20+ divisions engaged, I can't remember how many tables we used, eight?? The Germans eventually broke through west of Ponyri.Also did the first few days of the Market Garden campaign and the a few days of the Tunisian campaign in 20mm.

Some of those games are reported here:

link

wrt Fletcher Pratt, I was fortunate enough to play one game on the floor of an original Victorian ballroom, just as it was meant to be be! It was in the ballroom of one of Palmerstons fortresses outside Portsmouth.

Many thanks to John Curry for organising that one.

Dan Cyr – Don't recall his name. That was 34 years ago.

In 1977 on my honeymoon, I paid in a gigantic 15mm Napoleonics game using Empire 2 rules. A non-historical games due to all the troops used but objectives were based loosly on Waterloo.

Castings were mainly Minifig 1st edition and heritage. Somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000 were reported as being used. It took place at Fort Hood's 'fiddler's Green' recreation center's floor. Area used 20 x 30 feet at least but i do not remember now.
Both civilians and military personnel played. Maybe 12 players plus a judge.

I played the Prussians and fought French Young/Middle Guard being represented by Swiss troops.
The commader of the post's Simcenter was the judge. (Clark)

Yes it was on local access TV and a huge article was in the Dallas Paaper which I still have most of the article intact.

Rudy, I lived in Copperas Cove around that time as my Dad was stationed at W. Fort Hood (TCATA). I missed the game but I was buying figures at The Bunker around that time and buying 15mm Prussians and Empire II as well. Man, the wargaming scene was good around Fort Hood in those days!

That Bridge Too Far game was beautiful. 2007
Here is a pic of just a side table
picture

Ran multiple days, thousands of figs, but maybe not 25/28mm

I did a CLS game at Historicon a couple of years ago, 5000 figures and 12 players.

I have seen pictures in wargaming books of a huge Waterloo game in UK, very big.

The largest game I ever played in, was my own 72ft Market Garden game, in 1/35 scale, at Salute '08 (40ft, pah!)
Over 100 Vehicles, and about 5/600 figures, ish, more or less, hey, it was a while ago.

John

I think the Jodie cons have been the largest 28mm games I have seen run. Historicon has had a few (many) with over 2000 figures at least with them. I do think Borodino 92 was the largest with 15mm and Borodino 2002 with 28mm would be my quess. Austerlitz two years ago was massive but do not remember the number of figures used then. It was Carnage and Glory with three computers.
VR
James Mattes

Well not the largest, but certainly Big!- At NJCON 2008 we played Dave W Leipzig game. It lasted 2 days with the humidity taking most of the casualities at a VFW hall. It was (4) 5 x 14-16 tables forming a square to represent North, South, East, and West. We had well over 6000-7000 15 mm figures in this massive slugfest. Using Shako II rules it was an Epic Game. We ran Borodino at Cold Wars 2008. It was 3 boards (5x 12) with about 5000 15mm figures in all.

A better question (smile), might be how much everyone enjoyed playing in these mega games.

In my experience I'd suggest that the level of enjoyment goes DOWN as the size of the game goes up.

Great visual treat, but the increased size and number of players slows the game down and lead to lots of 'down' time for players. Day long games or even multi-day games tend in my experience to be long dragged out affairs that seem to always end in draws.

Dan

20mm, not 25 but pretty huge:

"14,000 Airfix H0/00 figures

The Union army consisted of three corps; each with three divisions containing three brigades of three regiments each. A regiment was roughly 100 strong, giving a total of around 8,000 men. Each corps had 12 cannon in four batteries of 3 guns each. When the wagon train and staff were added the grand total came close to 8,400.

The Confederate army contained two corps; each of three divisions of three brigades each. Each brigade had three regiments of approximately 100 men each, and each corps had four batteries of artillery with 3 guns each. This gave the Confederates a total of just over 5,500 troops, when staff and wagon trains were added.

On the Union side there were four players, one for each corps and an overall field commander who wrote out the original battle orders for each of his corps commanders to follow, plus issuing additional instructions as the game progressed. The Confederate "team" sported two corps commanders plus a commander-in-chief who, like his counterpart on the Union side, issued battlefield orders."

link

link

link

Sadly, this is all that is left of the old church in which we played the huge AWI game in 1976, mentioned in my posting of above of 15 Feb 2011 2.58:

picture

It was destroyed in this week's Christchurch earthquake.

Thanks Arteis, I hope that you rebuild your community quickly and never forget those who perished. New Zealand's tragedy has been widely reported in the UK. We wish you well.

As aye,

D'Ewell

this weekend in Glasgow, Waterloo replayed on one of our mats 197sqm

The recent Snappy Nappy 1814 Campaign had 20 players over 14 (4x6) tables.

Historicon used to have Jenkintown Hobbies run games with probably 30-40 players.

Bill Kaiser ran a 50-foot-long Valmy to Waterloo game where he walked on the tables from one end to the other. Might have been Wagram?

Borodino II at Fort Monroe VA back in 2005? That filled a hall.

Fred Haub has a photo from Borodino I (the one with Chandler) with a bleacher full of gamers: 100 or so?

I guess biggest could have several criteria: by square footage of terrain, by number of figures, or by number of players.