"Gaming WW2 in 54mm" Topic

Is gaming WW2 in 54mm too difficult do vehicles and terrain size? Talking Squad action.

Well, my local club has run Saving Private Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, and The Battle of the Buldge in 54mm using Disposable Heroes. Great games all.

Terrain is a much greater challenge in 54mm.

No, I used to play 54mm skirmish using the old Paragon Skirmish Rules back in the 70s. Still got all my figures.

Inside on a 6 x 4 we generally stuck to section-ish sized actions fighting over the Airfix Command Post, for bigger games we'd play outside.

You can do higher level games as well e.g. John 54s various 54mm Crossfire games (1 base = 1 section).

You could easily do a company sized action if not higher on a 6x4 using Crossfire.

No, it's not difficult. Airfix has rereleased its nice 1/32 range in hard plastic. Models are everywhere. You can make cork buildings or get the compressed paper ones dirt cheap from Hobby Lobby. Christmas Villages provide other items. Toy Soldiers of San Diego, Conte and Italeri make figs cheap.

It's a wonderful scale to game in!

Thanks,

John

I game WW2 skirmish in 54mm. I'll answer your question in two parts.

Vehicles – I play on a 12 x 6 foot table. Vehicles, especially tanks, become objectives. Even a gun is an objective. The range is just too close. You have no room to maneuver a tank for combat.

Terrain – The terrain is pretty easy to come by. Lots of companies make ruined buildings and such in this scale. They come complete and painted, so I think the price is fair. Build-O-Rama is one of the good ones. A lot of his stuff you can make yourself as well. I use plaster to make broken walls and also the blue foam makes great buildings. Craft stores are also a good place to find stuff. Storage is what I find to be the most difficult issue with this scale.

When you get to this scale, terrain become more important. I feel it is less abstract than when I do a 20mm game. The figure is either behind the wall of not. It's easy to tell by looking because of the scale.

I have played skirmish games using two sets of rules, and modified home rules. Battleground and the original Force on Force, since it has WW2 stats. I actually like this one a lot because it already assumes combat taking place and the ranges for shooting are not needed. It is more of an event driven turn sequence, but you can take a look at the Ambush Ally site to get more info on these rules.

There is another set of rules that I have not yet tried, called Final Combat by Britton Publishing. That set of rules works with 54mm very well. Their web page has lots of AAR and other info on the games played and rules.

And like John Leahy said, there are a lot of good plastic figures out there right now. There are also the model kits in 1/32 scale.

I hope this helped.

Matthew

Range is not much of an issue, but LOS is uber-critical. You can run multiple vehicles/tanks in a game, as long as you have lots of terrain to block LOS. It can be a lot of fun.

Buildings can be made quite easily, even using corrugated cardboard boxes. By using a Hot Glue Gun, you can add in floors quite easily. Spray paint them, add texture (spackling, paint with sand in it, etc.).

Painting figures of this scale is quite easy, especially if you take advantage of the plastic's color: paint only those parts that are different from the plastic's color, then apply Dip/Magic Wash, and matte coat -- done! With 21st Century Toys, you can buy both figures, and vehicles, fully painted (very good quality), ready to game with, out of the box.

The visual impact of this scale is wonderful. It can also be used to lure in folks who might not otherwise get into the hobby. Remember, lower quality figures in this scale are dirt cheap, available everywhere, and are really easy to paint to a wargaming standard. This scale offers a great way to introduce people to the hobby, for little money, and minimal effort. Cheers!

Just to piggyback on what others have said, there really is a lot of stuff available in this scale, and pre painted figs and vehicles are reasonably priced.

Just to piggyback on what others have said, there really is a lot of stuff available in this scale, and pre painted figs and vehicles are reasonably priced. I've got something like 13 Sherman tanks for my Americans, now I just need a gym floor to play on.

There is a good chance Airfix will re-release the 1/32 buildings and kits soon. There's a Lee / Grant, a 17 pounder and a SdKfz250. They've been systematically reissuing wel-thought-of old kits to align with anniversaries so I'd look for all the above in 2012 as it's the anniversary of El Alamein.

The old poly stuff is not so good and often fetches collector's prices but John 54 of this parish has jazzed a few of the Airfix poly Shermans up into Fireflies and they look superb.

I saw a nice 1/32 Sherman on Amazon for £8.00 GBP recently. Revell USA has also reissued the old Monogram Sherman recently.

I agree with all the comments above. I'm concentrating on skirmish (Nuts rules and possibly others), but have found that I can do Pacific War battles in 54mm. Here are some pictures from some convention games last year.

tinyurl.com/27xn9wn

tinyurl.com/2ak2hgt

The terrain does take up a lot of storage room, but it looks really cool.

Bill

I've just painted up a dozen 1/32 German paratroopers. Took me a couple of afternoons, they look great and I'm really pleased with them.

What base sizes are suitable for 54mm skirmish? I don't have any up to date rules and before I think up my own I'd be interested in what other rules specify?

It's a toss up at the mo between Crossfire and Force on Force, but Disposable Heroes and Nuts both seem to have quite a following.

If I can get the camera working i'll post some FJ pics. I'm thinking of getting the Airfix 1/32 Mountain Troops through the loyalty point scheme to make a generic ad hoc late war German group.

The trouble / risk with getting more German paras is you may get rubbish poses. In the last pack of 14 I got 2 swinging their rifles round their heads and one wounded guy, meaning only 11 usable figures. They paint better than the old soft poly though.

Take a look at skirmishwargames.co.uk for photos of award winning games by a group totally dedicated to playing wargames, both Skirmish and Battle, in 1/32nd scale from Ancient to Sci-Fi.

I endorse all the positive comments made above. Rules are not an issue – 28mm ranges etc work fine in most cases.

We use mostly plastic figures (it is a Golden Age for them right now, with more available than ever before – take a look at plasticsoldiers.co.uk, classictoysoldiers.com and harfields.com) but also metal (ditto!).

As to 4th C's comment on duff poses – actually casualties are excellent in skirmishes to represent fallen troops, and for battle games make great markers (eg we play Black Powder in 54mm and use them as morale markers), so none need really be unusable.

Thanks for the tip, Mike, I've applied to join.

I'm doing the commandos at the moment and will then move on to the Russians, or maybe the Afrika Korps. I love these old Airfix 1/32s….

I have been running 54mm WW2 games at HMGS Conventions for a few years now.

Terrain can actually be easy to come by but a nightmare to store. One thing I did manage to acquire is the Conte church from the D Day set. Since I keep it bubble wrapped it takes up a huge container all of its own. A lot of walls, trees, rivers come from Christmas Village items. Great for running those Battle of the Bulge games. Anything that doesn't have snow on it already gets thrown into all the battles but some is winter specific.

All the King's Men Toy Soldiers link does 54mm AWI, War of 1812, and Napoleonic figures and make terrain for that scale. A lot of the walls, and buildings work for WW2 and they are readily available.

Hobby Bunker and Michigan Toy Soldier have a lot of 54mm buildings on their sites for sale. Everything from town houses to windmills are out there.

Figures can be fairly easy. As already stated Airfix is reissuing their figures. Toy Soldiers of San Diego has WW2 figures, as well as Classic Toy Soldiers. William Britians Deetail figures are also available. The paint jobs aren't the greatest on a lot of them but an easy way to put together a bunch of soldiers. You can sometimes even find a bunch on Ebay really cheap. The Forces of Valor and Ultimate Soldier 1/32 figures can be found on Ebay also. Just watch pricing because some people want way too much for them because they aren't being made anymore.

If you don't mind mixing scales a bit (which I don't) you can look for the 1/35th scale sets from model companies like Tamiya. There are a lot out there that can be mixed in with other troops. The TSSD soldiers tend to be a bit larger than some of the others but if you keep squads together it works ok.

I usually use a 1 x 1 square base or a washer about inch or so around. Sometimes if figures are similar, basing on different shape bases can work to tell units apart.

The old Forces of Valor and Ultimate Soldier tanks and vehicles can still be found at decent prices if you do some research. New Ray does some built tanks (Sherman and King Tiger) and also U.S. kits. The one thing they need to do is make German tanks other than the King Tiger. I have heard they have a Tiger tank available but have never seen it.

You can also find some old Britains Deetail vehicles and Dinky vehicles (have to watch the scale though) at varying prices. I have picked up a bunch of Jeeps and Dingo Scout Cars this way.

As for rules I have used the old Forces of Valor rules that used to be on their web site. I believe they are now down though. I also use a set a friend, Ron Prillaman, came up with called Red, White, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black. The name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but it is a fairly simple set of rules that works well for conventions and allows you to add more detail if you want.

I have Nuts! and Final Combat and have incorporated some ideas into the games I run to add a bit more detail. Final Combat is a good system if you want a lot of detail (basically roll playing for WW2). If interested in more information check out YouTube link There are numerous videos that explain concepts of the rules set as well as game videos that allow you to see how they function.

I would guess I can field a full U.S. company including weapons teams, maybe a bit less in German, as well as 3 to 6 squads of Japanese, 3 or 4 squads of Marines, 3 or 4 squads of British, plus assorted Russians and Italians.

I love gaming in 54mm. I have run games on tables from about a King Size bed size to 12 x 6. I am running a game at a convention in NJ (www.njcon.org), one myself at Historicon, and my friend Ron and me are running two games at Historicon.

All The Kings Men has a shirt that puts it all into perspective "54mm Size Does Matter"

Mike