"Figures per battalion?" Topic

I know that every game system employs a figure ratio, but my guess is that there are several – 6, 12, 24, 36 figure battalions. Does anyone have a grip on which is most commonly used?

My unpainted figure collections are not moving very fast over on Marketplace, so I thought I might paint some of them, hopefully making them more appealing. I want to create units of maximum appeal.

12 has been used in several major sets of rules.

I think 12 is still the most common, with the exception of the rules that use double-ranked figures, which tend to be 1:20 sets, so in that case the number climbs all the way to 36. There seems to be a divide between people who want a corps level action and/or lots of space to maneuver (so use smaller battalions) and people who don't mind smaller actions and loaded tables (so use larger battalions).

Strangely, I think more 15mm gamers use the smaller battalions, while more 28mm gamers use the larger ones. You could always sell them in sets of 12 that people could combine into 24's or 36's as they wish.

Cheers,

Christopher

As a 28mm player, I see mostly 24 or 36 figure battalions, and rarely 12. CATenWolde is right in that it does seem the bigger battalions are more popular in 28mm.

Iannick
clashofempires.ca
Par la bouche de mes canons : link

I agree with Chris, selling them in groups of 12 will suit many folks. Take some pictures and post them – that always moves stuff. I don't sell figures but some friends do via Ebay and photos are the story. Good photos sell figures. No photos don't

Yes

Sling them on eBay, someone will buy them. Speaking of which, what are they?

;-)

SYW is 12, two ranks deep
nap is 18 to 24, 3-4 ranks deep
FPW and later 24-36, 2x3 ranks deep.

I think it very much depends on what country you live in. I sell Warmodelling 15mm Napoleonics. They make 12 figure unit bags. they never sell (they say they are very popular in Spain/UK). I regularly put together 24 man units or larger.

There is no best size I'd say for your purposes.

Now ask yourself this – is the time spent painting worth the value you'll get? Lower your price….

I have 8, 12 and 16 figure battalions in 15mm. All mounted on stands 1/2" x 3/4" of two figures(companies I guess). So I say just wing it. Offer them mounted or unmounted, buyers option. That's a bonus from my point of view.

This is a tricky question to answer. My collection started in the 70's with Quarrie and 24 figure units for the French, evolved to 12 figure units for Empire and then LoG, then back to 24 figures for Grande Armee. Now, and for the past couple of years, they are organized in units of 32 for Lasalle and FoG-N both of which suggest 32 and 48 figure units. Units of that size are also compatible with Black Powder, which doesn't specify unit size, per se and can also be used with Napoleon at War, Field of Battle II and Die Fighting. Accordingly, I would go with 24 – 32 figure units for resale. Four of the most recent rules sets published use larger units and they all seem to have fairly large followings based on their respective forums.

My 2 cents. Good luck with whichever route you choose to follow. Hope your figures sell.

In 28 mm. you'd go safe with 24 figure units. These can be doubled to 48 by buying 2, but they'll keep both manageable and economical in their initial 24 figure basis. This nummber qualifies them for Lasalle/Maurice, Black Powder, March Attack/Rank & File or other popular rulesets, while the double option can adapt units for bigger battalions like those in BAR. Smaller numbers usually work for 15 mm., but it seems that 24 infantry/12 cavalry is becoming more popular in that scale too, judging from Napoleon At War to give an example. Also, 12 man units can be difficulat to market if not painted.

@Widowson

I noticed your figure collections when you first posted them on the Marketplace Boards and I suspect that one of the reasons they are not moving is because you are offering them as such large lots made up of figures by a variety of manufacturers. I think you might have more success is you broke down the lots by manufacturer, giving a price for each set of figures rather than for the collection as a whole.

its entirely rules dependent I think.

if the player based his armies on empire era rules, then 1 : 60 is probable ( so around 12 figs).

if he based it on one of the recent (last half decade releases, he is likely to be looking at nearer 1-30 or even 1 – 20 scale.

then you have the naps battles based armies – 16 figures 2 x 2 , although I'd be surprised if any of those have not gravitated to one of the newer sets of 24/36 figs in a 28m scale by now; and in 15mm, they seem to be playng shako now, still using 16 figs.

I estimate that scale does affect the choice of rules – 15mm guys tend to prefer smaller units and play bigger battles (around a corps per side), whilse 28mm guys tend to prefer bigger units and smaller battles (or much larger tables for mega games).

if you were to produce 12 figure units in 28mm, I would think long and hard about whether to have interchanegable command stands or no command stand units – to enable folk to mix and match without too many unwanted figures.

but a basic of 12 is going to be the most appealing, I think – and sould give a low enough price to tempt that one extra unit sale.

I agree that selling in units of 12 would be the best. Most rulesets use multiples of 6. So 2-3 packs of 12 give you 24 or 36 figure battalions. And additionally if you want 30 figures in a battalion (1:20 figure based rather then element based sets like GdB or R2E), then 5 packs give you 2 battalions.

Although I do not like plastic 28 mm Napoleonics, I am puzzled why the 3 manufactures do not sell them in multiples of 12.

John

Plastics are more driven by what you can fit on a sprue than anything else.

I would suggest 24 figs but with enough officers for 2 12 fig battalions

I like 16 castings per battalion in 15mm, 4 castings to a 1" square base, 4 bases per battalion.

I my current set I helping to play test – Napoleonic Command 2.0 – the number of figures does not matter, the base size does. Therefor light troops get 16 figures per battalion and line get 24. You can tell at a glance what the unit is.

Lots of great ideas, here. Thanks for all that. I'll have to consider breaking up the collections on Marketplace. If anyone wants portions of those collections, email me at widowson1@att.net

I still want the Scrubies

My 15mm has for the British 10 coy of 8 in two ranks = 80 figs, for the French 6 coys in three ranks of 4 = 72 figs.

In 28mm 15 figs per stand, is I am doing 1 to 1 skirmish, if I am doing a large game 1 stand = 1 platoon, if smaller 2 stands = 1 company.