"Newbie Toy Gaming Questions" Topic

Having been inspired by Aly Morrison's article (or rather the memories of several spiffing games it brought back), I would like to get into 54mm toy gaming as a sort of side project.

My current plan is to do both Red and Blue armies for some indeterminate pre-WWI period, using AIP and intentionally cheap acrylics with a shiny floor varnish wash. Of the rulesets I currently own, only Contemptible Little Armies seems at all useful for what I have in mind.

My questions are:
- Is that dumb? Particularly in terms of using £1.00 GBP acrylics.
- What recommendations do you guys have re rulesets? I don't want to fire matchsticks at them, no matter how little they cost me!
- Where is good in the UK for cheap books of that certain style for use as hills?
- Speaking of hills, are there any good old-school terrain guides?
- How should I base these plastic models for maximum usefulness/stability?
- Apart from Steve Weston, who else is a good UK stockist?
- Are there any good blogs for old school gaming?
- Should I know anything else?

Thank you for reading, and all the more so if you take the time out of your day to help a newbie out!

Is it "dumb"? Really? No such thing as dumb.

This is YOUR hobby, mate. Work it as you see fit. I'm using a modified version of Brother V. Brother and building for the Battle of Ridgeway 1866. I'm going to base singly. Either letting them stand proud of a base or put them on a poker chip sized base.

For hills, you can use a number of different "Old School" options, like books under a cloth or whatever chipboard in the UK is called painted a nice shade of green.

After that, maybe I'll do the FPW. Or not.

It's all a game. Enjoy yourself and have fun.

Eric

Hi Eric,

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a foolish painting move, really.

What will you make the bases out of? Cheap poker chips or something else? I want to do "army" sized games rather than skirmishes, in the vein of Little Wars, so I'm not sure BvB will do for me.

That's a point. I saw a game at Triples where they had really nice old books in that faux-leather binding, but I was already planning to use a fleece or cloth of some kind with felt for rivers, fields &c, so I'll just put some of my already sizeable library under that.

Transport Models are a good source of figures.

Funny little Wars are a good set of rules and have additions for firing without using matchsticks.

Mike

Old dictionaries and encyclopedias are inexpensive books and large. Thrift stores and used book stores are good places to find them.

I have a bit about toy soldiers, but perhaps not quite your era on my blog, but check out some of those who link to me, they may be spot on.

ACW might be a good choice, two armies, gray and blue, pretty simple.

Sounds like a fun project, good luck.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

InvReg,

For what it's worth, regarding this statement:

"I want to do "army" sized games rather than skirmishes,…"

My understanding, or at least impression, of "Old School" wargaming is that it was largely 'bathtubbed,' meaning you were fighting army-sized battles, but relatively small numbers of toy soldiers represented relatively large numbers of real soldiers.

I don't mean this simply as a matter of scale, i.e., 1 figure to 20/40/60 troops, I mean, for example, a 12 figure unit standing in for a battalion/regiment/brigade/division, but with the gaming mechanisms (such as C2, fire, movement, terrain) essentially treating them as a twelve-man element. Also, for me at least, "Old School" means individually based (I always think of HG Wells and a magazine article about his gaming I've seen printed several different places).

As a matter of fact, the rules seemed pretty simple, straightforward, and effective. I think I last saw them in one of the Lardies' specials.

Hope this helps. I've been thinking of doing something similar using the plastic infantry, cavalry, and guns from Risk Europe. If only I had the time…

V/R,
Jack

@ Mike Bunkermeister: do you have a link?

@ Jack: bathtubbing is indeed the plan! I just didn't think an explicitly skirmish set like Brother Versus Brother would be quite the ticket for that. I don't suppose you could narrow down that Lardie special reference any, could you? I couldn't find a search function on their shop. Simple, straightforward and effective is my bag – I'm quite the beer & pretzels type.

Yours,
Invented Regiment

@ Black Hat – thanks for the Transport models link, it looks very promising!

I haven't tried it yet, but I want to give The Sword and the Flame a go with my 54s since the firing characteristics can be modified for just about any conflict. I have used simple home rules in the past. "The Wargame" by Charles Grant is worth picking up just to see how the founding fathers did it if for nothing else.

InvReg,

I knew you were going to ask that! Okay, first off, I can't find the HG Wells deal, but I'll keep looking. In any case, that's not the one in the Lardies' Special.

Lardies' 2009 Christmas Special has a full set of "Old School" rules in them: "Carpet Campaigns," by Captain Roland Swype, Royal Engineers, apparently written in 1910. The rules are written in narrative fashion, are 8 pages long, and include a scenario between "Red" and "Blue" forces (clearly British and French, but in Africa). Good stuff, certainly worth a look.

V/R,
Jack

Cheers Jack, I'll pick it up when I have the chance!

Of possible use to you in your painting endeavors: link. Instead of using The Dip, you could use Magic Wash (Future/Klear + acrylic paint of the appropriate color for shading). Cheers!

Go check out Ross Macfarlane's blog – gameofmonth.blogspot.com – Ross is an old 54mm gamer and his "MacDuff to the Frontier" rules were written for this scale.

They are here – link

Great Stuff.

You might also check Bob Cordery's Wargaming Miscellany blog for his Portable Wargame and Itchy & Scratchy Rules, both of which might suit your purposes or provide a good starting point for developing your own rules.

In the UK, Harfields is a good site, lotsa product!

Good luck!

John

Cheers guys, all very useful! And Sgt Slag – that was the plan! I hope to get them all shiny with my magic wash, just like my 15mm models.

Way to go! 54mm is great painted or unpainted. It's relatively economical. Gaming is as individualistic as the gamer designing and playing the game. Best of luck.

bunkermeister.blogspot.com

Inventedregiment, here is the link. Sorry for the delay.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

If you have them around you, you can go searching in A.C.Moore stores for a product called TOOB. These are small plastic tubes which have figures in them about 40mm to 54mm in size. I have seen them in American Revolution Civil War and some ancients. They are ridiculously cheap and you can therefore raise large numbers at a small price.

You also save money when using bagged sets of American Civil War, and modern stuff and some ancients available in hobby and toy stores. Theya re plastic, you can get dozens of them with infantry cavalry and artillery for fairly cheap.

Then when you have what you want, go out and relplace them with better 54mm stuff.

I like the rules Edwardian Splendour quite a bit. They are free here:

link

With my 54mm games – 1700 – 1865, I generally let each infantry piece represent 24 men in 1 rank. A company of 50 would consist of two figures in two ranks.