"how many 28mm figures represent an infantry regiment" Topic

Hello to one and all.
My question is as the subject says,how many 28mm figures represent an infantry regiment.
Also how many 28mm mounted figures represent a squad/regiment of cavalry.
i am not interested with rule sets just want to do some bulk painting instead of my usual command figures.
many thanks inadvance
john

Which nationality?

Period?

Figure representational scale? (i.e. How many actual men does each model soldier represent?)

At a 20:1 scale, my AWI regiments average 18 figures. Some are as small as 6 figures, some as large as 24.
As the Major says, it's the scale and the size of the regiment you are representing that fix this.
I am including 3 or 4 command figures in this total.

Again, at roughly 1:20 figure scale, my Napoleonic Regiments are 36 for French/Prussian/Russian, and 42 for British or Austrian. Cav all 18's.

For ACW, all my inf are 24s and I don't bother with Cav…

But I reckon you'll get as many answers as there are wargamers – and they'll all be right!

Major Bumsore
British napoleonics infantry and cavalry.
Yes, indeed how many actual men does each model soldier represent as a general guide
also Prussian napoleonic regiments.

John the OFM
Thank you for your input.
i am looking for a general figure to actual men ratio used by the majority of wargamers and painters, to represent regiments in order to calculate how much it would cost for the bare lead involved to undertake a large project for myself

Surely it depends on which rules you intend to use the figures for?

Sparkler
thank you ever so much, it looks like maxing out the wife's card then. i can see another major war in sight…. oh well
Good gaming and busy brushes to all
john

I like 18 figures for Infantry myself (maybe 20 for British, 2 figs = 1 company, handy for getting the right number of center company figures if you care about that sort of things.

My cavalry regts are all 8 figures.

I like more units with more uniform variety. Everyone will probably have a different answer, and as noted they're all right!

I work on 24 figure battalions for all my Napoleonics. A battalion can represent somewhere in the region of 500-800 men. Rules like Black Powder suggest you define a 'normal sized' battalion and use that as your base. Units can then be 'Large', 'Small' or 'Tiny' by comparison. Other systems use 1:20 or 1:30 as pretty much standard, which means a field battalion of 600 men can be presented by between 20-30 figures.

My cavalry regiments are all 12 figures.

Most 28mm rulesets I know are at somewhere between 12 and 24 troops per regiment (c 1:66 and 1:33 scale). IMO less than c 16 figs looks a bit sparse unless they are grouped in brigades.

A lot of armies have the same uniform colours for several regiments, so I build 12 fig "pairs" that can be put together as 1 x 24 fig regiment if needs be as which scale/ruleset people play varies from place to place

Main question is how many regiments you like on a table, I like at least a few brigades of foot and horse per side on a 9x6 table. A 12-16 fig regiment looks a bit sparse, but when they are all brigaded together they look just fine

I went for 32 and 48 for infantry and 12 – 18 for Cavalry. Seems to work!

Tally Ho!

If I want a 36 figure regiment I just have fewer battalions on the board:)

We game using smaller unit sizes in 25 or 28mm. 5-9 miniatures for a battalion. But we are the exception in general but tend to have a large variety of actual historical units compared to the larger miniature battalion sizes.
Depends on your desire for large battles of dozens of battalions (or higher) or the smaller battles of only a few battalions. That I think determines the scope of unit sizing.
Do you belong to active gaming group? If so the group at large generally sets the unit sizes for player/gamer interplay.
Battalion size footprint on the terrain'd tabletop could be a factor in your unit sizing. Does the unit tabletop footprint be the same size as the village of XXX or a smaller portion of?
The rules you intend to play with generally set unit miniature sizing (recommendations) or basing style.

A typical battle using 100:1 ratio in our games (photo) below.Our group has been running games since the mid 70's. Photo taken from our Battle of Ligny game held at HMGS-PSW convention. Additional photos in the blog posting.

link

I generally go for 24 foot figures and 12 cavalry figures.

Since I prefer the Brigade as the maximum command level for my 28mm gaming (company as maneuver element), I tend to build my armies on companies. So the question is, how many figures per company give you an aesthetic feel you like. I have concluded to four per company for large battalions with many companies (Most Napoleonic), and would probably go for 8 or 6 per company for small battalions (American War of Independence and most 4 company battalions), that gives regiments ranging from 30-40 miniatures to at the minimum 12-16.

Really up to what you want. but in my opinion you should focus on what you basic unit of maneuver is and how many figs do you need to feel good about it. There are people here that would scoff at 40 figure battalions as being too small, and other would would be fine with 8 figure ones.

i am looking for a general figure to actual men ratio used by the majority of wargamers and painters

Who knows? There is no acceptable way of establishing the most popular figure to men ratio. It entirely depends on the rules in use. Ask 3 wargamers for their favourite set of rules and you will get 5 answers!

Sometimes 6 or 7!

My regiments for 7YW are 4 figures. I'm cheap.

Napoleonic w/o regard to nation and at a 1:30 ratio -
20 figures/battalion

ACW (both sides) 20 figures at 1:20 (field strength after
service in the field, not necessarily combat).

Why 20 figures ? Hey, it's the quantity of foot per box
which SAE's came packed in !

Same with 12-figure cav units !

Our Shako games have 12 figures per battalion of infantry, 6 per regiment of cavalry and 2 guns per battery.
Skirmish stands are 3 to 4 figures.
Divisional Generals are 2 figures, Corps commanders are 3.

You are going the wrong way. You first have to decide, what is your prefered size of unit. IMO there are three most used sizes.

16 figures (usually 4 bases with 4 models on 4*4cm)
36 figures (usually 6 bases with 6 models on 4,5*4cm)
24 figures (usually 4 bases with 6 or 6 bases with 4 models).

You have to make this decision and it is your personal taste. (I for example dont like to paint 32 identical uniforms, so i have 16 men units.)

Your rules will decide what a playing unit represents. If it is a Bataillon, a 36 model unit is usually 1:20; if it is a 16 men unit and represents a regiment of 2 Bataillons (as my house rules do) it is 1:80. If it is a brigade of 3000 men, it is 1:200 and a base is a Bataillon.

You can play all rules with the same models. Thats the good thing about napoleonic wargaming.

Decide based on what looks nice.
16, 24 or 36 all look good,but obviously 16 are quickest to paint.

thank you one and all for your input.
certainly lots of food for thought.
i may go with the 24 fig units for infantry
and 12 fig units for cav, sounds about the average
john

I am Joe Average here – 24 fig infantry units, 12 fig cavalry units

My Napoleonic battalions are between 50 and 70 figures….

For Naps I build them at about 24 figs for an inf btn, 12 for cav unit. However, I field them according to table space. At a home table 8 x4 I use them in 18s. 24s when at the club with bigger tables.

24s fit well with plastics, generally.

For Ancients 16-24 figs per foot unit. Half that for horse.