"Conte and others, rules for 54mm or so" Topic

I'm looking at Conte miniatures playsets and plastic figures and I've got to say they look totally awesome.

What sorts of rulesets are available for gaming with these larger scale figures?

I'm primarily interested in WW2 gaming.

I use chain of command. You don't need to scale anything from a measurement side of things. You do want to have buildings and such.

I tried the original Force on Force rules, and they were okay but got very confusing with the relation system.

I really like chain of command for this scale.

The other option if Firefight Normandy. You will control only 5 or 6 figures. You need to have three versions of the figure because standing, kneeling and prone are very important in the game.

Again, terrain is a key element when gaming in 54mm WW2.

Matthew

I don't game WWII much any more, but Nuts! by THW would be great for larger scale figures. If you haven't seen them before, they have quite an elegant reaction system that replicates gun fights very well (or at least so I think--though I should admit I've never been in one!). They also work really well for solo games if that is of interest. Good luck with your project!

I own a copy of Nuts! but I'm yet to try the Chain Reaction system.

I'm interested in running maybe a vehicle or two (1/35 size) alongside some infantry, but I'm not sure my 6 by 12 feet table is large enough for that. My 1/72 scale figures are coming along nicely, but 1/35 has a feel of their own. I would have to really work on the terrain to make interesting scenarios for larger scale gaming. Maybe an anti-tank gun or two vs. a single vehicle plus infantry. That might work for starters.

What kind of space do folks use for 1/35 gaming?

bpmasher -- your 12' x 6' should work nicely for 1/35 scale WWII gaming.

The key is to have plenty of obstructions to line-of-sight, like trees and hills, to off-set the greater weapons ranges when using the larger figures.

Many natural terrain items can work equally well in 1/72 and 1/35 scale, as long as they don't incorporate man-made objects like buildings and destroyed vehicles.

Most roads in 1/72 can serve as trails in 1/35. Rivers become streams, lakes become ponds.

The Skirmish Wargames Modern Skirmish rules mentioned by JJ are long OOP but I do have copies on my system…however as a co-author I would not recommend them for 54mm games nowadays! They are far too complex and unnecessarily detailed and therefore only really work for two players who really know the rules…but of course the basic % system for firing works fine – just ignore most of the rest!

We have moved on to simpler sets of rules. We tried A Corner of Hell and made them work but they never really caught on with group members for some reason.

We have a set of our own called Tales of Derring-Do (TODD)which workwell as a character based set of OFOM (One Figure One man) rules for WWII. (I can provide copies as MS Word docs – they don't look much but work).

For 'Squad' rules we have used Bolt Action! and they work just fine, no need to change distances even, just halve unit sizes.

We also have our own 'squad' rules, Rally On Me! (ROM) which cover the same ground as BA and we were going to just adopt BA but selfishly I wanted to only have to remember one rules 'system' so we are revising ROM to bring them in line with the concepts of TODD – and taking the chance to incorporate (steal!)some of the good ideas from BA too – they will be a sort of TODD-Squad rule set.

1/32nd/1/35th (not the same obviously but some people seem to think they are) scales are perfect for WWII IMHO. And there are lots of great vehicles etc out there too! The key to good games in the big scale is to uses the vehicles, tanks etc as set-dressing for the infantry. 12x6 is plenty big enough as dBerczerk says, and his comment about LOS is spot on.

Conte are very nice figures – but look out also for British from Weston Toy Soldiers (www.plasticsoldiers.co.uk); Japanese, US and Germans (including some in greatcoats!) from TSSD (www.sdsoldiers.com); US Marines from Austin which must have been sculpted by the same sculpter as the Conte (www. austinminiatures.com); Germans and GIs from Classic Toy Soldiers (CTS classictoysoldiers.com).; Russians from Italeri and Engineer Bashevic (email soldafan2010@mail.ru, Weston's sell the figures)

The only scale I game now is 54mm. It seems to be the only scale I can be motivated to paint.

My WW2 collection includes Conte (great figures that got me into this scale), CTS, TSSD and some more expensive metals from Conte and King and Country. I say expensive but they are comparable with painted 28mms and too be honest there is no comparison.

If you can get hold of them, the Conte playsets include some fantastic buildings. But they are collectible now and getting hold of them is quite expensive. But they are worth it. I was lucky enough to buy a job lot and have all the WW2 buildings and on the table they look fantastic.

As for rules, I have tried a variety, but I have found Bolt Action give a really fun game on a 6ft x 4ft table.

I keep the ranges the same and allocate a dice for each NCO / Officer rather than each section / vehicle. This allows for smaller teams and a more skirmish feel.

I add a dice for a more elite unit like Airborne and Commandos and remove one for troops laking motivation like conscripts. Doesn't massively effect game play but gives a bit more grittyness at this level.

I'm having a game tomorrow night using this set up. British Airborne mis dropped on D Day making the best of a bad situation attacking the small Norman village of 'Breve' to capture the bridge.

Should be fun.

V

Thanks for all the links. It seems the only way to get varied figures is buying one of the playsets Conte and others have put out. These are pretty expensive.

I was hoping I could use tanks or other vehicles as fire support for the infantry, in small scale skirmishes, and include stuff like hidden anti-tank guns and such. But I can of course do this in smaller 1/72 scale too, maybe better than in larger scale. I'll have to think about this.

Not done it myself, but if I were, I would use Bolt Action, especially if you already have a table roughly double the size of the 4x6 standard used for 28mm.

As for getting the requisite buildings, it's up to your judgement, but you might find some affordable options in the BMC lines. BMC miniatures are mostly quite bad, (though there are exceptions like the IWO Jima), but there are a couple civil war buildings, a bridge, a spanish style san-juan hill building, and the WW2 bombed out house that might be useful to you.

Any ideas where to get the earlier Longest Day playsets from Conte? I'm interested in the paratrooper vs. Germans set they put out, like attacking the farmhouse or busting the bocage and such. I'd be motivated to get one of these sets just to see how they are and of course painting them.

Then maybe add a 1/35 tank or vehicle (or two) and some anti-tank guns to the set. I'm pretty sure I'd come up with scenarios using that set-up.

The LOS comment above reminded me of another great WWII rules set: Crossfire. Crossfire has no ranges and uses an initiative system that is really fun--your units keep doing things until your opponent can challenge you (ie by being able to shoot at you!); if he is successful the initiative switches to him. That's the idea in a nutshell.

While the rules specify mounting a certain number of figures on bases, you could just treat a base as a single figure/man and they would work just fine. They are a lot of fun, so if you haven't come across them they may be worth a look.

Two caveats: it is best played as a two player game. It doesn't work as well with more players; you need a lot of terrain to break up LOS on your board (though many WWII require this to play right, so it isn't just a problem with Crossfire); finally, it really doesn't do armoured vehicles very well. There are some rules for vehicles, but they feel a little patched on. It is essentially an infantryman's game, along with the support weapons that supported them.

Anyway, just a thought. I'll chime in that 54mm is my favourite scale--once you start painting and gaming in it, you may find it's hard to go back!

**Having said that, at the moment I'm working on a 28mm project and am having great fun with it. Ah well, consistency is the hobgoblin of inferior minds, isn't it?**

Thanks Daryl for your suggestion. I read somewhere Crossfire is back in sale.

I'd like to do something special in this scale, like covering some battles I've only been thinking about but haven't done anything to prepare for them. Something like early Barbarossa battles or early North African Campaign, with a couple of cool early armored cars thrown into the mix. Something different.

I'm already knees deep in 1/72 Normandy stuff, so a change of pace might do some good.