aapch45 | 20 Oct 2014 8:37 p.m. PST |
As many of you know, I'm a poor starving college student… with a love for ancient warfare. My realm of interest is reaching back towards the samnite wars of the early republic. What scale can I afford on $8 USD an hour, DBx basing? I was thinking 10 or 6, I don't want to spend more than $40 USD per army. I plan on using a scaled down hail caesar. I don't like any of the latins in 1/72 by the way. I have some, but they aren't very good. I found the detail to be soft, which made my particular type of painting hard (drybrush) I would love to hear your recommendations thanks Austin |
Who asked this joker | 20 Oct 2014 8:44 p.m. PST |
$40 USD per army? I'd go with 15mm. If you really want to get the costs down, go with 10mm and use a 30mm frontage for your troops. But if you are looking to play others, 15mm seems to be the most popular scale. |
platypus01au | 20 Oct 2014 9:47 p.m. PST |
I have to say, that if I was getting into Ancients from scratch again, I'd do it in 6mm. Lots of good 6mm around now, easy to store, relatively cheap. When you graduate from college you may end up moving around a bit for a while, so ease of transport and storage will be huge pluses. Cheers, John |
Kmfisher | 20 Oct 2014 11:18 p.m. PST |
Price wise both scales are about the same, 10mm might be a few dollars more but not much more. Assuming the armies are equivalent to the DBA lists and you use higher figure count per base. It really comes down to how you want the armies to look. For me, I went with 6mm cause I liked the massed look they give. |
Tarantella | 20 Oct 2014 11:30 p.m. PST |
Mail order from the UK will blow ~25% of that $40 USD but Baccus do Samnites, Romans(Latins), and Celts. |
GildasFacit | 21 Oct 2014 5:15 a.m. PST |
Irregular do some very nice figures in 6mm for this period – some of their best Ancients in that scale IMHO. |
Dave Crowell | 21 Oct 2014 5:34 a.m. PST |
2mm from Irregular actually look very nice painted up, but for a project that really shows off the armies I would go larger. My vote is for 6mm. With 6mm on DBA basing you can put 4 Baccus strips per base, 12 or 16 figures, this starts to look like units. Irregular also do nice 6mm Ancients, although the cast on bases are larger. |
Pattus Magnus | 21 Oct 2014 7:40 a.m. PST |
If you order direct from Baccus to the US you get the VAT-exempt price, which is about 18% off. I quickly crunched the numbers for a purchase from Baccus, just as a thought exercise, not meaning to sell you on the idea (buy what will give you the most enjoyment). For $40 USD US, remove $10 USD (aprox, based on 25%) for postage, you should be able to get 3 packs of infantry or cavalry. Each pack (20 strips of infantry, or 15 of cavalry) will get you about 5 DBA bases (at 4 strips of infantry each). So, 15 bases for the army, which will give you 3 pretty respectable 'divisions' under the HC rules. I didn't run the numbers for Irregular, but I know their US/Can postage is 30%. I've ordered from Irregular and found they cost basically the same, delivered to N Am, as Baccus. Irregular do pretty good army packs, too, for 12 UK pounds (so, about 16 Pounds incl. delivery, or $US 27, aprox). I don't want to slam 1/72 plastics, as I also often go for those on low budget projects, but I personally think 6mm (or 10mm) is hard to beat for ancients – they just have that massed battle look! For what it's worth, I've been putting together 6mm ancients for HC and similar games. I based mine on 20x20mm squares to get maximum versatility – I can use 1 base for a small unit, 2 for medium, and 3-4 for large units. They look pretty good (sorry no pics of my stuff yet, I don't keep a blog). To me the gold standard is Harry Hotspur's 6mm ancients, with larger bases: link If you haven't painted 6mm yet, it will take a bit of getting used to, but it really is easier than it looks! |
aapch45 | 21 Oct 2014 8:52 a.m. PST |
The pricing doesn't seem bad at all. I'm leaning towards irregular, just because of their army packs. I can get roughly 500 figures for army for £25.00 GBP, or $37 USD plus shipping. Why are there never any Latin skirmishers in these sets? Thanks Austin |
Pattus Magnus | 21 Oct 2014 9:28 a.m. PST |
I can only speculate about the lack of Latin skirmishers, but it may be that the manufacturers don't think there's enough difference from the roman or greek skirmishers of the same period to justify specialized figs. Or, they're just lazy ;) Just speculating, but the 'Early Italian' army pack probably includes some 'general purpose' skirmishers – the Seleucid and Macedonian army packs I bought had GP slingers and archers… I'm no expert, is there much difference from Latin skirmishers that you would spot on 6mm figs? |
Who asked this joker | 21 Oct 2014 9:28 a.m. PST |
Why are there never any Latin skirmishers in these sets? I should think you could use any "generic" psiloi types. Tunic and missile weapon. Done! |
Dave Crowell | 21 Oct 2014 1:16 p.m. PST |
Both Irregular and Baccus have been willing to do me made to order packs on request. |
Twilight Samurai | 21 Oct 2014 9:23 p.m. PST |
I've got too much 15mm to be able to find much enthusiasm to change.
But, as mentioned above, if I had to do it all again I'd go with 6mm. When painted to a good standard and composed well on the base they can look fantastic, and for a game like DBA, even twelve elements can look like an army. |
HarryHotspurEsq | 21 Oct 2014 10:32 p.m. PST |
6mm. Baccus do nice Samnites/Oscans and 6mm is awesome for Hail Caesar. |
HarryHotspurEsq | 21 Oct 2014 10:35 p.m. PST |
@ Pattus Magnus – thanks for the link and the kind words. |
warhorse | 22 Oct 2014 7:05 a.m. PST |
I would also consider 6mm on 6cm bases. It's a tad less cost effective, but the look of the finished units is incredible.I also find them easier to handle than the smaller bases. |