"Starter Army observation" Topic

Not a criticism but a question.

What determines a "Starter Army" size, as in number of miniatures?

A recent Ebay item showed 12 figures for a Chaos War Armore Dwarf Army Starter Set. That caused me to think about what determines an Army starter force versus a warband or two?

Still mulling a definitive answer but my initial leaning for a starter army would me five units of (depending on figure size) 10 or more figures per unit. Two for the middle, one right flank, one left flank, and one "reserve" unit.

Of course if you wanted for historical purposes two lines (or more) based on period practice than multiply that as needed.

What in your opinion determines the size of a "starter army"? Feel free to identify genre or era if appropriate.

I'd rate your starter army as a small army, myself – starter, to me, suggests something that could be used as the core of an army, but not a full one itself. This is based on the idea that a starter game is an introduction to the game, not just a small full game. Say, 2-3 basic units of 10-12 figures, and 1-2 fancy units – a unit of horse, a vehicle, a couple of trolls.

Historicals may vary, and more serious games should just ignore me entirely.

To me a starter army is an army that you can paint quickly and get into the rules. Playing a game or two with your small forces will help decide if you wish to continue with the game and purchase more units. What the units are and how many figures (to me) would be determined by what kind of game it is; Skirmish, mass combat, a more Modern era (vehicles and infantry).

A 12 figure starter army seems rather small. Unless Chaos War is a skirmish game. (I don't think it is).

Let's look at one of the Kings of War starters. I'm currently painting the older Dwarf v. Undead one. The Dwarves have 2 melee units, a shooter unit and an artillery unit. The Undead have 4 melee units and an artillery unit. Both to me, are acceptable starter armies, I believe in total there are 96 miniatures.

Dave

Having worked on BBB scenarios, for me a starter army is one that permits you to play the smaller big battles with a full army one that permits you to play them all. That is becoming my rule of thumb with historicals. What was the smallest big battle. What where the orbats. Now you can ask fairly what smallest big battle means, and that will depend on the era and war.

The minimum number of troops you need to play an interesting and at least somewhat "realistic" game.(For one side) By realistic i mean in the context of the period/universe. So a AWI starter army wouldn't need cavalry, while a WSS/SYW/Napoleonic would need cav.

Depends entirely on your rules and setting. But no matter how small it starts out, the arms race will ultimately take over resulting in that few figure skirmish game becoming the war to end all wars!

My gut feeling would be enough to play a little game.

And Vigilant is of course right :-)

I would want enough troops to play a few small scenarios. But I never bother with "starter" armies. If I'm interested in a new period I'll try some solo games with counters to see how it feels. Cheaper and faster.

From a company's POV it's the minimum number of models to play a demo game and lead you to buy larger armies.

I would hope a starter army had more than one unit. I would want enough units to play a decent game (on one side). For ACW figure a Brigade, 3-5 units, a general and a couple batteries

I think you should be able to get a game out of a starter pack and would hope that it might include some bonus material such as rules, bases or terrain etc.

I am thinking of the Perry 28mm ACW Battle in a box and Baccus 6mm starter boxes for various periods (plus the one by the Flames of War people) as good examples.

For what I do, I'd say a mixed brigade. In general, around six "units" or so.

Standard unit sizes in Chaos Wars/Rules According to Ral are 12 infantry or 6 cavalry. That auction item was a unit, not a starter army. I'ld say 4 units, maybe even 3, would make a reasonable starter army for getting into those rules and being able to play a small game if you had 2 of them.

I realize it was a unit but the listing raised my question about starter armies. Shall we say, "Inspied by…"?

Depends on the game you're talking about.

Infinity (a 10-20 minis per side skirmish game) has 6-model starter boxes. You can play (very) small "full" games with that, or add ~2-4 more minis and play in a low-points tournament.

Warhammer, you're talking about needing 3+ big units and a couple heroes.

Age of Failmar, dunno.

40k, you need a commander/command unit and two units of troops. Or at least you used to.

Flames of War, you need the company command and at least two combat platoons.

BattleTech Alpha Strike — 3 Lances of 4 figures each is a good starter army.

A starter army would be enough to test a period or systems to see if you like it.For me a starter army would be at least 5 unit elements. Unit size varies based on the rules of a system. A gunfight skirmish would in my mind have at least 5 figures. Age of reason rules would be 5 units of 4 bases with 3 figures per base or 60 figures total. Other systems have unit sizes that vary but 5 units gives you usually enough to enjoy a game with other players who also own at least 5 units. If you enjoy the game you could then build whatever size army the game recommends.

Enough to play out a minor engagement with some tactical challenge beyond good die rolls. A single battalion a side for a division-level game would be far too small, but an entire corps might just be stretching it a bit.

Regarding aerial stuff, Wings at War, for example, is perfectly reasonable with the models already attached to the rules, whilst Air War C21 could suffice with only around 2 to 4 planes a side. Wings of Glory is something I (strangely enough) have yet to have a pop at, but looks to be doable with 2 or so a side. Blue Skies or Luftwaffe '46 is probably in the area of 6-12 a side.