"What's keeping you from wargaming the Crimean War?" Topic

What is keeping you from getting involved in miniature wargaming of the Crimean War?

(a) Too obscure to interest me.
(b) Lack of miniature figures.
(c) No one else I know is interested.
(d) Too one-dimensional.
(e) I already play enough wargames from this period (e.g. ACW).
(f) ___________________

If you already wargame the Crimean War, please share what it is you like about this period.

e.

I wargame it. So far I just have stuff for Balaclava, which is probably the most well-known battle that people don't know.

I like the uniforms and the futility of much of it. It is like a grand parade to ultimate frailty of man.

(f) There doesn't seem to be much tactically to differentiate it from other periods, and those other periods are somehow less "dreary" to me. Admittedly I'm less invested in the period as I'm in the US, but I just don't have the time to devote to collecting armies for the period.

(c) and

(g) I am too lazy and depressed to start a new period right now.

Not interested?
This a classic "You paint the figures and run the games and I'll let you play in my Wyoming Massacre game next month."

F.

I don't have the miniatures.

a, b, c and g.

No interest in period at all. I've not read very much on it.

D first

leading to

F better things to do

F. Much better things to do.
G. It's not too obscure, I'm a Brit, we have too much history on this, I'm just not interested in anything in this era.

It's not too obscure, I simply have no interest.

Winston (John), can I play Colonel Denison?

Reading Crimean war history is interesting, but it's a war bogged down in siege warfare for the most part. I don't much fancy gaming the western front WW1 either (I know there are some interesting actions in both conflicts, but in the main it's staring over a trench at the other fellows trench – doesn't make for great gaming. Not worth collecting the forces anyway). Also, if I'm in command of British in red coats and there are Frenchmen in range my instinct will always be 'to beat the French of course'.

Starting my British army! So nothing is stopping me😀

A) I'm lame.

Mostly E. I do a lot of FPW and ACW. Also, there are only a handful of engagements and, amazingly, the standard of generalship is worse than FPW French!

What Winston said:

F) Somebody else to paint the minis and host a game.

I'd have to say (D), I love the uniforms and the period, I have read several books on the war. For me the scale would be 10mm and I really like the Magister Militum sculpts for that scale. The one thing that keeps me from jumping in is that the battles seem to be centered around Allies trying to attack Russian fortified positions. I realize the gaming offers more than that, but it's just the impression I get.

H. It's on the list, but behind a bunch of other stuff.

F.2 can't afford the miniatures.

It seems like a colorful period, but I'm a long ways away from having enough interest to game it.

I am waiting for Pendraken to re-sulpt their 10mm range.

The I also do 10mm ACW so the French and British could be used as a fictional intervention force in North American..

Had a pile of figures for this that I got from a defunct wargame shop, but sold them to a chap in the USA.

f – The war was too short and had too few significant field battles to be worth the effort and expense of acquiring units.

It just doesn't grab me, although I've done the Alma a couple of times using Napoleonic figures:)

E. Just E, as I'm lucky to have local players who are willing to try WW2 let alone anything where they need to paint more than 30 figures lol

This period has attracted me since I was a child, but only in the last couple of years have I begun to collect what have become quite big armies in 28mm. Wonderful armies with great uniforms and lots of potential if you are prepared to look beyond what actually happened in the Crimea and create your own scenarios. We gave fought two large games in the last few months and the Russians have won both.

I did plan on skirmish gaming it as it looked like and interesting period for trench skirmishes but that project never got done…

Might revive it at some point in 25mm, though I'd use my 1870 French rather than duplicate those figures…

Mike

H … like rmaker … just not got there yet (thanks for reminding me … ) …

Assimilated quite a lot on the historical side, done a few games with friends – just not begun a collection (or picked a scale) myself.

Phil

I have a project I'm working on for use with 1 Hour Wargames and/or 19th Century Wargames (I just finished the infantry, about 200 figs). Inkerman looks interesting as well as the Alma, but the Russians using columnar tactics and being armed with smoothbore muskets could make for very short games vs. linear tactics and rifled muskets.

Nothing, I have loads of ships in 1/2400 to fight out the really relevant bits of the war at sea in the Baltic :)

D) coupled with already doing the rather similar Franco Prussian war which IMHO offers much more in the way of scenarios.

Lack of a truly complete range in 10mm or 15mm. I've looked into this a few times, and want to do the weird things like Turks and Sardinians, but either the figures are not there or the info for scenarios isn't complete enough.

This period is not on my top 20 list so I hav no armies for it. I might play a game…

I play it in 15mm and have British, French, Russians and Turks.

Lots of colour, tactical challenges and enough variety of action to satisfy almost anyone.

I've read the books which is what piqued my interest.

I used to think like a lot of the posters above, that the Crimean War looked pretty dull and limited in gaming potential.

But it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable conflicts to game. I was really pleasantly surprised, and I'd encourage any wargamer to try it. Here are some reasons.

#1: asymmetry of weapons, tactics, and ability makes for interesting games. Allied quality vs Russian quantity, it's classic.

#2: OK, there weren't very many significant battles, but what they lack in quantity, they make up for in sheer variety and unique interest. Oltenitza, Kurudere, The Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, the Russian sortie from Sevastopol, The Chernaya, the Allied attempt at storming Sevastopol, Eupatoria: I make that to be 9 substantial battles, all very different (and only two that involve storming Russian fortifications).

#3: colourful armies and units and characters and famous historical episodes.

The 4-scenario Crimean mini-campaign in "Bloody Big European battles!" was a heap of fun. There's a photo-report in the BBB Yahoo group files, as well as an entertaining Balaclava scenario.

Don't let stereotypes and prejudices put you off the Crimean War. Give it a go!

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
link
bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk

Not really interested; too many other projects

C. D. E. and F. "How is it different from Napoleonics or MAW?"

D is not really applicable and the Minie was not about in Napoleon's time. But really its either a period you want to play or not and there is nothing wrong with that.

I flirt with it occasionally, but nothing ever comes of it. Mind you, with the avent of "In Her Majesty's Name", I have thought of a fantasy/Pulp domain taking place in Eastern Europe around that war…….

One of my favorite time periods, and a long time war game favorite. Beautiful uniforms, fascinating people. Each army ( British, French and Russian) looks very different and fights very different.
Yes Russians have smoothbore muskets and fight in column. But their artillery is superb, and as to infantry quantity has it own quality (to borrow a phrase). Same for British. Beautiful, famous regiments. Excellent fire power but thin fragile lines. Cavalry is incredibly brave, but very little compared to the mass of Russian horse. The French have a mix of smoothbore and rifles, colorful troops and exotic cavalry.

Advantages vs disadvantages makes very challenging games. And a visual treat.to see what I mean please visit my blog.

my Russian Army
link

French Army
link

British Army
link

And my favorite rules, give the a try!
link

All that's true and nice to see the pics too. Also consider Cathcart's Division who are also equipped with smoothbores that certainly increases the dramatic tension on the table.

Here's the Cherry Bums with their Cardigan 15mm from Irregular who do excellent affordable army deals. Cardigan is a conversion.

Figure availabilty is pretty good in 15mm.

Lack of a truly complete range in 10mm or 15mm.

Related to this, there are a lot of "factions" within the main forces you need to do many of the properly.

I am not above proxy figures. Use 'em all the time. But there are a lot of different unit types that behave significantly differently, so I would want them to be visually distinct (IIWII). If you're going to do that you want reasonable uniformity within the sides, which leads you away from proxies to specific uniforms for all the specific types of unit.

And then, with all those specific units, they don't have a lot of applicability in other conflict milieu.

Plus, I really like a lot about the history of the Crimean War, so I really would want to "do it right". Stage fright, that is, maybe.

What do you think is missing from the current ranges available?

I ask because I recently found some suitable figures for the Greek volunteers in Minifigs Nap Ottoman range.

No desire.

F – My best wargaming buddy has all the figures we need and we game that period occasionally.

Jim

those Irregulars look great. I keep forgetting about them, their ranges/scales is just immense. I am always still stumbling upon some gems on their site via this site!

I find the history interesting, but not the gaming. I feel the same about Napoleonics and the ACW, honestly. I guess I just don't find gaming early to mid 19th century very interesting. I can't really say why. If you ask me to game the AWI or late 19th century, I'm all in, but from about 1790 to 1870, I just find no real desire. It's my black hole for gaming (but not for history).

Cheers Daler, yeah they have some very good C19th stuff at a good price.