"Travel Battle from Perry Miniatures. " Topic

This is up for pre-order now with plans for a release at Salute this year.

perry-miniatures.com

It looks interesting, the design: a small scale wargame, Napoleonic figures on a relatively generic plastic board, with plastic terrain. Simple rules for quick games.

Not exactly a board game/miniature game hybrid, definitely still a miniatures game but there is a slight blurring of the line perhaps.

It seems like a neat idea, it certainly would be good for taking somewhere and not needing a ton of stuff to go and have a game.

I don't think I'm interested as the pageantry of the game is more interesting to me now than just playing. I like the game, but the look of it is now a bigger component and, even painted, this probably wouldn't have that.

The figures are neat though and I'll have to get a closer look at them to see if the 50 quid price is worth having a small pile of small scale Napoleonic-like figures.

I will certainly be more interested if they are going to do expansion with more figure types in the future so that you could get a whole range or do other periods.

In the fantasy world where they would release a set to do Tai-Ping rebellion I would be sold.

When I saw it on their website I was unimpressed.

Great idea

Apart from the 8mm figures – really?

Is that heroic 6mm or weedy 10mm?

Since it is self-contained, the scale doesn't really matter.

I painted a lot of their 15mm medieval line back in the day. They were great!

8mm is great size. Practically 6mm figures but with full legs and don't occupy so much table space than 10mm.

I liked the box art

I wonder what rules they will use and how it will compare with it's main competitor – Command & Colours.

They are always surprising us with the unexpected!

I admit that I'm intrigued. It will be interesting to see if the figures are sold separately or if additional Napoleonic figures are made available down the road, maybe even other periods. I guess I'm letting my imagination run away with me.

It may be my dream come true or at least close. I used to have my Feudal game on a TV tray in front of me while I "watched" less interesting programs. I would experiment with the figs to decide what figures would be needed to come up with a Napoleonic or ACW game similar to Feudal. This could be better, although I would prefer soft plastic figures like Feudal had or most 1/72 figures (Airfix, Esci, etc.). I really like the all-in-one box concept with the buildings and forests, etc. A bit expensive but I will probably buy one. Even more likely if you can get an Austrian (helmets?) army! Thanks, Pictors, for bringing it to my attention.

Why not just paint some Baccus figures and spend an hour or so making the boards out of a small sheet of MDF and some glue ? A good deal cheaper too.

This appears to be a solution without a problem.

Because the Baccus figures would require painting, they would be more brittle and less easy to travel with, the board would be more fragile and less transportable also.

The differences are enormous between the two.

Gee Gildas, why not just close your eyes and imagine a bunch of soldiers fighting when it would be a good deal cheaper?

The more I look at it, the more I like it. Definitely in the Command and Colors arena, but with better terrain, and Perry miniatures that I don't have to feel guilty about not painting. Storage is just putting it on the shelf with my board games.

I'm in.

I'm in.

Just cuz…

50 pounds? Goodness me!

It appears the figs are separate from the bases, so there may be some prep work. Minor. I am anxious!

When I saw it on their website I was impressed.

Looks good to me.

Hmm! Could this be what gets me back into Nappies?

(No, that's not what I mean…)

I'm intrigued, and look forward to the finished product (assuming the picture is of some advanced prototype) and especially the rules.
The one thing that bothers me is the absence of skirmishers in a battalion-level, Napoleonic game?

I'm intrigued, but with about 1,000 28mil Naps on hand that I have to paint up, not sure that I will go further than being intrigued…

I wonder if the buttons will be made from brass? Will the 95th Riflemen officers have silver buttons .. these details in 8mm are vital!! And don't get me started on gaiter lengths.

I just hope that the next time I fly the Atlantic, the stout type of chap I always seem sat next to, obviously in the aisle seat, does not get this out as we cross over Ireland and place it on his knee…………

… that's EIGHT (8) games (1 hour each) if you go to the Eastern Seaboard .. many more if it's the West ;-)

Do we know anything about the rules?

Geoff

Rules? Who said anything about………

If I didn't have a whole load of 6mm Napoleonics, currently archived and unused, I could get interested.

Pictors

Since when has lead-tin alloy been more brittle than plastic ? MDF is a sturdy material, just as robust as plastic and very easy to work with. How do you work out that it would be less transportable ? Have you thought for more than a second or two about how it could be made ?

Look back at a few of the ideas the members of this group have come up with for transportable gaming sets and you will see a wealth of alternatives that are as (or more) robust and convenient.

MDF is not as sturdy as plastic. If you drop MDF on a corner it breaks. If you put anything on it it will probably break off if dropped.

Lead-tin allow, in 6mm figures, is far more brittle than plastic figures, in strips.

A set with 6mm metals and an MDF board would neither be as transportable or as resilient as this plastic set. Also, unless the figures were painted, it wouldn't look as good.

Even if you painted them with spray in blue and red, they would be subject to getting chipped in transport or play.

Interesting, but only if the figures are also available as extras as well.

This is NOT what I meant when I asked the Perrys for more Napoleonic plastics!

Am I the only one who thinks this is NOT for them? That this is so stylized that you might as well be playing chess with Napoleonic pieces?

Hairy – yep, my thoughts. Too bland as figures to be useful. Good luck to those who want it, but not for me. Horses for courses, but I find the figures to be as poor as Risk pieces. And the board seems rather poor too – I preferred Memoir 44

Especially because this is based on the travel game the Perry bros have taken with them to reenactments for 25 years and play with all their reenactor buddies…
I have no doubt in my mind it will be a success. Every Perry release is. And I'm down for two copies…

Hey Judge, I applaud your conviction … and that is the way it should be … one man's meat is another man's poison as the saying goes. After all chess has been a world favourite for centuries.

No, I was merely wondering if others felt the same way as I because the preceding comments were all more or less of the same view.

Happy gaming one and all.

I also ordered two copies and look forward to taking the games with me to KublaCon to play in their open gaming area.

These will go well with Bob Cordrey's The Portable Wargame, so if you don't like the rules the come with this game, there's at least 1, if nor many, more rules that will work with the box contents.

This is a GREAT way to introduce someone to the hobby.

I don't do much travelling these days so that aspect doesn't appeal to me and the spectacle of gaming is very important to me so I'm not attracted to the solid colour models. However, I can see a significant number of people will be interested for the portability so good luck to them. If the actual rules turn out to give a good game I may well change my mind. An interesting venture to say the least!

I will be probably be getting this at some stage but I will be treating it and playing it as just a board game and nothing else. It will probably end up on my Christmas list assuming its here to stay .
The price tag is a bit pricy but board games can easily cost that these days, the re release of Colditz being an example.

Saw this at Salute. I usually love the Perrys and think they single-handedly saved 28mm historical wargaming, but in this case I came away unimpressed. The components were ok but there was not a lot in the actual box to justify the £50.00 GBP price tag. At £30.00 GBP maybe, but not at £50.00 GBP

I agree, PilGrim.

Rather than buy Travel Battle, I'd purchase a couple of small 6mm or 10mm armies – or use troops from an old RISK game; make some simple scenery out of card or wood off-cuts; draw a grid on green paper glued to an old, folding board from a boardgame I'm never going to play again (saving the box for transporting my new game); cover it with transparent, self-adhesive plastic, and use simple rules such as Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame or Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames.

Travel Battle enthusiasts should check this new advanced set of rules from BronzeOneZero – original credits to Mike Moss & the Perry's obviously – adds more detailed historical complexity whilst retaining the essence of portability & swift resolution: ‘Porta-loo Advanced Travel Battle Rules' here -
TMP link