"Searching for a small project" Topic

I am looking to start a small project, i would need to furnish both sides and dont want to spent too much around 400 AUD. Any suggestions on a fun and simple project?

The Boxer Rebellion. Lots of color, very few vehicles, small armies, and a tad exotic.

Pirates.

First Carlist War. Figures by the Perry brothers: link

Viking's using Battle Troll rules.

Rules, 2 boxes of figures from Gripping Beast, some houses. should come in well under budget.

Fun and simple for me means a boxed game.

Mars Attacks!, with the optional game mat, and an extra set of terrain, is easy, fun to paint, fun to play, and looks great on the tabletop. And it is a good change of pace.

If you want historical, Wings of War or Wings of Glory is a great choice. Buy a bunch of prepainted planes and a mat, and play.

"Outpost 31" – The Thing!

Hatfields VS McCoys

Old West. Just about anything air or naval would fit the bill. Do you want battles, skirmishes, or are you open to anything.

400 AUD? That's 300 US Bucks! You can do just about anything as long as you avoid the obvious money traps, which are:
28mm massed battles.
15mm tanks.
Paying for expensive rules.
Buying commercial terrain. And
Hiring someone to paint your figures.
Off hand, consider--
54mm skirmish--any period with plastic figures. Buy them at toy stores.
1/72 massed battles. That sort of money easily gets you 300+ figures a side.
Microscale massed battles.
28mm skirmish. Old West has been mentioned. Pulp would be another possible.

28mm modern gangs

Like the other skirmish recommendations, the unit sizes are small. After you get the basics (cops, civilians, two gangs, and armed civvies), you will have money left over for a few exotic pieces like cavalry (motorcycle gang), SWAT vehicles, or some nice terrain pieces. Round it out with cheap toy cars and paper buildings (modern urban buildings are mostly boxy, so you can go with simple ones that still look good).

Added advantage – you really only need a few pieces to start playing the small scenarios. Robberies, kidnappings, police raids, hostage rescues. Then as you get more stuff ready, you can move into larger games like riots, guerilla warfare, large raids.

Two other historical boxed options, both using Command and Colors engine. You could do both, with expansions, well under your budget.

Samurai Battles
link

Memoir 44
link

As others have commented, skirmish seems to be the way to go.

Frostgrave or Mordheim. You can pick up plastic figure box sets 10 for £20.00 GBP so you'd need a couple, round out with a few metal miniatures. Downloadable terrain is available, along with plastic and resin terrain.

15mm Sci-Fi – Laserburn if you like maths, dead cheap miniatures and you could fit in a fair few vehicles as well. Terrain again is widely available.

Old West gun fights

necromunda (28mm)

Pirates

etc.

You can get a small 40mm FIW skirmish game going which includes 20 British Regulars, 20 French, 20 Woodland Indians,and 20 Rangers for $220.00 USD from us at Trident Designs from our Battle Pack groups.

classic toy soldier army. 42 mm irregular or 30mm spenser smith. Paint them shiny.

Remember, in every small project there is a big project waiting to happen. As in "it all started with" a platoon of U.S. vs. some VC. About a 1000 figures later I think I'm almost done.

Instead of a new project perhaps you may want to take on a project that will support what you already have.

One small project I took on this year was to duplicate all my 25mm colonial units with 2mm units on penny bases. I started this after running a map game in the Sudan where I used single figures from the units on the map.

How small is small? The following is a small project and would fit your budget.

mikelewis.info/littlewars/?p=572

Pirates.

WW1 or WW2 dogfighting.

What periods of history interest you the most?

Have you considered Tribal? 20 or so figures per side, fun rules, a competition each year at Cancon and it uses a pack of ordinary playing cards. What more could you ask for?

manapress.com.au/tribal

Nic

Now that looks good Nic! I'll have a look

Make a lost world of dinosaurs that match the scale of armies you already field. That way your existing armies get another lease on life fighting dinosaurs, lost tribes or having dinosaurs appear in their own back yard because of some problem with time travel, scientist bringing them back to life.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com