"What is the most popular unit size to play?" Topic

Wayne & PF, you're stating interests almost contrary to where the commercial hobby has mostly gone today.

We might like the look and feel of big wargaming figures and military models, but may also appreciate there's an historical context of how these were actually deployed, and that usually played out as a bigger picture, within a military operation.

Wayne's comment about battle scope above, jives with my lament that board gaming systems still continue to hold relevance when wanting to wargame non-skirmish-scale actions (and/or as 3D iterations too).

There's a recent editorial in one of the game mags, that basically says we should support whatever the game industry presents to us, with an aside that these companies have employee paychecks to cover, and if we don't like the fact that the industry needs to perpetuate itself with new editions of the same, basic rulesets, that we're being unappreciative.

Exactly – maybe it's time to appreciate we can make our own decisions on what games we desire to play, and that we all have paychecks to manage also.

Luckily, TMP remains an independent forum where us "amateurs" can exchange our thoughts about the hobby too.

Wayne & PF, you're stating interests almost contrary to where the commercial hobby has mostly gone today.

For the most part you are correct. Most commercial rules focus on small scale actions rather than anything at the divisional, much less corps level. However for experiences gamers there is an intense interest in commanding divisions, corps and to a much lesser extent armies. I suppose commercial suppliers have to target new gamers, as there are more of them, thus commanding a tiger I hold more appeal than commanding the 1st Armoured Division.

PF, just today a preview of the board game 3D concept (not though for WW2 or Moderns, but for Ancients).

I'll commend Warlord for their commercial endeavor here – just wish it wasn't only available thru buying the big box Hannibal set!

TMP link

I'll commend Warlord for their commercial endeavor here

I have been looking at the warlords figures for a while, mainly the Napoleonics battle pack. It seems like a reasonably low cost way of getting into the hobby. So far i have decided to go down the 10mm path, but may come back to warlord 13mm plastic figures. As for the rules, i tend to prefer Lost Battles rules when going down the grid system. Otherwise i use Prestages or DBMM.

PF, enjoyed hearing your thinking on this!

Now Warlord Games has certainly been busy lately with their recent preview announcements (this screenshot from the new KickStarter notification page for their Vanguard: Normandy board game).

I've added the underlining above – so Epic Scale – could/should it be assumed that this dials-in around 13.5mm-ish for infantry figure height (close to 1/44th scale then for WWII units and/or vehicles)?

Are we seeing previewed an actual [commercial] 3D board game system here for WW2 (maybe even at a 'Tactical' battle scale)?

We shall see……..

See I don't care for board games, even 3d ones. I like my war games to feel like war games, which is also why I'm generally not a fan of gridded boards.

That does seem kind of interesting though.

- Wayne

Wayne, gridded boards aren't for everyone.

Just finished up this game advert below a few minutes ago, and figured I'd spam it here also, because it shows how gridded game boards can often be eliminated by using range sticks, and those can be even quicker in-game than if using standard rulers.

The graphic is meant to introduce a few of my friends to a new scenario generating scheme I've been working on, but it also shows how miniature terrain can still look good, while using an increment measuring method instead of hex or square grids.

Now that I *do* like! :)

-Wayne

gridded game boards can often be eliminated by using range sticks

That is a good solution and is what i used for my figure game conversion of boardgames, such as SPI's Modern battles. Each increment on the measuring stick i use represents a hex, but there are no hexes on the playing area and the playing area looks good. I do like the road scale you are using (thickness) and i may try that myself. It does look good.