"Admiration for larger scale Wargamers" Topic

After recently moving up from 6mm Napoleonic wargaming to 28mm Napoleonic wargaming, my admiration for the skill (and probably patience) for those who have painted armies of the larger miniatures has grown considerably. I've obtained some wonderful 28mm Perry and Offensive Miniatures metal figures and I'm in the process of researching the correct units, history, uniforms and colours etc, which has been very (and still is) time consuming, sometimes contradictory and often very frustrating. But, like all wargamers, I imagine, enjoying the whole process. I'm going slow and steady, doing a few at a time, unlike with the 6mm miniatures when I went for whole regiments and armies as quickly as I could. I can't see myself reaching the high standards of some of the brilliant painters observed on this site but I will try to obtain the best results I can. It is also helpful when you find the right manufacturers who offer great miniatures and an excellent service, plus new books being published recently that touch on the same period I've gone for. And I'm just about getting over the 'shock' price difference of 28mm wargaming compared to 6mm. LOL

Even better with 54mm

Oh, my sweet Summer child…
You consider 28mm "larger scale"?
That has always been my scale.
CLS Napoleonics has traditionally been 30mm.
And you should see the 54mm games that Jim Purky regularly runs at Historicon. Last year it was Khartoum. This year Pickett's Charge.

As an old 30's player--we're supposed to call them 28's these days--I think of Heinlein's observation that "there's no particular virtue in being old, but it does take a long time." Larger scales are a lot more fun when there are enough players painting them to rapidly fill a table and start playing games.

That said, there are few wargaming spectacles the equal of 4,000 28/30mm Napoleonics clashing on a 30' frontage. I love my 6's, which let me command a corps on a card table and still have it look like a corps, but it's not the same. My 30mm units have names, nicknames and reputations. My 6's are just bases.

As for money, it's not so bad if you think in terms of how much frontage you're buying. 36 Napoleonic 28mm castings in two ranks take up 12". It will take you 144 6mils. So a 20 GBP Perry box of 28's takes up the same frontage as 15 GBP of H&R infantry. It's storing the 28's (and their terrain) that's the killer.

Anyway, welcome and good luck!

One of my old buds calls 28mm "the one true scale" for Napoleonics – I am sticking with 6mm as I have thousands of them but I admire those who do 28mm – thew newest member of our group is doing 28mm Napoleonics so I look forward to gaming with them!

15/18 hands down for me.
GODS own scale.
Large enough to still see a high quality figure, small enough for large scale engagements that include flanks and gaps between units.
Regards
Russ Dunaway

Yes, it is wonderful to see at a convention when someone does a large game. I started out painting larger 28mm games but time, money, space has made me turn to more skirmish style games.

There's history here for me. Way back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, the only 15mm figures were Peter Laing. Like Picasso, an acquired taste, and like Picasso they didn't look much like anything.
So I went to Minifigs, Hinchliffe and Lamming.
25 or 28 are natural to me, and not large.
6mm doesn't even register to me as viable. Much less visible. 😄

I also thought you meant proper large scale:

I always thought God's own scale was 1:1, or 1800 mm

Russ +1

I don't see much difference between 6mm or smaller and a good Napoleonic board game. The big difference is the terrain. But the terrain needs to be really good.

Whenever I consider wargaming Napoleonics with 54mm figures, I need to slap myself on the side of the head and hope that the notion goes away.

I soooooo want to do this with 54mm plastic figures.

Yes, as Robert Piepenbrink rightly points out, storage space also comes into play with larger scale wargaming. The area where I stored the 6mm miniature armies, buildings and scenery, has suddenly shrunk. LOL
In terms of actual gaming, all scales can be enjoyable. But in contrast to 6mm battles where you can plan larger actions and manoeuvres, I think 28mm gaming might work better with smaller, simpler actions, such as capturing a village, hill or bridge or two opposing forces bumping into each other. Anyway, I have a lot of researching, painting and basing to do before I reach the fun of an actual game. I shall just take my time, enjoy the process, ignore the frustrations of contradictory research and get on with it.

Thank you, Gazzola. My rule of thumb is that a period/climate/scale set of terrain takes up as much storage space as two armies meant to use it. The good news, such as it is, is that if you already have terrain for Peninsular War French and British, you don't need more when you add Spanish. But I could fit two 6mm Napoleonic armies with rules and terrain in the box that holds my 28mm trees. There's a cube ratio between height of figure and volume of figure and terrain.

And I think you're perfectly right about the battles. I fight corps actions on a card table in 6mm, and Waterloo would fit comfortably on a ping-pong table. But in 28mm, I fight something more the size of a Charles Grant scenario, with perhaps 8 line battalions of 24 or so figures. I can watch battalions being attrited away, change formations, and decide when to change from firing ball to firing canister. I refer to them as smaller and more intimate battles.

Alte Fritz, a 54mm Napoleonics game with a dozen 24-casting battalions a side is perfectly feasible, and needn't break the bank. But if you're thinking of doing D'Erlon's attack at Waterloo the way you did Pickett's Charge, call me, and I'll try to talk you off the ledge.

If I can't, I at least want photos of the game.

Come in Alte Fritz, the water's fine..!

I use 12 figure units (the pic above is a test Blucher game on a smaller table (6 x 4) with 6 man units to try it out.

If you use a variety of plastics, then it is just like the 70s all over again in which you need to do some conversions or find metal figures for command, etc.

Expeditionary force do lovely figures but they are just a bit too big and too expensive for me.

The Victrix 54mm are lovely, but again too big and look like 28mm figures with big hands, etc. I like the elegance of the Airfix, etc figures.

I have 40+ infantry units and around 12+ cavalry units so far in my Waterloo/100 days collection.

Mike

I am doing the War of 1812 with 54mm figures from Expeditionary Force. AND…I just fell over the edge by starting the French from Expeditionary Force for a what if the French entered the War wanting to take back Louisiana and also invade Quebec! OH boy, Have we got a War on our hands now!

OH and I'm thinking, just thinking mind you, of having the Spanish in Florida desiring to add Georgia to their territory. Somebody HELP ME!!!

IUsedToBeSomeone +1! Especially as I was Mike's opponent in the Blucher game. His 54mm Napoleonics are inspiring and show that with small units 54mm battles can look really good on a standard 6' x 4' table. For uniform buffs very minor uniform variations in 18th century (and other periods) armies are much easier to see in 54mm. I have a 54mm Culloden collection and can actually see the variations in buttons and lace on my British units.

Just to clarify, I bought my Culloden collection from a chap who is an excellent painter-I'm not claiming to have painted buttons, lace or indeed anything at all:)

" wargaming Napoleonics with 54mm figures"

Plus, you can fire at them with an actual miniature cannon…!

;-)

Zephyr1

I don't use the Napoleonics for that, but I do use my late 19th Century collection to play little Wars and Funny Little Wars with firing cannon on the lawn.

I don't see much difference between 6mm or smaller and a good Napoleonic board game.

I too struggle to see the difference between this:

(from Grymauch's Blog)

and this:

(from BGG)

Good luck with your new project Gazzola. Although I am sticking with 6mm Napoleonics for most things, I am building a small 28mm force for skirmishes (and as a hedge against my sight failing one day)

Oooh yes. 54s

Especially now 3D printing works

Whirlwind – Yes, sadly it was the difficulty I had straining my eyesight to paint and play with 6mm miniatures (supported by a few friendly fire incidents) that I reluctantly realised I needed to go up a few scales if I wanted to continue enjoying wargaming. I tried 10mm, 15m etc but eventually found I could cope best with 28mm scale miniatures. What I have discovered is almost a completely new world of wargaming, well, for me anyway. And testing as I have found everything to do with the larger scale, especially the higher cost, I actually enjoyed the search for suitable miniatures, buildings, scenery, paints etc and for some reason I've become increasing focused on basing my first 28mm miniatures and gaming on actions in Spain in 1808! But 6mm wargaming was a joy to play and I will miss the little blighters and the lower prices. LOL.

Best of luck! Spain 1808 was the first theatre of war I concentrated on, I really enjoyed it. You did a scenario for Medina de Rio Seco IIRC?

Yes and one on Bailen 1808. Both fascinating actions, one being a French victory and other a French defeat. I really enjoyed researching and writing the articles for MW magazine. However. the articles were researched and written some time ago (2005, 2007) so I don't know if they have somehow influenced my sudden interest and theme for my new 28mm Napoleonic miniature collections? But I'm enjoying it anyway, apart from priming. LOL

As a lifelong 15mm guy I think it's awesome to play at conventions with 28s, the 54 are another world to me, never played that scale.