"How many armies?" Topic

For any historical period, how many armies do you need?

Some people raise one & their wargaming pals/opponents raise an opposition. The more cautious will create two armies, so they alwayshave someone to fight with.

And then we get to megalomania. For Napoleonics, I had ten armies (this did count 3 French Corps & the Imperial Guard but in numbers each was a stand alone army). Other periods were nearly as bad.

In the Great Sell-off, I sold several complete armies – an ECW Parliamentarian (Keeping my Royalists & Covenanters), my WW2 US (keeping German & British forces) etc. I'm down to six Napoleonic (too many but I love them).

You & your opinion?

Not counting the ones I sold off for food and disinterest in the local group. Nothing remains, except oddly enough a few Ancient Indian MC. 🤷🙄
I used to have massive Zulu, Sudan, and NW Frontier. (Boomers!)

I still have massive American and British (all flavours) Flames of War armies, although I stopped playing over a year ago. Don't miss them. (PM me for selling price. 😄)

Currently, I'm exclusively musket and sword and ship. All 28mm.
Pirates.
French and Indian War.
Spanish vs Comanche vs Texas Ranger etc.
Tons of Plains Indians.
Cowboy stuff.
Prussian vs Austrian border wars.
American Revolution.

"Just when I thought I was done, they drag me back in!"

I mainly stick to Ancients. Then it depends on how you define a period. I have eight "classical" armies, currently working on a 1066 project of four armies, and might next do Ancient Egypt and an enemy. Are they all one period ?

It's easier if you do ACW. Not much point in having more than two !!

Two is a minimum. If you only raise one, either you or your opponent gets transferred.

Above that, I'd say it was a matter of tactical variety and shelf space. If there are no unique units or national advantages--true in a lot of old and/or simple rules--I'd say stop at two. But six different WW2 or Napoleonic seems quite reasonable.

You don't NEED any, WANT is very different. If you want to play a period that nobody else in your group does then you need at least 2, possibly more if there are allies. If, like Napoleonics, lots of people have armies in various scales you may need none at all. I play lots of Nap game but don't have any Nap armies; others in our small group have them in various scales so no need.
Also, what is an 'army' ? Depends on the rules and the type of battles you want to play. Too many possibilities to give any meaningful answer.

Two at a minimum. In my experience, group projects don't work in the long run.

Ordinarily two, so that I can take it to a convention or a game with friends and provide everything.

It's actually "at least two", because I may want to present different factions on the same table, such as NVA, VC, ARVN, and USMC.

I tend to have both sides because I grew up/spent my young adult life in places where gamers were few and far between, so I had to have both sides

So right now I have

Medieval – enough troops for 4 different armies or one really really big army
Seven Years War – five armies (Prussian, British, French, Austrian, Russian)
Napoleonics – four armies (French, Austrian, Russian, really tiny Prussian)
ACW – two armies (like there were more)
Mexican Revolution – kind of like Medieval – enough troops for four armies or one really big one
Colonial – six armies (Brits, Canadian, First Nations/Metis, French, Japanese, Chinese/Boxer)
WWII – three armies (Brits/Canadians, Germans, Soviets)
Modern – enough figs for two or three skirmish gamers

Fantasy – four (humans, dwarves, Orks/goblins, amazons)
Sci-Fi – three or four (humans/renegades, Orks, Marines)

Plus enough Wings of Glory planes for lots of dogfights

"It's easier if you do ACW. Not much point in having more than two !!"

Even easier for me. I sold *both* my ACW armies off. No offence but I found the period boring to game & though I enjoyed painting them (well, the Rebs at any rate), I don't miss them.

I still have 3 Bronze Age armies (NKE, Mycs & Hittites) & 3 SYW (Austrians, French & Prussians).

Good sense says I should sell one of each….but which one?

The minimum is two. You need to have both sides so you can play a game and not be dependent on anyone. Some periods call for more. Some rules offer the opportunity to build more.

I've got

_28MM Ancients_
Early Imperial Roman
Ancient Briton
Romano-British
Dark Age Saxons

_AWI_
10mm British
10MM Colonial

_ACW_
6mm Union
6mm Confederate
15mm Union
15mm Confederate

_19th Century Colonial_
15mm Pathans
15mm Plains Indians
15mm Zulu
15mm US Cavalry
15mm British

_WWII_
6mm German
6mm US & US Airborne
6mm British
6mm French
15mm German
15mm French

_1/6000 Fleets_
WWI British
WWI German
WWII German
WWII British
WWII Italian
WWII Japanese
WWII US

On the workbench are 28MM Medieval French and British HYW armies and 15mm Napoleonic British, Spanish, French armies

Fair point, Gildas. For discussion purposes, shall we define "army" as enough troops for one side in whatever one's normal tabletop is?

For myself, that's
In 28mm, enough for a 4x6 table.
In 10 & 6mm, enough for a 3x3 table.
In 2mm, enough for a 2x2 table.

Smaller forces are regarded as auxilliaries.

Back in the 1970-80s, I had just finished Guard du Corps and was playtesting and demo them at shows. I ended up raising forces from every country. I ain't Ed at least 10 battalions each and 30 battalions with support for major peers. All 15mm and how I wish 10mm had been around them.

Ancients: 4
Medieval: 4
WW2: 4
Fantasy: many

I currently have 28mm AWI (skirmish), 28mm Arthurian (skirmish/battles), 13.5MM TYW (battles), and 8mm Napoleonics (grand battles).
For horse & musket period armies, my favorite, I would suggest 28mm for skirmish, 10-15mm for battles, 6-8mm for grand battles or possibly twin battles (example: Jena/Auerstadt).

For purposes of a poll, this should cover us diehard convention GMs:
* 8 or more.

As many as I can build! I do most of my gaming running events at the FLGS and conventions. So generally aim for at least 8 sides, and often wind up going a bit overboard and doing 12 or 16.

85 finished DBA armies, plus as many or more in various stages of work. I build them primarily in campaign sets of historical enemies and extended enemies of enemies. The larger campaign sets are:

Hyksos Dawn: 8–10 plus some duplicates.
Campaigns of Thutmose III: 12–15 plus some triplicates.
Hoplite Heyday: Many
Punic Wars: Many
Early & Mid Imperial Rome: Many
Viking Raids: only about 4–5, but with triplicates
Medieval SE Asia 7–9 in the works plus some triplicates
HYW: only 5 built, but more in the stash.
Meso-America: 7–8
South America: 4–5, plus quintuple Inca.
various other periods apanning all of 3000BCE to 1500CE in lesser numbers.

Test of Honour: 9–10 different factions

The Silver Bayonet: 5 done, another 5–6 in the works.

Lunar: 9 countries with 1 corporation, plus Little Green Men.

Gangs from The Warriors Movie: 12–14 done, more in the works.

French & Indian Wars, many skirmish commands from a goodly variety of regiments, tribes, and locals.

Plus a handful of Napoleonics, 2 WW2 in 1/87, and another 2 in 28; but commands that can be divided up amongst numerous players. And so on, and so on, and scooby dooby dooby.

My numbers are down. I have 15 28mm forces, 17 15mm armies and fleets for 9 naval wars.

Can I extrapolate?

1. You can only fight (most) wargame battles with two armies.

2. You (rarely) have only one side because it makes me reliant on others.

3. Those with multiple armies for the one war/campaign collect for – – Show & large,multi-player games
– forces for different theatres
– enjoy collecting for its own sake/love of painting etc
– You can't help yourself

NB "army" is defined as a force used by one side in a standard game.
-

Gildas Facit brought up two of my main points – "need" and "army" (which still is amorphous). So I will throw in "period".

A period (in this sense) is a span of time. We always tie that to a region and often to a specific conflict.

I am guessing 0.2 armies/period.

My WWI (that's a period, right?) Brits also fight Boer Wars, Boxer Rebellion, Sudan campaigns (including my hypothetical Fashoda), and Russian Civil War interventions. I want to do some colonial policing actions, too.

But if you want the time period of WWI, there are several other conflicts at the time unrelated to the Great War that would require enitrely separate forces.

Ochoin, your extrapolation looks about right to me.

Generally I want both sides for a given war/period/campaign, for the same reasons Robert P made about opponents/yourself moving. However, I have a special interest in some periods/wars/campaigns, and may be considered to have collected figures rather than raised armies. My SYW collection is one of the latter.

I surrendered to the gods of lead miniatures, plastic ships and tanks, plastic miniatures and paint decades ago. A recent count and printout of the "Collections" by era, type, or nationality identified 156 of them. Some have thousands of painted miniatures, in different sub-era (think Imperial French in 1805, 1809 and 1812+ uniforms), while others have only 20-40 models…like Italian Navy in 1/700 scale.

Hmmmm…….too many to count. I think they should be placed with me as grave goods to serve me in the afterlife.

I have sold some large armies and fleets over the years. Haven't done it lately. As I grow older that will likely change.

Thanks.

John

Too many and not enough! 😬

Defining things…..
See Humpty Dumpty's famous line, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean."

For Napoleonics – 20+, I started as the group's "odds and ends" man, painting all the interesting little outfits like the Hanseatic Legion, the Russo-German Legion, the Swedes, etc. Then I inherited Russians and the Prussian and Austrian guys moved on, so I added some of those, too. And Spanish (both sides). And Portuguese. And Turks and Egyptians, which led to Honorable East Indian Company troops. And then Americans and Canadians. And so on and so forth.