"How Many Figures Make a Good Wargame Unit?" Topic

I've been working on my Elf-Centaur Dragon Rampant force which has units of 12, 6 or even a single figure as a "reduced Model Unit". This contrasts sharply with a Napoleonic Opolchenie unit for Valour & Fortitude that has 32 figures waiting for a lick of paint. So, why 12? Why 24? Why 8? Why 20?

I'm not asking what scale you use, but **how many figures you think should ideally make up one tabletop unit. What looks good, what number of figures is needed to show formations?OK **

Does a 12-figure infantry unit actually look and behave differently from a 24-figure unit representing essentially the same formation?

And what happens when your rules tell you that one unit requires 30 or 40 figures?

At what point does a unit become too small to look convincing — or too large to be practical?

So: how many figures make a good wargame unit, and why?

I like little figures for scaled games. I find a base size I like and mash 'em in there until they look good to me. Let the peasants worry about ratios.

Sadly I think often went for Empire's large scale with Napoleonic battalions around 12 fugures giving %50 either way. Those double units look nice but costs double or triple as well.

Still figuring out the ratio of the formulae.

table space:storage space:complacent spouse

Never could get the mix just right.
I think that the wallet ratio was left out of the mix.

I don't think you can omit scale from the discussion, but you also have to ask what your "unit" is. LR/DR is a skirmish system--officially 1:1--so it's fairly arbitrary, but you do want room for attritional losses. In 28mm, I tend to build heavy infantry units of 24+ with cavalry and skirmish types at 12. For Mersey-type rules, this may give me two units. For horse & musket, that's enough infantry to form column, line or square even after having a few picked off by skirmish fire or long-range artillery.

At 6mm, I tend to put my 24 infantry on a 2" or 60mm wide stand. This lets me give each unit an officer, standard-bearer and musician without looking like a color party, and the stand is either there (possibly with a morale or disorder marker) or removed altogether. Of course, there are a lot more figures on the table, and the loss of one of those "units" may have less impact on the game than the loss of a single figure on a Mersey skirmish.

The important things are:
1. That the basing and numbers be compatible with the rules.
2. That enough be available for the game. And
3. That it's visually satisfying for the players.

Agree with Robert – depends on the game. For most of our Grand Tactical games we go with 28 mm 24 unit infantry/12 unit cavalry – for 6mm we use 54 unit infantry/36 unit cavalry, which makes for that "mass of bayonets" look

Recently we have been experimenting with using 28mm 12 unit infantry/6 unit cavalry, largely because we often game with 3 – 4 players per side and our usual game table size means that the units choke up pretty quickly – so we reduced unit size to facilitate maneuver

For our colonial games we do 28 mm 10 unit infantry/5 unit cavalry

That hits the Holy Trinity that Robert so nicely outlines