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Warlord's Soviets aren't the worst things in the world, but they're not really great, either. Just a weird mix of uniforms and the occasionally awkward pose. I'm not sure about their all-winter Sovs.
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May 19, 2016 12:12
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Man I don't know if it's the paintjobs then, I need to see some Warlord Soviets in person because they don't look that great to me. I have heard good things about the winter kit though.spectralent posted:PSC can get you an entire soviet army for like £35. They're very old-timey figures; they have the kind of look you'd expect of upscaled 1/72 figures (which they probably are), which can look kinda soft. I'd recommend Wargames Factory's soviets, but they got bought out by Warlord. PSC probably aren't horrific, and it's hard to argue with a full set of infantry plus HMGs, antitank rifles, infantry guns, etc for £35. What about the vehicle kits? Rubicon seems a bit hard to get hold of at the minute and they only have the T-34/76 and /85 which is a bit limiting.
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May 19, 2016 12:22
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I specifically said they're not great.
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May 19, 2016 12:24
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Flipswitch posted:Man I don't know if it's the paintjobs then, I need to see some Warlord Soviets in person because they don't look that great to me. I have heard good things about the winter kit though. For soviet WW2 vehicles you're going to find plastic T-34s and for everything else you'll be ordering in resin and metal from specialists. So far as I'm aware nobody even does IS-2s or KVs in plastic, and if you want something like a BT or a BA you're lucky if there's even a resin manufacturer. (meanwhile here is our range of seventy four plastic german armoured cars...)
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May 19, 2016 12:31
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Warlord has tons of tanks, including IS-2s and KVs. http://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/soviet-army/tanks E: Although they are resin and metal. Но почему бы вам нужно нечто большее, чем почтенный Т-34, товарищ? 3 Action Economist fucked around with this message at 12:34 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 12:32
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If you choose to go with 1:48 tanks, there are a few more plastic tanks. If you go with 1:56/28mm, you're stuck with pretty much resin if you are Soviet, except for T-34s. But even in 1:48, the only kits you're likely to find right now are various types of T-34, KV-1 and KV-2 tanks, and SU-122. It's pretty bad compared to German and Western Allied vehicles. As for soldiers, our Soviet players decided that no single kit is good enough, and they use parts from various kits to make better ones. I'm not sure exactly which kits and what parts from said kits they use.
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May 19, 2016 13:00
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http://www.team-yankee.com/Default.aspx?tabid=867&art_id=5205 TY's West German book preview is up; there looks to be three lists there, but I'm already wondering how wise it was to remove all the national rules and consolidate everything into shared special rules given how the Leopard II appears to be statted like the Abrams. Though I guess it'll have the 120mm gun.
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May 19, 2016 13:01
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spectralent posted:http://www.team-yankee.com/Default.aspx?tabid=867&art_id=5205 Now i want to see T-55: The East German Army.
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May 19, 2016 13:09
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You might be joking but I probably would unironically have preferred that. Guys stuck with refurbished tanks from the 1950s facing up against everyone's missile-heavy infantry and impregnable racecar deathbeasts sounds pretty rad.
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May 19, 2016 13:13
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I recommend this to everyone, but get a box each of they'd PSC and WGF Soviets (if you can find them.) The WGF box comes with extra heads you can use to fix the PSC ones, and you can use the WGF shovels to add some much-needed detail. The problem with the PSC heads is that the helmets are way too big and the details are a little muddy. (The softcap heads are fine.) Most of the figures go from "acceptable" to "good" with just a little bit of work, I'll post some photos when I get home.
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May 19, 2016 13:18
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The Wargames Factory soviets are still available in a few places in the US, but the pickings are getting slim: http://dreamforge-games.com/collections/wargames-factory-products/products/wgf-w2003-wwii-russian-infantry-28mm http://hoardobits.com/cgi/hob/shop.pl?cat1=Bits&cat2=Wargames%20Factory%20Bits&cat3=-Russian%20Infantry&cat4=&page=&view=08212013-1-22
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May 19, 2016 16:34
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PSC are brand new sculpts done maybe five years ago. I only have their Soviets in 15mm and they look a bit odd next to FOW stuff because they aren't "heroic". They do suffer a bit from being the earliest kit too. Still perfectly good for the price though.
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May 19, 2016 16:56
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spectralent posted:You might be joking but I probably would unironically have preferred that. Guys stuck with refurbished tanks from the 1950s facing up against everyone's missile-heavy infantry and impregnable racecar deathbeasts sounds pretty rad. That's pretty close to my 6mm force for Cold War Commander I did
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May 19, 2016 16:56
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Had a nice Black Powder battle last night against good human being and strong forums poster BULBASAUR. A division-level skirmish meant to be evocative of Bragg's attacks on Rosencrans' Army of the Cumberland in the fall of 1863. In our scenario, the drat dirty Rebs will be attacking a Union-held town in two waves: Union Order of Battle Army commander, staff rating 9 1st Brigade, staff rating 9 -2x units of line infantry -1x unit of Sharpshooting skirmishers 2nd Brigade, staff rating 9 -1x units of line infantry -1x unit of Sharpshooting skirmishers 3rd Brigade, staff rating 9 -3x rifled cannon -1x Gatling gun (ahistorical but fun and I only have three Union cannons painted up so brrrp brrp brrp it is) The Union position:  Confederate Order of Battle Army commander, staff rating 9 1st Brigade, staff rating 9 -4x units of cavalry -1x unit of horse artillery 2nd Brigade, staff rating 9 -2x units of line infantry with Terrifying Charge (yee-haw, the rebel yell! These are depleted regiments and have 1 less shooting and stamina than the others, though) -1x rifled cannon 3rd Brigade, staff rating 9 -1x unit of line infantry -1x unit of Sharpshooting skirmishers -1x rifled cannon The rebel cavalry takes the farm and awaits the reinforcements:  The battle started with noted rebel and secessionist BULBASAUR ordering his cavalry, the youthful flower of the gentry, headlong into my cannon in order to distract them while the rest of his army arrived and mustered down the road:  As his troops trickled in, I pushed out of my trenches and met them headlong:  The climax of the battle is a series of brutal melees fought over this hill. My skirmishers end up being the heroes of the day as they refuse to die quickly to the veteran rebel column, and extracting enough blood in return that I'm able to drive off the rebels from the hill with a charge of my own:  The battle ends with a brief glimmer of hope for the rebels as the middle of my line dissolves like cotton candy in water, but an army commander-led charge on my cannon and the collapse of the rebel wings means they don't have the strength to press their advantage and the union carries the day! All in all a very good battle-- it was back and forth enough that both of us were sure we were losing badly at various points and by the end it really came down to some narrow scrapes in close combat that happened to fall my way. Not a bad evening!
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May 19, 2016 17:29
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I picked up Glory, Hallelujah! (Civil War Black Powder supplement) from my FLGS, hoping to get some cool scenarios, rules and lists for my Trent Affair Civil War games. Of course, the book doesn't cover the British or anything (and I wouldn't expect it to), but it was still full of mostly good stuff to focus on Civil War style battles. The only problems I had with it were 1)Confederate Apologism and 2)Really fiddly special rules that I won't use. In the case of 1) it isn't anywhere near as bad as some stuff I saw growing up in the South, and I appreciate that they're trying to make both sides of their wargame appealing to play, but it was still disappointing to see them setting up the Civil War as a states rights issue and play up the Super Southern Army idea. Again, nowhere near the worst but still could have done better. And the fiddly rules stuff (such as the check to interpenetrate friendly units. Sure, it's probably realistic but still I don't want to deal with that) are easy to ignore, as they are all explicitly optional add on rules. Most of it is good though. The expanded Civil War era artillery section, including support for larger units of combined guns, is cool. I also like the extra rules for handling forts, since that came up in my last game. Advancing musket technology is well represented, I thought, and the year by year army lists show when it's reasonable for it to appear. I was excited to see ships, and I like what they did there. My next scenario is going to include some coastal support, to see how it plays out in game. There's even some extra terrain and customization advice, which was appreciated. Overall, I'm glad I got it, and I'll definitely be using it to help design the next scenarios for the Trent Affair. Has anyone looked through any of the other supplement books for BP? Any favorites or ones to avoid?
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May 19, 2016 17:29
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Arquinsiel posted:PSC are brand new sculpts done maybe five years ago. I only have their Soviets in 15mm and they look a bit odd next to FOW stuff because they aren't "heroic". They do suffer a bit from being the earliest kit too. Still perfectly good for the price though. My understanding was the 28 and 15mm guys are the 20mm guys, scaled up/down as appropriate. How true is that? Serotonin posted:That's pretty close to my 6mm force for Cold War Commander I did Sounds pretty awesome! You don't happen to have any pics of it?
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May 19, 2016 17:52
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spectralent posted:My understanding was the 28 and 15mm guys are the 20mm guys, scaled up/down as appropriate. How true is that?
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May 19, 2016 17:59
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The 15mm are outstanding, some have recognizable facial expressions and there's a great sense of movement / action to the sculpts. In 28mm, they lose something. It's more obvious that the helmets and SMGs are exaggerated, the uniforms look formless, and much of the detail is suggested rather than crisp. They're still not bad for the price, and many poses are just as good as anything WGF or Warlord is doing. There's just a few ugly sculpts on the sprue that give the box a bad rap.
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May 19, 2016 18:07
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I just noticed that Zvezda's Art of War dudes are EUR2.75 around here and they're almost too cheap not to buy, but they're kind of lacking in poses. On the other hand, 5.50 would get me 15 dudes... 14 after I throw out a lovely officer sculpt. Must resist stupid ideas, especially after I have just dropped 60 on Infinity.
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May 19, 2016 19:01
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Kaza42 posted:Overall, I'm glad I got it, and I'll definitely be using it to help design the next scenarios for the Trent Affair. Has anyone looked through any of the other supplement books for BP? Any favorites or ones to avoid? Oooooh ships. I've cobbled together some house rules for ironclads to someday fight Fort Donelson and Henry, are the rules in the book just for blockade ships or can I have a tinclad escort my troop carriers down the Mississippi? As for other books, I only have BP and Pike and Shotte, but they're actually pretty useful together, since the P&S pointing system and commanders are better developed and both books together form a nice base for creating your own rules. I'm totally gonna be picking up Glory Hallelujah though, it seems like there's a bunch of small useful tidbits for me in it.
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May 19, 2016 19:09
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tallkidwithglasses posted:Oooooh ships. I've cobbled together some house rules for ironclads to someday fight Fort Donelson and Henry, are the rules in the book just for blockade ships or can I have a tinclad escort my troop carriers down the Mississippi? Ships are there for coastal bombardment, pretty much. They act as very durable cannons that can't fire at close range (So most of them have a 2-1 shooting profile, with some being 3-1 or 1-1). They all count as their own commanders, and can't be commanded by anyone else (they default to 8 rating) and move 8" per move. Cannon fire comes out the sides. Ships can only be damaged by artillery, and every ship has a limit on what artillery can damage it. This is either "Any", "Not Light" or "Siege Only". I'm pretty sure that ships don't take the morale penalty for being hit by artillery, but it's not said anywhere that I can find. My next scenario is the British main force coming in time to meet the main Union army, so the British will have two ironclads to provide support to secure a landing zone.
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May 19, 2016 19:32
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spectralent posted:You might be joking but I probably would unironically have preferred that. Guys stuck with refurbished tanks from the 1950s facing up against everyone's missile-heavy infantry and impregnable racecar deathbeasts sounds pretty rad. Yeah the west germans dont seem anywhere near as different from the US as the e. Germans from the A-level USSR.
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May 19, 2016 19:41
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I'm kinda pissed. Almost none of my Team Yankee infantry fit into the recesses on their bases because the bottoms of the infantry are misshapen, uneven, or have mold lines that are metal and I can't manipulate. Also most of the guns are horribly bent, even the infantry themselves are at a lot of odd angles. Phi230 fucked around with this message at 19:59 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 19:56
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Kaza42 posted:My next scenario is the British main force coming in time to meet the main Union army, so the British will have two ironclads to provide support to secure a landing zone. I feel like an rear end in a top hat picking historical nits about your hypothetical ahistorical scenario, but if the invasion is happening early 1862 then ironclads wouldn't be capable of blue-water operations. Edit: I guess there were rigged ships with steam support and armor at that point but the classic "ironclad" all steam floating tank thing we're just brown water and used by the French, Union and Confederacy. tallkidwithglasses fucked around with this message at 20:08 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 20:04
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tallkidwithglasses posted:I feel like an rear end in a top hat picking historical nits about your hypothetical ahistorical scenario, but if the invasion is happening early 1862 then the only ironclads in the world would either be Union or Confederate and they wouldn't be capable of blue-water operations. Oh, didn't realize that. I'm not really a history buff, so I'm just throwing in "what sounds cool" and seeing what works. What would they be using? Frigates, gunboats? I'll do a bit more research when I try to find good historical commanders and such, I just picked Ironclads because that's what I think of when I hear Civil War ships. Since the game isn't trying to simulate ship-on-ship fights, there's not a huge lot of difference between various ship types.
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May 19, 2016 20:08
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Kaza42 posted:Oh, didn't realize that. I'm not really a history buff, so I'm just throwing in "what sounds cool" and seeing what works. What would they be using? Frigates, gunboats? I'll do a bit more research when I try to find good historical commanders and such, I just picked Ironclads because that's what I think of when I hear Civil War ships. Since the game isn't trying to simulate ship-on-ship fights, there's not a huge lot of difference between various ship types. Edited my post a little! The U.K. would have had "ironclads" at the time that could have crossed the Atlantic but were basically armored rigged ships with a boiler to help them along. The floating battle tank things were only being used by the CSS and the Union and couldn't go into deep water for very long. The French also apparently built a couple but basically only used them as bulky fortress things to conduct shore bombardment. Just include whatever, you're fighting an imaginary war anyways so might as well have fun with it. I just fought a battle with a Gatling gun in 1863 and I didn't have to surrender my grog card.
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May 19, 2016 20:12
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The Warrior class ironclad existed in 1861. You're fine to use British ironclads. What tallkidwithglasses is angling at is that the "Monitor" concept didn't really take off until after the eponymous ship fought the Virginia and they basically did nothing to each other.
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May 19, 2016 20:17
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Alright, thanks for the info. I'm delving a lot more into Civil War era stuff for these scenarios and it's really interesting stuff, way more than the somewhat-familiar level I was at from just being a historical-adjacent nerd. Not sure when I'll fight the next scenario, but I'll let you know how ships worked out once I do.
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May 19, 2016 20:23
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spectralent posted:For soviet WW2 vehicles you're going to find plastic T-34s and for everything else you'll be ordering in resin and metal from specialists. So far as I'm aware nobody even does IS-2s or KVs in plastic, and if you want something like a BT or a BA you're lucky if there's even a resin manufacturer. Or the bote. moths posted:The 15mm are outstanding, some have recognizable facial expressions and there's a great sense of movement / action to the sculpts.
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May 19, 2016 23:07
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Phi230 posted:I'm kinda pissed. Almost none of my Team Yankee infantry fit into the recesses on their bases because the bottoms of the infantry are misshapen, uneven, or have mold lines that are metal and I can't manipulate. Yes, I had the same experience with my Soviet infantry. 'Twas ever thus for BF tho. For the bases, just carve away the extra bits with a knife till it fits. You should be able to bend the guns back into place. Question. What scale is that railway track in the pics on that TY West German preview? Where do I go if I want to get some cheaper?
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May 20, 2016 00:50
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Phi230 posted:I'm kinda pissed. Almost none of my Team Yankee infantry fit into the recesses on their bases because the bottoms of the infantry are misshapen, uneven, or have mold lines that are metal and I can't manipulate. I would have figured that anybody in this hobby already has a set of files for working with metal and resin miniatures, if your new to it I highly suggest picking some up.
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May 20, 2016 00:51
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Yeah Glory Hallelujah! Is a beautiful supplement. I too like how they present lists through the years. I'd love a 28mm ironclad, or even just cw gunboat. I've seen a dude on fb 3d printing them at 28mm but I dunno. Anyone got some good links for example play or step by step on Sp2? I really like the drill formations but most of it is really dense for me
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May 20, 2016 01:24
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Here are those pictures! These are some PSC / WGF hybrid figures. They're a pretty good scale-match already.  The figure on the left is an unmodified PSC figure, the helmet and ammo drum are the two worst "heroic" offenders. (The one on the right is the same body with those fixed, the arms aren't mated up properly yet.)  The rifleman on the left is another unmodified PSC figure, on the right is a stock WGF rifleman. As I said before, the rifles and softcaps look great and scale excellently with their WGF counterparts.
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May 20, 2016 02:34
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Cheers for posting those up dude, that's super helpful. 
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May 20, 2016 11:05
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They look pretty good modded like that I have to say...
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May 20, 2016 11:11
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OK, so I've been able to convince one of my 40K buddies (he grew up playing historics with his dad) to try Bolt Action and Chain of Command, but like me he's mostly an armor freak so he'd prefer to play WW2 stuff with lots of tanks. Blitzkrieg or Kursk, stuff like that I guess. Is Flames of War the only option we have for this? Model-wise, I have a bunch of PSC armor and infantry and would prefer to stick with 15mm if possible, since I have a few buildings as well. I've posted about my small WW2 collection before but it's basically a couple of boxes of M4s and a box of half-tracks, plus an infantry company and heavy weapons company, all from PSC, with the infantry based in squads for FoW. I've been told itt that playing BA or Chain of Command with the squad stands would be fine if casualty markers are used (?) but as they're not based or painted yet I can pop them off and base them on pennies or something.
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May 20, 2016 11:31
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Primarily flames. There's Battlegroup (X) from PSC that also covers higher command levels, and Tanks! is out soon, but Flames is definitely the 40k of tank games. Going to lower scales you have Fistful of TOWs and Blitzkrieg Commander, which are 6mm-10mm kind of deals, and at higher scales you have Bolt Action's Tank War, and there's Big Chain of Command for tank platoons, but both BA and CoC are kind of weird fits for tank battles. They work for platoon vs platoon I guess!
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May 20, 2016 11:40
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OK, I'll have a look at Tanks!, for some reason I thought that was the same as Team Yankee. Also I read a review of Chain of Command that even a single tank in that game is a rarity, but maybe it's just that reviewer's area meta. Also, didn't know BA has Tank War - does that integrate at all with the infantry game?
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May 20, 2016 11:58
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Yeah, CoC is not that great for fighting with tank platoons against infantry platoons. But tank on tank battles or battles where both sides have one or two armoured support options works. But then you're looking at 3-5 vehicles squaring off, rather than a whole company. You can expand by playing with several platoons at once, but it's a pretty detailed game, so you risk getting bogged down if you play games with more than one platoon per side, especially before you are fluent in the rules. I'd probably look at Blitzkrieg Commander if you want a tank-heavy 15mm game,, but that's because I'm not a huge fan of FoW. E: No, a single tank is not a rarity in CoC, most of our games have at least one side fielding a tank or armoured car. But it's not a game where you put ten tanks shoulder to shoulder and advance, like FoW. So not rare, but since it's a platoon sized game a single StuG can be a very formidable threat.
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May 20, 2016 11:58
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krushgroove posted:OK, I'll have a look at Tanks!, for some reason I thought that was the same as Team Yankee. Also I read a review of Chain of Command that even a single tank in that game is a rarity, but maybe it's just that reviewer's area meta. Also, didn't know BA has Tank War - does that integrate at all with the infantry game? Tanks can be uncommon in higher-rated platoons as support, but there's an expansion called "Big Chain of Command" which lets you field a tank platoon as your primary element. As mentioned they can be a bit screwy against infantry.
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May 20, 2016 12:05
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