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Should I just make a thread for this? The worst that can happen is it dies after we have some fun spitballing ideas.
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Sep 28, 2021 15:25
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Grey Hunter posted:Should I just make a thread for this? The worst that can happen is it dies after we have some fun spitballing ideas. Do iiiiit. 
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Sep 28, 2021 15:37
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Never not post.
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Sep 28, 2021 15:37
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ABSOLUTELY yes.
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Sep 28, 2021 15:45
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https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3980519 Go forth an spew terrible ideas! Sorry for the interruption thread!
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Sep 28, 2021 15:50
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I posted this in the other thread, but I figured it goes here too: There's a club game called "Over the Hills and Far Away" that sounds similar to what's discussed. It seems kind of under-developed - it was a group project for a wargaming club - but I like the basic idea of playing a military wargame from the pov of an 18th century Colonel who is more concerned about his position in London Society than actually winning battles. It seems both fun and like a good reminder about the context that these guys were operating in. Too many wargames abstract away all that social stuff and just present a battle or a campaign as a strategic problem disconnected from larger society, which can lead people to misunderstand why a commander might make the decisions that he did. https://www.scribd.com/document/57077343/Over-the-Hills-and-Far-Away Case in point: If I remember right, Travis was ordered to abandon the Alamo because everybody knew Santa Anna was going to come back and kick his rear end in the next campaign season, but everybody liked San Antonio too much to want to leave so they stuck around way too late. Most wargames don't acknowledge that angle on strategic movement but it's a thing commanders often had to consider or else morale would collapse or troops would just ignore orders (the way Travis did).
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Sep 28, 2021 16:57
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And WGA are doing Warring States Chinese in plastic now, if anyone's into that era.
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Sep 28, 2021 18:49
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E: Taking my poo poo post to Graujaeger's thread
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Sep 28, 2021 19:54
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Any suggestions for plastic Soviet 28mm minis that aren't done by Warlord? Seems like a bunch of options have dried up over the years and I refuse to deal with Warlord's old sprue system of having to glue each arm and then weapon to the model (I was scarred building a British Commando force a few years ago, I can't imagine doing that again for a Soviet sized BA army)
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Sep 29, 2021 01:56
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Commissar Canuck posted:Any suggestions for plastic Soviet 28mm minis that aren't done by Warlord? Seems like a bunch of options have dried up over the years and I refuse to deal with Warlord's old sprue system of having to glue each arm and then weapon to the model (I was scarred building a British Commando force a few years ago, I can't imagine doing that again for a Soviet sized BA army) Wargames Factory and Plastic Soldier Company both did cheap and great Soviets, the PSC ones had heroic proportions that you can fix by swapping extra parts from the WGF kit. Here's a copy paste from earlier in the thread:  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. And these are all Wargames Factory:    
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Sep 29, 2021 02:07
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moths posted:Wargames Factory and Plastic Soldier Company both did cheap and great Soviets, the PSC ones had heroic proportions that you can fix by swapping extra parts from the WGF kit. Those all look fantastic, but it looks like Wargames Factory is out of business and PSC doesn't make 28mm Soviet infantry anymore 
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Sep 29, 2021 02:11
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I was going to say, WGF is of kill. Gonna have to wait for WGA to do their own kit  Speaking of Walord, they're showing their Italian sprues and the new ranges that will follow (in disgusting metal): https://warlord-community.warlordgames.com/open-day-reveals-bolt-action-italians/
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Sep 29, 2021 19:08
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JcDent posted:I was going to say, WGF is of kill. I'm... quite liking the metals. Especially the Marines, but the other kits are not too shabby either. I'm pleasantly surprised given my impression of a bunch of their latest stuff.
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Sep 29, 2021 21:33
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Grey Hunter posted:Working off the British army way of organizing would be fun - you bought your commission, and now your trying to make cash off it - so when you cash out in ten years time, you get more than you paid. Oh wow, a mechanic where you can buy promotions and then affect the orders assigned to other players would be amazing. You want the other players that you bought rank over to succeed since it brings you success, but not succeed too much.
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Sep 30, 2021 05:20
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Quick BA question: You HAVE to have either a 1st Lieutenant or a 2nd Lieutenant even with a higher officer, right? i.e. I can't bring in a vet Captain and go without a Lt? And if that's the case, are Captains and Majors actually worthwhile at all, for standard 1000pt games? Seems like a big cost. I might be better off just having a veteran 1st Lt, I guess. (Although two officers can be handy, I guess) Also, another one I just thought of. The effects penalties to morale if you lose your commander only count for the Lt, right? So if I have to take two officers (Lt and Cap), I can have a cheapo inexperienced 2nd Lt who cowers in a corner of the map, while my brave Captain Pattini rushes in with the men and possibly dies. Then if he does die, my forces are effectively no worse off, check-wise?
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Oct 7, 2021 07:29
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I'm not sure about the negative modifier, but you sometimes want to take higher officers for a couple reasons. First, they can snap to more men. Captain can snap to 3 dice, Majors can snap to 4 dice, both within 12" ranges versus the 6" range of lower officers. Second, the morale bonus for higher officers is much better. Captains offer a +3 bonus, Majors offer a +4 bonus, both again within 12" versus the lower officer 6" range. It's worth taking one of the two if you're playing an infantry heavy list so you can get up and go with more stuff. Also, I think you're confusing the -1 penalty. Individual units suffer -1 if their squad leader is killed. AFAIK There's no universal -1 morale modifier (except for Italians). If I'm wrong on this one someone correct me. quote:SQUAD LEADERS
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Oct 8, 2021 00:02
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Zuul the Cat posted:I'm not sure about the negative modifier, but you sometimes want to take higher officers for a couple reasons. First, they can snap to more men. Captain can snap to 3 dice, Majors can snap to 4 dice, both within 12" ranges versus the 6" range of lower officers. Second, the morale bonus for higher officers is much better. Captains offer a +3 bonus, Majors offer a +4 bonus, both again within 12" versus the lower officer 6" range. It's worth taking one of the two if you're playing an infantry heavy list so you can get up and go with more stuff. Oh, so there are no significant penalties, if your platoon's commanding officer dies? Huh, I could've sworn I'd read that there was something like that. Maybe I'm just thinking of Kill Team, which has something similar if your commander dies. Well, that's good then - I think I might shift away from having mortar and artillery support to being more infantry focused (my sniper team and recoilless rifle team arrived last night, conveniently) so having a fearless captain moving in with the infantry and I guess the LT buddying up with my sniper team or something. At the moment my list consists of four veteran squads of infantry (NCO w/ SMG plus six riflemen and an LMG), which I'm wondering about giving AT grenades to. (Are they actually any good?) In addition to that I have a tank (M15/42 from memory. Probably gonna add a pintle gun to it if I have the points), a tankette (L6/40 with a flamethrower. Thoroughly devilish and great even as mere deterrence, to keep the enemy away from an area) as well as my Lt, of course. I used to have a howitzer and mortar too, but eh - they never seem to contribute enough to be worth the points. In the two games I've had I would've been better off just having a few extra men instead, or something. So I'm probably gonna bring a light AT gun and a cheap tractor, as my artillery support. In addition to that I'm thinking of adding in a captain (of course) and a sniper team if I can. I think that's probably all of my points - if not I'll just spend whatever's left on upgrading unit experience to 'veteran' on something.
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Oct 8, 2021 00:38
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Been a while since I played BA but this seems to do a good job of ranking and explaining unit selection. Might be a bit min max for your uses though.
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Oct 8, 2021 01:28
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Major Isoor posted:Oh, so there are no significant penalties, if your platoon's commanding officer dies? Huh, I could've sworn I'd read that there was something like that. Maybe I'm just thinking of Kill Team, which has something similar if your commander dies. AT grenades are very bad. Instead of using he normal shooting or melee rules they use a convoluted system where every hit gives them +1 penetration. The end result is unless you’re attacking a very light vehicle with a really big squad you don’t have much of a chance of doing much damage. I’ve never seen anyone successfully destroy a vehicle with them.
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Oct 8, 2021 03:57
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Springfield Fatts posted:Been a while since I played BA but this seems to do a good job of ranking and explaining unit selection. Might be a bit min max for your uses though. Ah ok, thanks for that - it was a very interesting read. Sounds like a captain probably isn't gonna be of much use for me, with a veteran platoon. I might just get a veteran Lt and move him up with the (slightly less risk-taking) infantry instead. Also, drat it really seems like everyone other than myself and my friend likes indirect artillery! That article seems to rave about it. I dunno, it never came in handy for either of us across two games. We were definitely playing the rules right, but it just seemed like an absolute wet fart, even against stationary targets. Class Warcraft posted:AT grenades are very bad. Instead of using he normal shooting or melee rules they use a convoluted system where every hit gives them +1 penetration. The end result is unless you’re attacking a very light vehicle with a really big squad you don’t have much of a chance of doing much damage. I’ve never seen anyone successfully destroy a vehicle with them. Hah, man that's awful! Thanks for the heads-up, I think I'll ignore them... especially since IIRC if you rush a tank with infantry your infantry can do a basic attack against it anyway. That probably works out to be just as (in)effective, but minus the cost. Also, I read on EasyArmy that with the sniper team, it says if you don't use the sniper ability your team can use whatever weapons they have on the model. (e.g. rifle, pistol, SMG) Reckon I can slip a Breda LMGer past my friend, onto the team as the sniper's spotter?  I somehow doubt that, but it would certainly give him a nasty surprise, if he tries pushing my sniper's position! haha
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Oct 8, 2021 04:15
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So I bought a copy of the new Bolt Action Campaign supplement Italy: Soft Underbelly. Bolt Action campaign books can always be hit or miss, but uh, this one is loving wild. The book is 176 pages - of which 100 pages are new units and selectors. There are 56 new units. A lot of them are just renamed versions of existing units or copies of new units from this book. Like, there are three versions of each German new unit: one for Sicily, one for Southern Italy, and one for Central Italy with minor equipment option differences. Not sure why the author didn't just make one unit and then specify equipment options in the theatre selectors, but ok. There are also a fuckton of new special rules for units, and they're packed onto units left and right. On average, a new unit from this book has four special rules. Some have as many as nine. There are several units who have so many special rules they take up an entire page. The tradition of giving British units a bazillion overpowered National Characteristics continues. Some British units can apparently now pass through impassable terrain - which I feel like could probably break a lot of scenarios. The new national rules for the Italian army made me laugh aloud. They keep Defensive Strategies, and get a new special rule where their artillery and a few elite units can remove D2 pins rather than 1 pin when passing an order check. But Avanti Savoia is changed to no longer be able to give a positive morale bonus, it can only give negative morale if you've lost more units. The topper is a new national rule called Poor Officers that prevents Italian officers from conferring their morale bonus on Advance, Run, or Down orders. The synergy of further nerfing the army with the worst national rules while simultaneously putting out a plastic set for them is   Class Warcraft fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Oct 11, 2021 |
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Oct 11, 2021 06:32
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Class Warcraft posted:So I bought a copy of the new Bolt Action Campaign supplement Italy: Soft Underbelly. Bolt Action campaign books can always be hit or miss, but uh, this one is loving wild. Ah drat, that...doesn't sound ideal. Is there any useful content for the Alpini (and I suppose Bersaglieri), compared to what's in the regular 'Armies of Italy and the Axis' book? I assume not though, judging by your reaction
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Oct 11, 2021 06:49
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Major Isoor posted:Ah drat, that...doesn't sound ideal. Is there any useful content for the Alpini (and I suppose Bersaglieri), compared to what's in the regular 'Armies of Italy and the Axis' book? I assume not though, judging by your reaction No, sorry. Here is what they add for Italians: -A very cheap adhoc unit that has a 1/3 chance of leaving the battlefield any time it's shot at. -Motorcycle squad -Two types of engineers -Three types of X Regimento, some sort of Italian commandos -An armored car with a ton of weapon options -Military police squad
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Oct 11, 2021 06:56
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Class Warcraft posted:No, sorry. Geez - what's the top one, some kind of partisan unit? Eh either way, thanks for that! I'll avoid it I think. I hardly need to find even more ways to handicap my officers and morale! haha
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Oct 11, 2021 07:02
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It’s giant ECW day at my local club on Saturday and I have so many pike and shot bases to paint by then that I’ve taken the day off tomorrow to do it. Bets on how many get done ranging from “a loving battalion” to One guy please
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Oct 14, 2021 12:14
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A fightin' battalion might have more success than a fuckin' one 
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Oct 14, 2021 14:39
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Guest2553 posted:A fightin' battalion might have more success than a fuckin' one Plus they're less ECW and more Restoration period
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Oct 14, 2021 14:56
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lenoon posted:It’s giant ECW day at my local club on Saturday and I have so many pike and shot bases to paint by then that I’ve taken the day off tomorrow to do it. Bets on how many get done ranging from “a loving battalion” to One guy please I love ECW. Post pics please. Have you picked up any of the "Bloody Miniatures" character models? They're a bit big, but they look great.
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Oct 14, 2021 15:18
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I’m aiming for one big and one small unit of pike, so 25 and 40 guys, then two shot (20 each), a forlorn hope and some dismounted dragoons/commanded shot. I have painted some. The bloody miniatures look great! Unless there’s a FLGS in London that stocks them though they’ll never reach me - after this the ECW painting project is going to stop there.
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Oct 14, 2021 16:22
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I believe Salute is next month? ETA: also I may impose upon you for local club deets at some point. I am making the move to London "soon".
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Oct 14, 2021 17:32
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Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts, the greatest place I’ve ever had the privilege of playing. Thoroughly friendly, comrades to all, committed to gaming and equality alike
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Oct 14, 2021 18:16
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Conveniently just up the central line from the flat we've secured ourselves too. I shall definitely arrange to drop in at some point once I am over.
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Oct 14, 2021 19:19
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On this note is there a preferred rules-light game for early modern stuff? I've seen Field of Glory Renaissance but I'd prefer something smaller and simpler
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Oct 14, 2021 19:55
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Pikeman's Lament might work if you want to start with relatively small armies.
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Oct 14, 2021 20:39
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So here is a small flames of war question: How accurate do my stands of infantry need to be? For example I happen to have 2 platoons of German soldiers I received with "Open Fire" quite some time ago. They are set up to have fire teams of 5 troops on one stand, and 4 on another, with one of the troopers between the two stands holding an MG. I want to run them in a D-Day minus 1 scenario against the 101st, the idea being an elite squad of paratroopers taking on a beach defence detachment. The D-Day German book has different options for the beach detachment. You can have them as MG teams or Rifle/MG teams. I want to run the germans as MG teams. By the letter of the law or whatever do I have to replace a figure on every stand that is just rifles with a MG mini? I don't have any extra MG minis is the issue I am running into here. Conversely, if I ever wanted to do an early war scenario with the grenadiers and run them as pure rifle teams do I have to pluck out the MG holding mini? It seems silly that I might have to have 3 different companies of Grenediers. I also think at this scale it is easier to look at the unit card and ask or whatnot about the equipment than it would be to get up an eyeball them, but I am not sure.
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Oct 14, 2021 21:10
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Literally nobody will be able to tell, no. The usual thing is that if it's a pure MG stand (like wot the yanks get) it has three dudes to distinguish it from the 4-5 dude stands that represent your rifles. Otherwise, yeah, nobody can tell, you just have to be clear what they are.
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Oct 14, 2021 21:22
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OK, great! That is good to know. Not that it really matters, as I am just making up two small forces to play with the kids and whatnot, nothing at a super high grognard level. Is there any particular common method for distinguishing different platoons in an infantry heavy army? I am not sure I could paint card suits on helmets and be able to tell. I was thinking about doing a shape, line(s), or symbols on a small portion of the side of the base. Speaking of bases, does anyone have any experience with this company and their bases: https://www.baueda.com/15cama1.html They look pretty nice and I am not going to have a huge collection so the cost is not as much of an issue, but just wondering if anyone has seen them in person.
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Oct 14, 2021 22:17
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IncredibleIgloo posted:OK, great! That is good to know. Not that it really matters, as I am just making up two small forces to play with the kids and whatnot, nothing at a super high grognard level. Is there any particular common method for distinguishing different platoons in an infantry heavy army? I am not sure I could paint card suits on helmets and be able to tell. I was thinking about doing a shape, line(s), or symbols on a small portion of the side of the base. That's pretty common; often different numbers of white strips, or different colours of strip, along the back. My trick was to base everyone in the same platoon with the same colour of flowers, but that's very tryhard.
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Oct 14, 2021 23:10
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I bought the old Festungskompanie box from 1st edition when I got started and just built my mans with all the MGs in the world because that's how they came. They had the optional riflemen to replace them for regular units, but more MG = more dakka = more good, right? Never been a problem. Those MG42s saw action from Barbarossa to Berlin without anyone caring. I went with PSC plastics when doing my eventual Czech Panzerkompanie army because I wanted to have the option of a panzergrenadier platoon with MGs or engineers without or both at the same time and a way to tell them apart, but it turned out to never matter. IncredibleIgloo posted:Speaking of bases, does anyone have any experience with this company and their bases: https://www.baueda.com/15cama1.html
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Oct 14, 2021 23:28
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Thanks for the replies. I am going to buy a few bases and will give a trip report on them and how it goes, but the timeline between now and the pictures of them will be a while so don't get your hopes up, haha. These bases, being so detailed, should I try to paint them separately and then add the infantry? Or would it be easy enough to do with the infantry attached? My worry is that the small gaps in the bases of the infantry and the holes in the bases would be hard to cover/putty/fill if I have already painted most of the base and the infantry themselves.
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Oct 14, 2021 23:48
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