Hello from the land of 28mm

[lowlylowlycook]

Until now I've always been a 28mm gamer/painter.  Long, long ago I played D&D and WH40K and then Warhammer Fantasy.  Recently I've been playing Kings of War, Lion Rampant and Bolt Action. 

So how have I ended up here, in this strange, tiny land?

Recently I've introduced one of my nephews to painting and a bit of gaming with Lion Rampant.  I think it would be fun to play Kings of War with him since it is so simple and straightforward.  But taking a couple armies and terrain is a bit much and unless I took the time to pack things carefully it might not all be in order after 4 hours of driving.   And when I got there, where would we set up a 6X4 table?

Solution?  Make a couple tiny 10mm Kings of War armies and convert all the rules from inches to centimeters. 

I'm thinking of doing some Tolkien inspired armies, perhaps starting with the minis from Copplestone.    I made up some unit bases for a Dwarven army out of plasticard.





Oh God, these things are going to be tiny.   One the plus side, these armies are going to be even easier to take along than I imagined.


Anyway I've got some questions.   The Copplestone minis are nice but they don't have a lot of variety in poses, etc.   Is it a good idea to mix in some Pendraken Hill Dwarves or would it be better to keep each range to their own units?  Why haven't Pendraken revamped their orcs for the Warband range?  I'm going to need a lot of orcs.  Finally, as I try to decide on exactly how transport these armies, what kind of headroom will I need for the armies?  Basically, will the 1.75" height of the plano boxes I've been looking at be enough or will I need more room than that?

[d_Guy]

First,  welcome to the forum and your first step into God's own scale. 

I don't do very much fantasy but do successfully mix 10mm from different manufactures to do ECW period units. There is sometimes variation in size but usually you can use 2mm shims to raise the smaller figure(s). Once bunched and the bases flocked it is difficult to tell any difference.

As to storage, I use plastic parts boxes which are 1.75" deep and they work fine. The Pendraken pikemen are roughly 1" from toe to pike tip and with 1/8" base there is  still plenty of room.

Good luck with your project.

[Techno]

A warm welcome, LLC.

I'm sure there WAS a reason why the orcs weren't revamped.....But I can't remember what it was, at the mo'.
I'm sure Leon will answer when he's in, later. (He works strange, and rather long, hours !)

Cheers - Phil

[Steve J]

Welcome on board.

[Bodvoc]

Welcome to the forum, I hope you will post some photo's when you get some 10mm fantasy painted

[fred.]

Welcome.

Miniaturised KoW should be great. Are you going for inches to cm as the conversion? Definately put some felt on similar on the bases as it will be very easy otherwise to knock units around, and wth cm distances that little nudge can be quite significant.

The Copplestone figures are great, and certainly one of the best LoTR ranges around, and definately the best in 10mm. As you note they are a bit short on poses, and particularly of shooters. I'll see if I can find some Pendraken Hill dwarves to compare with the copplestone ones (though that will be tonight).

[fsn]

'sup Cook!

Welcome to the bestest forum and friendliest forum and the most knowingest forum, even if us don't do the spelling good sometime.

I've not done fantasy, but please post some photos.

Always good to see other's work. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Hello and welcome.
I use the goblins as Orcs, and the Orcs as heavier armoured elite type Orcs!

[lowlylowlycook]

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

I'll look at the goblins again.  I admit that I don't have the eye for a 10mm mini's possibilities yet.

Welcome.

Miniaturised KoW should be great. Are you going for inches to cm as the conversion? Definately put some felt on similar on the bases as it will be very easy otherwise to knock units around, and wth cm distances that little nudge can be quite significant.

The Copplestone figures are great, and certainly one of the best LoTR ranges around, and definitely  the best in 10mm. As you note they are a bit short on poses, and particularly of shooters. I'll see if I can find some Pendraken Hill dwarves to compare with the copplestone ones (though that will be tonight).

Yeah, inches to cm is the plan.  Looking at the plasticard bases I think there will be a modification to put "individuals" on larger bases and turn them in to command teams.   It's one of the things that I think KoW got wrong anyway because the small bases rule out making nice little command vignettes.  Also, I'm going to entirely abandon recommendations on the number of models per unit.   The orcs will be crammed onto the bases and close as I can fit them while if I get around to doing elves they will deploy in a thin line. 

It's interesting that you mention knocking units around.  I'll be using magnetic bases for storage and originally I was thinking of making metal board.  Lately, I've been impressed with the idea that these little guys will take up almost no room and was thinking that the board would then be least portable bit and a mat might work better.  It's something to think about, I guess.

As for the dwarf comparison, I'm not so much worried about the height which probably can be finessed as I am about the impression of clones vs the impression of being a mob and not an army.

[Wulf]

having downsized a few rules sets recently, I have to say that converting inches to CM directly does make the game feel very static. 1"=2cm looks far better. Of course, the rules I use usually move units less than 12" , often much less.

[fred.]

I used inches to cm for KoW when play testing some of the KoW2 army lists - as long as you scale the table size down it gives a nice game. A lot of the KoW moves are quite fast anyway.

Yes KoW commanders are a bit odd - just being single 28mm figures. A lot of the issues people have with the power of commanders would go away if they were a small group. Making them bigger for both sides should work fine.  They won't fit through small gaps as much, but this is no bad thing.

Definately don't worry about the number of figures per base - even in 28mm the number of figures isn't too important. It's the footprint of the unit that matters.

A metal board would be good with magnetic figures. But not so portable - although with inches to cms a 6' x 4' becomes 72x48cm which isn't that huge - perhaps in two parts with a hinge?

[lowlylowlycook]

Ordered some stuff...   Need to order more. 

I need some heavily armored dwarves.   Should I be able to work the FD23 guys with greatswords into the mix?

Likewise with crossbow dwarves and FD5. 

Once that's sorted I'll order some goblins as well.  I think they do fine even if it's hard to tell when every photo shows them in green.   

[lowlylowlycook]

You guys game me a pretty warm welcome but I have to say that I could have done with a warning about the strange psycho-active html coding that the webstore apparently uses.  I had strange thoughts like:

"It seems that I might as well take a Goblin Army as buy a few packs"

And

"At this price I'll just get the Hill Dwarf shooters even though I don't need blunderbusses.   Who knows, maybe my nephews will want to paint them." 

And

"Maybe I better look into some historicals..."

This is like baseball and if I go one for three against these attacks I'm doing well above average, right? 

[Techno]

Don't fight it, LLC.....Just enjoy ! 

Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Say hello to 10mm addiction