What draws us to wanting to wragame a period in 10mm ?

Started by Sunray, 12 January 2019, 02:51:03 PM

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Sunray

Is it :

1.  The availability of the figures from at least one company ?

2.  Complimentary range of scenery ? 

3. An attractive set of rules ?

4. Popular with other gamers ?

5. Cultural factors - films and books etc. ?

6. Downscaling games you played in an earlier life .  Once in 25mm or 15mm - or even in 6mm ?

Have I missed any factors ?

And, on the basis of these factors, what period may you flirt with in the future?

steve_holmes_11

The examples are all reasons people might wargame a period.
Not all would necessarily point to 10mm.

My top 2 factors would be:
1. Rules are a good fit for the scale.
2. Available figures provide the necessary troop types.

Let me briefly expand.

Rules are a good fit for the scale:

10mms are quite small, can be based individually.
I wouldn't consider them for a single-based system which depend on: identifying each individual figure, are very fussy about distances between figures.
I'd alo avoid mass battle systems that required signle figure removal.

Most other cases are good, it's possible to use bases for 15-8mm or 25-8mm and pot more figures on.

Some rules recommend a rather small base size (eg Irregular Wars 30mm square).
I have a feeling this won't work with 25-8mm figures, and bases might look sparse using 15-8mm, not to mention the difficulties squeezing a heffalump on such a base.
So if 15mm has issues with being too big, 10mm looks like the ideal answer.

Available figures provide the necessary troop types

Fairly obvious.
I want all the troop types I'd need to field an army or two.
I'm prepared to shop around, do paint conversions, and proxy in a few similar looking troops (This works a lot better in smaller scales where you can't read the epaulette braid).
What will stop me is if a core troop type cannot be found.


Leman

Tends to be 1, 2 and 3 with me, plus an interest in that particular period of history. Airfix ACW coupled with Don Featherstone's rules and an interest in that particular conflict for almost as long as I can remember (at least 6 years old) got me started with proper wargaming at 13. It doesn't always work that way though. I have had a long fascination with the FPW but didn't start gaming it until Wargames South produced their 10mm figures. However the only book I was able to get hold of was Michael Howard's The Franco-Prussian War.  Gradually more pamphlets and booklets began to appear and then actual books through the likes of Helion. The real problem was rules. The first workable ones were Les Gens Braves from Caliver, then Warfare in the Industrial Age, from Australia (or was it New Zealand?). Eventually They Died for Glory was adopted as the go to set by my friends and me. The main problems with all three sets were:
a) They each had a different basing system. Undeterred I settled on 1" squares and made suitable adjustments for each set.
b) The level they were played at was multi-based battalions, thus the big battles of the war were out.
Then along came Bruce Weigle's 1870 - the tables were still enormous, but at least a base was a battalion. However, the only game I ever played fully was Wissembourg because half the table could be ignored. Finally two great things happened: Chris Pringle's BBB came out and at last most of the battles could be fought on a 6'x4'; then Bruce Weigle revised the playability of his rules in 1871, which also helped enormously. At the same time, through the likes of Warbases, I had acquired number chits and other markers, which meant all the old rules could now be played with standard sized units given a numerical strength rather than having it based on numbers of figures. Still the only decent FPW novel I have ever come across is The Debacle. I did find another one, but it was a bit of a tedious read and I gave up halfway through.  
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Duke Speedy of Leighton

You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Westmarcher

12 January 2019, 05:32:24 PM #4 Last Edit: 12 January 2019, 05:35:14 PM by Westmarcher
Like Steve, my interpretation of the question is why you would want to game a period in 10mm. Therefore, it is 1 and 6 for me (Pendraken's SYW range and 'upscaling' from 6mm). Additional factors are quality sculpts, cost, storage and table playing space and, as I soon experienced from Pendraken, good service.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Nick the Lemming

The range is number one for me. I tend to look at what's available in 6mm and 10mm in the main, see how complete the ranges are (or how compatible with other ranges if necessary), and then make my decision based on cost, number of unique poses, and how the sculpts are. 

Steve J

For me it's the following:

- Value for money.
- I can play big games, such as BBB, on a small table.
- I can also play skirmish games, as there is more than enough detail for me.
- There is more than enough choice just within Pendrakens range to cover pretty much any period I want to game.
- Storage is easy compared to larger figures.

mmcv

As a wargaming "noob" what drew me in was the balance between detail and mass effect at 10mm. While 6mm or even 3mm provides the massed troops look, the detail just isn't as high (though there are some amazing sculpts out there). I also found experimenting with 6mm a bit of a chore to paint, though I want to take another crack at painting it at some point now I'm more comfortable with smaller scale painting. 15mm and above look great, but they never really look like a proper unit of troops, just an abstract representation. This works for skirmish games and the like, but doesn't give the same sense of an army on the field. 10mm seems to hit that sweet spot in being a joy to paint but also looking like a decent mass of troops on the table.

I suppose the other thing that drew me in, as Westmarcher said, is limits on space and money - the cost and amount of space needed to store and play in bigger scales, let alone create terrain and scenery, was just too much. Though thinking about it, even if I had space and money, I think I still would prefer 10mm regardless!

Not sure if that quite falls into any of those categories.... maybe downscaling, though no past games to do so!

For my crusades armies, I had samples from a few different scales of periods I was vaguely interested in. For 10mm I chose medieval and was actually the period I was least interested in at the time. But for the reasons mentioned above, it quickly became one I dived into and became more interested in the period as a result. So for that it was the sculpts.

Some projects I'm looking towards in future, such as Greeks/Macedonians, Punic Wars and Samurai are periods I've had a longstanding interest in.

Other's, like my current ECW project, are ones I don't know that much about as a period and want to, so a wargame project provides a good avenue for learning and researching that. This will likely lead me to 18th/19th-century warfare in the near future, something I have only a cursory knowledge of at present. This may evolve into 20th Century at some point, though my main interest has always been ancient history. I'd class that as cultural I guess.

So for me, I think the main ones are: 1, 5 and 6 - great figures, personal interest in the period and convenient size.

fsn

1. The availability of the figures from at least one company ? Not really. However, Pendraken releasing a range can get my juices flowing, but there need to have been a spark of interest beforehand. For example, the Indian Mutiny Range isn't going to appear on my table, but the Samurai ... perhaps.

2. Complimentary range of scenery ?  Definitely not

3. An attractive set of rules ? Pshaw!

4. Popular with other gamers ? It is to laugh!

5. Cultural factors - films and books etc. ? Hmmm ... maybe. Books by Featherstone and Grant got me interested in certain periods.

6. Downscaling games you played in an earlier life .  Once in 25mm or 15mm - or even in 6mm ? Once, but not now

Usually I get hooked through a book or a magazine article or YouTube video. The next step is usually a bit of internet research and then maybe an Osprey.
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Orcs


1 A good set of rules
2 Good range of figures in a scale to suit rules
3 Decent terrain available

(full stops deliberately removed to annoy FK ) :)

I normally get drawn in by seeing a film or another game at a show, or I get my arm twisted.

Happy to do paint conversions, fortunately we do not have any rivet counters at our club.

The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

FierceKitty

I'd say reading and responding to a good history has usually been my first step on the slippery slope.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

FierceKitty

Quote from: Orcs on 12 January 2019, 07:53:03 PM

(full stops deliberately removed to annoy FK ) :)




Sounds like what I tell my students: Tell me if I make a mistake. I may have done it to check if you're paying attention.

Here are some Orc-friendly full stops which I bought cheaply at a punctuation fair. Feel free to download them and use them as needed. A few apostrophes got mixed in, but you'll doubtless enjoy attaching them where nature never intended. Onion's 3p a dozen today'.

...............................'''......................................'................................................................................................'...............................
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.


Leman

Not sure what FSN's response to rules means. I find I cannot really enjoy a game in any scale if I do not enjoy the rules. After all the hobby is wargaming, not military modelling.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

fsn

What I mean is that I don't buy rule sets. The release of a new rule set is likely to pass me by, and definitely won't engage me.

The rules I enjoy are the ones I write myself. As a solo gamer they are very quick and user friendly.
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!