Warlord Games Epic ACW Battles

[Steve J]

I 've just seen that Warlord Games are releasing the following early next year, with a free sprue with Wargames Illustrated. No idea what scale the figures are as it doesn't say. Interesting that another company is offering smaller scale figures.

https://store.warlordgames.com/products/epic-battles-american-civil-war?_pos=1&_sid=935cb77c9&_ss=r

[fred.]

Scale seems a little ambiguous at the minute, discussion on LAF suggests small 15s

[mollinary]

13.5mm foot to eye. I kid you not!

[rct75001]

Me and a few others were discussing yesterday and trying to work it out.  Finally found the 13.5mm to the eyes.  The bit we are still baffled by is 30 battalions meaning 3000 figs - 100 per battalion??

I think they would benefit from greater clarity in the way they marketed it - maybe needed to rush the ad out??  But another scale?

Richard

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

The rules are BP

[jimduncanuk]

Me and a few others were discussing yesterday and trying to work it out.  Finally found the 13.5mm to the eyes.  The bit we are still baffled by is 30 battalions meaning 3000 figs - 100 per battalion??

I think they would benefit from greater clarity in the way they marketed it - maybe needed to rush the ad out??  But another scale?

Richard

Each battalion has 5 bases, 20 figures (2 strips of 10) per base, one of the bases is a command base.

Worth a look.

[Norm]

If there are 5 bases to the regiment, this is still going to be a big table game. If 1 base to a regiment, then significantly less so. I'm not sure I would want to paint or own 100 figure regiments even on a fast paint basis.

Size wise, they probably need to be seen in the flesh for gamers to decide whether they want to lock themselves into the scale and there also needs to be some certainty that other elements will follow shortly (cav, mounted and dismounted), surprising that these do not make an appearance as part of the initial line-up.

The best thing about this, with their advertising power, it will force our media to shine a light on the smaller scales and wargame shows will start to get the proper scale diversity going on, with both demo games and traders supporting smaller scales. About time too.

[Steve J]

The best thing about this, with their advertising power, it will force our media to shine a light on the smaller scales and wargame shows will start to get the proper scale diversity going on, with both demo games and traders supporting smaller scales. About time too.

I completely agree Norm.

As for them being 13.5mm to the eye, you might as well call them 15mm!

[Smoking gun]

I've seen on another forum they are cast in strips with the figures joined at the upper arms.

Best wishes,
Martin

[Leon]

Another odd decision which seems to be more for commercial reasons than benefiting the hobby, but I suppose newcomers into wargaming might see it as a handy starting point to jump in?  I can't get my head around the scaling though, why choose something as random as 13.5mm?!  I've seen the updated images where it looks like they'll match up with Kallistra but I'd imagine that's more coincidence than any planned result.

But they're obviously a much bigger company than us so they must know what they're doing!

[jimduncanuk]

I've seen on another forum they are cast in strips with the figures joined at the upper arms.

They should be a breeze to paint.

For Union paint the whole strip black, paint the upper half of the body dark blue, paint the trousers sky blue, black on crossbelts, brown/gunmetal on muskets, dab of flesh on face/hands. Done.

For Rebs a bit more grey and butternut.

[paulr]

Another odd decision which seems to be more for commercial reasons than benefiting the hobby, but I suppose newcomers into wargaming might see it as a handy starting point to jump in?  I can't get my head around the scaling though, why choose something as random as 13.5mm?!  I've seen the updated images where it looks like they'll match up with Kallistra but I'd imagine that's more coincidence than any planned result.

But they're obviously a much bigger company than us so they must know what they're doing!

I agree more with you first comment than your last

[fred.]

Warlord do have history of acquiring figure ranges putting them into production, then leaving them rather isolated.

[Leman]

Great if either you are 15 and just getting into wargaming (as opposed to the mighty, ferociously endless despicable.......etc,etc) or just getting into the ACW. Otherwise there are more complete and more varied options elsewhere. As for epic - 2/3mm, 6mm or 10mm seems to be the best bet.

[flamingpig0]

Another odd decision which seems to be more for commercial reasons than benefiting the hobby, but I suppose newcomers into wargaming might see it as a handy starting point to jump in?  I can't get my head around the scaling though, why choose something as random as 13.5mm?!  I've seen the updated images where it looks like they'll match up with Kallistra but I'd imagine that's more coincidence than any planned result.

It is to stop people using their existing figures

[Dave Fielder]

The A5 sized Black Powder ruleset looks like a real winner, ideal for the gaming table. The current rules, although well organised and easy to read and play (see recent blogs from SteveJ) are hardback A4 making it a bit unwieldy unless used as a close assault weapon. The figures look like they match up well to Kallistra ACW. For a beginner this is a great set and perfect introduction, imaging being 12 years old and getting one of these for Christmas or a Birthday. For us grumpy old Grognards who are no doubt committed to our beloved metal ranges it does look like an odd decision, but then again we few Band of Brothers are not necessarily the target market.

[Steve J]

The box certainly does fit in with the ideal Xmas or birthday present for a kid, with everything oyu ned in a box, bar the paints of course. Mind you when I was young, we would have played with the figures as is and not worried about it at all. The smaller rulebook does look to be useful and I imagine they might release it seperately at some point in the future.

[fred.]

The game in a box is a good point, and I think I read that the figures are cast in blue and grey plastic so giving you two sides straight away.

I have seen Warlord stuff in museum gift shops so they are clearly thinking wider than established gamers.

The size of these figures is odd, they look close height wise with Kallistra, but very skinny compared with them. But some Kallistra figures are really big - I've not seen their ACW so don't know about those.

[industrialtrousers]

When the Wargames Illustrated comes out it would be wonderful if some kind would with an extensive ACW collection could provide some comparison shots.

As for scale, a gander for 15 minutes out the window should evidence the fact we're a fairly diverse species. Commercial reasons seems to be the most obvious reason but they may have decided that was as small as they could mass produce in plastic (injection or whatever they use) to get the detail they want. Hopefully there will be a few other manufacturers they fit with.

[Orcs]

But they're obviously a much bigger company than us so they must know what they're doing!

I work for a very large multinational company - The general consensus of opinion in our department is they haven't got a clue what they are doing.

The latest change in our departent is costing £28K month in extra overtime, and left 10 of us twiddling our thumbs looking for something to do most of the time.  A colleague and I each had about 4 hours of actual work each  in the last set of 7 x 12 hour nights!. The rest of the time we were reading training manuals and watching presentations. which tend to blur into one another at 2 am.