Brigade Fire and Fury in 10mm

[Sean Clark]

Hi 

I am making plans to play Fire and Fury in 10mm using mostly the beautiful new range of ACW.

I have long wanted to collect and game the Gettysburg scenario in the F&F rulebook for day 2. To do both sides needs somewhere close on 2000 figures (inlcuding guns/limbers/generals etc). I have planned to do this a couple of times and even costed out using Pendraken probably 10 years ago. With the new figures it seems a perfect time to have a crack at it. This will be a solo project but when done will be played out with club mates. We played a lot of F&F years ago using 15mm but never the grand scenario for Gettysburg.

Although this is the 150th anniversary I doubt I'll get this done before the end of the year. Figures alone I think will cost around £500 so I'm going to have to do it in bite size chunks. I did look at getting all the figures needed for the day 1 scenario but that comes in at over £200 and my days of blowing that much in one go are long gone.  I think I will start with chunks similar in size to the Pendraken army packs (though I will have to make up my own instead of using the actual packs due to the cavalry content).

Anyhoo, the point of the post. 

Does anyone have experience of playing Fire and Fury in 10mm? What conversion of distances did you make?

My ground rules are that I am using 10mm for both cost and size reasons. Therefore I dont want to use the same base sizes as 15mm. I'm thinking of 20mmx15mm bases with 4 figures per base. Not sure if bases this size will fit 4 figures though. I have heard people using centimetres instead of inches, so 12" in the rules will be 12cm on the table. Not sure what the overall effect of this would be if I dont use 1cm wide bases in place of 1". Fairly sure I cant fit 2 figures on a 1cm frontage.

I have thought of reducing all measurements by 1/4. The bases on a frontage of 20mm would by 1/5 the size of 15mm so wont be too far out. This would give something like 9" moves for infantry and small arms range of 6" or so. The table would shrink from 14'x6' to around 10'x5' to round up odd numbers (which my club could manage).

Thoughts ideas or suggestions?

And yes I need 69 limbers for the whole order of battle.

[General Bt Sherman]

I'm slowly working towards the same goal. All my figures are on 1" bases, so I'm planning on using the 15mm measurements. With 8 figures on a base, I'm thinking that the game should be pretty impressive. However, this is a long term goal for me. At the moment, I'm happy playing regimental level games. The numbers required to run a game of that size is very intimidating. I recommend that you focus on a smaller battle to start with (like 1st Bull Run) and then work up to it. At the moment, I have around 150 bases of infantry painted for both sided. I believe that puts me over the halfway mark for Gettysburg. The sad thing is I think you need even more troops to do the full Antietam Battle.   

Bryan

[Sean Clark]

Hi Brian

Impressive blog 

As stated, size and cost are factors, therefore I want a maximum of 4 figures to a stand but until I have some of the new castings in my hands I'm not sure what base size will look right.

I do intend to work through some smaller battles first. ACW has always been my first love in wargaming and I am happy to explore regimental sized games using other rules where necessary to get started. There are a few online scenarios for brigade level games too that wont break the bank along with the two scenario books to go at.

I note that a 2nd edition Brigade Fire and Fury is in development, which is interesting but I suspect will include bits from the regimental rules. In my eyes, there is little wrong with the original so it will take alot to pursuade me there is value in investing in a new set of rules.

As a solo project, this is a big deal but I am known locally for such projects. When first into Fire and fury I did both sides and all the scenery for the Stones River which is not a small scenario 

It will take as long as it takes. I'm not planning on rushing it. I am pretty much starting from scratch in 10mm so wish me luck!

[Fenton]

I've played F&F in 6mm...kept the same base sizes and distances...looks really good at smaller scales and makes the units really look like Brigades

[Dave T]

I've done brigade Fnf in 6mm and 10mm and just used the 15mm bases sizes from the book, worked just fine. 10mm looks really good for FnF. 10mm on 1" bases means  you can switch to the Regimental rules if you fancy a smaller engagement than Brigade. Still looks good.

I had the same difficlty in building up to useable army and I'd suggest thinking of the figures you want to a base. I started on 4 to a base but moved to 6 as it looked better. I may do some more 4's to speed up production. Mixed figs to a base works well and look less uniform.  8's are very nice but each increment adds a lot of painting/cost.  I set a target of a brigade 1st Bull run scenario off the web with about 100 bases a side. Now I'm working on other bigger battles adding more troops. It good to have a goal for your army building.

100 bases a sides was about 1200 figures due to mix of  4's, 6's and 2 cavalry to a base.  Took over a year, though time would depend on the paint style you want.   

[Sean Clark]

As I say I would love to do bigger but size is an issue and I want to do the biggest battle!   

Therefore I will not be using the 15mm scale but  likely 20mm frontages. Id go with 15mm frontage if it looked ok and I could fit 2 figures across.

[Dragoon]

I've been playing Napoleonic Fire and Fury solo since 2005 using 15mm figures.

I had planned to use 6mm. figures but a friend suggested 10mm. So the hunt was on.
10mm. figures in Belgic Shako's. well Baccus didn't do any back then but they did Prussians. Adler did a full range in 6mm. but I'd settled for 10mm. by this time 2006 /7 .
Problem, no one did Belgic Shako's Redline said they would but didn't , Magister Militum eventually did but they weren't what I wanted.

My plan was to use 10mm. Figures for standard 15mm bases. ie. 3/4" wide x 1" deep. This would give 6 figures in 2 ranks, a 50% increase over 15mm. figures or a possibility for large battles, reduce base size and movement by a third and also figures per base (4 infantry in 2 ranks or 2 cavalry per base. ).  This would give a ground scale of 180 yards per inch.
As 1 base = 360 infantry or 180 cavalry.

In round figures I need 120,000 Prussians or 330 bases or 1300 figures.
Added to this I need 90,000 Allies, that's another 250 bases or 1000 figures Brits, Kgl, Hanoverian, Dutch, Belgian, Nassau and Brunswick.

Oh yes! I forgot, I'm playing solo. That means about 120,000 French (I'll have to check) that's another 1300 figures.

Hell's bell's 3,600 figures . I have most of the allies in 15mm. and about 25% of the Prussians, but no French .
Now most of my figures cost 7.5p. For 5 figures (strip miniature figurines)
So I thin cost wise I'm never going to conceal £2,000 on a credit card (from my wife) assuming I could paint them by January 2015.

Lets see, 21 months that's 91 weeks or 637 days. If I can paint 5.7 figures per day that's 40 figures per week, easy! No problem!

I'll work out just what I need in exact amounts French , Prussians and Brits. I'll get my order off by tomorrow 10mm here we go!

Erm, French, will the new 1809 figures be ok! New castings, but is the figure right?  Erm, Prussians , no Prussians, good lord, never mind I'll get the Brits. Oh ! I remember now, no Brits yet, either , late this year or maybe next year .
80 figures per week isn't so doable.
Even if the French are ok, can I rely on the Prussians or Brits being ready?

Any ideas , anyone

[quasar42]

Hi, four figures in two rows on 20mm x 15mm bases should be quite feasible. I manage six figures, as in the French Nap battalion half-way through here: http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,6870.15.html

[Leon]

Even if the French are ok, can I rely on the Prussians or Brits being ready?

Brits are next on the list once the Bavarians are complete, so they'll be getting done in and around the WW1 additions through the rest of this year.  Release wise, I wouldn't expect to have anything until next year now.