Figure types that suit the table

[Sunray]

My son and I had a good Airborne game last weekend - yes there was a bridge, but not that bridge- and over a jar afterwards we discussed the figure types that get most outings.

We fight BKC and most of our tabletop encounters are in essence glorified skirmishes.  Its down to what fits the table.   This impacts the type of figure we demand.  Four key types emerged:

1. The Advance to Contact types - reconnaissance troops and vehicles who keep going until they make "contact", and then an uncharacteristic skirmish game rather than reporting back and avoiding the enemy as these units do in real life.  So plenty of demand for armoured cars and lighter elements.

2. The Airborne assault.  An isolated DZ and an objective to hold until relieved.  It fits the table and gives a satisfying game.  Hence the popularity of Arnhem, Crete and Bastogne based games.

3. The commando raid or devolved action. Its a bit like the airborne without the drop.  When Matchbox brought out their Flower class corvette, I know at least one gamer who converted it to look like HMS Campbelltown.   Good to see those new Commando figures Pendraken !  The US Marines holding a small beachhead at Guadalcanal would also fit this genre.

4. The Opponents to the above.  B e they bog standard Brits, Germans or Japs.


Now let me qualify that and say there will always be Tank buffs who love to see waves of Shermans or T34s  flood across the table, but such games tend to be light on 10 mm figures.  It is tank wargaming as opposed to primarily about figures.


So, popular figures that get plenty of outings - You can find them in 1-4 above.   But then Airfix had sussed that back in the 1960s.  

[petercooman]

Totally agree! Most of our games thend to be of the commando raid or airborne assault type too!

Although a good scrap with some tanks on both sides usually makes for a good game too! We just take a handfull of vehicles though, as i find BKC works best in a combined arms setting, all tanks just doesn't 'feel' that good to me!

[Wulf]

In skirmish scale (mostly CoC), I get mostly the PBI, your ordinary rifleman. It's rare to get more than A tank or A gun on each side. There can be considerable excitement to get a HMG onboard...

But I do try to use at last one tank a side, I confess, and that uses up most of the support assets in one packsge 

[Sunray]

One of the key reasons why I moved to 10mm was to allow a platoon sized unit of infantry (1 or 2 stands per section) plus support, plus a troop (3-4)of tanks/A/Cs on the table.  I loosely term it a battle group, and it allows a WW2- modern style of game.

I have to say I like my artillery on table, so often opt for the smaller 75mm type howitzers and infantry guns.   It may not always be accurate historically, but it gives  a more satisfying game.   

[petercooman]

I have to say I like my artillery on table, so often opt for the smaller 75mm type howitzers and infantry guns.   It may not always be accurate historically, but it gives  a more satisfying game.   

We often use the artillery as objectives, makes for fun games!

[Sunray]

Lord Lucan "Which guns?"

Captain Nolan "Those guns my Lord"

Into the Valley of Death charged the 600......

One other scenario occurred to me. Back in the last Century, Deal Wargames Club used to stage really good Demo Games.   Usually in WW2 using plastic figures.   They would take actual actions and scale down a company to a base of 8 figures,  A squadron of tanks to say 2 or 3.

They did obscure actions like the Allied invasion of Madagascar (Operation Ironclad) and the battle around RAF Habbanya (1941).  The Madagascar invasion is interesting . No landing craft - just destroyers ramming the harbour boom and commandoes (keep those figures coming Pendraken) jumping on to dock.  Valentine and Tetrarch  tanks against Vichy French units.

I don't know how accurate this was in terms of OOBs, but I think they threw a few French tanks into the mix.

[Bill Braham]

Inspired by the accounts of small unit tank actions in Artem Drabkin's T-34 in Action*. I picked up some Pendraken T-34s a while back and some Boche opposition I just need to make the jump and get some infantry painted up. The idea was that I did not want to get into large scale actions with battalions, brigades and the like but something more 'doable'. Strangely I did not want something that concentrated on infantry only but small unit infantry/armour appealed more. This may just be a reflection of all those games far too long ago with Airfix tanks and figures.

What appealed about T-34 in Acton was that it was a series of first person accounts by former Soviet tankers which I think can be translated into table top scenarios - so not the tank waves of Kursk but small unit tank/infantry actions that can be put up on a modest sized table and ideally suited to 10mm. A house move has stalled the project but I found the book enjoyable and it gave me, at any rate, an interest in moving into WW2 something I have assiduously avoided previously.

* http://www.stackpolebooks.com/productdetails.cfm?sku=3483&isbn=9780811734837&title=t-34-in-action

The publishers page. I picked min up from Amazon but these guys have it for a fiver plus p&p:

http://www.wildgeesebooks.co.uk/wordpress/catalogue/world-war-ii/

[Sunray]

Thanks Bill, an interesting post, and welcome to the forum.

Your comments reminded me of Charles Grant's Battle! Practical Wargames (1972).  It was set in WW2 and used old Airfix HO&OO plastic figures along with Roco Minitanks in 'precise' 1/87.

Interesting that British WW2 wargaming grew out of  articles in Meccano Magazine

The 'Action at Twin Farms' is a very very doable action that has been played on many a table.

Thanks to Wargaming.info  this book is online.  I am obliged to Mel Smith of Old School Wargames who has the entire book on a 17MG  pdf.  Google " Charles Grant's 'Battle' - Free Online".

Hopefully we will see images on the forum of ' Action at Twin Farms' being played out by Pendraken  miniatures .  I would recommend BKC, a bit more refined than the 1972 instant death .

[Norm]

Bill, like yourself, I was captivated by the account of T-34 in Action.

I recently jumped at Panzer Killers by the same author, which essentially is a collection of accounts by Soviet A/T gunners.

If you enjoyed one, you will enjoy the other.

Link - http://commanders.simdif.com/a-good-read.html

[Norm]

For WWII, I sort of sit on the border of having a single base representing the entire section plus the inherent LMG and other single figures or two half section bases and an LMG base.

My own rules use 1 base = 1 section, but my current rule reading is Battlegroup - with individual figures  (or at least casualties).

Also, I come from the Squad Leader boardgame background, so I am not used to tank dominated scenarios.

An early memory is a Don featherstone rulebook (I forget which one) in which his account said something like " and the final Sherman crawled out from under the bridge", and I think there is a nostalgic tie-in to our Airfix days and the 1 - 1 representation of WWII games.

[Bill Braham]

Sunray,

'Action at Twin Farms' of exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of (how could I forget?).

I actually bought a copy of Grants 'Battle! Practical Wargaming' wayback in those Airfix days from a model shop in Lancaster. An inspiring read but in the end I opted for something a bit more home grown (less cumbersome?) as far as rules went. I still have it tucked away somewhere. I recall reading Partizan Press had reprinted it with some stuff that never got published in Meccano Magazine and some additional material by his grandson though at £27 - £28 I am not sure I really need a copy.

Hidden away in a box I have a copy of BKC (still there post move) which I picked up from a 'well know auction site' but I have never really got around to reading it let alone playing! That may have to change although I originally got them with a view to doing Spanish Civil War (I had just read Ben Hughes 'They Shall Not Pass!) it would seem perverse not to use them for WW2.

[Bill Braham]

Norm

Thanks for the gen about 'Panzer Killers'. Copy ordered!

Cheers

Bill