Tale of historical wargame painters – interest?

[f2k]

I was wondering, is there any interest in historical wargamming on WarSeer?

I was recently contacted by some old friends who I used to play Flames of War with. We’ve all missed our gaming-nights so we’ve been talking about getting our old armies re-painted and back on the table.

So, are anyone interested in doing a historical tale, focusing not only on the painting itself, but also on the history behind the units?

[Purplebeard]

Yes. It is a great idea. I have a couple of thoughts though.

Firstly, there probably needs to be some rules and goals. These would have to be looser than for the Fantasy/40K tales to accomodate different game systems and the 15mm and 28mm scales (plus the other ones). People game a lot of periods now so we'd probably have to work out army sizes for the major systems (at least that shouldn't be too hard for DBA!)

Maybe the 'history behind the units'/army background part could be optional as a replacement for the 'army background' that the other tales incorporate. A lot of units don't have recorded histories, and a lot of historical soldiers didn't fight in what we would call 'units'/'regiments'.

Having said this, I would be interested in giving it a go. I am very tempted by the stunning Napoleonic and ECW plastics I have seen in 28mm scale. The perry boxes look fantastic and I would be very tempted to go for them. Having said that, I'd also be very tempted to go for some DBA forces.

[f2k]

All points well taken.

To be honest, I haven’t put too much thought into the ”rules” as such. I’m more interested in determining out if there’s even an interest for this.

But...

Um...

Let me see...

System and army should be from whatever historical game you play and at whatever point value you want. It should end up being a legal army though.

As for the background and history... Well, I might as well admit that I’m a bit of a history nutcase – at least when it comes to WWII. In fact, unless I maintain a good grip on myself, I might end up writing a small thesis every month on the history behind each model and how they operated on the battlefield.
However, I do realize that other might not feel that engaged in their army so...

As this is a tale about historical games, I feel that some sort of historical background on the unit should be required. But how deep you want to go into it...?

[Purplebeard]

Yep - I get the thing about 'unit histories' and it is a good idea - all I was saying is that you might not be able to do it in quite the same way for say, a generic viking warband as you could for, say, a specific named US infantry unit from WW2.

I like the idea of a historical tale though.

Surely other people must like it too.

[f2k]

I hope so. Two players does not a tale make...

[redben]

How do these things normally work?

[GomezAddams]

You paint X amount of models a month for X amount of month with X amount of breaks - fairly simple.

Too much on at the moment unfortunately, but sounds like a neat idea. It could be quite cool to grab an osprey book and start building an army around X, Y or Z.

EDIT: Actually, a Roman army from Baccus is only £30... yeah go on then.

[redben]

In that case it would largely depend on what the X's were.

[f2k]

Basically, they are whatever you want them to be...

Sort of, anyway...

I was thinking about a full 12 month tale. But with the limited interest so far, perhaps a 6 month “trial period” would be a good way to start?

In any case, you pick the system, the army, and the point value you want and then simply divide those points into equal chunks – one for each month. Centre-piece models or larger models can be done over several months as WIP’s if you want to.

For example; I want to paint 600 point late war Germans for Flames of war over 6 months. In that case, I need to paint 100 points worth of models per month. However, one of the models is a Tiger I (worth 215 points) that I want to super-detail so I can use two months to complete that model and still keep up with my monthly schedule.

Hope that makes sense...

So, what do you guys think? How long should the tale be? Should we try with 6 months to begin with, or go for the full 12 months?

[Auzu]

Hi,

I would be interested in this so drop me a pm if you start it .

Cheers

[Ben]

Essentially you're trying to get a fully painted force at the end of it.

So if you wanted to play Saga, you'd want a six point force say, and to do one point per month.

A point in Saga is anywhere between 1 and 8 models.

There is a large number of starter armies (see http://www.grippingbeast.com/shop.php?CatID=2397) which each comprise four points, which is the standard game size. You can then pick up a couple more points of extras once you've had a few games. Of course a box of plastic gripping beast vikings gives you a complete army for £18.

SAGA is the latest craze in skirmish gaming.

You could go Old West and paint a tiny number of cowboys a month.

You could do historical warmaster and paint a couple of units per month to get 1000 points finished in six months.

You could paint Warhammer Ancient Battles armies and do a unit a month like the Tale of Fantasy gamers.

It is up to the individual, you just have to have an army or warband of your chosen force reading to game with at the end of the six months.

For example, I'll do 2nd/3rd crusade era Crusaders. For a 2000 point army, if I do a box of Fireforge Teutonic Knights, that is 25% of the army.

[f2k]

Auzu, I'll try to remember that...

Anyway, we've ended up talking a fair bit about this here. Right now the plan, such as it is, is to have a sign-up thread during June and then starting the tale in Juli. All manners of historical games are wellcome - skrimish or mass combat, WWII or comboys'n'indians. Whatever you might want...

[Sithlord]

I like the spartan armies for the hail caesar games I'll make a list of 150pts (around 1 division). Or maybe a greman panzergrenadier for kampfgruppe normandy battle from warhammer historical

[DarkAngelsG]

I think it sounds like a great idea. Right now I'm thinking of getting into Flames of War, most likely with Old Glory models to lessen the price a bit. But I would need to convince someone else to start it with me, since no one plays it at my LGS. So if I do start up an army, it'd be great to join in on this.

[f2k]

I think it sounds like a great idea. Right now I'm thinking of getting into Flames of War, most likely with Old Glory models to lessen the price a bit. But I would need to convince someone else to start it with me, since no one plays it at my LGS. So if I do start up an army, it'd be great to join in on this.

Yeah, getting others into the game is always a problem.

What you could do, is paint up two small 600 point armies over the course of the tale. That way you have all you need to run intro-games.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Well despite having said I'd probably give this a skip, I realized I am planning on painting up a bunch of gladiators for the WH game that was released about a year back, and if they're allowed to serve double-duty in the tales of Skirmish Painters and Historical Painters, I'd gladly participate.

The tough thing about doing them as a tale is that there aren't really well-defined "forces" for the gladiator game, so my overall goal would be a lot less structured than most people's armies. If it would be OK to just paint up a few each month, I'd do that though.

[f2k]

Well despite having said I'd probably give this a skip, I realized I am planning on painting up a bunch of gladiators for the WH game that was released about a year back, and if they're allowed to serve double-duty in the tales of Skirmish Painters and Historical Painters, I'd gladly participate.

The tough thing about doing them as a tale is that there aren't really well-defined "forces" for the gladiator game, so my overall goal would be a lot less structured than most people's armies. If it would be OK to just paint up a few each month, I'd do that though.

A gladiator game? Sounds interesting.

I can't see any problem with having a skirmish force on the tale. Although "force" might not be entirely accurate in this case...

[C-Coen]

Could be the start of Spartacus' army...

[Ben]

If you've got the rules you're golden, if you don't then you're stuffed. Fancy linking any good mini sites for 28mm gladiator minis?

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Crusader and Foundry are the best two lines that I can think of, and honestly I'd have a hard time thinking of anything you'd want that wasn't covered by one of those two.

I know Gripping Beast and Aventine Miniatures also do a few, though.