Reply To: "Golden Age of Wargaming"….perhaps not?

[cpauls1Participant 8957xp 0]

Hmmm… I think it’s time to give 28mm scale some much deserved love. I’ve been collecting this scale since it was 25mm, and wasn’t even aware there were other gaming scales out there until the interwebs came along (except for micro-armour). I’d seen the small boxes of 1/72 Napoleonic and Ancient stuff, but they were made from cheap toy soldier plastic and didn’t seem to hold much detail, so I passed them by. 28mm is definitely a painter’s scale, and I’m glad it’s more or less the standard now, as that means I can grab models and bits from a vast number of retailers… without having to buy their milksop rules (in most cases).

This is particularly true of fantasy and sci-fi. I can always find almost exactly what I’m looking for to flesh out an army, and because the models are mostly plastic, I can quickly do mods and swap out parts (not as easy in smaller scales). My near future combat team, for instance, is drawn from a number of sources: the bodies of the soldiers are Eisenkern stormtroopers, but the heads are Puppetswar. Their autonomous mini-gun tractors are Anvil Industry, and I have bits floating around from other manufacturers as required. I’ve also used dolled-up dollar store tanks, alongside GW Rhinos! My alien combat team is made with GW Tau, and walkers from Robotech.

I don’t think 20mm and 15mm readily lend themselves to conversion work, but I’m thinking @piers and @oriskany , among others, probably dabble in that sort of thing all the time. Frankly, I’m intimidated by the smaller scales, and I’m not sure the bits are available in those scales.

I will, however, admit to recently picking up Flames of War 15mm mini’s, and did so for several reasons: I lack space for a new system, wanted to play bigger games, and admittedly, they are cheaper. I am hugely disappointed with the rules (for more reasons than I have time to list), and will probably go back to my Striker rules for any game play, or even the Traveler rules, which have WWII at a tech level 5 or 6 I believe.

I read in one of the posts that with 28mm you can’t have realistic ranges and scales, but the same applies to 15mm, at least in terms of modern warfare. In any game, except maybe 6mm, you’re going to have to compress scales to get everyone on the board and create a reasonable simulation. This gives rise to the 50,000 sq. ft. cottage, but it still looks right on the table.

Finally, in terms of rules, there’s nothing stopping anyone from sticking to the rules they know. I can DM 1st Edition AD&D in my sleep, almost without the screens, and have most of the Battlesystem damage and modifier tables memorized. Same for Traveler. I’m not as familiar with Striker, as there weren’t many sci-fi mini’s back in the day. As I mentioned, my only foray into a new rules set was FoW, and it will likely be my last. I hardly have time for the games I play now, and that goes for painting as well… but I do love painting 28mm models.