Warlord Games General Historical Discussion

[buglips*the*goblin]

20 minutes ago, Heisler said:

Do you realize the potential monster thread that you have created?

 

N-no?   I figured there might be a handful of people interested, at most.  Strictly speaking, the thread is about Warlord's historicals, but I'm not going to discourage people from talking about additional rules or figure sources.  (Warlord sells Perry figures for their ACW, and they might also be the ones making the Revolutionary War figures)

 

21 minutes ago, Heisler said:

Rules, of course, are a matter of personal taste.

 

Yes, and also intent.  It's a different set of criteria for somebody who wants an historical wargame because they're interested in the subject and that more casual approach of somebody (like me) whose present knowledge of Napoleonic wargaming is that for $112 I got a musketload of army men and some rules I hope are functional.  Warlord's chief gift to the hobby is that it is now very accessible to get into, with minimal risk.  Where before I might have shied away from other eras, now I can dabble and if one or more proves not to my taste I'm not out much.  I figure that if I exhaust the provided rules or want something crunchier, then I'll at least have sufficient grounding to know what I might want instead.  Presently I'm just in it for the pretty figures, which is at least more into it than I was before the pretty figures.  This may develop into a deeper interest.   It does, at least, provide me an excuse to do some research on a subject I'm less-than-familiar with.  

 

 

 

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

39 minutes ago, Doug Sundseth said:

1/35 figures. The range available is pretty wide.

 

That is the driest, most understated thing you've ever said that made me laugh this hard.  Yeah, the selection is pretty okay for that scale.    

 

I considered using 1/72 for Bolt Action, but when I totted up procurement for assorted items the price worked out more or less the same.  I could, for example, get some late-war British infantry from plastic soldier company very reasonably, but they don't make any LW British heavy weapons so I'd have to cop them from another set (HaT or Caeser I think I looked at, and it may have been vickers mg from one set, piat launcher from the other).  Eventually I wound up with the Reapercon haul of Bolt Action sets so by that point the scale question was more or less settled.  

 

Buuuuuut... in some theoretical future with money and space, this 1/35 idea is quite attractive.  A nice, covered garden with a walk-on sand pit... very nice.  Cat-free, one hopes, to avoid Fluffy's... er... homemade terrain.

 

Edit:  Mortars, that's what it was.  I couldn't find any 2-inch mortar Brits in 1/72-1/76 for the life of me.  It was almost as bad as trying to find 70's-80's Soviets in that scale.  

Edited April 10, 2019 by buglips*the*goblin

[Doug Sundseth]

1 minute ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

40 minutes ago, Doug Sundseth said:

1/35 figures. The range available is pretty wide.

 

That is the driest, most understated thing you've ever said that made me laugh this hard.  Yeah, the selection is pretty okay for that scale.    

 

 

Fun to paint, too.

[buglips*the*goblin]

52 minutes ago, lowlylowlycook said:

Don't forget Blood Red Skies and their new range of Naval games Cruel Seas and Black Seas...

 

I left those out because I wasn't sure how they fit into the overall umbrella, or if they were even Warlord games.  The, I guess we could say "main four", seemed to fit together.  But if they're historical and Warlord, then I guess this is the place.  

[lowlylowlycook]

Yeah, Warlord have been very busy.  I'd say Warlord had "Bolt Action" series: Bolt Action, Konflict 47, Gates of Antares,  and now Warlords of Erehwon  and a  "Warmaster" series: Black Powder, Pike and Shotte and Hail Caesar.     Like every other company they are also coming out with various skirmish scale games since that's where the action is these days.  Cruel Seas was something the owner just wanted to do for years and years and finally went for it. 

[buglips*the*goblin]

You know, the funny thing is that I bought all this wargame stuff and I have absolutely no terrain.

 

Come to that, I don't even have a table yet.  Well, it's gonna take a while to paint anyway.  

[Doug Sundseth]

5 minutes ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

You know, the funny thing is that I bought all this wargame stuff and I have absolutely no terrain.

 

Come to that, I don't even have a table yet.  Well, it's gonna take a while to paint anyway.  

 

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/85445-terrain-essentials/

 

What, I'm helping. 

 

Mel Bose's YouTube channel (The Terrain Tutor) is pretty good, especially the shows that end up in his playlists. Don't know how good a writer he is (or how good his editor will make him look), but I think I'm probably in for that book.

[Zink]

11 minutes ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

You know, the funny thing is that I bought all this wargame stuff and I have absolutely no terrain.

 

Come to that, I don't even have a table yet.  Well, it's gonna take a while to paint anyway.  

 

I know how that feels. ~30 years of playing and we never had much decent terrain. I've been working a lot the last couple years to correct that. Still seems like not near enough for skirmish games. Takes way more terrain for a game of Frostgrave on a 3'x3' table than a game of Warhammer on a 4'x8' table. Plus we kind of want some variety so not every battle takes place by the same hill and house. 

 

4 minutes ago, Doug Sundseth said:

 

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/85445-terrain-essentials/

 

What, I'm helping. 

 

Mel Bose's YouTube channel (The Terrain Tutor) is pretty good, especially the shows that end up in his playlists. Don't know how good a writer he is (or how good his editor will make him look), but I think I'm probably in for that book.

 

I went in for that because I've watched a ton of his videos. Decided it was a way to give him a bit of cash for what he's already done for me. Plus if the book turns out anywhere near what he's hoping for it should be great. I still have my 20 something year old GW book on terrain making.

[buglips*the*goblin]

4 minutes ago, Doug Sundseth said:

 

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/85445-terrain-essentials/

 

What, I'm helping. 

 

Mel Bose's YouTube channel (The Terrain Tutor) is pretty good, especially the shows that end up in his playlists. Don't know how good a writer he is (or how good his editor will make him look), but I think I'm probably in for that book.

 

[OneBoot]

6 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

You know, the funny thing is that I bought all this wargame stuff and I have absolutely no terrain.

 

Come to that, I don't even have a table yet.  Well, it's gonna take a while to paint anyway.  

 

I was going to mention that the CAV III Kickstarter has a terrain-only addon, but then realized I haven't a clue whether it would even be the right era for your stuff. 

 

...I'm not helping! 

 

Huzzah! 

--OneBoot :D 

[Corsair]

1 hour ago, OneBoot said:

 

I was going to mention that the CAV III Kickstarter has a terrain-only addon, but then realized I haven't a clue whether it would even be the right era for your stuff. 

 

...I'm not helping! 

 

Huzzah! 

--OneBoot :D 

The CAV3 Terrain would be 10mm scale but a LOT of it would be usable for mid 20th Century on

[Glitterwolf]

For 28mm Historicals one might also want to take a look at the medieval armies from Asia.

Japan/China/Korea.

 

Watchful I miniatures, Kensei ( zenith), Perry Miniatures, Curtey's Miniatures.

 

 

[Heisler]

The Warlord Plastics are an interesting range and some of the older box sets are being redone. For instance I have two US GI boxes; regular infantry and rangers. The only difference between the two sets is that the ranger box comes with metal heads. Nice but not particularly useful. The weapon mix in the box sets can also be a bit hit or mix. If you are trying to model an actual platoon of US Infantry you are going to come up short a few weapons, which means you get to buy metal troops to supplement. I was not particularly happy with the fit of the US infantry, hopefully that will be corrected with the new box. I might buy the new box just to avoid putting these other two boxes together.

 

I also started a box of British infantry which seem to go together much better. I still have two or three boxes of Germans to do, including grenadies and pioneers. I have a few of the Warlord vehicles, but they seem to be a bit hit or miss. Their Pz IV is a nice kit and is manufactured by Italarie. However, once again, someone managed to find a rather unusual picture of the exhaust system and went with that as the standard (at least its easily left off). The resin vehicles, again, seem to be a bit hit or miss. I prefer the kits from Company B and Trenchworx and there are a number of others out there as well.

 

The Warlord AWI troops were acquired from Wargames Foundry. Those are actually quite nice, especially the militia troops. I haven't put together any of their other plastic ranges so can't really comment on those.

 

Warlord rules tend to be very similar to Warhammer, especially Bolt Action so they are very points driven, and allow players to really max out a squad. I definitely prefer a more historical context which is one of several reasons that I prefer Chain of Command from Too Fat Lardies.

[buglips*the*goblin]

1 hour ago, Heisler said:

The Warlord Plastics are an interesting range and some of the older box sets are being redone. For instance I have two US GI boxes; regular infantry and rangers. The only difference between the two sets is that the ranger box comes with metal heads. Nice but not particularly useful. The weapon mix in the box sets can also be a bit hit or mix. If you are trying to model an actual platoon of US Infantry you are going to come up short a few weapons, which means you get to buy metal troops to supplement. I was not particularly happy with the fit of the US infantry, hopefully that will be corrected with the new box. I might buy the new box just to avoid putting these other two boxes together.

 

The weapon selection is not my favourite.  Particularly with the German Grenadiers there are an unusually high number of StGs and comparitively few rifles and smgs.  Trying to maximize the number of figures from a box is quite a lot of planning and work.  I find the US Infantry (regular and Rangers) a bit easier, but I admit I've only built a Lieutenant from the Infantry box so I haven't looked it over closely yet.  The metal heads, I'm sure you probably know, are the Not-Saving Private Ryan guys.  I thought that was a neat touch.  Having to buy additional sets or figures to make a full platoon is an issue with a lot of the plastics.  They're okay, not really great, but I bought all of those sight-unseen and initially didn't have any plan for what kind of force to make out of them.  I actually bought the figure sets before I looked at any of the rules.  They're not terrible sets, but they could be better.  

 

1 hour ago, Heisler said:

I also started a box of British infantry which seem to go together much better. I still have two or three boxes of Germans to do, including grenadies and pioneers. I have a few of the Warlord vehicles, but they seem to be a bit hit or miss. Their Pz IV is a nice kit and is manufactured by Italarie. However, once again, someone managed to find a rather unusual picture of the exhaust system and went with that as the standard (at least its easily left off). The resin vehicles, again, seem to be a bit hit or miss. I prefer the kits from Company B and Trenchworx and there are a number of others out there as well.

 

I found the Sherman Vs to be okay, but the StuG III kit I didn't like at all.  It's flimsy, doesn't come with a Saukopf option, and the commander figure is distinctly smaller than his infantry friends.  Maybe he's Hitlerjugend and 15 years old, I guess.  If I get another StuG, I think it'll be the Rubicon version.  (The Shermans and StugS are also Italeri, and imo they have enough experience to have done better on the StuG).   I have a resin Sd.kfz. 231 6-Rad but I haven't done anything with it yet.  I liked the selection of weapons in the British Infantry set, particularly the Piat launcher and the mortar, and liked that the weapons were separate as well, but the arms were a bit iffy and somewhat specialized for my taste.  I've assembled that box, and painted about half of them.  

 

1 hour ago, Heisler said:

The Warlord AWI troops were acquired from Wargames Foundry. Those are actually quite nice, especially the militia troops. I haven't put together any of their other plastic ranges so can't really comment on those.

 

If those are the ones in Warlord's "Liberty or Death" box set, that's very hapy news.  That's a pricey box, so I wanted to get the cheaper Black Powder starter first, but Liberty or Death gives me a ripping case of Do Want.  I expect that for the most part, particularly as long as I am still living here, that I will be obligated to build both sides of any given game.  I don't mind this, it gives me an excuse to collect, but that's why I'm particularly keen on big boxes stuffed with opposing troops.  

 

1 hour ago, Heisler said:

Warlord rules tend to be very similar to Warhammer, especially Bolt Action so they are very points driven, and allow players to really max out a squad. I definitely prefer a more historical context which is one of several reasons that I prefer Chain of Command from Too Fat Lardies.

 

I expect the similarity is partly by design, since the Warlord guys are former GW designers.  I think they want to make it fairly easy for people to wander from one ruleset to the other (I think I saw something on their website recently saying this very thing).  I'm not especially fond of how Warlord builds its forces, either in Bolt Action or Tank War, but the rules themselves seem basic enough and intuitive enough to easily teach new players.  It's likely I'll be playing with people who have limited wargame experience, so simplification and a more "movie action, gung ho" feel is precisely what I'm looking for.  I'll build things so that people can use them to make lists, but my personal preference for wargaming is to make scenarios so the lists and their assorted shortcomings are probably not going to be too much trouble.  The games will probably be in a friendly atmosphere more than one with a strong "must win" mentality that might lead to bodged lists of dubious historical merit.  

 

Like I said above, for now convenience and ease of use are the main factors.  I can get three disparate, easy to play historical eras up and running quickly and have some interesting fun.  For this immediate task, Warlord and their rules are useful.  Projecting some years into the future, I may want to expand my options.  I have, after all, never met anyone in person nearby who has ever gamed with Napoleonics - so I'm trying to keep in mind that I may have to entice some people into trying them who otherwise would not have on their own.  If I seem resistant to checking out other rulesets, this is why.  For the moment I just need something simple and functional.  If it resembles GW rules, so much the better - GW players are easy to find.  

 

Edit:  depending on how long it takes to paint these, it might actually turn out that my first time playing any Warlord rules will be at Reapercon if there's another demo game set up.  

Edited April 11, 2019 by buglips*the*goblin

[paintybeard]

I've got a moderate collection of WW2 Warlord now, Mainly Brits and Germans, all mixed in with some earlier Wargames Foundry stuff. (The scale difference is there, but not too bad. Like Buglips I find the emphasis on late war stuff a bit of a disappointment, not least because finding somewhere to store all those huge tanks is a problem! Not had a chance to play many games, but I'm hoping to re-create "Operation Biting" sometime soon.

 

Try to post some pictures soon. 

On 4/11/2019 at 7:34 PM, Heisler said:

Warlord rules tend to be very similar to Warhammer, especially Bolt Action so they are very points driven, and allow players to really max out a squad. I definitely prefer a more historical context which is one of several reasons that I prefer Chain of Command from Too Fat Lardies.

 

Agreed, Chain of Command is the set of WW2 rules that I am happiest with. (And I HATE "Rapid Fire"!)