A collaborative historical project - A discussion

[job]

@ MtP, BA players: I like the idea of doing a 15 mm scale tank wars game. There are good plastic tanks makers (Plastic Soldier Company, Battlefront/Flames of War) and resin kits for people who like those too. We could easily field whole companies. Prokhorovka would be pretty fun to do in my opinion. Scenery would be easy to organize. We could adjust the rules to allow multiple player dice to be pulled out at once and quick roll off if two people want to shoot at each. (However with enough tanks that shouldn't happen very often, I think.)

I'm also interested in the French and Indian Wars. Maybe Abraham Plains? I think it would be suitable to use half sized units for BP. (12-figure units as standard.) Much of the war in North America was on a smaller scale than in Europe. Just my thoughts.

[Primarch]

I've been thinking things over and I feel that playing BA in 15mm is maybe not the best option. For one thing, I already have big BA armies, so making them again in a smaller scale seems somewhat extravagant. While mechanically different, CoC isn't far off BA with a platoon of individually based minis, (and is quite playable at 28mm to boot). There are some other rules out there, Battlegroup and FoW are both possibilities I suppose, though I'm not keen on FoW.
For me, my preferences are:
1st - 28mm - Platoon level games with a troop/squadron of tanks. (Tamiya are reasonably priced, though time intensive)
2nd - 6mm - A Battalion level game? Tank companies everywhere.
3rd - 15mm - A company level game with several squadrons of vehicles.

[The Other Dave]

I have the rules for Blitzkrieg Commander, and, although I've only played a game or two it's a strong option for each player commanding a company or so of combined arms forces. It's scale agnostic too, so we could do either 6 or 15mm.

Thinking of trading off scales, it might be interesting to tackle the same conflict at a couple different "levels" - a platoon level skirmish at 28mm as a behind-the-lines raid or what have you, and a company level level clash at 6 or 15.

[Primarch]

Thinking of trading off scales, it might be interesting to tackle the same conflict at a couple different "levels" - a platoon level skirmish at 28mm as a behind-the-lines raid or what have you, and a company level level clash at 6 or 15.

I would like to try and avoid any duplication of forces I have already spent time and effort on. I'd prefer to either do something that builds on an existing collection or is something entirely new. 15mm seems like too much of a half-way point between sticking with what I already have a ton of stuff for and doing a large battle. I realise that this probably puts me at odds with a couple of people on the scale issue, sorry.

[The Other Dave]

Thinking of trading off scales, it might be interesting to tackle the same conflict at a couple different "levels" - a platoon level skirmish at 28mm as a behind-the-lines raid or what have you, and a company level level clash at 6 or 15.

I would like to try and avoid any duplication of forces I have already spent time and effort on. I'd prefer to either do something that builds on an existing collection or is something entirely new. 15mm seems like too much of a half-way point between sticking with what I already have a ton of stuff for and doing a large battle. I realise that this probably puts me at odds with a couple of people on the scale issue, sorry.

No, I get that, and I was pretty much including 15mm for completeness' sake since it was in the discussion, heh - it's not my first choice for a company* level game, and not yours for a platoon* level game. But, if we each collected between a couple squads and a platoon in 28mm, and between a couple platoons and a company in 6mm, we could potentially get at the same conflict from a couple of interesting different angles.

*My choice of words isn't meant to limit us to WWII, either - I don't really have any horse in the race of what game or era we actually end up choosing - although OTOH I recognize that 6mm with infantry only, as it would be for basically anything besides WWII, is an odd concept to some, and if most folks want to stick entirely to 28mm it's no skin off my back.

[Mike the Pike]

As an aside, despite repeted viewings, I only just realized that Pete Postlethwaite was in 'Last of the Mohicans' too! This only increases its awesomeness.

BTW A little interwebbing shows that F&I Wars are doable in 15mm too (Blue Moon Minis). Or we could do a small brigade each, say 3 units a piece?

That said, I'mstill kinda keen on a largeTank Battle. Kursk etc or even a Normandy scenario (Panzer Lehr and the SS vs. Brits and Canadians?) If we went the 6mm or 15mm BA route, we could speed things up by...

a) having each Tank Platoon fight as a squad would.
b) But allowing the 'squads' to split fire as appropriate
c) Main guns only.
d) ???


Anyways, how about those interested post a 'Top5' in no particular order of eras/settings/scales.

Mine would be...

1) WW2 Eastern Front Tank War in 15mm.
2) French and Indian war in 28mm
3) Romans vs Gallic celts or Britons. Any scale.
4) 100 Years War in 28mm
5) 1809 France/Austria

I'd like to add that the above doesn't rule out any other period/scale etc, it's just my personal preferences.

[job]

Yes, and Mr. Pete Postlethwaite is also in the Duelists if you look carefully, too.

I'm keen on'

1) WW2 Eastern Front Tank War in 15mm
2) French and Indian war in 28mm
4) 100 Years War in 28mm
5) 1809 France/Austria

Actually, for the last one, Ive been thinking about it for the past few months. I would like to do some Austrian Landswehr, regular fusiliers and some Hussars. If we coordinate with Komura-san we should be able to pull off a Wagram game. What do you think?

[Primarch]

Mr. Postlethwaite is also in Sharpe. That guy gets around a bit.

My preferences are:
Roman Invasion of Britain
Anglo-saxons Vs. Vikings OR Normans.
Later Crusades
War of the Roses
Napoleonics

Of Pikeys list,
WW2 Eastern Front - As mentioned elsewhere on this thread, I think this might be one of the few times I'd prefer 6mm.
FIW - I think this would be better as a large skirmish type game of irregulars and indians rather than brigades of regular Brits Vs. French. (which IMHO doesn't offer anything different from Naps)
Romans Vs. Brits - I have 2 bare bones brigades for each and a stock of minis to flesh them out with, though I will say that Celtic clothes are a pain to paint.
100 Years War - I like medieval stuff and I like Perrys minis.
1809 France Vs. Austria - Seems ok to me.

[Primarch]

To recap the suggestions in terms of periods so far:

Rome Vs. Carthage
Roman Invasion of Britain
Dark Ages
Crusades
Teutonic Crusades
100 Years War
War of the Roses
ECW
Sengoku Jidai
Seven Years War
French-Indian War
Napoleonics
WW2
Cthulhu
Moderns
Warhammer 30K

So that pretty much covers the whole range of recorded European history.

[The Other Dave]

I suspect it may be executive decision time, or else we'll be talking in circles for months.