I play plenty of Skirmish games with my friends, but as a group, we also enjoy big battle games. Look in any wargames magazine and you could be forgiven for thinking that every new set of rules is for skirmish wargaming. Certainly, there are plenty of excellent skirmish rules out there but I think it would be a sad day indeed if BIG battles were to fall from our repertoire.
Love big battles. I had 35 ships of the line for my game at Huzzah!
ReplyDeleteWhile listening, it occurred to me that ones involvement in big battles is at least partly down to the size of your group and the resources that group collectively has. Of the three or four other people I wargame with in a year, only one has a collection approaching mine, and we do not have a huge table available. More importantly, and addressing one of your points, we mostly have 20mm or 25/28mm forces.
ReplyDeleteI've played in 28mm big battles and they're fun but the logistics of them aren't for most gamers under 60. Table space alone is a limit and then just painting up the required minis. I'm still painting 7YW Russians and won't have more than 2 battalions, but some in the group have 5000 minis or more but it's also their main period. I think we'll always see them in magazines if only to encourage players to buy more, knowing they'll probably never paint them all up. My favorite scale, 6mm, makes big games easier to put on but I hear more and more people scoff at anything under 15mm. It's like making homemade bread, not in a machine, in that everyone who cooks should try it and it's usually better but it's heck of a lot more work and many don't see the reward.
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