Low cost wargames (or how to play wargames on a budget)

[tereydavi]

If you play with 1/72 miniatures using papercraft buildings the cost of making a big battle is really cheaper compared to metal 28mm miniatures and resin buildings.

Is the result better with expensive miniatures and terrain? Yes, it is... But is it worth such amount of money?

[manic _miner]

If you play with 1/72 miniatures using papercraft buildings the cost of making a big battle is really cheaper compared to metal 28mm miniatures and resin buildings.

Is the result better with expensive miniatures and terrain? Yes, it is... But is it worth such amount of money?

 Also less weight to carry around.Big difference with resin terrain and metal miniatures.Saves your back a bit .

[Mr. White]

If you play with 1/72 miniatures using papercraft buildings the cost of making a big battle is really cheaper compared to metal 28mm miniatures and resin buildings.

Is the result better with expensive miniatures and terrain? Yes, it is... But is it worth such amount of money?

This is a question I'm having a hard time finding the answer too. I mean, a large part of the appeal of minis gaming, to me, is the visual. if I downgrade the visual...why not play a board or chit wargame? The question for me is, is 1:72 enough of a visual downgrade to be a deterrent? The cost is better, no doubt. As is the speed to get them painted. But will I be satisfied with the final look?

[Storm Wolf]

This is a question I'm having a hard time finding the answer too. I mean, a large part of the appeal of minis gaming, to me, is the visual. if I downgrade the visual...why not play a board or chit wargame? The question for me is, is 1:72 enough of a visual downgrade to be a deterrent? The cost is better, no doubt. As is the speed to get them painted. But will I be satisfied with the final look?

For me, that was what also did for 15mm, the models etc are and were good, but they just didn`t match the table visual that 28-32mm gives me. Plus it could also be my old eyes . Perversely I still have my 6mm stuf and I like them fine.

Glen

[tereydavi]

This is a question I'm having a hard time finding the answer too. I mean, a large part of the appeal of minis gaming, to me, is the visual. if I downgrade the visual...why not play a board or chit wargame? The question for me is, is 1:72 enough of a visual downgrade to be a deterrent? The cost is better, no doubt. As is the speed to get them painted. But will I be satisfied with the final look?

For me the visual component is one of the most important things in this hobby, I need the game to be visually appealing, nothing of unpainted miniatures o halfmade terrain.

I always liked 28mm for skirmish wargames (less than 10 miniatures per side), but went for 15mm to play "bigger" wargames.

For example I would play Bolt Action or saga in 28mm,  I would prefer 15mm.

That kind of games, in 15mm, is visually appealing, and the cost is clearly reduced.

[Mr. White]

Lots of good comments. I'm currently doing a post apoc project at 20mm because that scale matches the vehicles I'm using and it's a set of models I've always thought fondly off (the old Citadel Dark Future line). However, I have my eye on some Lion/Dragon Rampant and there are so many good minis at 28mm that it makes the choosing hard. At 20mm (1:72) the pickings are less. the choices easy. And, I can quickly get retinues to the table. buuuuuut I won't be using those sweet 28mm models I've eyed forever.

Get a project done and get to gaming, or plan for the long game and work on the project at a much slower pace.

[Hobgoblin]

I might be in the minority here, but I reckon 1/72 can give at least as pleasing a visual effect as 28mm. The fact that the figures are better proportioned helps, and you can get more on the table for mass effect. I prefer 1/72 to 15mm, appearance-wise, especially with the better (and more paintable) plastics used by Caesar and Emhar (I wish those would become the industry norms). I like these guys, for example, as much as my 28mm goblins and more than my 15mm ones:



And the cost difference is astonishing. You can easily get a whole Hordes of the Things or Dragon Rampant army in 1/72 for under a tenner. And quite a few manufacturers produce diverse sets, so that you get several types of infantry and some cavalry in a single box.

[Hobgoblin]

Get a project done and get to gaming, or plan for the long game and work on the project at a much slower pace.

Go for 1/72!

If you're playing Lion Rampant, the Zvezda English knights (for example) are as nice as anything you'll get in 28mm. And that one box gives you a full 24-point retinue (2 x Men-at-Arms, 2 x Mounted Men-at-Arms, plus a unit and a half of spare infantry).

[Hobgoblin]

The other thing you can do with 1/72 boxes is base half of them as massed-battle elements and half individually, so that you get the best of both worlds. It's a good way of dealing with the duplicates in the box, and it works for games like Lion/Dragon Rampant, as you can more units that comprise both sorts of basing far more quickly (so the unit would have a multi-based 'core' and 'satellite' figures that are individually based).

[Mr. White]

You are making a solid case, Hobgoblin.

Who makes the painted goblins in your post?

[Hobgoblin]

They're Dark Alliance ("Goblins Set 2", I think).

I really like the Dark Alliance stuff, though if you get heavily flashed sprues, it can be a pain to clean up. Not so Caesar.

That said, the last three boxes of Dark Alliance stuff I've bought have been almost flash free.

These guys are Dark Alliance orcs. I reckon the figure on the right is the best orc archer I own in any scale:

[crafty]

Great to see 1/72 getting some love. For me personally, 1/72 hits the sweet spot for cost & affordability...as well as my painting style. I just don't have the level of patience and skill, time or money to amass huge armies of 28mm figures.

I just did a quick check online here at one of my Aussie retailers. For $15, I could buy 4 Artizan Winter Germans...yup...4 figures....or a box of 36 Italeri Winter Germans for the same price. I'd love to be able to have a company worth of Artizan figures, they look great, but that's going to seriously break my budget to achieve.

I've been clicking around some of your blogs and the painting is very impressive & inspiring. I'm currently painting up two sides (Arthurian Knights/Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham vs Orion 'Vikings') for Lion/Dragon Rampant in 1/72, so it's great to see.

FWIW, I don't necessarily think that gaming at this scale (and within a budget as well) has to be visually impoverished, I guess it depends upon the level of attention to detail. I try to sprinkle my tables with a mix of el-cheapo & DIY stuff with a bit of decently painted eye candy as well. My stuff will never have that amazing diorama-like quality that's going to look spectacular under the gaze of a digital camera...but our games always seem to attract a bit of attention whenever we play at our club, and more importantly, we still have a great time playing.

All the best.

[Mr. White]

I would definitely play with pride on that table and this is all sounding great.In fact, a Robin Hood v The Sheriff project was also something I had in mind using LR. What Robin Hood 1:72 minis are you using? For LR/DR at 1:72, are y’all modifying the ranges any? I’m not for my 20mm Zona Alfa.

I have the two Dark Alliance zombie and stalker sets and they do have quite a bit of flash, much more than the Orcs and goblins in this thread. Because of that, I didn’t rate Dark Alliance so well, but maybe some sets are better than others? Or there’s a good trick to cleaning soft flash.

Alright, what are the top 1:72 companies?

[Hobgoblin]

For LR/DR at 1:72, are y’all modifying the ranges any?

Converting? I've converted a few Caesar lizardmen and orcs (weapon swaps, mainly), plus an added cloak and staff for this shaman (since rebased). The Caesar plastic takes superglue very well (it's a bit like the Reaper Bones material), and hands can be drilled easily. Because the lizardmen are fairly chunky, they can take 28mm historical and smaller fantasy weapons. His cloak's from a Fireforge knight and his staff is an Oathmark standard:

I have the two Dark Alliance zombie and stalker sets and they do have quite a bit of flash, much more than the Orcs and goblins in this thread. Because of that, I didn’t rate Dark Alliance so well, but maybe some sets are better than others? Or there’s a good trick to cleaning soft flash.

You can use a heated pin to melt it off with reasonable success. Otherwise, a heavy knife - like a Stanley knife with a sharp blade - is pretty good for decisive cuts.

I wonder if Dark Alliance have upped their game recently; I bought the Anubians, Cyclopes and rangers, and they're all pretty much perfect.

Alright, what are the top 1:72 companies?

I'd say the top five (in no particular order) are these:
Dark Alliance (aka Red Box?): the widest fantasy range, with some really great miniatures.
Caesar: good historicals and some fantasy stuff that varies a bit but is generally pretty good. Some of that seems to be out of production. Some stylings can be a bit odd; the newer orc box contains perhaps the best 1/72 fantasy figures, but some of them have odd weapons (Atzec-style clubs) and would look better with shields. Those problems are easily fixed with small 28mm bits. Caesar's plastic is really easy to work with.
Emhar: a small range, but great mounted knights ("crested knights"), Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. Emhar plastic takes polystyrene cement, which is a game-changer, and the figures are pretty much flash-free.
Italieri: lots of good historical sets - very often with a HotT/DBA 'army in a box'. Very clean and almost entirely flash free.
Zvezda: perhaps the highest-quality 1/72 historicals. Brilliant medievals. Largely (entirely?) flash free. The plastic is slightly more difficult to paint than others - or at least to keep the undercoat on, although swiftnick of this forum had succes with a Krylon spray (I use gesso). Well worth the effort to paint up in any case. These hoplites are Zvezda:

[manic _miner]

 Got to echo Hobgoblins comments about the latest Dark Alliance figures.Really clean compared to the earlier releases.

 Looking forward to seeing what will be coming out next for the range.

 Airfix did the Robin Hood miniatures sets along with the Sheriff of Nottingham box and a Castle.