Starting in TtS!

[bythelee]

As I am now advanced in years, and now that I have retired I would like to get back into Ancient Wargaming. I have the TtS rules and Army lists as pdf files.

There are, I understand, tournaments for the TtS rules. I would really like to participate in these.

My questions are:

 What is the points value for a tournament army?

How many camps should I have?

As a beginner what would be the easiest army to play?

More importantly, what is the easiest army to paint? (Bearing in mind the previous question).

The last question is perhaps the most important as my shaky hands and poor eyesight will determine what I can or cannot do.

Thanks in advance.

[SJWi]

Hi, I can't comment on the "competition" aspect of your question as I play TTS but aren't a competition gamer. However I have seen a TTS competition and think they are normally 140-150 points ie enough for a 6 x 4' table.

As for an easy army to paint and play with, are there any particular historical periods that appeal to you? Do you want to stick to traditional metal figures or go with cheaper plastics?  I would recommend an army for which you can buy nice shield decals. A nice big shield decal can make even an averagely painted army look much nicer! 1st century Imperial Romans are widely available, don't have lots of weird units and have big shields!

Happy to suggest more.       

[fred]

Welcome onboard.

TtS is a good set of rules, fun, quick and still tactical. I also can’t comment on the tournament side of gaming.

Like SJWi, I would suggest you think about what army / era appeals to you - as ultimately you will be spending a lot of time painting and collecting and something that appeals to you will be much easier to collect, than something that is a bit of a chore.

You probably know this already, elite armies tend to be smaller, so are easier on the wallet and painting effort. But in gaming can be a bit brittle. On the other hand horde armies are expensive and time consuming to collect and paint, and can be a bit dull too play. So something in the middle i.e. a few good cavalry units to hit hard and some core infantry is a good balance.

The choice between plastic figures (requiring assembly, but generally cheaper) vs metals, (single piece but more expensive but with heft) is one to think about your preference too. Of course you can mix the two.

[Vis Bellica]

Hi

re competition games, the points range from 130-150 points, stopping at all stations in between. If you want to be ready for any of the major competitions then you need to be able to field armies of 130, 135, 140 and 150 points. Cover that and you're sorted.

re which army to choose, my advice is to decide whether you're going to field a tournament army (carefully crafted to get maximum benefit out of the rules) or to field an army you're going to really enjoy playing and love every time it takes the field. If the former, then you should be looking at the usual suspects: Romans, any army with a good mix of heavy horse and light horse, any army with mass missile fire backed up by a few impact units...as I said, the usual suspects. If the latter, then just pick an army you love!

The camps debate is an interesting one. The player who wins the most (you know who you are!) always fields three camps. I nearly always field three camps...but, that said, lots of people field just one camp, but in my experience not many field two!

You might like to look at this page on my website that has loads of TTS AAR on it, many of them from tournament games:

https://www.vislardica.com/other-after-action-reports-tts

re which armies are easy to paint, it depends on your style of painting. I find army of identical figures the easiest to paint: you can just go into a production line fugue and churn them out. Combine that by picking an army with simple costumes and no fiddly bits, and you'll be sorted in no time at all. My latest army is based on Perry medieval plastics, with each figure having only the weapons they need to show what they are i.e. no additional swords, quivers etc. Makes life very easy when painting them: Contrast Paints, flesh, top, bottom, shoes and belts, weapon, done!

Hope that helps and look forward to facing you across the tabletop.

R

PS  get a shuffling machine, they are all the rage now!

[bythelee]

Thanks for your replies.

I'm not interested in winning, just the taking part and meeting new friends.

I'm leaning towards Imperial Romans because it seems a simple army, lots of legionaries and a few support troops. Also a lot of them will be identical, and therefore painting should be simpler and quicker. But I could be persuaded otherwise.

I am looking at plastics as they are easier to carry and cheaper. Victrix supply all the Roman troops needed in plastic, including generals.

I do like the Dark Ages, in particular Vikings  and Saxons - 1066 and all that, but each figure needs to be an individual!

[SJWi]

Not a bad shout. I personally prefer metal but Victrix are nice figures, and you can always pick up sprues on e-Bay rather than buying a full pack. Although I love TTS Saxon vs Viking wouldn't be a period/theatre I think suits them. Too many of the same sort of units on both sides, which can lead to a quite boring game IMHO.   

[FifteensAway]

Shaky hands and assembling plastics sound like a recipe for frustration to me.  I've never done them but I'm told by those who do that they are a pain in the ass to assemble in many ways.  Others like them for the ease of doing conversions.  And, of course, price.  Me, I'm sticking with metal miniatures - or a single piece resin figure when no metal version is available. 

Mind you, I do assemble things - in N scale modeling, sometimes quite small things.  But not for me with my wargaming.  To each their own but please consider those shaky hands before committing to plastic assemble yourself stuff.

[Pattus Magnus]

It sounds like you would be on the right track with 1st century AD Romans for ease of painting.

However, I’ll just throw this out there in case you decide on some Saxons, Vikings, or other less uniform types, or build a second army in the future - it is possible to paint them fairly quickly. The photo below shows some 15mm fantasy barbarians I painted quickly.

The trick is to sort out the figures that are in very similar poses and paint them as batches, and then limit your palette. For each batch of similar figures, you can go through and “production paint” all the features they have in common. I start with flesh areas, then tan items (leggings or shirt, fair hair), brown (belts, boots, hair, etc), then dark gray/ black (I also paint metal areas black to help get a strong contrast with the gunmetal paint I use for iron/ steel).

Once the areas in common are done, I use a small number of colours (3-4) to paint the shields and clothing. Usually only 2 colours per figure, and different ones on the shield and the clothing (and often only one piece of clothing gets the fancy colour, others are left tan or brown). I make sure that identical twin figures get different colours. Then it’s a matter of basing them in your preferred way.

In my case, picture two shows how I made sure when basing the figures that each group had a mix of shield colours and poses, to get the unruly mob effect.

I find that with that method, I can complete irregular-style units almost as fast as uniformed ones.

[Just a few orcs]

Personally I would steer clear of the plastic figures, They can be very fiddly to put together, particularly if you have shaky hands.

Some of the arms are designed for particular torsos, so you have to be aware of that.

Victrix infantry are 24 figures for £27 , and 16 cavalry for £36on their site.

You should be able to get 16 metal Infantry for around the cost of a box of Victrix infantry, and about 10 Cavalry  for the price of a cavalry box.

In TtS the amount of figures per unit is irrelevant so you could adjust this to fit your budget.

You could also consider Irregular Miniatures. If you buy their 28mm Unit packs they work out at £1 for infantry and £2 for cavalry, so actually cheaper than Victrix.  I would say their figures are acceptable but tend to  less details than other manufactures. The reduced detail will make painting easier, I would order a few and see what you think of the style and quality.

[bythelee]

Thanks again for advice. I have ordered a pack of Victrix Legionaries so I will see how I get on. Oddly enough, its my mainly my right hand which is shaky, but mostly when I'm holding a cup of coffee or a pint of beer. After 2 or 3 pints it doesn't shake at all, but somehow I don't think this is a good idea for painting lots of miniatures.

[bythelee]

Pattus Magnus, Very good advice and thank you.

[bigredbat]

Welcome to TtS!

After 2 or 3 pints it doesn't shake at all, but somehow I don't think this is a good idea for painting lots of miniatures.

Give it a go! Personally, it is a rare day when I paint minis entirely sober, but it's never been too much of an issue! ;-)