A&A Minis as 15mm 40K Imperial Guard?

[gloriousbattle]

Maybe I should duck, as many people seem to not appreciate GW's flagship game being mentioned on other fora.  Still, here goes, and I'll risk a barrage of large, heavy objects.

Anyway, it really isn't all that hard to play 40K in 15mm, and it is infinitely cheaper than the thousand dollars a fig that GW asks.  Here is what I use.  Most of them require painting, and not all are perfect fits:

Space Marines and their Dreadnought Suits: http://www.bg.ohobby.ru/images/stories/games/fantast/risk2210ad/risk2210ad_mech.jpg


Orks: http://www.15mm.co.uk/HOF8_Shia_Khan_Maligs.htm

Necrons: http://www.15mm.co.uk/HOF30_Automata_Infantry.htm

Eldar: http://www.15mm.co.uk/HOF4_Retained_Assault_Troops.htm

Chaos Daemons: http://www.15mm.co.uk/GA2b.htm

Genestealers: http://www.15mm.co.uk/GA14.htm

Other Tyranid Nasties: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_byHD0CF5xJA/RleEe4Cw_mI/AAAAAAAAABk/pUCcVECZxNo/s320/backbiter.jpg

http://quickreactionforce.co.uk/catalog/popup_image.php/pID/2145  (QRF also sells crawly-facehuggers, but be careful when dealing with this company, they have been known to sell msicasts).

Imperial Guard:  Well, that one is why I'm here.  Since the Imperial Guard was pretty much designed to look like WW2 Soviets, with a few German types and clanky vehicles thrown in, many A&A minis seems like pretty good fits without even much repainting such as:

http://www.coolstuffinc.com/images/Products/Misc%20Art/Axis%20and%20Allies%20Miniatures/aa2-023.jpg

http://www.coolstuffinc.com/images/Products/Misc%20Art/Axis%20and%20Allies%20Miniatures/aa2-006.jpg

http://www.coolstuffinc.com/images/Products/Misc%20Art/Axis%20and%20Allies%20Miniatures/aa2-012.jpg

http://www.coolstuffinc.com/images/Products/Misc%20Art/Axis%20and%20Allies%20Miniatures/aa2-002.jpg

Curious what others think of this idea.

[Luthaaren Von Tegale]

Nothing wrong with liking 40K.
Playing it in 15mm is a good idea - makes the whole apocalypse idea more playable on smaller tables. I assume you just use rules as is and substitute cm for inches?
I've done the same in the past for Warhammer 4th ed with 15mm figs.

For the Guard, I'd bee tempted to look at some WWI ranges as well - some of the concept art looks pretty similar to WWI early Germans. Some look distinctly "samurai" so you could use arquebus armed samurai for the line troops, sword armed for officers.

Have you checked out GZGs 15mm range - they're reportedly very good although I've not got any.

Before 40K came along our club had a bash with Laserburn and Imperial Commander using the 15mm figures by Tabletop Games which had all the archetypal "30K" imperials - not sure if they're still available though.

vT

[gloriousbattle]

I assume you just use rules as is and substitute cm for inches?

That's it!

Have you checked out GZGs 15mm range - they're reportedly very good although I've not got any.

Before 40K came along our club had a bash with Laserburn and Imperial Commander using the 15mm figures by Tabletop Games which had all the archetypal "30K" imperials - not sure if they're still available though.

Several of those figures are Laserburn.  Have not looked at GZG for this purpose, but will do so.  Thanks!

[gloriousbattle]

Also, here is a nice little overview and batrep of a 15mm 40k game, played using the first edition rules (my personal favorite):

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/439561/rogue-trader-in-15mm-scale

[P_Clapham]

I've considered if I do get back in Warhammer or 40k, I would go the 15mm route as well.  The boardgame geek figures look smashing for their scale. 

[rob_alderman]

Nothing wrong with 40k and there's certainly nothing wrong with Alternative Armies.

Space Elves will be coming out at some point. They are on the 'want' list that Gavin gave me for sculpting 15mm.

In fact, i have really considered doing the same.

[Luthaaren Von Tegale]

Nice BatRep glorius.

Another source of figures you could consider is Irregular miniatures, they do some nice 15mm "star marines" and I'd be tempted to say that their colonial Brits would make a nice 15mm version of the guard regiment whose name has just escaped me - they fought against orks in a "Rorkes Drift" type scenario.
They also do Riot police in their "RIOT" range which could be used as Arbites.

Now you've got me thinking about why we switched to 28mm when 40K first came out - we should have stuck to the 15mm we were using with laserburn!

If I recall there was an article in an early issue of Ragnarok, (magazine of the SFSFW), featuring scratchbuilt Rhinos and Land Raiders in 15mm - looked good too. As the imperial stuff is quite "boxy" it shouldn't be too difficult to scratchbuild form plastic card and makes Apocalypse, Planetfall and Spearhead type games much more feasable in terms of space required as well as cost of raising the forces.

Thanks for the original post Glorious - certainly got me re-examining my 40K and Warhammer projects sat on the back burner.

vT

[gloriousbattle]

They also do Riot police in their "RIOT" range which could be used as Arbites.

Those are nice!