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Re: Figure ratios

Graham Korn
We also use hexes a lot which saves a lit if arguments over move distances and ranges.


Even with rule sets that use bases & don't readily set out figure ratios (eg Field of Glory), you can work it out. As you wrote, the 3 figures are the equivalent of a squad. It's not important but my anal personality likes to know!

I appreciate the value of hexes but I personally don't like them because of their intrusive nature on what is otherwise a realistic appearing terrain. Horses for courses,clearly. I know lots of people who do like hexes.



donald

Re: Figure ratios

I'm one of those people who collect rather than wargame, although I have been known to 'game in the past...and might even do so again some time.

As a collector who happens to like creating wargame-sized units and armies, figures ratio is quite important. I've never quite signed onto this 'bases and xx figures per base' concept, although I appreciate that it does speed up physical movement and play on the wargames table.

I use different ratios for different periods, depending really on how 'large' battles were and how many troops were present in, say, a square mile of battlefield. So, for Napoleonics and other large-scale 'horse and musket' I use 1: 30. But for AWI, I use 1: 10, allowing much smaller units to appear on the table and still be represented by more than a lone figure. For ACW I'm back up to 1:30. For colonial it is a bit more variable: Brits tend to be 1:10, but their massed opponents might be 1:20 or 1:25, simply to allow them to 'fit' into a reasonable space ("Zulus, thousands of 'em!!" needs to be modelled in a reasonable way).

For ancients and medieval I tend to use smaller ratios, 1:10 for Romans in Britannia, 1:20 for Wars of Alexander and Punic Wars. Some of my medieval are 1:10; a force of 50 knights is represented by 5 figures for instance.

Things are a little more complicated for WW2. I use 1:5 for infantry/troops on foot, and 'variable ratio' for vehicles. So, an infantry squad of c. 10 actual troops is represented by 2 figures (often mounted on one base). An artillery model plus crew generally represents two actual guns. An individual vehicle model in my WW2 world might represent anything from 1 - 5 actuals. It's the space that the model takes up and its 'zone of influence' within this space that counts. So, a Kingtiger model might represent just one, albeit very powerful, tank; whereas a single model Sherman might represent 3, 4 or 5 tanks as a sub-unit. In gaming mode, I would use counters against each model to show how many 'actuals' are represented; this allows knocked out vehicles to be removed. I find that using this approach is a way of managing the fact that 1/72 models are far too large for a WW2 game against the ground scale, but balanced against this needs to be the visual 'look'; this way, it's possible to put, say, 5 models on the board and represent, say, a 15 tank squadron.

Re: Figure ratios

I haven't had the luxury of having someone to game with in years so my focus is mainly on collecting and setting up scenarios. As I have made a painful decision to limit my focus of collecting to mainly the late 18th through mid-19th Centuries - formal lines of battle and having good looking formations that are impressive to the eye dominate my decisions in unit sizes.

Therefore, I want a "battalion" or "regiment" that is going to represent the massed formations while allowing for the limitations of my table (which generally is our dining room table built for my five sons and their families when they visit - it's about fifteen feet by three feet as I recall).

So I generally make my formations of around fifty enlisted with various command figures to represent a battalion or regiment. With the release of Strelets' Highlanders I had to stretch that a bit as I amalgamated the new issues with my older sets, retiring older figures (such as most of my Airfix Highlanders). Right now my Highlander battalions are averaging eighty figures - among the largest of my regiments (pardon the interchanging of terms). But I have yet to paint up a multitude of boxes of recent releases from several companies, including our erstwhile hosts so I imagine my units will get larger. No problem for me, they just look better. As I don't mount my guys (both for storage utility and flexibility in setting them up) it means it will take longer to set up a battle, but boy will they look great.

Gotta get a bigger house...

Re: Figure ratios

For the 18th and 19th centuries, four to six figure bases seems to work well with most national organizations that have the battalions deployed in four roughly equal firing platoons. First World War armies seem to work best at 1:10, giving a "rifle platoon" of four figures, but in 1918 it starts to get complicated as more and more support weapons come into the line. So for WWII we use individual figures fo the rank and file and weapon teams of two or three (plus additional figures "attached", so a mortar team for example has the two men on the base and three others based separately but placed next to it). We play Battlegroup rules.

I've tried others but just can't get my head around three guys on a stand being a company with all its various weapons,(too much like boardgaming), or worse a tank being three or four - and and being unable to deploy in formation and make flanking maneuvers.

Re: Figure ratios

Interesting thread. I'm looking for a rules set for large WW2 battles where a figure ratio is in the region of 1:200 to 1:400 for figures and 1:20 to 1:50 for tanks. Anybody?

Re: Figure ratios

I use Carnage and Glory computer moderated rules. All my Napoleonic
Era Infantry is 4-6 to battalion and 4-6 Cavalry regiment, 1 gun
per battery. All units have their historical numbers painted on
the rear of the base such as the French "1/57 Ligne". I can keep
a record of battle honors for them by unit.