A few questions for starting out

[JamesS]

Hi all, looking for some guidance while considering a purchase.
As a bit of background, I am an almost entirely Sci-Fi/Fantasy wargamer, and have skewed more towards skirmish type games so far.

Firstly, am I right in my thinking that 15mm is the most commonly used scale of figures? I know that all scales are catered for but since I have nothing so far it seemed to make sense.

Secondly, does buying the 1st edition set and using the "changes" sheet give all the rules details, and if so would the consensus be that it's still likely to be more challenging to follow that just buying the new stuff?

Cheers, James.

[lionheartrjc]

Hi James,

On your first question:  15mm is undoubtedly the most common scale.  Almost all competitions are 15mm.  6mm has its followers and can look good "en masse".  25/28mm has a great visual impact but not many people play MeG in 25mm.

On your second question:  I would recommend buying the Compendium edition because it looks great and the explanations and examples are excellent so it is much easier to follow.  However if money is tight, you can get by with the first edition and the rule changes. 

Richard

[RocketSix]

Hi James,

its probably worth considering where you are going to play. If you have a club, then find out what scale they use.

thanks
Simon

[JamesS]

Thanks both, most helpful.

I think easier to follow will be pretty important to me, so will just wait a little longer and get the compendium.

[JamesS]

Further onto the whole starting out, and I appreciate before I ask this that it's an incredibly broad question.

My initial thoughts as a period of interest to start out was around the great heathen army (influenced by the Last Kingdom and Vikings series), but it doesn't seem like the most accessible in terms of availability of information and also if I'm completely honest the style of warfare seems a tad dull, no disrespect intended to those with an interest.

So now I'm at a bit of a loss, can anyone suggest any fairly narrow period with the criteria being:

• A specific campaign or perhaps just a number of battles in a tight timeline
• Fairly easily accessible information, I'm interested to do some reading around a topic, but not "research" if that makes sense
• Variety of forces - the thing that puts me off my original thought is that it looks like largely, big mass of infantry, make wall, clash.

Thanks to watching the 2 Simon's battles I'm probably now feeling a bit drawn to something in the Roman arena but even that is so broad I could do with some help narrowing down to something more specific.

Thanks again for any help folks.

[nikgaukroger]

Well for Romans you could do a lot worse than look at the 2nd Punic War against Carthage - 218 BCE to 202 BCE. Between them the armies involved have a pretty good variety of troops and options. There is loads of information easily available on it from the casual to the extremely academic depending how far down the rabbit hole you want to go    If you stretch it a bit past the end of the actual war for another 12 or so years you get to include the war against Philip V of Macedon and that against Antiochos III that featured in the Two Simons Show - even more variety added  Also as it is a "core" period in ancients there are loads of figures available for it.

[Simon Meg-Meister]

Well first a big purple welcome aboard.

My initial thoughts as a period of interest to start out was around the great heathen army (influenced by the Last Kingdom and Vikings series), but it doesn't seem like the most accessible in terms of availability of information and also if I'm completely honest the style of warfare seems a tad dull, no disrespect intended to those with an interest.So now I'm at a bit of a loss, can anyone suggest any fairly narrow period with the criteria being:

• A specific campaign or perhaps just a number of battles in a tight timeline
• Fairly easily accessible information, I'm interested to do some reading around a topic, but not "research" if that makes sense
• Variety of forces - the thing that puts me off my original thought is that it looks like largely, big mass of infantry, make wall, clash.

Thanks to watching the 2 Simon's battles I'm probably now feeling a bit drawn to something in the Roman arena but even that is so broad I could do with some help narrowing down to something more specific.

Delighted it inspired a bit.  Actually the Vikings are rather fun in Mortem et Gloriam. Integral berserkers and the huscarls make it a decent army.  But I concur that the Romans are fun.

For a superb campaign take the 2nd Punic War.  The Carthaginian army evolved considerably over the period as Hannibal worked his way from Spain through Gaul to the Alps into Italy and back to Africa.  The figures for the period are really colourful and interesting.  I have a document with specific lists for each of the stages of the war in fact.  I will try to update it and repost it.  Plus the next 2 Simon Show is Cannae!

You also can't really fault the late Roman West armies that feature Huns, Romans and Goths from the lunch event and you can use the new Ultracast figures for those.  And the Sassanid opponents are particularly fun to paint up.

The Mortem et Gloriam army lists and points system are so well balanced (thank you team) that I always ultimately give the same advice: just grab an army that catches your imagination.   Designed and played well its a winner.

If many such armies grab your imagination so much the better.... an awful lot of them caught mine over the years.  It would be embarassing to list them all!

Si

[JamesS]

That's great thank you, exactly the guidance I was looking for.

[nikgaukroger]

You also can't really fault the late Roman West armies that feature Huns, Romans and Goths from the lunch event and you can use the new Ultracast figures for those.  And the Sassanid opponents are particularly fun to paint up.

Also a good one - my personal preference from the two if I were to choose between them 

Downside is that if you decide to go deeper into the history the C5th isn't great for sources and it can get a bit frustrating - but if that isn't what you'd do its a goodie 

[Glactophagos]

Currently reading this one. It's a bit technical and only has maps, no pictures, but it's worthwhile.

[nikgaukroger]

Read that one a bit back. Not overly keen on it, but then again I'm not a big fan of Heather's interpretations 

This one is my go to for the end of the Roman empire in the west:



Better analysed and more nuanced IMO. However, it is a much harder read than Heather's work - not for a casual reader looking for an overview. He is working on a 2nd edition at present which I am looking forward to.

This one is good for the more general reader:



But as you have the Heather it'd probably just repeat things for you.

[RocketSix]

just to offer a counter point on the Vikings. We played the 1066 campaign, and the games offered a lot more that you might expect. Sure the manoeuvre is straight forward, but the decisions on combats , is really challenging. Probably some of the hardest game I've played

http://lurkio.co.uk/blog/archives/2864

http://lurkio.co.uk/blog/archives/2837

http://lurkio.co.uk/blog/archives/2825

[JamesS]

Interesting point on the Vikings, I suppose I was being fairly dismissive in saying dull.

I was focusing on the all infantry and straightforward manoeuvre as lacking variety. I'll continue to look over the various suggestions, I've got nearly a month before the next hobby budget becomes available so no great rush.

[RocketSix]

its also worth considering where and what sort of games you will play. If you want to play competition style pick up games, then you perhaps need to look elsewhere. But if you love the dark ages, and will be flying friendly, then go with your heart.

[JamesS]

That makes sense, it was part of the plan this year to get back to coming along the club after some years and also go along some organised things. Probably revised that to next year now...

But I have other projects for that purpose, this one is more about something to do by myself predominantly, for those times I'm not in the mood to paint maybe do some reading and play myself instead of brain rot TV