Plastic Soldier Review

I mentioned in a previous post that I have chosen 20mm (1/72) plastics as the miniatures with which to recreate my ancient armies.

For finding the right manufacturers and sets to purchase, there is no better place online than Plastic Soldier Review.

You can keep up with industry news, search for figures by time period, see offerings by manufacturer, get detailed reviews and ratings (with emphasis on historical accuracy), and most importantly get excellent pictures of the actual figures.

In the future I'll post my personal reviews of some manufacturers, tips on tricks on purchasing, and list my favorite sets.

Rules Criteria

So I said two post ago that I would enumerate the criteria I used to decide on a rule set. In no particular order (that will be the next post), here are the criteria that meant the most to me:

• A rules system that is usable for the entire Ancients period (Biblical -> early Medieval) - basically I want to learn the rules once and be able to use them in several different periods. This obviously introduces challenges because a lot of different technologies existed during that time frame (from chariots to siege weapons to longbows), but a good system should be able to handle it all.
  
• Easy to Setup & Play - my time is precious and the sad truth is that a game that takes forever to setup and play will probably stay on the shelf.
  
• Plays fast - kind of the same point as the previous point, but more specifically turns are quick enough that you aren't bored waiting for your turn, and even that you may be able to squeeze in more than one game in a single evening (asking a lot, I know)
  
• Engaging/elegant combat system - at the end of the day, no matter how much "chrome" the rules have, the thing you will be doing most is combat. If the combat system (the way you actually attack and defend) is not engaging or elegant in some way, I'm not going to want to play. If it is boring, too "fiddly", too complex, or just intangibly "feels" awkward, it will be a big turnoff.
  
• Straightforward to translate real historic battles into game terms - a big draw for me to this time period is being able to re-fight historic battles. Do the rules allow for and/or support easy implementation of these kind of scenarios?
• High availability of army lists - goes along with the previous point and the first point. Does the system provide army lists to use for different periods/armies? I'm no history major, so having someone do the hard work of putting these lists together is a big plus. It is ok if these are supplements, as long as they are available.
  
• Point-based system - very important for game balance when creating new army lists or scenarios. I hate games where the designers have put together a system of rating combatants' relative strengths but don't give you "the formula".
  
• Good simulation of Ancient battle - this is a big one...the rules system has to "feel" like you are truly fighting an Ancient battle. The more the system allows you to think and use strategies/tactics that approximate those of an actual commander during those times, the better! If it plays more like an abstract strategy game, or clever/esoteric game mechanics take center stage, it loses the flavor of a simulation.
  
• An "accepted" rules system- what I'm getting across here is that the rules are used by a critical mass of people: enough that supplements, articles, scenarios, and interesting variants are available. I'm not necessarily looking for the be-all-end-all system or to swallow one particular manufacturers product line to the exclusion of all else, just a well respected/tested/supported system.
  
• Low entry threshold for figures - Given that figures cost money and require time for painting, the lower the number of figures needed to field an army, the better.

Rules Part 2 (FREE!)

So as I was looking over and analyzing the different rules sets, I discovered that there are actually quite a few free rule sets out there for Ancient Wargaming(AW).

Many fall into the "you get what you pay for" category, but I was pleasantly surprised that a few seem on par with commercial products available.

The only downside that I see to adopting a free rule set is the availability of supplements and expansions...specifically army lists. As I began to study the rules options, it became clear that a major part of AW is the composition of the armies, both from a game balance and historic accuracy stand-point. Unless the author of the free rules also provides free army lists, you are in for a lot of research and translating of information.

Anyway, here are some free rules sets to consider: (Several require that you contact the author by email or join discussion group)

Hoplon 3
Basic Impetus (free intro version of Impetus)
Ancient Empires
Arcane Warfare Project
Ancients D6
Fast'n'Furious skirmish
WRG Ancient Rules

Oh, and here's a site with more free rules than you could ever want:
Freewargamesrules

Scale

Before detailing the selection process I went through for choosing a rule set, another important decision that had to be made is what miniature scale to use.

From The Miniatures Page:

The size of a miniature, relative to what it is a replica of, is known as the scale of the figure. For no particularly good reason, two different systems are used to rate scale.

• Some scales are given as a ratio, variously written as either a ratio (i.e., 1:300 or 1.300) or a fraction (i.e., 1/300). The number on the right of the pair indicates how many units (inches or centimeters) on the original are equivalent to one unit on the replica. For example, with a 1:300 scale miniature, if the miniature is 1" long, then the original was 300" in length. In spoken English, you would say 1/300 as "one [pause] three hundred scale."
• Other scales are simply listed as a certain height, such as 15mm or 54mm. Most people usually think of this as being the height of an average man (i.e., in 15mm scale, men are 15mm high), but there is a lot of confusion on this issue. According to some experts (but not all), "traditional" figure heights are measured to eye level, since measuring to the top of the head is impractical for figures wearing headgear (as many military figures do). Therefore, when a manufacturer says his figures are (for instance) 25mm scale, he might mean "25mm to top of the head" or "25mm to eye level."

While most rules will favor one or more particular scales, for the most part rules sets can be played in any scale.

I have considerable experience with 25mm & 28mm from past gaming, but I suspected that these size figures might be too large for mass battles, so I did some investigation.

Here is an overview of the scales typically used in wargames:

SCALE	Where Used	Theoretical Equivalent
6mm	Equivalent to 1/285 scale and 1/300 scales. Smallest viable scale to represent humans. Figures available for fantasy, historical, and science fiction. Available in metal.	1/268
10mm	Relatively new scale, used for fantasy, historical and science fiction. Some think this will be the popular scale of the future, larger enough to show detail but small enough to fit a large army on a tabletop. Same as railroad N scale. Available in metal.	1/161
15mm	The most popular scale for pre-20th Century wargaming. Also used for fantasy, science fiction, and 20th Century "skirmish-level" games. Available in metal.	1/107
20mm	Becoming popular for skirmish-level wargaming. Also used for science fiction. Very close to OO scale (British model railroad scale, alternative to HO scale). Metal & Plastic. This scale is also very close to 1/72 for which there are many available plastics (P20).	1/80.5
25mm	Traditionally popular for pre-20th Century wargaming, though most historical gamers have now switched to 15mm. Excellent scale for display games. Continues to be popular for fantasy wargaming, historical skirmish-level games, science fiction, and for use with role-playing games. Same as railroad S scale. Available in plastic and metal.	1/64
28mm	The "large" 25mm figures are sometimes listed as being 28mm. Available in plastic and metal.	1/58

The pic at the beginning of the post is from http://www.littleleadheroes.com and shows 2mm, 6mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, 28mm, & 54mm respectively for comparison purposes.

Things to consider other than the look of the armies on the table when choosing the scale are:

• appearance: what is the visual impact of an "army on the field"? how much visible detail on the fig, ie can you make out face/armor details?
  
• availability: how easy to get the figs? which time periods/nationalities are available?
  
• price per piece: how much does each fig cost? how many figs per army?
  
• materials used: metal or plastic?
  
• level of effort for assembly/painting: how much effort to paint a fig/army?
  

All of these are pretty related. For example, both availability and material will strongly affect the price; the size of the figures will dictate the visual detail, which in turn will affect the level of effort in painting, etc

At the end of the day I narrowed it down to 15mm or 20mm. The smaller scales seemed too small to me...lacking visual detail. The larger scales seem daunting from a price and level-of-effort perspective.

Of the two finalist, the 20mm (1/72) plastics has the best price point. Arguably it may have slightly less availability than metal in 15mm or 25mm and certainly is not the "purist" choice, but it is the one that seems to make the most sense to me.