that gaming thingy

Seen people play it, large table with buildings aand tank n figures, seems quite interesting, whats it called? thought it was wargames but maybe not.

That weird goblin and witches doesnt interest me but while working in the model shop i saw a range of tanks, few parts to stick together but aprantly sold well for gamers.

Reply to
JULIAN HALES
Loading thread data ...

Wargaming accounts for the largest number of 1/72-1/76 figures.

I'm ok with the scale differences, but some of the figures are way out of proportion on purpose with big heads and short bodies and limbs.

Mark Levine, the Staff Writer for ESM 72, has compiled lists of hundreds of useable figures in 1/72-1/76 scales along with artillery and vehicles ade by the same companies.

Most of the figures are cast metal or cast resin. We have run Mark's lists for several years and there is always more coming. Present count is 3,084, but that includes many sets, so the count is far higher when considering individual figures.

Tom

Reply to
Maiesm72

It sounds more like 'Warhammer 40,000'... If there are tanks, that is. That version is also known simply as '40K'. My son and his friends play the Lord of the Rings from Games Workshop. We attended a 'convention' a couple months ago in Baltimore. It was pretty interesting and my crew had a ball. Pricey but good stuff.

Frank Kranick

Reply to
Francis X. Kranick, Jr.

In article , JULIAN HALES writes

Beware, Julian, you stand on the brink of the abyss! 'Twas Airfix, with their Sherman tank and bendy plastic figures as wot pushed me over it, these four decades and more ago...

"Wargames" or "Wargaming" covers a multitude of sins. There are several dozen systems which would fit your description. Games are generally described by the title of the rules set used, and for historical periods they don't generally have a specific range of figures and models tied to them, unlike some Fantasy and Sci-fi stuff, so you can shop around for what suits you.

You didn't indicate the period in which the game you saw was set, although WW2 is probably still the most popular pretty much any conflict you've heard of will have been catered for in some scale. WW2 tends to get divided up not only by theatre but by campaign within that theatre - a friend is currently doing the earlier part of the Western Desert.

Scale and scope vary according to players' preferences, and playing areas available to them. 28mm (1:60th/1:64th scale) figures are often used with 1:48th or 1:43rd scale vehicles (with which they are visually compatible) but of late true 1:48 scale figures have started to become available. These are generally used for games with a couple of platoons and vehicles per side. 1:72nd or 1:76th scales allow for company level actions, as do 15mm (1:120th) scale figures. Larger battles require smaller figures - battalion or higher level battles tend to use 6mm (1:300th) scale figures and vehicles, at least in the U.K. - in the U.S. the favoured scale is 1:285th, the GHQ products at least showing much higher levels of detail than most 1:300th manufacturers, where there is considerable variation in quality. Scenery is pretty much compatible with both scales, but with miniatures it's best not to mix them, at least within the same formation.

As Tom has indicated, figures tend to take on an aspect of caricature which tends to increase as they get smaller, this is so they maintain a level of recognisable detail - even "proper" scale model display figures exhibit some of this, as true human proportions result in a figure which looks attenuated. This can be important if the aesthetics of the game are part of its attraction to you - I'm happier pushing toy soldiers round a nicely modelled terrain then playing computer or board games which might give a better simulation of the tactics of the period, and don't require the same amount of time being spent in the preparation of your playing components.

It does me, unfortunately. These days when it comes to building a kit or painting up another horde of (semi-) naked nymphs - well, there's a lot of shades of pink in my paint box...

Wargame models get a lot of handling and fine details tend to get knocked off, so cheap lumps of semi-detailed resin seems to be the way to go for some people. OTOH, some stuff produced with wargamers in mind can form the basis of a nice scale model.

Regards,

Reply to
Moramarth

In article , Al Superczynski writes

of the sort Julian indicated he wasn't interested in. "Warhammer

40,000" is "WW1 meets the worst sort of science Fantasy you've ever read", some people suggest the 40K bit of the title indicates how much it's going to cost you - Games Workshop charge premium prices. Both are popular with younger gamers, and with quite a few who are old enough to know better. :) While "Warhammer" draws on historical equivalents for inspiration (some of the Imperial stuff makes nice early 16th Century Swiss/German mercenaries), 40K looks for resonances in (that's more polite than saying "parodies") modern entertainments - Catachans are all "Rambo" type figures, Valhallans echo the SS at Stalingrad, Tallarn were a cross between "Lawrence of Arabia" Bedouins and Mujahedin (you don't see them often now), Mordians are in what look like Soviet-era dress uniforms, and Praetorians are the 24th Regiment of Foot at Rorkes' Drift. Having said that, they do produce some nice stuff, and I've occasionally bought items at full retail price (although generally I won't touch it unless I can get it for half price or less). I'm a sucker for glueing bits of styrene together and as in recognition of their exorbitant prices GW have now made many of their "core" units (cannon fodder) available as multi-part plastic kits I've got quite a few of these lying around looking for a use. Their recent release of Cadian Shock Troops are pretty much on the money for anyone looking for a figure in the style of the Marines from "Aliens".

Regards,

Reply to
Moramarth

"Historical miniatures wargaming" is the phrase you're looking for. It's wargaming, but there are lots of other things also called wargaming, including the ones with the weird goblins and witches. That would be "fantasy miniatures wargaming". There's also board wargaming (cardboard counters and paper hexmaps), computer wargaming, paintball wargaming, various forms of role-playing, and I'm sure participants of all these categories consider theirs to be the "real" wargaming.

Back to historical miniatures: there are lots of rulesets available, lots of manufacturers of terrain and figures and vehicles, lots of scales to choose from. In the UK there are frequent "Games Days", conventions of various sizes where you can see what's on the market, play demo games, and chat with vendors and players. Some of these Games Days are hosted by, and intended only for, a company called Games Workshop, which does a lot of the fantasy and science fiction miniatures stuff but not much in the way of historicals. Chances are the weird goblins and witches you saw were from them.

DLF

Reply to
David Ferris

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.