Fastest to table

Lancers. 2mm is now my way to go for mass armies.

I might have written something like this before but no matter as it is a topic that demands revisiting. I often wonder what miniature wargames I would do if I was starting from scratch now. Obviously I would do games that appealed to me historically, but, more generally, I would do games that could be brought to table as quickly as possible. This is partly because I lack time to paint but also because I'd like the fruits of my labour to end up on the table rather than in the lead mountain.

At one end of the spectrum I would focus on skirmish games like Dan Mersey's Rampant series for which 28mm figures have the most appeal. Somewhere in the middle are games that are 'compact' or otherwise economical on figures like Crossfire, Irregular Wars or DBA. For these I would use 15mm, 10mm or 6mm, and these scales would satisfy the aesthetic appeal of playing with toy soldiers.

Any games featuring mass armies, however, would have to be base-orientated so I could use 2mm or 3mm models, and thìs end of the spectrum would satisfy my desire to play large historical battles. I think this is the way I will now go with Bloody Big Battles! if and when I get round to it. The other advantage of these small scales is of course that they put less pressure on storage and carrying.

This  is not an entirely futile speculation as it should also help me to regulate what to do in future. I feel sure I've written that before as well. The difficulty is remembering it.

Work in Progress

My interests have come to settle not only on simple rules but also on small armies, at least with regard to any I intend to paint in the near future. I hope this will make my projects easier to complete and easier to get onto the table. I'm currently focusing on the following:

15mm HOTT
I've always had a strong bias towards historical wargaming, but HOTT is good fun and I've ordered some figures to create an Undead army (Chariot Miniatures) and a Pirate one (Peter Pig).

6mm and 15mm DBA
A recent reintroduction to DBA has inspired me to dig out my old 15mm DBM armies for DBA. The figures are all painted but I will need to add some camps/BUAs.

28mm FUBAR IWI
This project is very close to completion. I just need to varnish the figures and finish the vehicles and buildings.

15mm Crossfire 'Stalingrad'
This project is already operational, but to capture more of a Stalingrad feel I'm reverting to green baseboards with black felt roads and am adding pavements to the buildings.