Friday 4 November 2016

Start of an Era?

Hello and welcome to my new blog. As some of you may be aware from my other blog, Weeblokes, I am a skirmish gamer through and through. Usual convention seems to say that this happens in 28mm scale. I know that until a while ago that's where my attention lay. That was until I started down the particular project of my "Skirmish Board". More on that in future posts, but the crux of it is a skirmish level wargaming set up that can entirely fit into a pizza box. This had started me down a road of using 15mm scale figures. Real life unfortunately got in the way after some adventures, but I'm back in the saddle and the intervening months has heightened my enthusiasm.

The Skirmish Board

There are many, many 15mm manufacturers and players out there, but do a quick bit of internet searching for "15mm scale Skirmish wargame" and the results are surprising slim. The scale would publicly seem to be about large army battles. But bubbling under the surface you find souls admitting to dedicated skirmishing in 15mm, writing articles about the subject.

Well I'm with them, but I'm just starting out.

The level of detail in modern sculpts is brilliant and some people are doing amazing work with their paint brushes to make them even better. There is something about 15mm that seems right when playing it. I read someone somewhere saying that the scales on the table seem more "right". There is certainly more room to manouvre on the table, and the scope of the board is doubled. Although stepping back from this for a moment there is also a beauty in the smallness of it. It is easier to set up for a game (space to spare on the kitchen table); easier to store (cough-pizza-box-cough); cheaper to get into (entire warband for £5 anyone? Fancy an entire new warband? That'll only be another £5)

This blog is to catalogue my experiences in this segment of "The Hobby". My interests are still in many genres, but the figure scale is just smaller.

This all starts in earnest at the turn of the year, but I'll be copying some relevant posts into here from Weeblokes to fill early content and show where I am at the moment.

Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions. Hopefully some readers may even want to take the plunge as well and we can journey together...

cheers

Sam

10 comments:

  1. You must eat LARGE pizzas if that is a pizza box! :)

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    1. Ha. Well you know, sometimes you get a bit of a hunger on! ;)

      It does break down to fit in the pizza box though

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  2. I could almost cry with happiness to hear you 'fully' embrace the little scale.

    I promised both you and Tim a rummage through my 'duplicates' which will hopefully give you a good kick start (in scifi at least - I know you've already made big strides in fantasy). Ask me about my new little idea MOTELY CREW...

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    1. Thought you'd be happy. I know you've been treading a determined (if not slightly lonely) 15mm furrow for a while (if I may just mix my metaphors a bit!) It'll be good to see some of these figures for real as the months go on. Your last sentence makes my think of the Pirate in "Secret Of Monkey Island" with his "Ask Me About Loom" badge! (If you've not played it there is no point in explaining, believe me!). I'll be sure to ask next time I see you though...

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    2. Never played the game I'm afraid (I think) - I thought you'd go straight to Motley Crue (80s glam rockers - but I'm sure you've better tastes than that. Not so exciting - I was thinking of a way to 're-distribute' that large drawer of duplicates that I have and will likely never need. Might be the basis of a little enterprise.

      Me? Lonely? How, when I'm surround by thousands of little 15mm men?

      Like I said before, if you and Tim see something in the scale that takes your fancy punt the idea to me and I may be able to save you a few quid.

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    3. Sorry, I did get the 80's rock connection. Not a fan of the US hair metal movement however, so thought I'd leave the negativity off :)

      And I'll be very interested to see your duplicate "drawer". I won't ask you to bring it to Falkirk Wargames Club, there's no room to park HGVs outside ;)

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    4. It's really not that bad - once you break it down by genre ;-)

      It's the amount of lead that I "intend" to paint that's scary.

      SciFi at the moment? Did you order those Spugs? Or do you want to look at them before you order (no dupes of those I'm afraid).

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    5. The Spugs are ordered and on their way. Picked up 3 blisters for Critical Mass at Targe today as well (different races). Not had time to get them out for a proper look yet though...

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  3. I'm also determined to give 15mm fantasy skirmish a try, so I'm glad you've decided to focus on this. Your posts on the other blog were inspiring as well :)

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    1. Thanks very much, Reed. I hope you find this all useful :)

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