Last night John Armatys – one of my regular readers and fellow long-term member of Wargame Developments – sent me an email to inform me that BLACK HAT MINIATURES were now selling Army Packs of 54mm figures specifically aimed at people who used my PORTABLE WARGAME rules!
This morning I took a look at the website, and sure enough, they are selling suitable units and complete army packs at a very generous discount!
* Each casting normally costs:
If bought as separate units, an Infantry unit is £18.00 (a discount of 14%), a Cavalry unit is £20.00 (a discount of 16%), and an Artillery unit is £12.00 (a discount of 17%). Even if you do not intend to use the figures to fight PORTABLE WARGAME battles, but just like using 54mm figures, this offer is worth very serious consideration.
This morning I took a look at the website, and sure enough, they are selling suitable units and complete army packs at a very generous discount!
They are currently offering two Army Packs (a British Army and a German Army) and each pack contains:Click on the photograph to see the full size image or click here to visit the actual webpage.
- Six infantry units (each of five infantrymen and one officer)
- One cavalry unit (with two troopers)
- One gun and crew (with one gun and two crew)
- One Officer to use as a general (a mounted officer)
* Each casting normally costs:
- Foot: £3.50 each
- Mounted: £12.00 each (including horse)
- Artillery: £7.50 each
If bought as separate units, an Infantry unit is £18.00 (a discount of 14%), a Cavalry unit is £20.00 (a discount of 16%), and an Artillery unit is £12.00 (a discount of 17%). Even if you do not intend to use the figures to fight PORTABLE WARGAME battles, but just like using 54mm figures, this offer is worth very serious consideration.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteWhen manufacturers produce sets of figures specifically for use with your rules, They must have really made an impression! Congratulations!
Somewhat ironic in that wargaming with 54m figures is not obviously 'portable'. But I hope it will work for them and increase your sales.
My 10mm (that's what I call portable!) armies are in quarters in a cardboard box awaiting the Napoleonic version of PW.
Best wishes,
Arthur
Arthur Harman (Arthur),
DeleteI must admit that I really felt chuffed when I saw what BLACK HAT MINIATURES had done. They've even coded the various units with a PW prefix!
The number of 54mm figures in each army isn't too large to put together and paint ... and they are still relatively portable when compared to the sort of 28mm-scale Napoleonic army many wargamers would regard as normal.
All the best,
Bob
True, Bob, although two hundred odd 54mm figures will certainly weigh considerably more!
DeleteThe attractive display on the TMP posting seems to show the armies deployed on a table tennis table - something for which most modern houses or flats don't have room. It occurs to me one could achieve a similarly appealing visual effect by using the same number of much smaller figures on a smaller gridded area, about the size of an ordinary chessboard or occasional/card table.Rather like my Portable Little Wars article in MW...
Now that would be truly portable!
Best wishes,
Arthur
Arthur Harman (Arthur),
DeleteTwo hundred 54mm figure would weigh a lot, but there are only a total of eighty four in the combined British and German Army Packs.
I do love 54mm figures, but have tended towards smaller figures for my PW battles because it takes up less space to store the figures and the tabletop area required is smaller. That said, if I wanted to demonstrate the rules at a wargame show, using larger figures would give it more visual appeal to the passing throng.
All the best,
Bob
Arthur,
ReplyDeleteThe game shown is only on a 3' x 4' mat - something that would fit on a lot of dining tables....
Mike
Unknown (Mike),
DeleteI must admit that I thought that the tabletop was much larger than 3' x 4' ... which is the size of my unextended wargames table!
All the best,
Bob
Bob
DeleteThat is only half a table tennis table so only 4.5' x 5'.
The mat is 4' x 3' with a 4" grid.
Mike Lewis,
DeleteA 12 x 9 grid of 4-inch squares is quite a good-sized grid to fight battles on.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteThey look rather nice I must say. For my own purposes using 54mm figures with the Portable Wargame certainly ticks a box even if the Portable part is less so. As detailed in my email I am looking at using a 6ft by 4ft table with 6" squares which should suit admirably.
All the best,
DC
David Crook (DC),
DeleteI am very tempted ... but at the moment I am just about managing to resist the temptation to buy a couple of Army Packs,
A 6' x 4' grid of 6-inch squares will be a 12 x 8 grid ... which is very similar to the size of grid used by Mike Lewis!
All the best,
Bob
Really cool!
ReplyDeleteI think you're on to something with the Portable Wargame. A lot of people don't have space for 6x4 tables or time to go to gaming clubs. Your rules get people playing with minimal investment.
Ryan Recker,
DeleteIt's interesting to see that a set of rules that were originally designed to be used with a redundant wooden chessboard and some 15mm figures that had been painted and based for Matrix Game, are now being used with 54mm figures and a 4' x 3' table ... and even smaller figures on a lap tray!
I had hoped to create a wargame for people with limited resources in terms of time, money, and space ... and I think that I've just about managed to achieve that.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
DeleteYou have certainly achieved that objective, and it is a tribute to the playability of the PW system that people have found other ways of using it.
I agree that the larger figures are ideal for display or participation games,but my personal preference is for smaller figures for the following reasons:
1. They are much cheaper to buy. I calculated the cost of similar forces to those shown in the photograph, but with cavalry units of 4 figures (2 looked so puny!) and the possibility of additional artillery pieces and crews for both sides, using Pendraken 10mm figures: only £41.25 plus postage for BOTH armies! At that price, one could afford to have them painted professionally...
2. They require less space on which to play, perhaps even making it possible to leave a wargame set up for a future session, and in which to store them. Ideal for today's small houses and flats.
3. The amount of paint required or the cost of having them painted professionally will be less.
4. Terrain, scenic items, buildings and suchlike will all be both smaller and cheaper.
5. The complete armies, board or cloth, scenery and rules will be easily portable, whether travelling by car or public transport.
6. The modest expenditure leaves one guilt-free about indulging oneself and avoids denting the household budget - or upsetting one's partner who does not share one's love of toy soldiers!
Best wishes,
Arthur
Arthur Harman (Arthur),
DeleteIf I needed a list of 'pros' to justify the reason why I originally designed the PORTABLE WARGAME, you have created it! I cannot argue with a single thing you have listed ... and I am in fact working on building an 8 x 8 hex grid using some of my spare Heroscape hexed terrain to show how small and portable I can make a copy of my game. (It will not be as small as the one created by Conrad Kinch, but it will fit on a lap tray.)
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
DeleteI look forward to seeing the pictures. I'm seriously considering following through my calculations to make a small, toy soldier style PW, but probably on a cloth surface.
Regards,
Arthur
Arthur Harman (Arthur),
DeleteIt will look like a smaller version of the board I have featured into today's blog, and will be designed for use with 15mm figures.
All the best,
Bob
Smart lads at Black Hat it would seem. Interestingly from various forums that I'm members of it was the " kitchen table battle with small 'armies'" aspect that really filled a need amongst hobbyists who didn't have space/time/money for big games but didn't want to do man-to-man "skirmish" games. People wanting to join in on 54mm wargaming were especially keen on finding a solution. Over the last 20 years I've been fascinated at how many 54mm gamers fall into this category of wanting to do it but not having space. I suspect that its more that people without space often use smaller scales but no one notices their numbers because they don't have a special problem to solve.
ReplyDeleteRoss Mac,
DeleteWhat an interesting comment! I had an inkling that there was a demand for a simple, fast-play wargame that could be fought on a small tabletop (and that wasn't DBA/HOTT or a derivative thereof), but not that it would appeal to gamers who collected and used 54mm figures.
In the circumstances I agree that BLACK HAT MINIATURES have been very astute ... and I wish them well with this enterprise in particular.
All the best,
Bob
How cool is that? I mean.... How cool is that?! Makes one think of trying the BMC fellows out in some way...
ReplyDeleteArchduke Piccolo,
DeleteI was very, very chuffed!
All the best,
Bob