Faced with relative poverty at the moment, my Blood Angels army is on hold, especially with the next imminent price gouge from GW. I was wondering - does anyone in the club play any historical rules systems? Warhammer Ancient Battles? Classical Hack? Something more modern? I have not done so personally, but given that you can built 2.5K armies for around £110 with relative ease, I must admit that it is very tempting to look at this option in their less-than-flush times.

Does anyone have any interest in investigating this as an option? Does anyone already have an interest in historicals, or an army ready to go? Just curious.

All things being equal, I will probably be back in game towards the end of summer, playing with either my now horrendously out-dated Guardians of the Covenant, or an unpainted Eldar horde.

If your looking for an Ancient game and your broke, try Basic Impetus, a free download from here:

http://www.dadiepiombo.com/basic2.html

Basilius wrote:Something more modern?

Have a look at Flames of War, there's 3 of us into it at the club.

I've now got undercoated
about 2000pts Soviet force, 2000pts German force and just starting to put together 1000pts British Airlanding Force.
We've had a couple games of about 1000pts so far.

When you are back at the club, if you are interested in FoW drop me a PM.

Cool Bossman... WW2 was not what I was aiming at, but there are some decently priced figs for it... might take a look see.

Ok Bossman...

I have ordered the main book, North Africa and Eastern Front.

What eras are people playing in? You have your 3 armies, what are other people playing? What sort of lists are you making?

I have costed it out and have come up with 3 options. The lists were constructed using some army builders I found online and after devouring loads of forum and net info.

M/L - An incarnation of what would eventually become 27th SS Volunteer Division "Langemarck". Flemish SS volunteers (no historical evidence of war crimes), Eastern Front book, for around £200 I can put together a collection that would let me play up to 2000 points with either an Panzerkompanie or a Panzergrenadierkompanie (Armoured). This is also the easiest set of lists to "step up" if you know what I mean - start small and go larger, but initial purchase would cost almost as much as my next option in its entirety, and would let me field about a 1K Panzergrenadierkompanie.

M - A rifle company of the 8th Bersaglieri. Something about this list attracts me. Based around the ridiculous deal that is the army box, I could build rifle formation lists up to and including 2000 points for £120. Orders of magnitude the cheapest option, and I like what I see so far, but I am usually pretty ambivalen towards anything Italian post-Roman Empire, so I question the potential for long term commitment to an Italian army. I guess its a hell of a lot cheaper a mistake than splurging on a 2K 40K army though.

M - A South African company from the North Africa book. As heavily "armoured" as I could make it, but its still officially a non-motorised Armoured company. Rifle only lists up to 2000 points for around £250. Probably my worst option of the three, but I had to dip a toe in the allies, and a formation from the 1st SA division with attached Rhodesian troops (the anti-tank platoon and the Marmom Herrington armoured cars) give it a real life link. But is the list really worth spending twice as much on than the Bersaglieri?

I guess I will wait and read the rule books before really making a choice. At the moment, the Bersaglieri is winning on a 80% price 20% coolness ratio. The "Langemarcke" SS comes second at about a 40%/60% ratio, the South Africans in the 8th army at about 20%/80%. I will also wait and see what you guys are building - there is no point me spending all my time and cash on M era lists if everyone is planning on playing D-Day.

More info, and indeed prospects for expanded interest in the club would be welcome. Even looking at the numbers above, I was looking at another £250+ to finish my prospective Blood Angels, possibly more. And that is without the price gouge... FoW may be the way to go.

Interesting comparison done by Bell of Lost Souls.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/05/editorial-ill-buy-that-for-dollar.html

looked at WarMachine but don't like it, whereas I would agree with the cost for the other games.

Also when doing FOW remember you don't just have to use Battlefront Figures (shhh Don't let KInG hear me say that).

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/

have a goodly 15mm following, as do:

http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/

and

http://www.skytrex.com/151/15mm-command-decision/

There are more as well...

Basilius wrote:What eras are people playing in? You have your 3 armies, what are other people playing? What sort of lists are you making?

Well I started by getting the Fortress Europe book as Jim & BigJim had said that they were planning Late Era forces.
BigJim is going for US Rifle Company (having to sub Panzer IV models for Shermans till he gets some) for about 1000pts so far.
Jim went for German Grenadierkompanie which can range upto 1000pts without the Tiger 1e in.

So I decided to pickup 2 armies, so that I could play either of them with historical enemies:
First one is a German Fallschirmjagerkompanie which has grown to 2000pts.
Secondly a Soviet Motostrelkovy Batalon which with some nice purchases from QRF (which if bought from FoW would have cost a fortune) at Salute brings it upto 2000pts.
While at another show, I found some items on the Bring&Buy and picked up 1000pts of German Grenadierkompanie for less than £50 along with 2 painted Tiger 1e tanks for £10; also a box of British Airborne Rifles and 6 Recon Jeeps for just over £50 altogether.
So now I have a fourth force of British Airborne from 'A Bridge Too Far' supplement which is just short of 1000pts.

Also picked up Eastern Front to see what Mid Period Forces are like and see if I could also do them with my collection.
Found that with a Platoon of IS2 Heavy Tanks for the Soviets I could put together a Mid War Motostrelkovy force, as well as the usual Fallschirmjagerkompanie with little difference.
But the one that I don't expect to use much a 1943 Schwere Panzerkompanie which consists of
Company HQ Tiger 1e 395pts
2 Combat Platoons Tiger 1e 770pts
1 Support Platoon 3 Grenadier Squads 155pts
1 Support Platoon 4 StuG G 680pts
Total 2000pts

As to your choices:
German (M/L) Panzerkompanie or Panzergrenadierkompanie are a good option - lots of scope and skill.

Italian Bersaglieri - lots and lots of infantry, even outnumber my Soviets but not much Armour and skill of troops can be a bit random with the '8 million bayonets'.

As to the North Afrika - no idea as I have not seen the book or looked at the lists in Army Builder.

I think for your first army I'd go with what your gut - but would really only consider Mid War Eastern Front/Europe armies as these would play better with the armies the rest of us have started with.

estarriol wrote:Also when doing FOW remember you don't just have to use Battlefront Figures http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/

I picked up 8 Zis-3 Artillery guns for £3 each whereas from FoW that would be £70
Also 4 Katayusha Rocket Battery for £18 instead of £33

So very good for vehicles , not so good on the price of Infantry .

Great stuff. So, pretty much a Late group at the club so far, with a coupld of options for mid... I will probably go with the panzergrenadiers/panzers lists then due to versatility - easier to "up gun".

Also, great leads on the minis - thanks.

Just to follow up, the 10% discount at http://www.staffordgames.co.uk makes their Battlefront range quite competative as well.

But Age of Strife has similar prices, so I will probably order from there just out of loyalties sake

And to clarify, since everyone else is doing late war, would it not be worth me doing a late war army as well?