Small armies or starter army?

[cpt_safety]

I've made a decision about what my first army will be. The rules are in hand and Rise to Rome will be in my mailbox perhaps tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to start with Mid Republican Roman and/or Carthaginians. My dilemma is: do I purchase a Roman starter army from either Old Glory or Donnington (I'm in the US, so postage is an issue) or do I buy the Corvus Belli DBA Roman army and maybe squeeze into the budget their Carthaginian DBA box as well?

Reviews say that the OG and Donnington lines are pretty darn good but not exceptional, whereas some reviews of the CB lines make them sound a bit better. My situation is that I'm in a fairly rural part of the US and I don't game socially very often - almost never. I more often battle against my children and a few friends. I enjoy painting and setting up scenery.

On the one hand, I would have one decent sized army and get another soon. On the other hand, I would have two small armies with possibly nicer miniatures and be able to actually play a few games as I spend cash to add units once in a while.

Questions to you: can the game be played with a DBA sized army and not be hampered by lack of units or under-encumbered in some way? What are your experiences with these manufacturers?

Thanks,
Bill

[DaiSho]

I've made a decision about what my first army will be. The rules are in hand and Rise to Rome will be in my mailbox perhaps tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to start with Mid Republican Roman and/or Carthaginians. My dilemma is: do I purchase a Roman starter army from either Old Glory or Donnington (I'm in the US, so postage is an issue) or do I buy the Corvus Belli DBA Roman army and maybe squeeze into the budget their Carthaginian DBA box as well?

Reviews say that the OG and Donnington lines are pretty darn good but not exceptional, whereas some reviews of the CB lines make them sound a bit better. My situation is that I'm in a fairly rural part of the US and I don't game socially very often - almost never. I more often battle against my children and a few friends. I enjoy painting and setting up scenery.

On the one hand, I would have one decent sized army and get another soon. On the other hand, I would have two small armies with possibly nicer miniatures and be able to actually play a few games as I spend cash to add units once in a while.

Questions to you: can the game be played with a DBA sized army and not be hampered by lack of units or under-encumbered in some way? What are your experiences with these manufacturers?

Thanks,
Bill

Hi Bill,

Well, since you're in America - the worlds strongest economy (or is that Ethiopia??? I'm not sure anymore) I'd go with Xyston... more expensive I admit, but beautiful figures - and no, I don't work for the company.

You can't really do it with DBA sized armies, but there are a few threads out there with 'smaller armies'. Effectively the problem with DBA style armies is that there are a number of 'units' of one which can't really be used (without extensive modifications) with FoG. That said, if you were prepared to use 'kill markers' I can't see how one base couldn't be made to be the equivalent of four. Naturally you would have to modify distances etc to compensate. Maybe half the distances etc... dunno.

Ian

Ian

[SirGarnet]

This is a Mini-FoG thread with various ideas. viewtopic.php?t=6828

Mike

[marioslaz]

I've made a decision about what my first army will be. The rules are in hand and Rise to Rome will be in my mailbox perhaps tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to start with Mid Republican Roman and/or Carthaginians. My dilemma is: do I purchase a Roman starter army from either Old Glory or Donnington (I'm in the US, so postage is an issue) or do I buy the Corvus Belli DBA Roman army and maybe squeeze into the budget their Carthaginian DBA box as well?

I advise against DBA box because proportions of miniatures are not suitable to FoG BG, so if you buy, for example, 3 DBA boxes of an army you could find with miniatures in excess and lack of others. Corvus belli produces very fine miniatures, but their Romani are not of the same period of Carthaginians. You could buy Carthaginians form Corvus Belli and Romani from someone else (Xynston, Essex, Old Glory). Xyston has an impressive set of italic warriors (Romani, Campani, Apuli, Osci) but they lack italic cavalry.

[hammy]

If you are in the US then Old Glory has the advantage of being really rather cheap especially if you can get discounts (warweb.com offers good discount on OG figures) on the other hand Donnington have some nice ranges and the $ £ exchange rate is in your favour at present.

I would avoid multiple DBA armies at present as they are really nowhere big enough to make even a FoG starter army.

[lawrenceg]

A DBA army will have enough figures to do 12 bases.

For a FOG starter army you need more like 50 bases.

In FOG your bases need to grouped into battlegroups of normally at least 4 bases, so with DBA armies you will have only three battlegroups and be hampered by lack of units.

[cpt_safety]

Thanks. Your insights help me a lot. I'm keeping my eyes open on brands. The Xyston lines look great, but I'll have to order my own BGs from the WarWeb site (gasp) as opposed to just clicking on a pre-packaged box. Maybe that's the way to go whatever brand I go for.

Thanks again,
Bill