Slitherine

What is the optimal army size that most people play at that has a reasonable range of options for the armies?
The starter lists are all about 600 points, but I see a lot of the lists posted in the 800-900 point range.
Thanks!

800 IMHO

Romanophiles will differ unless using MBDR.

Anthony

800 seems to be the standard. However, at our club (all three of us who play FOG there) we always play at 600. This has been for Cathaginian, Romano-British, Dominate with actual legionaries, and Uyubid (sp) machine guns on four legs . That points level gives us enough points for a good balance of forces and the Carthaginian player in particular seems able to field two elephant BGs while still having Hannibal, some high quality Cav and a decent foot line. Personally I don't see the advantage of more points and actually changed my mind to not enter the local FOG comp when I saw the points total and consequent longer game length.

However, 800 pts is definitely the standard.

It also depends on Scale and table size.

800 pts is the norm for singles play using 15(18)mm figures on a 6' x 4' table. Doubles competitions currently tend to 900 pts on the same size. For 25/28 mm the 6x4 table would probably be too small for 800 pts so less points or a larger table would be sensible.

Kevin

The starter armies are 600 points and make for perfectly decent games. You might want to reduce the table size if you are using them though, 4' by 3' works fine and 5' by 3' gives plenty of space.

Most singles tournaments are 800 points on a 6 by 4 in 3 1/2 hours. Doubles 900 on the same table and time.

There have been a number of tournaments run with 650 or 600 points on a 5 by 3 or 4 by 3 and 2 1/2 hours a game. Both FoG games at the club last night were 650 points on a 5 by 3 as practice for this weekends tournament.

I play at the same club as Xelee using Ayyubid and find 600pts is big enough to give us a game in an evening. the other club in town meets on a Sunday during the day which gives us enough time for 800pt games. So i get the best of both.

regards
Brent

We play 700 points on a 5' wide table as we find it difficult to complete an 800 point game in an evening.

Wildone and I use 5'x3' tables. All good ideas were stolen from Hammy after I wised up to the fact that I didn't have to jump off the bridge too. Or rather, I saw some guys in the US and Aussie were running smaller comps and Hammy's guidlines looked like a good way to do it.

It's a bit of a shame to not be playing FOG comps (yes, I did do some preliminary sounding out of potentials for a 600 AP comp), but can't have everything.

I would prefer playing with 650-700 points, but here in Italy 800 points are preferred...

We use 25mm on a 4X8' table and we range from 600 points to 800 points. 800 points is our normal army size since I have managed to fill out my army with enough figs now, but this weekend we are off to a convention so its time for the 1000 point mega army game. We usually will do a couple of those every year just for the fun of it.