Green Historical Gamer

auto95937 · Post by **auto95937** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:36 pm

Hi

No hisses, or boos please but up until this point I have been an avid GAMES WORKSHOP wargamer e.g., WFB, 40K. Now, a little older they really don't interest me as much and I have been reading good things about Fields of Glory (FOG).

My question really is what is a good starting army to focus on, that has plenty of likely opponents and good model support. Personally I'm interested in the Crusades from a historical point-of-view, but would rather have opponents than my cake and eating it.

On the flip side, out of interest is there a popular period / army for which there isn't good model support?

nikgaukroger · Post by **nikgaukroger** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:14 pm

To some degree the answer to your question will depend on whether you aim to play 15mm or 25/8mm - or indeed both

For model availability you won't go wrong if you look at Romans and Greeks - the latter including the armies of Alexander and his successors - and their enemies. These are really the "core" of ancient wargaming.

That said the Crusades aren't badly served although less people aeem to have those armies.

In fact pretty much all the armies in the currently released FoG army books are supported - some better than others, but you should find figures for most (although as hinted above your scale may make a difference).

One piece of advice usually give is that you should see what the people near you are playing with and start by fitting into that to some degree and then, maybe, branching out.

david53 · Post by **david53** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:42 pm

Nik has given good advice, just like to add as stated it much depends on who you are going to play don't know were your nearest club is find that and try visit a couple of times.
Hope you have a good time in the future.
Dave

auto95937 · Post by **auto95937** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:45 pm

I guess 28mm, rather than 15mm -it is the scale I am used to. I gave a quick call into my local game store here in Upper State NY, USA and like many stores it is GW-centric. They mentioned a few people who play historical (board) games, but little on the table-top front.

Perhaps there is a NE USA historical gaming group? From the research I've done FoG seems to get alot of positive traction, and I just ordered the core rules but perhaps I should look to other systems too?

OldenTired · Post by **OldenTired** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:12 pm

weird. i thought this chain would be about someone looking for environmentally friendly models.

i struggled to think of something.

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:08 pm

OldenTired wrote:weird. i thought this chain would be about someone looking for environmentally friendly models.

i struggled to think of something.

Hehehehe, your choice of lead or plastic; that's enough to give a vegan hives.

"No, Earthwind, we have no miniatures molded from hemp fibres, sorry."

madcam2us · Post by **madcam2us** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:12 pm

Most of the 25/28mm ancient gamers are still dedicated DBx types centered mostly around NE Ohio, though there are a few gamers that play 25/28s in upstate NY (Ithica-Syracuse area?). However, those are stringent in their support of DBx gaming.

Fall IN is coming up in November in Gettysburg and that will be your best bet for finding like minded souls.

There is a North American Yahoogroup dedicated to FoG where you should seek.

If you are as green as you say, then I'd pick 15s as despite the chorus I'm sure will follow, the majority of gaming and nearly 100% of the Tournament FoG I've been aware of, is in 15s.

Madcam.

auto95937 · Post by **auto95937** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:33 pm

OldenTired

If you are interested I actually had an interesting chat to a biochemist a year or so ago about cornstarch based plastics. Biodegradable and all. I included in my chat sprue based figures (plastic). It is doable although you would need to think of some way to offset the use of corn based material (demand is very high) and a fixative so that the would not disappear on your or degrade out of sunlight.

auto95937 · Post by **auto95937** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:34 pm

I noticed that Slitherine are producing a set of mini in 28mm, so I figured this was going to be the direction the company saw the hobby going in. No?

hammy · Post by **hammy** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:25 pm

The 28mm figures are being produced by Wargames Factory and are branded as Field of Glory figures. Slitherine are not a manufaturer of figures like say Battlefront are for WWII, all they have done is produced a set of rules and licenced the name to a figure manufacturer.

In the UK there is a mix of 15mm and 25/8mm games with 15s outnumbering 25s by about 4 to 1. The new plastic figures may mean more people playing with 25s in the future but at the moment there are a lot of people with 15mm armies that they are now using for FoG.

rbodleyscott · Post by **rbodleyscott** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:25 pm

possum wrote:
OldenTired wrote:weird. i thought this chain would be about someone looking for environmentally friendly models.

i struggled to think of something.
Hehehehe, your choice of lead or plastic; that's enough to give a vegan hives.

"No, Earthwind, we have no miniatures molded from hemp fibres, sorry."

An Italian player brought an origami Princess Mononoke army to a Hordes of the Things competition in UK a couple of years ago. You don't get much more eco-friendly than that.

Sadista · Post by **Sadista** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 12:07 am

Only by killing a tree to make the paper

CrazyHarborc · Post by **CrazyHarborc** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:45 am

auto95937 wrote:I guess 28mm, rather than 15mm -it is the scale I am used to. I gave a quick call into my local game store here in Upper State NY, USA and like many stores it is GW-centric. They mentioned a few people who play historical (board) games, but little on the table-top front.

Perhaps there is a NE USA historical gaming group? From the research I've done FoG seems to get alot of positive traction, and I just ordered the core rules but perhaps I should look to other systems too?

My regular old fart opponents and I have used some of our WHFB minies as stand-ins for FoG armies. We also have a fair number of "historical" 25mm minie.......well "we" have a total of oh, 3500-4000 minies in various periods to use.

The Warstore is planning to stock/sell Wargames Factory's new line of Plastic 28mm Romans and Celts. The Warstore also sells Warlord Games 28mm plastic Romans and Celts. The Warstore also has the FoG publications.

IMHO, the rules (FoG) are clearier, more complete and with far, far fewer "grey areas" than a couple of other sets of rules I have used.

babyshark · Post by **babyshark** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:12 pm

auto95937 wrote:Perhaps there is a NE USA historical gaming group? From the research I've done FoG seems to get a lot of positive traction, and I just ordered the core rules but perhaps I should look to other systems too?

Try the Tournament and Opponent Finder sub forum. Also, as Madcam said, there is a NorthAmericanFoG Yahoogroup that you can use to find local players.

I think that you will find that--at least in the US--there is a substantially larger population playing 15mm. This is especially true for those gamers that tend to travel to play. Speaking of travel: Fall In (November in Gettysburg) and Point Con (West Point) are reasonably nearby, and both will have FoG tournaments. Depending on where you are in NY MigsCon (Toronto) might be easily reached as well.

Welcome aboard,

Marc