Advisory Note

Please Note: This blog contains poorly painted toy soldiers that may offend those of an aesthetically sensitive disposition.

Sunday 19 July 2020

Those inexpensive 10mm Armies...

A somewhat out of focus dwarf on a pony admires a menhir


Further to my post on creating inexpensive armies for One Hour Wargames; Herr Zinnling was very complimentary about the 10mm figures so following is a short explanation of the raison d'etre behind their composition.

In Chapter 20 of One Hour Wargames, Neil Thomas put some tables to randomly create armies (very useful for the Solo Wargamer); so for the Fantasy Armies I was making in 10mm I purchased sufficient figures to accommodate the possible variations in a similar table.

Example table for creating random 6 Unit Army

Infantry/Archer units were to be 2 figures and Cavalry 1 figure; So I needed 10 Infantry, 4 Cavalry, 4 Archers and a Commander (my rules included a Commander who fought as an independent unit and was required for each Army whatever its composition).  The figures were purchased from Irregular Miniatures who sell them individually at £0.22 for foot and £0.44 for mounted figures - so these little Armies cost a few Pounds Sterling each, plus a slapdash (schludrig) bit of painting!

So here is the original Elf Army in total


And here are some later Wood Elf additions (note the Elves on Giant Deer are from Magister Militum)


That's it, hope you like the pictures Karl - Bleib sicher und gesund! (Translated by Google so I hope it's right!)


16 comments:

  1. I am very tempted after reading this. The elves on elk are particularly tempting. Strangely enough been read,musing about these rules today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The 10mm figures are very good though I'm finding them increasingly hard work to paint!

      Delete
    2. Just noticed your rules at the side, should have looked more carefully!

      Delete
    3. Good morning! They are the old rules but work for fast, bloody games!

      Delete
  2. Forgot to ask are you going to share your fantasy variant of the rules here?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The original OHW variant is shared in In-House Rules. I'm still tinkering with a variant of the PW.

      Delete
  3. I do like 10mm, great for multi-basing, small scale skirmishing and also cheep as chips. I'm working through some 10mm stuff at the mo. Really fun to paint too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 10mm (like 15mm) is great when you don't have much space.
      My old tired eyes are struggling a bit though, even with a great big magnifier thing!

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the explanation on how you planned your army. That's an interesting method. I might use it myself one day. I like your army a lot. Reminds me a bit of the abstraction used in DBA. Cheers, Karl

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Karl. I have a few more Wood Elves to paint - Infantry with spear and shield - and an Army of Skeletons! The other completed Armies of this size are Dwarves, Orcs and Goblins.

      Delete
  5. Your Army Chart is one I'm going to copy. It would work well with old 1/72 Airfix figures, too. I could see it being used for Horse & Musket, with little work to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a handy tool for solo games - Neil Thomas's book has tables for the different sized armies in his scenarios. It's a book that has a lot going for it!

      Delete
  6. I was tempted by 10mm figures (Samurai) many moons ago and having seen these, wish I hadn;t been swayed into 6mm! *they;re still unfinished !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've tried 6mm as well Joe, and yes most of them were unfinished too!

      Delete
  7. Have to try them one day, very tempting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lead us not into temptation, well not too much!

      Delete