North West Frontier Wargaming (1 Viewer)

[Imperial Miniatures]

My background is as a wargamer (since I was 12 - 40 years ago!) and more recently as a wargames figure manufacturer.

When I started to collect 54mm, I did so to wargame with them. I have collections for 1900s Little War Games, and am starting Napoleonic and ECW 54mm collections as well.

My main period has been North West Frontier using the AIP figures.

Here are a couple of pictures of a recent game where the British attempted to relieve a garrison:







How many other 54mm wargamers do we have on the forum?

Mike

 

[Bdyh]

How many other 54mm wargamers do we have on the forum?

Mike[/QUOTE]

HI Mike, I don't know how many other wargamers there are on the forum, but let me tell you of my experience. I had soldiers back when I was a kid in the late 60s and early 70s. Loved 'em, but put them away when I got older. When I had kids, I started buying soldiers for them (instead of computer games). We would set them up and knock them over with marbles, blocks, or whatever else we could use as 'bomb.' As time went on, I started buying more and higher quality and more expensive guys. The bombs just didn't seem appropriate for those guys. So, I bought some rules and the boys and I did play war games a bit. But it never really caught on with either them or me (we liked Risk and Axis and Allies board games, though, so I am not sure why we never really got into games with the bigger guys. Maybe we just didn't have the right set of rules. The kids are gone now, but I, an I am sure others, would be interested in reading a few words on the various games/rules you play by, how involved they are, how long they take, etc.
BTW, I like your paint job and set. Looks like a lot of fun.
Fritz

 

[Marchand]

Mike...Very nice set up and great use of a ping-pong table. Could you post a close up of the fort seen in the distance in the first photo?

I also see your British are attached to larger bases. What kind of base did you use? I recently got some ATKM bases and trays and am going to attach some AIP figures to them. The AIP will have to have their plastic bases cut to fit, but will be much easier to move around. I am using their Soudan War figures since the scenery is simple!

Back in the 60's there was a board game called POW which had 2 plastic cannons which shot marbles. My brothers and I used them with my Marx Civil War sets to do battle on our basement floor. A primitive version of HG Wells!

 

[Harry Faversham.]

Could you post a close up of the fort seen in the distance in the first photo?

Marchand, it's not a fort, it's the Airfix Desert Outpost. We've been wargaming the Wild West and WW2 using Britains Deetail figures for several years now.

​

 

[The Green Knight]

Hello Guys,

Here is South Australia I know of at least 5 people who wargame on 54mm scale. One of the members of ACOTS (Australian Collector of Toy Soldiers), Bob Bolton, has a shed with about, I reckon, between 15,000 to 20,000 figures, 54mm scale, fully painted and based. He has terrain like castles from Barszo, heaps of trees and different houses, several roman galleys and Greek Triremes (all scratch built), 1/32nd scale tanks and planes and much more. Figures range from ancients to World War 2. His Napoleonics are probably the biggest I've seen so far. All armies in the conflict have figures I believe.

I've joined about three wargames so far on a table of around 25 feet by 6 feet. There are two of these long tables set up side by side with about a meter space in between so that you can move figures around between tables if the game happened to be quite huge and more of a campaign.

Gaming on 54mm scale is quite fun though quite tiring as well due to the huge space on which we play.

 

[The Green Knight]

Sorry typo error. I meant "Here IN South Australia"

 

[Imperial Miniatures]

Mike...Very nice set up and great use of a ping-pong table. Could you post a close up of the fort seen in the distance in the first photo?

I also see your British are attached to larger bases. What kind of base did you use? I recently got some ATKM bases and trays and am going to attach some AIP figures to them. The AIP will have to have their plastic bases cut to fit, but will be much easier to move around. I am using their Soudan War figures since the scenery is simple!

Back in the 60's there was a board game called POW which had 2 plastic cannons which shot marbles. My brothers and I used them with my Marx Civil War sets to do battle on our basement floor. A primitive version of HG Wells!

Hi

As mentioned, the fort is the desert outpost from Airfix. The British Army was painted by me but belongs to my opponent Anthony who based the figures on laser cut MDF bases from Warbases (www.warbases.co.uk). You can get pill shaped bases from Warbases that the AIP bases fit on, but you are right that cutting the bases cuts down their footprint.

 

[Imperial Miniatures]

HI Mike, I don't know how many other wargamers there are on the forum, but let me tell you of my experience. I had soldiers back when I was a kid in the late 60s and early 70s. Loved 'em, but put them away when I got older. When I had kids, I started buying soldiers for them (instead of computer games). We would set them up and knock them over with marbles, blocks, or whatever else we could use as 'bomb.' As time went on, I started buying more and higher quality and more expensive guys. The bombs just didn't seem appropriate for those guys. So, I bought some rules and the boys and I did play war games a bit. But it never really caught on with either them or me (we liked Risk and Axis and Allies board games, though, so I am not sure why we never really got into games with the bigger guys. Maybe we just didn't have the right set of rules. The kids are gone now, but I, an I am sure others, would be interested in reading a few words on the various games/rules you play by, how involved they are, how long they take, etc.
BTW, I like your paint job and set. Looks like a lot of fun.
Fritz

For the colonial gaming we use The Sword and the Flame rules which date back to 1979 but are still in print. They use cards to alternate the action and are fairly simple but give a fun, cinematic game with plenty of action. We play using half-size units (10 figures for infantry) but keep the movement distances the same as for a 25mm game. Games take about 2 hours to finish.

I am very much in favour of simple rules that let you play a game in 2-3 hours - I play at the Guildford Wargames Club in Surrey and the ideal game runs from 7pm to 10pm (including packing up time) which gives time for a post-mortem in the pub afterwards.

For my Napoleonics I am using a set of rules by Neil Thomas and I would recommend his rules as they are simple but very clever in the way they work - I have been using his 19th Century rules for Franco-Prussian games and they nicely model the Prussian advantage in artillery and the better French rifle range. You can buy his books through Amazon.

I also play Funny Little Wars which is an enhancement of Little Wars by H G Wells and has melee rules and dice rolls for infantry shooting. It still uses firing cannon for artillery fire though which is always entertaining. There is nothing like a direct hit from a Britain's 18 inch howitzer! We've played games on the floor and in the garden as well as on the tabletop with those rules.

 

[Imperial Miniatures]

Hello Guys,

Here is South Australia I know of at least 5 people who wargame on 54mm scale. One of the members of ACOTS (Australian Collector of Toy Soldiers), Bob Bolton, has a shed with about, I reckon, between 15,000 to 20,000 figures, 54mm scale, fully painted and based. He has terrain like castles from Barszo, heaps of trees and different houses, several roman galleys and Greek Triremes (all scratch built), 1/32nd scale tanks and planes and much more. Figures range from ancients to World War 2. His Napoleonics are probably the biggest I've seen so far. All armies in the conflict have figures I believe.

I've joined about three wargames so far on a table of around 25 feet by 6 feet. There are two of these long tables set up side by side with about a meter space in between so that you can move figures around between tables if the game happened to be quite huge and more of a campaign.

Gaming on 54mm scale is quite fun though quite tiring as well due to the huge space on which we play.

Sounds amazing! I have played some garden games and you can get quite tired from all the kneeling/lying down and moving troops over a 40 foot square battlefield!

Mike

 

[Harry Faversham.]

I'm a big fan of Neil Thomas's rules for wargaming... simple, fun and give surprisingly tense battles that can swing either way right up to the end. Using his 'one hour wargame' rules and scenarios give you a great game.

{sm2}​

 

[Imperial Miniatures]

Anthony and I played another 54mm North-West frontier game using The Sword and the Flame with half-size units.

The scenario was that an outpost were preparing to evacuate due to reports of advancing tribesmen. A relief force was on the way but they must save the wounded and the gun from falling into Pathan hands. There are 4 baggage elephants, the gun crew and a single British unit manning the outpost.

The relief force consists of 4 infantry and one cavalry unit.

Pictures:

The outpost at the start of the game:






The British Relief Force:



More pictures and full report on my blog:

http://mikelewis.info/littlewars/?p=384

 

[Mike Blake]

Looks like a fun game, Mike.

I'm a long time 54mm gamer and member of the Skirmish Wargames group, which specialises in 54mm games. We are keen Imperialists too and play most Colonial periods including the Grim. But the last game was a Sudan one, mostly AIP figures. Some photos at http://s654.photobucket.com/user/MikeBlake/library/Black Powder and TODD Sudan Wargames.

 

[The Green Knight]

Nice figures and terrain! I'm sure you guys have loads of fun playing these games.