Wednesday 10 October 2012

Looking to the horizon...

My current painting project is not quite half-way done, there are still squirrels, shrews, foxes, weasels and a wolverine from Splintered Light miniatures to paint, and yet I am already looking to the horizon, looking to what my next project will be.

My finished miniatures so far...

This is the trouble with miniatures gaming, something avoided in the board gaming hobby by the simple fact that everything one requires for a game can be found within the box.  With most miniatures games you get a set of rules you like the look of, and are then left with the job of finding the pieces you'll play the game with.  Of course, this is also a fantastic thing about miniatures gaming, you can also find some wonderful miniatures and then locate or modify rules to accomodate them, the flexibility and personalisation of a game is hugely enjoyable.

So, my conundrum: I have the rules I want to collect minis for, now the job of finding the minis I want to use with them.  The game is the most excellent looking Dux Britanniarum, by the Too Fat Lardies, a set of dark age miniatures rules that has an in-built campaign system that reads like it will be a lot of fun.  The question now is what figures do I get to play the game with?  The Too Fat Lardies sell sets of 28mm miniatures from Gripping Beast, but I really feel like I want to run with a smaller scale, for all of the reasons that it takes less time to paint them, they take up less space when stored and of course, they are cheaper.  This leaves me with an interesting couple of choices I have been see-sawing over the last week or so.  I think I've finally come to a conclusion, but for the sake of this blog post I'll run through the two choices that have been gnawing at my inner-most, miniatures related, thoughts:

The choice over scale comes to two options, either 15mm or 10mm.  I love the look of the 6mm Baccus Miniatures, but I don't think they'd really suit the Dux Britanniarum look (at least the look I want).

Of those choices I've singled out an option for both, Splintered Light sell sets for Dux Britanniarum, containing everything required for one army in one set.  Now, I'm currently painting some Splintered Light minis, so I can easily vouch for their quality.

Splintered Light Saxons...

The advantages here are multiple:

  • They are available in sets that supply exactly what you need to start.
  • They are good quality.
  • They can also be used to serve double duty in Song of Blades and Heroes if the mood takes me.

The other option was to run with a 10mm, and I liked the look of the figures from Magister Militum.

One of the Saxon figures from Magister Militum...


The advantages of 10mm are also multiple:

  • They are cheap for a large quantity (I'd not need to buy more)
  • The look reasonable quality
  • They 'should' be quicker to paint
  • They could serve multiple duties (Dux Britanniarum, Dux Bellorum, Song of Arthur and Merlin)

There are of course downsides to both as well, 15mm are more expensive per figure, and I'd need more figures than the base sets sold by Splintered Light require.  10mm are, obviously, very small!


At the moment I am really swinging on the 10mm end.  The reasons are quite simply that I think I could get them painted quicker, they would be easier to store, I'd get as much as I need in short order (more in fact), and I can use them for multiple rules sets.

As much as I think the Splintered Light figures I have are wonderful, and as much as I like the look of the sculpts for their Dark Age range, I really like the idea of having a bunch of 10mm figures for use.  Sure they'll be small, but their size and the quantity I'll get will mean I can use them for Dux Bellorum as well, without the need to bolster the numbers by additional purchases.  I also think I'll be able to paint them more quickly - ha! We shall see.  So for now, 10mm are the victors in this stouch, we shall see how I feel when the time comes to place an order!

The various rules I'm hoping I'll be able to play at some point:


Some links:




Cheers,
Giles.







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