The proper organization of war game armies is as important as a good war game setup. The beginner is smart who plans out ahead the kind, number, and type of troops he wants before ordering them. This will lead to a lot of fun in setting up a Table of Organization for the two armies you will need to fight with.
Since dice are used to determine casualties in most cases, most volley firing in war games is done with volley groups of six men. Thus it is best to organize your regiments in multiples of six. However, most war gainers find they like to have a few more men in case of casualties, so the best bet may be to figure your regiments in multiples of 10 men. Many experienced war game players, using 10 men as a basis, make a regiment consist of 30 men - 10 to a company, 3 companies to a regiment. Usually they add from 1 to 3 officers.
My suggestion is that the beginner start with 15 men per regiment of infantry. This gives you firepower of two dice throws per regiment with replacements for casualties. Later, if desired, the regiment can be built up to 30 men. You'll find, too, it's less tedious to paint 15 men at a time than 30.
As in history, each regiment should be distinctive from another so that you can spot immediately what regiment it is in action and will know its approximate firepower. In the old days, each regiment had its distinctive facing of regimental colors, and most players of the musket period era follow this procedure.
Besides the regimental facing colors, there is another way to easily build regiments for easy distinction, That is by placing all men in a certain position in the same regiment. For example, one regiment may be marching, one charging, one firing. In designing war game soldiers for sale, I follow this principle so that the buyer has a wide choice of action poses, which enables him to better distinguish his regiments on the battle field.
In the modern war game, it is not important to follow a regimental organization, and special troops, such as machine gunners, bazooka men, etc. can easily be distinguished by the weapons they use.
In all war games, most players have some special troops: light infantry, commandos, paratroops, etc. Wherever possible these should be either painted distinctively or be in distinctive poses so that both opposing players can quickly spot them. In your T/O for your armies, these special troops will comprise only a small proportion of the total, based roughly on a 10 percent basis. For too many of these powerful men will ruin a war game. Later on in this booklet we'll take up more detail on these special troops,
It is not essential that cavalry figures be painted differently except as the player desires to portray various famous outfits. However, with gun crews it is important that they differ from the other soldiers, since they should be distinguishable at all times.
When picking out your special troops, such as light infantry, try and stick to historical facts. For example, Grenadiers would not be used for light infantry, but Jagers, Voltigeurs, Riflemen, or dismounted cavalry would.
Now, presuming that you are luck enough to have a nice 8-foot by 4-foot table, how many troops should you have for such a set up9 Lets take the 30mm figure as the ideal scale to use, and you can adjust your own armies up or down depending on what scale models you will be using.
For a musket period army, each army would consist of 9 regiments of 15 men each - a total of 135 infantry soldiers. There would be one regiment of light infantry - 15 men. At least 30 cavalry should be used, and a minimum of two cannons with crews of 4 to 6 men each. This totals 192 men per army, or a grand total of 384 figures.
This probably sounds like a lot of soldiers, but you'll be surprised how little area on the table they will take up. Using this many troops, a normal battle should be fought out in four hours time. Any more than this - at least until you have gained more experience - will be too much. Any less will cut down on the fan. Later, when you've played lots of games, you'll be able handle up to 300 soldiers per side with no trouble.
Now, if you're a modern war game fighter, you won't need so many infantry troops, and can make up firepower with machine gunners, tanks, and mortars. And, of course, you'll need no cavalry, A total of about 150 men per side is good, with about 6 of these being machine gunners, 6 bazooka men, a couple of mortar teams, and 3 or 4 tanks. The tanks will take the place of cannons of the musket period war game, and paratroopers will take the place of the light infantry.
In the ancient war game, the beginner will find the numbers suggested for musket period armies about right. Infantry will be divided into archers, pikemen, and swordsmen, with the cavalry being pretty powerful as armored knights. In this type game, archers or bowmen usually assume the power of the light infantryman, or paratrooper, and they should thus be limited in proportion to their power.
Once your T/O is completed, you'll find much fun in further organizing your armies for the actual battle, For example, if you plan an attack upon your enemy, you may want to organize your regiments into brigades of two or more regiments~ perhaps using a three regiment brigade for the attack and a two regiment brigade for holding at another point. The combinations are endless, and a tremendous amount of pleasure can be derived from it.
You'll also soon find you will develop regiments that will have special elan, or esprit de corp. These undoubtedly will become our favorites, and will be used to do the tough work on the miniature battleground!
More All About Wargames
- Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Troops
Chapter 3: Converting and Painting
Chapter 4: Wargame Set Up
Chapter 5: Army Organization
Chapter 6: Basic Rules
Chapter 7: Campaigns
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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