There are several schools of thought regarding building wargame armies. Some gamers replicate entire orders of battle, confident that they must be historically accurate because they have exactly 347 men represented in their miniature 8th Texas CSA regiment Often times this extends to duplication of higher levels of organization as well (division, corps, army). Gainers will use a 'snapshot' of an organization that represents a specific instant in time, yet use it as their standard for the entire period they are representing. Others set out to build as many units as they possibly can, believing that the bigger the game, the better! Yet others build haphazardly, never aiming at a target collection size.

I will attempt to outline and explain why I have chosen to organize my collections based on the "Rule of Twelve". You may disagree with the contents of this article, but I have found the "Rule of Twelve" to be incredibly liberating as far as my own personal mental stability regarding collection sizes! Before starting my collections, I know the eventual size of the collection and the time/ money investment required.

Simply put, the "Rule of Twelve" says that the core of practically any wargame army can be represented with 12 units of the most representative troop type (be it cavalry or infantry). The supporting arms are then proportionally scaled off of the core of 12 units. An example may be of some use here. When organizing my 25mm Franco-Prussian war forces, I was faced with the conventional wisdom that the battles were huge and could only be done in 6mm, 10mm, or at the very largest 15mm. Obviously true if I were to attempt to build every unit.

However, why should I (or why would I want to) build that many units? Are the games any better with that many units? No! It struck me after seeing numerous miniature games at conventions and also published scenarios (magazines, special publications, etc.) that a core of 12 units seemed to be fairly common to all. It did not seem to matter whether the units represented on the table were companies, battalions, regiments, or brigades. If you are building using your basic units as battalions, the core of 12 units gives a representative division. If building using your basic units as brigades, the core of 12 units gives a representative corps. However, it is the same 12 units!

Do some checking - I guarantee you that for typical sized game scenarios, a core of 12 units will be more than enough to handle the majority of all scenarios. Back to my FPW collection. Obviously the dominant arm is infantry. OK - I'll build 12 infantry battalions per side. What about artillery? The Prussians were more artillery heavy in their organization, so I built 4 artillery batteries for them, with the French getting 2 artillery batteries and a mitrailleuse battery. Cavalry - not terribly numerous (as a percentage of a typical force), so I have only built 2 regiments of horse per force. What about special units? Fine - go ahead and build to your heart's content, but remember that they are special and you are probably only going to build one of each. I added a unit of Jaegers and a unit of Chasseurs to my organizations.

By the time you build to the core of 12 typical units, plus adding the lower percentage unit types and special units, you will probably be around 18-20 units for a good sized force. This is a force size that is easily managed by 1 gamer, but can still be played by 3 to 4 gamers for a group game. Also it is a force that is affordable, both monetarily and timewise. If you follow the rule of 12, 25mm armies are within your grasp. I organize all of my forces to be used with Piquet, which means foot units of 12-16 figures, horse units of 8 figures, artillery batteries of 2 guns and 6 figures. (These are typical units - Piquet can be used with any organization or mounting). For less than 200 figures per army, you have a well balanced, affordable, colorful army. Keep in mind that what you are striving for is the proper proportion of the three arms (foot, horse, artillery). I can represent any size battle I wish, as long as I proportion the percentages of unit types and the two sides relative strengths. Not a new concept, but one that you may want to keep in mind before beginning your next collection.