WW1 for the New Chums

[Deleted User]

The latest member of our little group had never wargamed before (excepting the Krieg spiel games he had at Sandhurst). He’s now participated in several Colonial & Napoleonic games & seems to have caught the bug.

He literally as well as figuratively wants to bring something to the table and, as he has an interest iin The Great War & we don’t do it has set himself the project of getting a WW1 game together, from scratch.

With regards to WW1, I am as big a New Chum as he. So if the readership could extend its knowledge, I’d be appreciative.

1. Which rules? He’s thinking battles set in the early war or, better, late war period when it’s less static.
2. Which figures? We do only 1/72 & 20 mm so I think this scale & size is preferable. I know about HaT but are there others?
3. Which models? Who does tanks, artillery et al.

And finally, a painting service. He isn’t enamoured with the thought of painting nor does he have the time. Any recommendations for a reasonable pro painting service?

 

donald

 

[Abwehrschlacht]

In the absence of replies, I offer Square Bashing as published by Peter Pig. A really good battalion level game, that has tons of feel for the period. There are a lot of AARs on my blog:

http://stormofsteelwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Square%20Bashing

Also, the war wasn’t static in the middle with plenty of actions from small scale trench raids through to large scale operations. For the small stuff there is the Two Fat Lardies’ Through the Mud and Blood, which is based on excellent research of the period and deals with section scale gaming.

As for figures in 20mm, as you said, HAT already have a reasonable range, as do Early War Miniatures (great figures), Lancer have some great character figures, like pigeon signallers and Zvezda do a range of WW1 stuff too. There’s plenty more, but these are some of my faves.

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/stormofsteelwargaming

Blog: http://www.stormofsteelwargaming.com

[Deleted User]

Thanks for your recommendations. As stated, I don’t know much & this has given me a good start.

 

donald

[Autodidact-O-Saurus]

I cannot think of any period better served by 1/72 scale than WWI. ‘Plastic Soldier Review’ will be a great help in finding figures. ESCI and AIRFIX both make Allied tanks. In reality, most German tanks were captured Allied tanks, too. But if you want to use A7Vs or armoured cars (or French tanks) you may have to rely on paper models. Look up Landships II for a good selection of these.

In theory, painting should be pretty simple. Personally, I wouldn’t think a painting service would be worth the trouble… but I’m a cheapskate with the time and inclination to paint.

I’ve been on the verge of doing WWI Mesopotamia (or A-H vs. Italy) for a couple of years now. Please post your experiences! Even if I don’t take the plunge I can live vicariously!

Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

[Abwehrschlacht]

Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about tanks as unless you’re refighting cambrai every game you won’t need more than about two. Even less for an A7V. The First World War was an infantry and artillery war.

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/stormofsteelwargaming

Blog: http://www.stormofsteelwargaming.com

[Abwehrschlacht]

That said, Emhar do both British and German tanks in 1/72.

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/stormofsteelwargaming

Blog: http://www.stormofsteelwargaming.com

[kyoteblue]

Good suggestions for 1/72, FOW make Great War and it works well for company sized games.

[Ivan Sorensen]

I have played:

Square Bashing, Over the Top, Great War Spearhead, Contemptible Little Armies and “Through the mud and the blood”, all of which are solid.

SB has points based army lists, if that’s a plus. It “feels” like a big battle without being super intensive in miniatures.

Over the top is basically Command Decision. It’s fairly straight forward and you don’t need too many mini’s for a fun game. Each stand is a platoon and you can give a player a battalion or so and have a fun day.

Great War Spearhead is..well…Spearhead. Personally, I never enjoyed the WW1 version as much as the WW2 version but others swear by it.

CLA feels a bit “warhammer WW1” (yes, it does, stop throwing rocks at me) but that’s not a bad thing as such. Its easy to play, it has a lot of character, there’s some rather good army lists available (again, with points if you like) and it gives a fun game at a small size.

Mud and BLood is a TFL game, so if you’ve played any of their titles, you know how this goes: Cards, shock points, all that stuff.
It’s a great game and the info on trench warfare is worth the price alone. Some players don’t like cards, so that could be a factor.

All of those are excellent and not dreadfully hard to get into. If you are starting with collecting mini’s, I might look for a copy of Contemptible Little Armies, I feel it’s the one that gives you the most fun with a modest sized collection.

If I may advertise myself, I also have a “beginner” set that is aimed to be dirt simple and will do open and trench fighting pretty decently.

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/229525/Trench-Hammer-WW1-fighting-on-the-cheap?

It’s geared at very simple play but with a surprising amount of flair (I think anyways) and you can do little war game campaigns on the cheap.

Whichever way you go, enjoy. WW1 is a criminally underrated period for gaming.

[MartinR]

Rules, well I’m a big battle kind of guy, so Great War Spearhead or Square Bashing (both use 1 base = 1 company so armies are interchangeable).

For a simpler game, the One HOur Wargames WW1 rules (Machine Age, with the tanks and barrages optional rules) actually work really well. There is a WW1 mini campaign on the Neil Thomas yahoo group (the group is called AMW afterhsi Ancient and Medieval sets) we’ve played through.

I also have tons of 20mm WW1 figures, mainly plastic. Plastic Soldier Review is your friend, but Emhar, Revell, Esci, HaT and even venerable Airfix do great figures. My cavalry are mainly metal (IT Miniatures, Tumbling Dice? I can’t recall). Emhar and HaT do piles of cheap, good quality plastic artillery. You’ll need lots of guns. Irregulars ‘Really Useful Guns’ range is great for cheap heavy artillery (6″ guns, Krupps 150mm, Schneider 155s etc).

You won’t need loads of tanks, but there are plenty out there. Mine are mainly Emhar and Airfix (Mark IVs, Whippets, a lonely A7V etc), my FT-17s are Armourfast. The French are less well catered for but Lancer do a nice St Chamond. My Schneider CA is a card model, which was really horrible to build, but it was a horrible tank:)

Because I’m lazy, my planes either second hand ‘Wings of War’ prepaints, or some old diecast models I bought years ago.

 

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Ivan Sorensen]

No WW1 player NEEDS a lot of tank models but every WW1 player WANTS a lot of tank models 🙂

[Abwehrschlacht]

@ivan, that is true. Despite my best efforts I seem to have ended up owning more A7Vs than Germany produced in the war…

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/stormofsteelwargaming

Blog: http://www.stormofsteelwargaming.com

[Deleted User]

Abwehrschlacht wrote:

@ivan, that is true. Despite my best efforts I seem to have ended up owning more A7Vs than Germany produced in the war…

The only existing A7V lives here in Brisbane (on temporary loan to Canberra but it’ll be back at the end of the year).

What a beast! Until you see one “up close” you can’t appreciate the impact it must have had.

 

 

BTW thanks so much for the helpful replies. I’ll put this to my pal. I’m going to resist contributing at all (I supply many/all figures to several other periods we do).

 

donald

[Abwehrschlacht]

I’ve only ever seen photos of it, would love to see it in real life!

Glad to have been of help, I started a 20mm ww1 project myself a few years ago, but realised I was replicating my 15mm stuff so I sold it all off. But there’s quite a few posts about it on my blog so you can see what some of the figures look like.

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/stormofsteelwargaming

Blog: http://www.stormofsteelwargaming.com

[MartinR]

Abwehrschlacht wrote:

I’ve only ever seen photos of it, would love to see it in real life!

Glad to have been of help, I started a 20mm ww1 project myself a few years ago, but realised I was replicating my 15mm stuff so I sold it all off. But there’s quite a few posts about it on my blog so you can see what some of the figures look like.

LOL. At some point I’ll bin all the 20mm stuff and replace it all with 15s too, I have far more 15mm WW1 than 20mm, the latter is just late war British, French and German, hence all the tanks.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Deleted User]

MartinR wrote:

LOL. At some point I’ll bin all the 20mm stuff .

 

Bin it! Tell me what you’ve got & I’ll make you an offer.

 

donald

[Deleted User]

An update.

My new-chum wargaming pal has seized on the hobby with remarkable energy & speed.

He has:

1. created a permanent hobby room for himself.
2. purchased a ping pong table to game on
3. bought rules (Great War Spearhead)
4. placed an order at Hannants for a small mountain of 1/72 figures
5. chosen a scenario he’s working towards (Bellau Woods) & planning creating the necessary terrain for it.
6. Set a tentative date for the first game (using counters as the figures won’t be painted yet).

 

I’ve talked him into trying to paint the figures when they arrive. The default position is if he hates painting, he’ll send them off somewhere to get pro-painted (not sure to whom or where yet).

He wants tanks & I’m not sure where to get them from.

A whirlwind of planning & activity! I’m going to give myself credit for inspiring & guiding him……because if I don’t give myself credit, no-one else will.

 

donald

 

[Abwehrschlacht]

Blimey! Let’s hope he likes the rules! Ha ha, I am sure he will, it’d be nice to see some pictures of how it all turns out.

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/stormofsteelwargaming

Blog: http://www.stormofsteelwargaming.com

[Deleted User]

Abwehrschlacht wrote:

Blimey! Let’s hope he likes the rules! .

I went through the alternatives offered here. He thought GWS was the closest to his ideas for the Great War.  He wants to fight biggish battles….the Somme eventually!

I can’t emphasise how keen he is.

BTW is there a site that shows which Vallejo paints to use for WW1?

 

donald

[Abwehrschlacht]

BTW is there a site that shows which Vallejo paints to use for WW1?

Sidney Roundwood’s blog: Roundwood’s World used to have a late war British and German painting guide, but it seems to have disapeared off his site: http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.co.uk/ It might be worthwhile leaving him a message on there to ask for a link?

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/stormofsteelwargaming

Blog: http://www.stormofsteelwargaming.com

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