An Idea worth doing!

[Luthfats]

Men, i have come up with an idea for GHQ in the future for 1/285th scale miniatures, now telling by the scale this would prove a challange, but the detail in the tanks etc. are just so brilliant for such small models, so......... i propose that GHQ make there own line of historical medieval miniatures with all the add ons -
Siege towers
Mantlets
Catapults
Trebuchets
Battering rams
Castles/buildings from different eras and parts of the world
Scenarios
A rule set
All different medieval countries men mostly europe though
Famous troops like war elephants or something ( you get what i mean )
Little pikemen/swordsmen/archers/cavalry and even peasants!
The packs of men could come with little movement templates
Or this could even be aken further into the fantasy realm with little ogres and giants and trolls and wizards and even dragons or dwarfs although dwarfs would be very hard to paint

But i guess you all get my insight, just try to imagine it in the future, imagine this -
Your recreating a siege that you made yourself but planned out, and you have to hold a fortress in northern europe against an army of Normans or something and you have archers on your wall and little town militia in the towns outside the walls, little cauldrons of oil ready to tip on the enemy, and your king on a courtyard outside the castle or in the vast courtyard where he anxiously awaits news of the enemy, and then the ground trembles as a vast army of spearmen, cavalry and swordsmen alike with catapults and trebuchets at there backs with little men pushing the battering ram towards the gates of your city and the mantlets are set up the catapults fire and the enemy march in formations as far as the eyes can see, i just got this from the top of my head, but it just sounds so good to me in my mind so tell me what you think and i know rules and stuff for this would be pretty hard to make up and stuff but i'am only 14 so i dont fully understand the hardship GHQ would go through to pull this off but if they did it would be an enormous feat! Any comments welcome

Luthfats from - Scenarios for a new wargamer

[piersyf]

Yeah, you could... but the vast majority of medieval battles were way smaller than ww2 battles, and many think that because of the blazons, pennons, gonfannons etc that it is a period better suited to 15mm, and in fact there is a large range of 15mm medievals available. Another thing people seem to forget is that we are talking pre-industrial; this means all large scale equipment (all equipment, in fact) is hand made and therefore NOT uniform. You do not get more than 2 or three pieces of equipment looking the same unless they are made by the same engineer at the same time, usually for the same battle, and they are rarely kept. Scratch building would be far more accurate.
My current job (for the last 4 years) has been teaching the technical progression of warfare in the ancient and medieval world, so this is something I know a little bit about. While I am a fan of 1:1 ratios of figures, painting 1:285 scale men at arms and their knight with the myriad combinations of colours (well, seven colours, in lots of combinations) just boggles the mind. And the eyes.

Good luck!

[jb]

...I would rather have GHQ do Napoleonics in their beautiful 7-8mm style...screw the 10s...

[Luthfats]

They have a napoleonic range

[TAMMY]

I fully agree with piersyf. 6mm is not the best scale for medieval figures.
In fact there are very few medieval figures ij this scale. I know only H&R, Baccus and /(may be) Irregular.

I have varius medieval (and ancient) armies in 15mm and they are more then adequate.

I would add that recreating a siege (a complete siege not just an assault) iwould be a very complex thing and would require a lot of work.

I have done only one siege and in a different period (end of XVII century) and I will never do it again. The papare work and the planning involved is too much.

It was organized as a campaign with some engagement (assault or sortie) here and there but you have to keep track of damages, supplies etc. that are not actually reproduced on the table.