What is the biggest unit?

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 4:16 am

What is the biggest unit you have employed in a game?

Most of the boards I see in pics here could carry a company team at most. That would seem to limit the number of vehicles you must have in order yo participate in a game to maybe a company of tanks and a company of mech. Perhaps you want to play different countries, so you need a similar set for those countries. Yet I read of some MASSIVE collections here.

Why do I read of such massive collections here if you can't use them?

Now, I enjoy the collecting, painting, organizing, and display aspect rather then the gaming, so I have more of a type than I can use in a game, but what about those who like the gaming more?

Why have the thousands of pieces?

madman · Post by **madman** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:04 am

Its an addiction.

Also if fielding "cold war" soviets they would need to be 2 to 4 times the forces. So one of EVERY possible company sized unit (NATO=many countries and types of units). I also have enough WW2 Germans to field a full paper strength company of pretty much every type of tank. I think that equals about 27 or so Tiger IIs.

Its a disease...

Stephen

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 6:54 am

Yes. It is an addiction, or I would have been satisfied with a US tank/mech task force and a Russian motorized rifle regiment.

Extra Crispy · Post by **Extra Crispy** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 8:13 am

The biggest unit I have used in a game would be a WW2 Soviet armored regiment (I had to borrow a lot of T34s to make that happen). Once I finish reorganizing my Soviet army, I'll have a good 4 or 5 battalions worth of tanks. If I can get enough players they 'll see the table this summer....

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 8:16 am

Extra Crispy,

Do you set that up in a gymnasium?

chrisswim · Post by **chrisswim** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 8:18 am

Size of a game. 15 years ago, no in the 1990s when Yugoslavia was breaking up.... ran a game at a con, Rapier, on 28 ft by 7 ft, or something to that effect. We had two players for each group, they were on opposite side of table from their bud. Croats, Serbs, Bosnia, and a few other names that I forget.... probably 12-14 players for 6 or 7 'sides'. They all hated each other. There was a UN convoy that had to drive along way through several of the areas affected. 40-50 trucks, 5-10% role play as groups negotiated trucks of stuff to let convoy pass. Allied military force and a lake with landing craft, ending up being a decoy. They came in and were kicking some butt.... for awhile.
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We have had some cold war games with 100 abrams and 200-250 T-80s on the table. At historicon, we had about that 2.5 or 3.5 years ago. Great fun.

We have run some games with large numbers.... a decade ago, France and Germany were taking on the US forces. We used 100 or so Recon vehicles for France and Germany, The Russians had a dozen ZSU-23-4 out. It was a large all day game into the evening. Not every game is like that.
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Have run a game with a platoon on one side and a bit more on the other; recon checking out the cross roads with a few buildings... is it clear. Oh crap 3 enemy AFVs show up, get the hummers and M3s and let get outta here, NOW!!!

Extra Crispy · Post by **Extra Crispy** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:22 am

Nope. It was a Flames of War variant. I had special rulers at half scale (so 12" in the rules was actual 6" on the table, if that makes sense).

Played on a 12 x7 foot table the long way. The Soviets attacked in two waves.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:55 am

Wow,. I would love to play a game on the scales being talked about here. My group uses a board that is about 5 feet wide by about 12 feet... I know I am off on the dimensions by a little. Any way, the like playing in true scale so there are large unit games to be played....

BattlerBritain · Post by **BattlerBritain** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 3:00 pm

I played a Team Yankee scenario years ago with x2 T-72 Bns on a 6' x 4' table.

At 1:1 that was 62 T-72s, plus others plus US.

I recently did Golan 73 with ~x2.5 Syrian Brigades on table + others at platoon scale and that was ~x40-50 T-62s + ~x20 T-54s.

That was good.

Doing it to scale it dawned on me how the Israelis won. It was a re-run of Crecy and Agincourt and boiled down to an exercise in crowd control

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 4:48 pm

It was US generals DePuy and Starry observing with the Israelis on the Golan Heights watching the Syrian attack that led to the development of Air Land Battle, so your realization is understandable.

Cav Dog · Post by **Cav Dog** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:09 pm

Warsaw Pact regiment vs NATO battalion at 1:1 on a double bed size table was the biggest. OK it was a double bed and not really a table...

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:12 pm

I must have been more tired than I thought I was. What I meant to say was,

My group uses a board that is about 5 feet wide by about 12 feet... I know I am off on the dimensions by a little. Any way, they like playing in true scale so there are NO large unit games to be played...

I asked them if adopting a ground scale would make it more palatable, but they said nope. So now I am trying to develop a small skirmish with a small number of vehicles so that we can do some modern stuff. The only time they like playing modern is when they use 1/600 scale (Specks of sand) vehicles.

@ Battlebritian and Extra Crispy,

Not familiar with the rules you are talking about (though I know its all over the internet), how do you do modern in 1/285th? I am assuming a smaller ground scale than what the vehicles are in. [/i]

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:22 am

Hoth,

Geez, your friends could be more cooperative. I looked at some 1/600 stuff. TOO TINY for me. My eyes aren't that good anymore.

At the Armor School, way back in 1977-78, we played on a large board with a blown up map overlaid on it, Dunn-Kempf rules. Company and platoon leaders in the room, commo to battalion commanders and staff in adjacent room where they could only manage the battle by spot reports received. It was interesting. While the map was enlarged, I don't think it was up to scale.

Extra Crispy · Post by **Extra Crispy** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 1:05 am

@Hoth:

I have never played a game where the ground scale was equal to the figure scale. The biggest table I have regular access to is 12' long. In scale that's what, 3,420 feet? 1140 yards? And that's if you being at the very edge of the table. Otherwise you are *starting* the game well inside 1000 meters which means all the interesting maneuver is over. That's the part I'm most interested in.

I use Flames of War (heavily modified) which has a nonsensical ground scale (as does Team Yankee since it is essentially the same game). It is a lot of fun, but lets me actually maneuver.

When I want a more serious game I use Fistfull of TOWs III, which has a 1" = 100 yard ground scale, and one vehicle = 1/2 company or 1 platoon.

chrisswim · Post by **chrisswim** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 1:48 am

Oh, proper ground scale. Borrow a Gym/basketball floor to throw the terrain down for gun Ranges. Or go to a shopping center parking lot. 200-250 vehicle lengths is a mile, 2-3 mile range... shoot 1/3 to 1/2 across a Walmart store....
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Bring your binoculars so you can see the enemy figures.
The above are to provide an insight into relative ranges, no warranty or guarantee of accuracy is established....