Size of armies in 1.1

[pakwagon]

Hi guys

Just a wondr'n what size armies people are playing under v1.1?
Is 300pts an average sized game or is it getting closer to 500?
Seems like you have to make some seriously hard choices when putting together a 300 pointer - or maybe that's just my inability to keep my grubby hands off all the cool models coming out

M

[Mr. Harold]

My friend and I have been playing 200 points on a 2x4 board. I would prefer 200 points on a 4x4, but we've been having a lot of fun.

I think 200 points on a 4x4 board is perfect.

[pakwagon]

Yeah, I figured I was probably aiming a little high
I may have to butcher my list and cut it back to around 200.
On the upside I can get a few armies done and run some demos.

[Mr. Harold]

Very true... I also have several "merc" units that are around 30 points that I can just use as pre-made and add to an army.

What size table do you usually play on?

[pakwagon]

I like that idea.
A 4x4 seems to be the size table of choice for us. This size fits the house well but I'm thinking we could go to 6x4 at the club.

[Mr. Harold]

I've found that with a 2x4 the vehicles don't really have THAT much room to maneuver, and deployment is much more critical.

As the table size increases the opposite becomes true.

[timsnoddy]

Depends a bit on how you are statting your troops. I am playing 200pts on a 4x4 with fairly low stats. This gives about 8 units a side which seems quite enough. I also use the rule that if your army falls to 50% strength you have to take a condition brown test as remaining units are activated. If you go under 25% of units not destroyed and not in condition brown the army runs. I have a couple of ideas around army choice and the above that I want to post when I get them laid out properly.

[baldlea]

Our recent game was 170 a side on a 4x4. Before that, we did 300 a side on 8x4. It lasted considerably longer and would have worked on a 6x4.

Comstar and I have played around the 200 mark on 3x3.

All brilliant games!

[pakwagon]

Ok, maybe I'll go for a couple of squads of average troops with SAWs, a commander, a couple of medium APCs and a scout drone or two.
Should be able to tweak it to around 200pts.
I'll save the other vehicles for swap outs and the odd larger game.

Thanks for everyone's input.

[inrepose]

4x4 works for me, although the show boards I built were 3x3 and still provide a fun game in about an hour. My larger 6x4 layout is great for larger games and you really feel the benefit of VTOL's and items like speeder bikes on the larger layout.

[RuneCaster_Aris]

I'm going to chip in here too. To me, 250pts is the standard for the games I've played. It lets me take a few big things, gives a decent mix up of troops, and has a good play time (roughly an hour, if we pretend that we don't talk about various other things during the games <_< >_>). It's also best on the wallet as an army costs me less than $65.

The 4x4 table has treated us well too. It gives a round or two of mobility before engaging in combat. It may seem boring the first few turns, as you're not shooting or fighting, but it gives you a good opportunity to refine your opening game strategy, and compensate for any unexpected placements your opponent may have made. Not to mention that you have some room to actually maneuver around a bit, spacing out the war as you see fit. As well as the fact that you can place more terrain/scenery to make cities, outposts, or the like.

[Mr. Harold]

I also like 200 points (or lower even) because it forces you to make decisions on what to take.

[anton970]

We started within about 200/300 points, then to get the cool toys are cranking it up to 500, basically an excuse to get fast movers and all that jazz!

[pakwagon]

Great feedback. I think when I originally looked at building a force for Gruntz I was basing it too much on what I was used to in games like FOW and Rapid Fire etc. Just now starting to become comfortable with the notion that not all figures need transport and one tank not a unit of three. I'm a pretty slow painter so I wasn't looking forward to painting a bucket load of vehicles. It's now nice to know that 2 or 3 is all ill need except for the odd occasion when I play a really big game. I guess I thought Robin's demo games at cons where very small forces designed for quick play by newbs