Warlord announce 15mm blackpowder

[zoidpinhead 12492xp 0]

These comparison shots are with Kallistra miniatures which are listed as 12mm foot to eye or 1:144 scale.  https://www.kallistra.co.uk/?page=16

This is a clear attempt to set up a unique scale and design approach in Historicals which gives the sort of proprietary uniqueness that manufacturers have in many Fantasy and Sci Fi games.  Not sure it is going to work with existing historical players but if it brings in new players to try hisotricals for the first time I’m all for it.  Certainly there is a lot of interest if the rush on Wargames Illustrated is anything to go by.

[torros 23816xp 1]

ACW  is an over stuffed market at that scale

[zoidpinhead 12492xp 0]

So Warlord have go in with something as different as possible which is to be applauded I suppose.  They are certainly drawing some attention.  It feels like an odd time of year to be launching a brand new range but I guess they know what they are doing.

[fightcitymayorParticipant 2104xp 0]

Color-coding them is a very good idea, given how aggravating attempting to paint a row of them all shoulder-to-shoulder would be.

[lupa15 11253xp 1]

Two things I am surprised by:
1) Why ACW and not Napoleonic?
2) Why are the exclusive generals not in the starter set pre-order and only the bundle.

Kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense to push the big bundle for £162.00 ($237) when the starter set for half the price is much more reasonable for most hobbyists to pick up at this time of year.

[scribbs 14509xp 2]

I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t head that way next/soon, but the range of possible figures for ACW is much more limited than Napoleonics. You can’t really find two Napoleonic armies in similar enough uniforms to serve with a single sprue, which from a very cursory look is what seems to be the basis of the infantry at least. This looks like a way of testing the waters for a new scale (for Warlord anyway).

[lupa15 11253xp 1]

@scribbs That makes sense! Especially since there are quite a few other manufacturers of 10 mm and 15 mm miniatures out there for Napoleonic era it would make sense to start small.

[yoshiParticipant 3197xp 0]

I love Warlord exploring smaller scales. While not too keen on American Civil War I would love to see Napoleonics, Ancients or Medieval covered.

ACW seems like a sensible start since the range can be kept small and still display most units of the era.

I hope this sells well enough and we will see another venture into smaller scale wargames by Warlord.

[phaidknott 7023xp 4]

REALLY liked the look of these at first when I got the newletter from Warlord. But like others here, wondered why Warlord hadn’t actually stated what the scale was. The figures on “strips” is fairly common in 6mm or 10mm, so can be used with lots of existing sets of wargame rules.

HOWEVER was really annoyed at Warlord going with a weird ass scale of “13.5mm” (hence why they kept that little bit of information hidden on the initial newsletter). Why couldn’t they just release these in 15mm (or even 10mm) to fit in with other ranges and (more importantly) scenery/buildings we have already collected.

Was VERY interested and was looking at taking the spurge and getting the BIG bundle until the scale was actually “leaked”. Will probably still be a good buy for gamers new to the period and who might not already have a collection of ACW minis in 15mm or 10mm. And I fully support Warlord doing ANYTHING in an historical range in blackpowder that isn’y yet another range in 28mm.

So if new to the period I’d look really hard at perhaps picking these up (as they work out a lot cheaper than buying them in 15mm and probably a bit easier to paint than 6mm if you’re getting on a bit and suffer from flaky eyesight (like me, who’s starting to struggle doing 6mm of late). But I’d look at using a different ruleset than Warlords Blackpowder ruleset (be interesting to see what rulesets would work with the basing system Warlord is using here).

 

But why, o why did they have to go for a bloody “unique” scale to try and fix customers to only buying their minis at the expense of making the range incompatible with other companies that produce scenery for the ACW period 🙁

[torros 23816xp 3]

@phaidknott While I understand why they did it the strips of infantry being so long and from looking at pics they seem like they maybe a pain to split  unless your games use large bases which from memory apart from BP and Alter of Freedom they don’t I think they’ll lose a lot of sales

But as others have said maybe there just trying to push BP

On a side note I 5hink its interesting both Gripping Beast and Warlord have started producing smaller scale figures this year

 

[janus1004Member 4165xp 0]

@torros – It looks like the strips are symmetric, with ten figures in total. It should be rather straightforward to use a jeweler saw and divide them in the middle.

I must say I am surprised by how good the figures look, I will definitely try the ones I get with WI.

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

Well looking at the sprues it’s one “command” strip to nine infantry strips (or five bases of double ranked infantry with 50 figs per regt). So rules like Johnny Reb should work fine (as long as both side keep the same basing and assuming figure ratio of 1:10).

You could separate the strips, perhaps sacrificing a figure in doing so to make larger than 500 man units (for example the freshly raised union regts). It was always the case for the union units that a large regt would be raised, and then when worn down to non practical numbers then the survivors would be reassigned to newly raised units (whereas the confederates would keep supplying troops to existing units).

So I think there’s a fair few rulesets that could be used (certainly with the more “grand tactical” sets that are out there, but that’s not my thing as I prefer the more tactical level games). The “strips” are kind of a good thing as they force the table into a more linear battlefield (rather than the “pike block” effect you get with a lot of more modern rulesets as they just seem to ignore figure ratios and ground scale). So you’d probably have to look at rulesets published in the 80s and 90s to find an alternative ruleset that would work without you having to rebase the figures from what Warlord have decided to use here.

Interesting to see that the Kallistra figs seem to be an equivalent scale, but it’s still a damn shame Warlord decided to be silly and adopted a non standard in an attempt to “lock in” gamers to their figure range (but if the figures are good no matter what scale, then gamers will buy them anyway..so is there a need to do so?).

 

[limburger 21704xp 2]

13,5 mm is not any weirder than the dozen or so variants of 28-32 mm heroic and non-heroic that make finding models for skirmish games such a hell when you don’t want to rely on a single manufacturer.

The models in the post by @elessar2590 look close enough in size/proportion for it not to matter much. The infantry does look a little thin compared to the other, but given that they are ‘in formation’ I can sort of look past that.

I think people forget that Warlord Games are a business like any other.
And because they sell both miniatures and rules they want you to buy both.

Companies that only produce minis have to adapt the standard scale/proportion within a given genre.
Warlord Games & co have to make a choice between carving their own niche or risk competing with existing ranges.
Then again … if the primary focus is on getting your current customers into a new scale/format … the choice is easy and you pick what works best for your rules and catalog.

These guys are not your friends. They will use any means possible to convince you to buy into their range.

Besides … there’s nothing stopping you from just buying the rules.
Altough I do detect a certain dislike for the BP ruleset so that might not be an option …

[ravensdark121Participant 12xp 1]

I think the set looks awesome and it’s a brilliant starting point. Think I will be using only 3 bases for a unit though, 5 looks like it will take up far too much space on the field.. Will have to find some suitable command figures to turn the spare bases into new units

[huscarle 4559xp 1]

Foot to eye they really look 15mm to me.

I must say now I have set of sprues I’m quite impressed by what I see and excited where this new venture from Warlord may lead.

There are 10 sprues of infantry made of a command sprue then two variations of the rank and file, 5 of one and 4 of the other so by alternating it’s easy to achieve a good variation of figures across the line. The unit bases can confirm are 60mm x 20mm.

I’m probably going to split a starter with a friend so £45 is a pretty economic way of trying something new.

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