Would you pay more for a bespoke army?

[Last Hussar]

By line army I'm talking about those armies where you have lots of figures per base, all in the same pose- ie Napoleonics, Medieval etc (basically pre 20cent).

Do you find the composition suits your basing?  Dave currently typically gives 3 command and 27 men per pack.  I find this leaves me a little short of what I would like.  I find that on a 40mm frontage base I can get 6 men, 30mm - 4 men.  While 27 men looks like it should be a good number - 3 x 3 x 3, it doesn't fit either of these 2 popular basing widths. (30mm is as close as dammit to the inch and an eigth the Americans seem to be so fond of).  

Of course two ranks of 5 fits the packs, but this means a 35mm base width.

Now I'm not suggesting Dave does custom packing- he has said how low his margins are on another forum.  However would people still buy, or even prefer, if he reconfigured his pack composition (obviously with associated price increase).  How does 3+33 sound?   This gives 3x (6x2), ideal for the 40mm bases, or 4 x (4x2) with a spare at the back as a file closer on each.

Given Pendraken are the cheapest 10mm on the market as far as I can see, how yould you feel if these packs ended up with a cost of living rise to £4 for 36 figures?

[lentulus]

My own preference, were this a democracy, would be for packs of 30 line (single or multiple pose depending on period) and small packs (5 or 10 figures, a pounds worth more or less -- basically the WWII pricing) of command on the side, season to taste.

[Leon]

There are some ranges where the command are included in the packs, the SYW stuff being one of them.  The Ancients/Dark Ages/Renaissance all have separate command codes, as do the Medieval (except ELM3-7 which have a single standard bearer included).  It's the 18th/19th C stuff that tends to have some command included. 

The 30 figures per pack content was standardised to make everything simpler, but we can provide other compositions if people want them.  We regularly provide extra SYW command figures for people, I actually keep a bag of command figures on one side just in case.  So if you wanted no command, extra command, or singles figures, we can usually accommodate any requests.

[Last Hussar]

Thanks for that Leon, that's useful to know.  I would still hesitate to ask though, as I don't want to be a pain. As commented in other Wargame fora, gamers are quite sensitive to price, and the 'cottage industry' side of many suppliers means that they seem to always be on a knife edge.  Additionally there always seems to a stream of 'grognards' demanding the most obscure figures, while expecting these low sellers to be sold at the same cost ('it's the same amount of metal') ignoring the fixed set up costs.

Dave said (on the other forum- poss the 10mm Yahoo group) that he feels GW have the right policy for the wrong reasons with the high price of personality figures.  The received wisdom is that Aragon, say, costs more because he is a powerful figure. However there is a points system that should take care of this.  The correct answer is that players only need one of that figure, not the tens or hundreds they have of the rank and file, so the costs are spread over a narrower run.

However I do wonder why the Napoleonic British etc only come with one standard bearer, when gamers want two.  Or is this a cunning way to tempt us into 60 man units- now that would look good, albeit with 40cm/16inch frontages. Hmmm- when I win the lottery, and can afford the room!

[Leon]

I can't really answer that one, Dave decided on the pack compositions some 18 years ago now!

[Luddite]

In most cases they've stood the test of time!

And frankly at 10mm prices buying a few extra packs just to get your desired composition is no bother at all.

We recently downsized from 15mm as we can get four 10mm armies for the price of one 15mm...  

Amazing to find Pendraken also have better sculpt quality than many 15mm figs too!!

[Leon]

I'm always impressed with the ability of our designers.  Another thing is how well proportioned they are compared to some figures you get.

[nikharwood]

Thirty-per-pack is fine for me - on a 40mm frontage I go with 5 per rank anyway, across three bases: 30 figures per unit

[Last Hussar]

Nik,  you're right- it is a matter of taste.  Many of my mate based 7 to a base- 4/3 W formation, but after seeing my Romans on 6x2 frontage they feel they maybe should have put the extra £££ and painting in.  The Auxillary are 5 frontage on 40mm, and they feel a little too loose to me.

I agree about the proportion.  A freind and I think that if you brought them up to full size they would possibbly be a bit fat, but in 10mm they are fine.  My Skytrex 1:200, which I suspect are proper limb thicknesses, look like stick men- sort of a Barbie syndrome suits 10mm best.

[nikharwood]

Totally agree - my ACW armies are a mix of OG [5 figure strips] which I got in a great secondhand deal - and with Pendraken figures added to bulk the stands out as OG are narrow...so those have got either 6 or 7 figures on a 40mm frontage...

Love the Barbie comment too 

[Last Hussar]

Had a flash of inspiration while sat in a 'workshop' today.  3x2 on five 20-25mm bases for SYW Blackpowder.  We (my intended opponent - who I notice is a lurker here) were originally going to go with 4x 30mm frontages, but I'm thinking, given my experience of basing Pendraken in the past - about 7-8mm per man I would need just over a pack per 4 bases, and I like to keep units to 1 pack, to help with ordering and so I don't have unused figures- I always feel guilty about having a few left over.

My only concern is that 20mm square will be too small to pick up.

[nikharwood]

I've just been mucking about with some 2mm MDF bases & PD figures: I think that 20x20 is OK, but *is* small and a bit fiddly (for me at least) to pick up easily & comfortably...I think 25x25 would be better - you won't 'lose' the figures on it (which I think you might with 30x30 for example & 6 figures) and it's noticeably easier to pick up: certainly so without touching the figures themselves as well as the base edge...

[Last Hussar]

When I get the chance I will do a trial run with some ECW standing in for men in tricorns.

I use cheap self adhesive floor tiles for bases - only about 1mm thick, and you get 6 30cm square tiles for £3 in B&Q.  I have a paper guillotine which I can just about fit them into the finger guard of.  I can knock out loads of bases quite easily, to any size I want, and at 2-3cm square the tile is rigid, no floppyness of the full size one- I have 4 25mm metals on a 40mm square base, and it holds them easily.  I put sheets of dark green paper on the sticky side before cutting up.  All you get is a thin black line round the edge.  Doesn't warp under water based glue and paint like card, no burrs like mdf, and stiffer than plasticard.

[Last Hussar]

Leon has indicated that they would help out with the correct figures, if say you needed a few more than the regular packages gave, or a slightly different composition, however it's not something they want to do to much/too complicated.

If Pendraken offered a service where you could email a list or precise composition ("Each pack needs to have 2 standard bearers, 2 drummers, an NCO and officer plus x men at pose y") and they emailed a price back that took into account the extra effort, how much extra would you be prepared to pay?

I think there would be very little up front effort to make the quote- whether a flat cost or a premium per figure.

[lentulus]

The premium would have to be less than the cost of just getting another pack and having a few spares -- and given my ability to drop things, a few spares is not a bad idea.  Where I have asked for odd things, like extra artillery crews, the pricing has been so reasonable I don't even remember exactly what it was.