Toy Soldiers: Going 15mm!

I have recently been caught up in the growing trend for science fiction wargamers to move from the traditional 28mm size figures down to the smaller size of 15mm.

This has been inspired by several things, firstly 15mm figures are cheaper, I can get a pack of 6 or 8 premium 15mm figures for the same price as 1, or possibly 2, 28mm figures. Secondly, there are a whole new selection of companies that are injecting new life in to the 15mm Science Fiction market. Critical Mass Games, Khaursan Miniatures and Rebel Minis for example. There are also the longer running companies like Ground Zero Games and Alternative Armies 15mm.co.uk that have large selections of popular figures and vehicles.

Personally, I have been putting together a force of Critical Mass Games ARC Fleet miniatures. These armoured figures are your basic sci-fi humans, much in the "Halo" or literary "Starship Trooper" style. The vehicles are little works of art, produced in a combination of resin and pewter parts.

I have also been putting together a small force of Ground Zero Games Kra'Vak, which share some similarities to the movie "Predators"!

The Kra'Vak figure sculpts have been around for a good few years now, probably don't equal the modern figures that are around, but with a lick of paint they still come out really well. Also their vehicle are suitably different in design to my Arc Fleet force that they are easy to tell apart.

My gamer buddies and I have not settled on a good set of rules to use yet, as again there are a whole selection of new rules floating around to choose from. I am probably going to base my ARC Fleet figures to the size set out in the beta rules for Critical Mass Games own rule set, but we have been looking at several other sets that are out there too. These include Grunts, FUBAR and a few others that don't spring to mind at the moment.

Grunts certainly seems to be generating a good bit of interest at the moment though...

For anyone interested in watching the developments in the current 15mm science fiction gaming field, a couple of blogs certainly bare watching:-

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/

http://firebase15mikemike.blogspot.com/

http://www.gruntz.biz/

http://miniaturereview.blogspot.com/

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In future I will prefix any wargaming article with the title Toy Soldiers:, this will hopefully make it easier to identify the wargaming articles!