Thursday 23 February 2012

Pause for Thought

Following on from the battle report I posted yesterday (viewable here), there was one other issue that was brought to mind. It wasn't about the game itself, or even the army, but the figures


The 1500pt list contains 86 infantry models (20mm bases), 10 Monstrous infantry models (40mm bases), two weapons teams (25x50mm bases) and a Doomwheel (100x50mm base). That's 99 models in all. Now, coming from a background as a Wood Elf player, I've never used an army with 99 models in it! The biggest 3k list I've ever used for my Wood Elves has 109 figures, and that's twice the points size of my Skaven army...

Not only is it quite a lot of figures for such a small army but the figures are also bulky, with lots of sharp pointy sticky-outy bits. Both units of Clanrats were magnetised to their movement trays for the primary purpose of making storing and moving them easier. Transporting the army is another issue entirely.

Up until now, the humble GW Figure case has done the job of transporting everything I've needed for my games - a Wood Elf army fits in there perfectly, along with the books and equipment necessary to play. Not so with the Skaven; the Clanrats can't stay on their movement trays (which largely defeats the point of magnetising the trays in the first place...), and the Doomwheel won't fit at all.

The long and short of this ramble then is that I need to find a better way of transporting the army. The current list (i.e. everything I've got painted so far) takes up all three trays of the GW figure case already, so once the army expands beyond 1500pts it will become a struggle to carry everything I need. I've managed to pick up another GW figure case on the cheap, so that will alleviate the problem in the short term. I'd rather carry around two figure cases than one figure case and a bunch of boxes and books. But in the long-term, I'd ideally like to be able to carry around everything I need in a single case/bag, and I'd like to be able to magnetise things so that I can pick them up straight out of the case/bag (rather than load and unload individual models from foam trays...)

Of course, I might be asking too much. It's not really such a problem having to load and unload all of the Clanrats from foam trays, it's just an inconvenience. Ideally though, I'd like to be able to just be able to pick up a unit and put it on the table rather than spending time faffing around ranking every model up on the trays and then putting them all back into the foam at the end of the game. I'll keep my eyes open for a case that does everything I want, but in the meantime the two GW figure cases should suffice for now.

6 comments:

  1. At 2.5k my Skaven usually have 3 x 39 Slaves, 2 x 39 Clan Rats, a Unit of Stormvermin and unit of Plague Monks / Night Runners, so it's a lot to transport if you don't have them magnetized.

    I have each Clan Rat Unit (or Slave Unit, where are your slaves!) magnetized on a magnetized movement tray. I have deep foam trays, I think 2.5", each one of which holds four whole 40 man units. You can just lift them clean out, and you're set up in about 5 minutes! Total tray space for a 2.5k army is I think 7.5 inches, including all my rare options and Weapon Teams / Character choices.

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    1. Thanks for the input mate.

      I take it your foam trays aren't ones that are divided into little compartments for individual figures, like the GW ones. Where'd you get the deep trays from? And how do you transport them (in a figure case or what)?

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  2. I use a Battlefoam case and custom trays. Bit more expensive than the GW foam, but far, far better. I also have a custom cut tray that fits my Orc BB team exactly, which I love.

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    1. Cheers for that. Battlefoam is a bit pricey, but definitely looks to be high quality. I'll have to have a mooch around their website and look at some options.

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  3. I think other websites do custom foam cheaper, but you know how long I spend on my minis (as thus how few I have as a result)! To me the cost of protecting them seems worth it.

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    1. Yeah, I'll have a look around. I can't claim to spend anywhere near as long on my minis as you (or put in as much effort), but I still like to keep them in one piece! I'm looking as much for transport convenience as protection, and Battlefoam do seem to tick all the boxes.

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