Sunday, September 5, 2010

Units all wargamers have?

Hey all!

Was just putting the final touches on my first five man squad of 25mm Napoleonic greenjackets, and it brought to mind something I've often thought over the years.

Generally speaking, there are some really traditional units that wargamers have.  Almost every ACW gamer has painted up the Irish Brigade, for example, whereas most Napoleonic gamers have painted up either some Rifles or some Old Guard, and WWII gamers tend to have a Tiger or an 88 in the collection.

Now, the thing is, I don't know what the "unit everyone has" are for a lot of the periods and forces that I don't collect!

So... what are some of the units that YOU guys think are real "everyone's got'em!" units in the different collections?

11 comments:

Ubique Matt said...

Guilty as charged - I have an ACW Irish Brigade.

I imagine most ECW gamers have a number of Haselerigge's 'lobsters' even though they are of limited (historical) use.

Regards,
Matt

BrianW said...

I don't have the Irish Brigade, but I do have the Texas Brigade for ACW. For WWII a pair of Tigers, and for 1/1200 naval, the USS Constitution.

Author said...

Wow, the one guy on earth who doesn't have the Irish! Good for you!

The only way to drag me down is if you admit to having gotten the 14th Brooklyn in their place:)

Ahh, the Constitution! I hadn't considered the naval side of things... that one makes sense:)

As for the lobsters, that is WAY out of my eras... I know little about the ECW! So Haselerigge's men are the Old Guard of ECW?:)

JM said...

I don't have the Irish Brigade... but only because I haven't gotten to them yet!

For ACW I'd also add to the list: Berdan's Sharpshooters, Wheat's Tigers, the Iron Brigade, and some form of Zouves. Most ACW games are a who's who of famous Civil War units.

Nice figures by the way!

Author said...

Some DEFINITE winners in there... in fact, I think you got a whole nice list of them. EVERYONE has Wheats Zouaves, for sure, and Berdans as well... I find that, for zouaves, the 14th Brooklyn is awful popular...

Some good ones so far:D

SpeedyFrenchy said...

Tiger 1s: 6 of 'em!

Although I have to say I got four of them because they were going for £2 each...

I do have some Rifles, but only because they came in the Perry brits box.

And why isn't the Black Watch on there?

anthony said...

Irish Bde...check.
20th Maine...check.
54th Mass...check.

Rifles, Guards, and the South Essex...check.

WW2, paras, LRDG...check.

There are some units that just inspire, or have had Hollywood inspire for us and as such they tend to form the starting unit we build a force upon.

The 9th Legion, Spartans, the Black Watch, Tigers, the Green Mountain men, the list can just go on.

I would bet the Rifles would be present in nearly every Napoleonic British force.

jmilesr said...

Lets see - I think I'm guilty as charged:

For WWII, I have a pair of Tigers
For the ACW, I have neither a Union Irish Brigade or a Confederate Stonewall Brigade. I do have the ubiquitous Union "Iron Brigade" and Law's Brigade for the CSS, so I'll still count that as confirming your thesis
For 1/1200 Sailing I also have a Constitution.

It does seem that we in the wargaming hobby do seem to follow form!

gregoryk said...

I do not have an Irish brigade, but I have Zouaves, and an Iron brigade, and so do most of the ACW collectors I know.

gregoryk said...

I have British WWII paratroopers, but no German which I think is unusual.

gregoryk said...

ECW has some of Rupert's men, required.