Missile minis (and how many should I make?)

[hamilton]

Hi folks,

I'm starting to make some missile minis. I'm using bulk Nintendo DS styluses cut down to different sizes for the ASGMs and bombardment missiles, and a slew of LEGO antennas, three per mount, for clusters.

Here are some work-in-progress pics (unpainted):
The first is a DS stylus at the top, bombardment to the left and ASGM to the right. For the bombards I cut them down to 48 mm, added a nosecone groove, and glued the stylus base back in a reverse position (makes them 60 mm total). For the ASGM, I cut them to 45 mm and made an engine groove.


The second (Cluster) is a Lego antenna, and three that I've just removed the base nub. I'll mount them to something, a piece of plastic sprue maybe.


I'm going to do a magnetic mount to a fighter base and use a colored die to indicate number and owner, so I'm only doing one paint job per type.

Since I'm still painting up my fleets, I haven't done many large battles yet. Most of my games have been 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 balanced battles to learn the rules.

So, how many missile models or tokens (taking into account stacking) do you typically use in larger battles?

[dunadin777]

In a recent long-range battle between Galactica, Pegasus, and two basestars, the basestars easily put out about 16 ASGM counters on the board before the first salvos started to hit their targets. So I'd say if you're looking to have more than two missile-heavy ships on a board, you should probably look at 20-30 ASGM, maybe half that in clusters and less in bombardment. The other issue to consider is that you might want to make them colored differently to keep straight which set of missiles belongs to which side.

[warchariot]

Hate to tell you, but we have had 100+ counters on the board. The good news is a lot of those were piles of missiles-4, 6-8s even.

[hamilton]

Well, I bought a bulk pack of 200 DS styluses, so I can make plenty I just get bored with repetitive work like that pretty quickly!

[irishthump]

As the guys have already said, the more counters the better. Even in a moderate sized game you will use them up at an alarming rate!

I make mine from aluminium dart shafts, very cheap and you don't have to paint them. I just cut of the threaded piece at the end and drill a small hole for mounting on a stand

Here's an old pic...



I was able to buy these really cheaply in bulk and have since made about 100. I have painted the noses different colours to differentiate between the different missile types.

[warchariot]

Nov 12, 2011 9:33:27 GMT -5 irishthump said:

As the guys have already said, the more counters the better. Even in a moderate sized game you will use them up at an alarming rate!

I make mine from aluminium dart shafts, very cheap and you don't have to paint them. I just cut of the threaded piece at the end and drill a small hole for mounting on a stand

Here's an old pic...



I was able to buy these really cheaply in bulk and have since made about 100. I have painted the noses different colours to differentiate between the different missile types.

You could also put a number on the base to show multiple missiles.

[coldsteel]

The darts are a great idea. Where can we get them in bulk?

[irishthump]

Nov 13, 2011 8:21:11 GMT -5 coldsteel said:

The darts are a great idea. Where can we get them in bulk?

I bought mine on Ebay, I think payed less than 15 euros for 100 of them. They also come in plastic and in verying lengths.

[irishthump]

Nov 12, 2011 9:48:49 GMT -5 warchariot said:

you could also put a number on the base to show multiple missiles.

Yeah, put I prefer to stack counters if I have enough!
I re-based those missiles since that pic was taken, here's what they look like now...


I made the new bases from map pins; I drilled a tiny hole in each dart shaft and glued them onto the map pins which ere already painted black.
As you can see you can happily cram plenty of them into a hex!

[warchariot]

NICE!