Representing your in-game dopplegangers?

[Wereferret]

Having played our first few games of T2K, I was curious what everyone is using to represent your characters and the OPFOR during your encounters. Are you using miniatures? Models? Counters, or nothing at all? For our first couple games, as we are figuring things out we used tiny D6's on the little tactical maps in the gamebook with the die showing the initiative of each character...made it quick to tell whose turn it was.

The other night I had a rare flash of brilliance and dug out my 15-year old collection of little micro machine miniatures...the tiny infantry and vehicles are just about perfectly sized to fight on the small grid squares included on the in-game maps.

[kato13]

1:285 scale figures

Mostly GHQ and CinC.

[Earthpig]

HO scale, I have some Russian, Warsaw Pact, and US troopies in molded plastic (airfix, IIRC) for vehicles I bought several toy kits with a military theme and find this represents most encounters with my crew.

[Cdnwolf]

I just use my barbie collection.

[Earthpig]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

I just use my barbie collection.

I DO have a collection of GI Joes and some other 1/6th scale figures, @ 52....but the game table get's a little crowded....especially when I do an overrun with my 1/6th scale HUMMWV

[weswood]

I don't have a game going, but I have a whole pile of 1:72 scale plastic soldiers. And a mess of same scale vehicles, some die cast, some ready made plastic and some model kits.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Wereferret

Having played our first few games of T2K, I was curious what everyone is using to represent your characters and the OPFOR during your encounters. Are you using miniatures? Models? Counters, or nothing at all? For our first couple games, as we are figuring things out we used tiny D6's on the little tactical maps in the gamebook with the die showing the initiative of each character...made it quick to tell whose turn it was.

The other night I had a rare flash of brilliance and dug out my 15-year old collection of little micro machine miniatures...the tiny infantry and vehicles are just about perfectly sized to fight on the small grid squares included on the in-game maps.

I think I've used all of the above at some point, plus alcohol pen marks on maps that are overlaid with clear acetate.

[Adm.Lee]

I bought most of the 20mm T2k figures when they first came out, along with a box of the Airfix Soviets.

I've also used blank counters with numbers on them, counters from my Squad Leader game, and wet-erase markers on a battlemat.

When I was at college, we used to play in a room in the Student Center, that had a blackboard. I got tired of erasing and writing in code letters, so I started just leaving the letters on the map, and adjusting the range figures that I had written in.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

I've also used blank counters with numbers on them, counters from my Squad Leader game

I did a lot of that -- even Last Battle works well on a Squad Leader map. I used a lot of hand-drawn vehicle markers (as best as my poor artwork could make), as well as counters from the old Firefight, Cityfight, and Raid SPI games.

One other thing I've used are the battle maps from Sunday Drivers and Truck Stop for the Car Wars game -- they work well with HO and 1/72nd-scale figures.

When using figures, I used to use a lot of Celluclay for terrain features (do they sell that stuff anymore?)

[jester]

I have used HO and 20mm figures I made and painted, to include several vehicles that myself and a couple other gamers and some buildings and such from model railroad dioramas on a table top with a green yellow, brown or white cloth to represent the ground and strips of tan, black or blue to represent a road, a paved road or a river or stream.

[pmulcahy11b]

We often used a simple buildings made from cardboard and colored with markers, or sometimes if we wanted to be a little more fancy, hollowed-out styrofoam packing blocks.

[Raellus]

I run a PbP so 2D works well enough for me. I use Google maps to plot out engagments. I use the symbols and such provided as markers. The birds-eye view doesn't always give the best indication of available cover and concealment so I have to use my best judgement and fudge a bit. The limited zoom in some places (like Poland) can be a bit of a challenge too.

If I ran a FtF game, I'd probably buy some miniatures or something. When I was a kid I used 1:72 scale figures and used WWII model AFVs for stand-ins.

[leonpoi]

coloured counters from a board game (mighty empires). Pretty small counters that we put on sheets of paper with maps drawn roughly on. The game has 3 different counter colours: blue, red and yellow. We use blue for the players and yellow for the "enemies" in a skirmish. When the players think (or confirm) they have taken down an enemy the counter is replaced with a red one. When an enemy goes out of sight we flip the counter to the non-coloured side to represent the last known position.

It works real well because scale isn't an issue. They are flat so they don't fall down. I have hundreds of them in a little film canister so they are easy to carry with the dice.

[Punkpogoer]

I'm just starting up a T2K campaign and have started collecting some of these minis http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/. They have a great selection of modern minis.

[Jason Weiser]

I use miniatures. Lots of em...Seeing as how my first love is miniature wargaming, I will admit that my RPGing tends to rival miniatures gaming at times and in HS, it was even worse. In fact, my RPGing has influenced my miniatures gaming..For example:

- In 20mm I'm building Moderns with a Twilight 2000 1.0 theme.
- In 15mm, I'm building forces to do fights from 2300 and Traveller.
- In micro armor? Cold War hot (usual Soviet Sunday drive to the Rhine) but with an option to do a Soviet-US fight in Iran! Or, the conventional war phase of a certain game....(And they now make Chinese too....)

So yes, there is a LOT of cross pollination. Loren, Frank Chadwick, Frank Frey...it's all YOUR fault. Especially Loren, or whoever wrote that editorial in Challenge about how RPGers should use miniatures!

So, thanks guys! It's helped me discover whole new worlds to blow the hell out of!

[kota1342000]

This is actually kind of a touchy one for me. I think there are times to use miniatures and times where the players should be in the dark about whats going on around them. Occasionally Ill even throw a sheet over half or more of the 'board' to rob the players of whats going on and impose fog of war. I bet everyone here has been in some kiind of fight (even a fist fight) where you turned around and said "where the hell am I??" Thats what I try to do in combat when it calls for it for T2K. But also keep in mind that I try to run combat unusually fast; some D&D games taught me how boring combat can really be in an RPG and I try to go the opposite way.
BTW, I use the last battle counters for NPCs and 1/35 scale figures for players.

[Wereferret]

- In 20mm I'm building Moderns with a Twilight 2000 1.0 theme.

Nice! What miniatures are you using? Can you post some pics?

[Jason Weiser]

http://panzerfaust150.blogspot.com/s...wilight%202000

They're up on the blog!

[Wereferret]

Very nice! I like your T-72's!

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Sometimes I use Matchbox/Hot Wheels and other die-cast vehicles, I have a number of military vehicles I use but sometimes I have to make substitutions.

Chuck

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Nowhere Man 1966

Sometimes I use Matchbox/Hot Wheels and other die-cast vehicles, I have a number of military vehicles I use but sometimes I have to make substitutions.

Chuck

I have some of those; they're surprisingly just about the right size for HO and 1/72nd miniatures.

[weswood]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I have some of those; they're surprisingly just about the right size for HO and 1/72nd miniatures.

I have a Matchbox HMMWV that is the exact size as a pair of 1/72 scale HMMWV plastic models. Just a little less detail.