Scale of the games

I'm not back on the literal scale. I'm thinking about the size of forces used. In particular, I've been noticing how much the games of 40k have moved from small skirmish games through platoons to now being company level actions.

In first edition, you could end up with obscure, esoteric equipment on a model by model basis. Then army lists came around. An example that can be tracked through each edition is the Imperial Guard.

In first edition, a 3,000 point Guard force would cap out at about 90-100 models, max., and that's by taking barebones, minimum profiles for the officers. While you could take cavalry, a handful of tanks, etc., the 100 models drives my point, and is a nice, round number. This gives 2 officers, 2 command squads with a medic, standard and 2 lascannon, and 8 infantry squads with a lascannon and grenade launcher each, a couple of Sanctioned Psykers and the requisite D6-2 Commissars, with some points to get upgrades for the characters' kit, and maybe switch a platoon's grenade launchers for heavy bolters.

A basic infantry squad, with a sergeant with laspistol and chainsaw, a grenade launcher and a lascannon would have set you back 200 points (you had to take 4 of them minimum; a support squad, 10 men, a missile launcher and 4 lascannon was 445; an assault squad, with pistols and 2 plasma guns were 110, if you really wanted to push the numbers up).

A sample Imperial Guard army in the second edition Codex, totalling 1500 points (so we can double the model count for an approximate, comparable 3,000 point force. This force consisted: a Colonel, Primaris and command squad with 2 meltaguns and a missile launcher; a lieutenant, Primaris, a command squad with a heavy bolter and a lascannon; 2 infantry squads, each with a heavy weapon and special weapon; a heavy weapons squad; a Ratling squad; a Leman Russ; and a Rough Riders squad.  This comes in at 43 infantry, 5 cavalry and a tank. This works out at roughly the same scale as the first edition force, albeit with significantly more diversity. There is clearly a shift, however, towards more infantry.

A basic infantry squad with the same armament as above would come in at 142, a notable drop.

Rather than creeping through each edition, let's skip 23 years to today. I've yet to try a full 3,000 points, but i have done the 1,500 points a few times. On one of those occasions, my force consisted of:
A Battalion, with a Company Commander, Primaris, platoon commander, 2 command squads, 3 infantry squads with special and heavy, a heavy weapon squad with 3 lascannon, 2 special weapons squads with snipers and 3 Rough Rider squadrons;
And, a second Battalion with a company commander, a Primaris Psyker, a platoon commander, a commissar, 2 command squads, 4 infantry squads with special and heavy weapons, a heavy weapon squad, again with 3 lascannon (i was facing a marine player who likes his tanks and Terminators, although didn't go with the numbers i was expecting), and 4 Scout Sentinels with multilasers.
That's 117 infantry, 15 cavalry and 4 walkers, for a mere 1,500. At 3,000, that could be doubled.

The same infantry squad above now clocks in at a mere 63 points, 68 if you feel like adding a Vox. That's half the points of 23 years ago. It's almost as if it were a linear progression.

Of course, the cynics, myself included, would point that games companies make most of their income through the sale of miniatures, so the more models required, the more profit they can make. This is, obviously, a factor, and I won't try to dissuade anyone from it. What i would say is that we, as gamers, in what is commonly termed "the meta," tend to push the size of games.

If 2,000 points is normal, most players will have 2,500-3,000 points to choose from, just so they can swap units or weapons around. Inevitably, as units fall from use, we all end up replacing those units that we don't rotate into our usual forces with newer, shinier ones. In time, the total we can field creeps up, that 2,500-3,000 becoming 3,500-4,000. Eventually, we decide to try a bigger game, and so the usual size creeps up to 2,500, or 3,000. I've seen this first hand, with a campaign starting with lone characters, with maybe a single squad, rapidly escalating to the point where the latter games had platoons of troops.

With this growth in the size of the forces we have and want to field, games can become far too convoluted. When you're shuffling around 150 models for a force that, 30 years earlier, would have numbered a mere 50 models, keeping track of which model in which squad has a certain grenade, or which units are within range of specific auras because of specific circumstances becomes impractical. It's a testament to the dedication of the designers that the popular games can scale up the size of the operations they depict over time. Of course, sometimes games go the other way, shifting from platoon to squad, but that's comparatively rare.

As I've said, i like hordes. A 3,000 point force of 234 infantry, 30 cavalry and a handful of vehicles, is right up my alley. Of course, 25 years ago, I was struggling to get enough models for a 2,000 point force for a tournament, it was a different story.