You must be mad

- A recent article from Rhys Batchelor.

"You must be mad"

"How can you tell them apart?"

"They don't look as good as my large figures"

"Of, course they are fine for tank battles, but to do any real wargaming, you need to use 25mm"

When I started writing this article, it very quickly turned into a diatribe against all large-scale wargaming. I don't know why, perhaps because that for quite a while most wargamers have looked down their noses at the smaller scales. Indeed, at the moment, some people call 15mm a small scale. So, why should you want to play with 6mm figures?

There are actually many good reasons. If you don't believe me, then read on.

Cost

This is a big obstacle for many beginner wargamers. It can cost quite a lot to get started playing Historical games and buying an army. Ordering overseas with a poor exchange rate can get quite expensive very quickly, and airmail on heavy orders can be a killer. So, how does 6mm stack up? Lets take a DBM base of 4 heavy foot soldiers (75p). Now, If we replace that with the suggested number of 6mm figures in 2 lines of 8 (50p), we have saved 25p (close to a dollar), and have an element that actually looks like a unit of heavy infantry. Using 3 lines gives a better visual effect. Replace 4 25mm figures ( 3 quid) with 4 lines of 12 infantry (1.50), and the savings become even more apparent, and the unit really looks like its historical counterpart (with a figure ratio of 1:5 vs 1:64 for the 25mm figures). Just as a rough guide, a 15mm army costs about $300 to buy, and a 25mm army 2-3 times that, before you even pick up a paint brush.

Painting

Ah-Ha you cry, we have you here. Those things must take an age to paint. Not so. How long do we spend on our average 15 or 25mm figure trying to justify all the money we have invested in such finely sculpted figures. How many of us can even do justice to the detail that's included? How long does that unit of 4 figures really take now, switch to a different mid set for a minute. Instead of 4 figures, we are now painting 50. Instead of each figure being a masterpiece, we now have 50 figures that need to represent a unit of men. Missed a hand? Which one? Just as a guide, I can paint about 150 modern infantry in 2 evenings at home in front of the TV. OK so this isn't that hard painting people green, but you get the idea. The time needed to paint an army is much less.

Storage

OK, probably some of us have purposely fitted rooms to store thousands of 15 or 25mm figures. The rest live with storage under a bed if we are lucky. Isn't it handy then that 6mm figures are light, short and quite resistant to rough handling. Compare that to your average 28mm figure (being brutally honest, they are not 25mm anymore) which is heavy, tall, and quite delicate ('Oh look, the paints rubbed off on the side of the spear on that one, I'll have to repaint it'). Carrying them around is far easier. My modern collection of about 3 divisions (about 1000 models and probably 1000 odd figures) can be carried in a large-ish overshoulder bag on public transport without risk of personal injury. I don't think I'm strong enough to carry a 25mm army unless it involves wheels.

Scenery and Ground scale

Well, here there is just no contest. The next time you see 25mm gamers at the club (well, the historical ones), have a look at what they are carrying. An army box or 2. 4-5 boxes of scenery. Terrain is the hidden space eater of wargaming. Creating the perfect terrain piece takes time, and sometimes expands during the construction. I have a 15mm castle that started off as a small keep, and wound up as the maximum sized Built up area allowed by the DBM, and it didn't have any outer town and only just enough room for the moat. And it's almost impossible to carry if you don't have a car so it lives in a box under my bed at home (anyone want to buy a castle?). Contrast this with a 6mm castle I built to scale from a card kit that has a footprint of 8cm square, and fits on a small hill less than 20cm long. Which one is easier to carry? Which one will get used more often? Towns can really look like towns, and not a couple of large buildings on a tatty piece of felt.

I've left ground scale to last. Let's see why. 2 elements of 25mm archers approach to shooting range of 200 paces. This is 16cm on the tabletop. Not great for a maximum range is it. In fact it's a scale 40 feet (less than 20 meters). I'm sure even I could manage at that range to hit something with a bow, even if I threw it! Now, 2 units at the same ground scale, but of 6mm figures are in the same position. Here the scale range is 160 feet or just over 50M. This sounds a bit closer to the truth. A battle will actually look like the ones shown in books, fought over terrain that looks far closer in scale to the real thing.

So, there we have it. I hope I've dispelled more than a few of the myths and ½ truths about 6mm figures, and you don't just have to take my word for it. Look at a few of the web sites around.

http://www.baccus6mm.com/

Home of Baccus miniatures. Didn't think that you could get much detail on 6mm figures? Look again. Has some good reasoned discussion and some very nice models.

http://folk.uio.no/arnsteio/6mm/

The first page should have you convinced! Nothing short of brilliant battle scenes. A must see for anyone who is undecided.

So, the next time you are filling the car with 25mm scenery, or painting buttons on your 25mm grenadiers, pause and give 6mm figures a thought. You may well be surprised.