6mm Warhammer Fantasy Battles (And Others!)

[Mr. Average]

These days I usually model my 6mm armies for fantasy games on 1” square bases. But summer makes me nostalgic, and about two years ago I thought of doing 6mm scale Warhammer Fantasy Battles (3rd Edition of course, my favorite) using Microworld Games 6mm scale figures.

I tried individual bases but that wasn’t quite right – it worked but didn’t take advantage of the great massed battle effects you get from the scale. And of course I do like other games like Fantastic Battles, Dragon Rampant, One Page Rules, etc, so I was drawn to something more universal.

This is my current experiment: 3/4” square bases, with small contingents of 6mm figures on them.

This allows a real mass battle effect, while allowing for units to be removed due to combat, or built up to use other game systems. Two bases together make a Warmaster base. Many of them make a Warhammer unit. Four in a square make a Fantastic Battles unit of considerable size, allowing “special” units like banners and other such “markers” to be added as one of the bases. I think this has some promise!

For the Lore-Conscious, those are the Legio Mortis in the front; and in the back are Stirland Halberdiers.

[Mike]

Stirland for the win!!

Love Stirland.

 

You are treating a base of 6 as a single 25mm WFB model?

[Angel Barracks]

/goes to look at 6mm options

[Mr. Average]

Yes! Which actually comes reasonably close to the nominal “1:10” standard established by Chainmail and tacitly carried through most games that followed.

[ian pillay]

I am doing a similar project, but with individual based 6mm miniatures on some home made 3D printed movement trays. Currently painting wood elves, I have Orcs and some Dwarves next in line. I must say it’s great fun being able to paint a full 25 model WHFB unit in an hour 😊

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Mr. Average]

I commend you for that! It wasn’t quite right for what I wanted to do but I have done those in the past and they can work quite well.

[Mr. Average]

By the way, for me the issue with individual bases was that 10mm squares got way too big for me. I should have gone closer to 8 or 7mm to get the right density for a Warhammerlike game. This scheme gets it just about right although some of the older Microworld skeletons are a little less “full bodied” than the newer ones and this makes them a little more obviously ranked up, even in this setup. Still, I think it works.

[Mr. Average]

Mike wrote:

Stirland for the win!! Love Stirland. You are treating a base of 6 as a single 25mm WFB model?

I got horselaugh from a friend who considered gold and green a “terrible” combination. I think he’s nuts. And the Stirlanders took it right on the nose from both the Undead and the Skaven, my two other intended armies in this scheme, so he can lump it. Although I do want to do Arquebusiers from Altdorf. And there will be steam tanks. Oh yes, there will be steam tanks.

[Mike]

My Stirland force has a steam tank on loan from Nuln and they have some fancy pants troops from  Talabheim including Hakbutschutzen.

Going to do me some Stir River patrol.

My original plan was a mix of various states, but I will be painting only Stirland from now on…

Warm Ale United!!

[Mr. Average]

I don’t get it what my friend has against Stirland. Green and Gold are very striking colors! I’m aiming for a very bright Third Edition style in my paint work, and it looks good in masse, even if it’s a little difficult to handle with the multiple colors.

Did a bunch more Skeletons for the Nightmare Legion and Legio Mortis last night – Death Knights with red or purple cloaks also look pretty striking. Just have to get them based up. I’m considering if I want to do my cavalry on squares or rectangles; I’ll probably do squares for the sake of versatility.

[Mike]

I will confess my Stirland are green and yellow (ish) rather than gold.
That seems a tad fancy.   😛

His loss!!

[Mr. Average]

I’ve been musing about the same Undead units that you have, Mike – Bone Throwers, Skull Chuckers, and Plague Carts. For me I think the Microworld Chariot looks like an ideal Plague Cart at 6mm scale. I went and got someone to print me a few downscaled 10mm undead Chariots, Bone Throwers, Carrions and Skull Chuckers from one of the several 3D printed ranges out there. Alas the attendants to these units seem to be very Egyptian styled which doesn’t quite match my scheme, which is more of a Vampires and Necromancers army than it is an Egyptian Mummiesone.  I plan to use Microworld skeletons anyway – we’ll see how they go – I have a feeling Microworld is tending towards 3d printed mastering in the long run but I do like the style of the hand-sculpted skeletons as they are, too, and I don’t know how well they’ll play with printed ones. I should be able to do a pretty convincing army regardless.

Mike, any suggestions on 3rd edition stats for a Steam Tank? Because the Stirlanders will have one.

[Mike]

Yeah, I think I will have to make my own plague cart.

Steam Tank…

I am using the old original canon rules and looking at the warmaster model of the steam tank, there is no way it should be as strong as the first set of rules suggest.
It is s10 which is mad powerful.
So I have changed the cannon and use the WFB 3rd edition artillery rules.

I kept the boiler rules the same, with steam points and so on.

Hopefully this makes sense?

 

 

Steam Tank.

You can create 0 to 5 steam points per turn.
1 steam point gets you:

3cm move
90 degree turn
Fire the cannon (once per turn)

After choosing the total steam points for that turn, but before spending them, roll a d6.
On a 6 something has gone wrong, roll on the boiler table and add the amount of steam you generated.

HTH.
The steam tank auto hits those in Base to Base contact.
To survive you must leap out of the way, roll under or equal to your Initiative or take a S7 hit.

The Steam tank can move through units and does not need to stop when in HTH.
However, if you are in base to base during the Combat phase you may hit it.

For each wound taken, the steam tank adds 1 to the d6 roll at the start of each turn.
Thus taking 5 wounds means adding 5 so it will always go wrong and need to roll on the boiler table.

 

The Cannon.
36cm range.
S5, D3 wounds, -3 save mod. Hits 2 models per rank, BS3.
Each turn it generates heat points like a normal cannon, if it ‘explodes’ instead roll on the boiler chart adding any steam for that turn.

The Commander.
He has a repeater pistol.
10cm range, BS3.
If he hits he can shoot again at the same target or anything within 2cm.
He may do this up to 6 times or until he misses.
S4 hits, -2 saves.

Psychology.
If they fail any test, they just batten down and stay still.
No routing, they are stationary for that turn.

 

[Mr. Average]

Love the steam tank. I’m using that with great enthusiasm!

In the meantime, here’s a front line of Skeleton Warriors.

Seems to work as desired! The ranks are ever so slightly farther apart than I’d have imagined but it’s not like I’m totally obsessive or anything! Of course not! How silly of me to even mention it!

[Mike]

Is it too late to start with individual bases…   😉

[Mike]

Looks good though, how big will the units be?

5 x 4?

[Mr. Average]

Mike wrote:

Looks good though, how big will the units be? 5 x 4?

As big as they need to be!

Which is to say I’m probably aiming for 5×4 for starters on the main line units, and then just seeing what units I have left in my parts box.

[ian pillay]

I have gone for 5×5 rank and files per unit where possible. Some are slightly smaller in unit size , with the smallest infantry unit being 16models.

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Mr. Average]

Yes I recall skeletons really needing to be in blocks of about four ranks to be most effective, unless they were doing something complex like enveloping a smaller group of enemies.

I bulked up the ranks of my skeleton warriors and have enough for about 35 stands worth. That ought to form a decent core to my force. I also have the start of a group of them with armor, who will be undead elites, and then the Death Knights who will be shock elites.

[Mr. Average]

Well, I had to work through the weekend else I’d have painted up this horde, but I did discover something most wonderful:

The ramparts of the 6mm scale modular city moulds from Hirst Arts are 3/4” across. That makes them compatible with my little basing so my men can man the walls of the cities of the Empire. They should also be able to do so with my 10mm x 20mm Warmaster-in-3mm Scale set, too, so all I have to do is save up a little for that and we’ll be laying siege to Stirland by the end of the summer.

[Mike]

Keen to see the moulds and what you can make from them.

 

Mr. Average wrote:

we’ll be laying siege to Stirland by the end of the summer.

Oi, don’t you be trying any of that. Stirland for life, we will set the River Patrol on you and let loose the Pigs of War.

[6mmwargaming]

The bases look great and the mass effect will be awesome. I’ve started changing to 20mm square bases for 6mm rank and file armies, and it looks good and gives you a lot of flexibility for different rules as you mentioned. Also the Baccus strips are 20mm wide so there’s no mucking about cutting them up.

My 6mm Wargaming site https://6mm.wargaming.info

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