What's your scale at home?

[Norm S]

This is just something that interests me. The last show that I went to (UK) had about 95% of figure traders geared up to 28mm. I saw 1one 15mm trader and one 10mm trader and nobody covering 6mm (though Baccus normally do attend the big shows. In addition my monthly mags are showing mainly 28’s. My large wargame store on the high street only does 28’s and the internet oozes 28mm blogs.

Anyway, I have a fairly small playing area at home and in the UK, I imagine that this is typical as houses are increasingly being built to rather ‘compact’! designs. I would love to do 28’s, but practicalities of play space and storage dictate otherwise.

The point I am getting to is why does everything seem geared up for 28mm at such a commercial scale, when one might have thought that ‘real world’ gaming scale for home is smaller than 28mm.

Would readers mind stating their main gaming scale and the table size they generally use, just as an interesting exercise in the relationships between the two, considering the massive presence that 28mm seems to have.

I will start by saying I do 10 / 12mm on a 4′ x 3′ space. (but am thinking of using bigger scales with less units).

[Angel Barracks]

6mm on a 2′ x 2′ table or on a 2′ x 3′ table if it is a big game. 😀

[PaintingLittleSoldiers]

I have 28mm armies but have found the scales I now use are 15 and 10mm as I don’t get a chance to play at any venies. I do have 6mm forces for even smaller games at home.

I only have a small portable table but space to actually put it in is an issue so I often play smaller games on the bed in the spare room. In summer I might try and sort out a table for the garage for at least a bigger game.

[Steve Johnson]

10mm on a 4’x4′ table, with the odd foray these days onto a 4’x6′ one.

[Thuseld]

6mm on a 2×2 table, but I do sometimes up that to 4×3 for Horizon Wars.

Experiments here: http://inexperiencedmodelmaker.blogspot.co.uk/

Tranquil Stars updates: https://tranquilstars.wordpress.com

[Shaun Travers]

Most commonly

2’x2′: 6mm, 15mm and 20mm

4.5’x5′: 20mm

Occasionally 15mm on a 2’x3′ and 20mm on a 5’x9′

I so have some 28mm that was given to me years ago but most of them are unpainted. I think I would only use them on the larger tables (3’x3′ for small skirmish and the 4.5’x5′ and 5’x9′ for larger games.

I also have some 54mm painted ww2 figures that were given to me about 5 years ago and I keep meaning to play with them but have not go around to it.  I have only ever considered playing them out in the garden as even the 5’x9′ may seem to small!

[NTM]

All 15mm except the odd 28mm fantasy or sci-fi skirmish on 5×3 table

[Mr. Average]

I do 3mm scale on 24×36″ tables, and both 3mm and 6mm at the club, 36×36″ up to 48×72″ or more on our big sand tables.

I’m just barely dipping a toe into the world of 15mm with my Ma.K.R.-16 project upcoming. That’s as big as I’m likely to go – the sole exception is a small group of 28mm Quar which I only get to once in a blue moon.

[MartinR]

I have a few 28s, but most of my stuff is far smaller,  15s and 6mm with a smattering of 2mm and a moderate amount of 20mm.

All my Ancients are 20mm, seventeenth and eighteenth century are 2mm, and after that it gets rather more complex.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Rhoderic]

I won’t call 28mm (or 28-32mm) my “main” gaming scale because I don’t consider my other scales to be “secondary”. But it is my most prolific scale, the one in which I have the most stuff going on.

I may not fit the OP’s template very well, because in my home 28mm is exclusively a scale for terrain-intensive adventure, skirmish and “skirmish plus” gaming these days, so the statement that one needs a larger area to game in 28mm is gobbledygook to me. I used to play the Rattrap Productions games on 2′ x 2′ areas, as was generally recommended in those rulesets. I’ve seen some of the newer 28-32mm boutique games espouse the same size, the general rationale being that it allows for some very interesting themed adventure locations that remain fairly manageable to build, store and transport. The typical figure count on such an area in 28mm is something like 6-15 figures, counting all sides and potential NPCs and monster encounters. I’ve even seen some “tavern brawl” type scenarios that only require 1′ x 1′. I’m receptive and positive to that notion.

That said, the small-as-can-be areas I’ve been describing so far are just one end of the spectrum for me. Many new 28mm skirmish games advocate 3′ x 3′ (and occasionally 2′ x 3′ or 3′ x 4′ for some scenarios) and if I was writing my own 28mm ruleset I’d do the same, with the additional guideline that the most terrain-intensive environments (urban areas, interior locations, tunnel/dungeon/bunker complexes, very dense jungles, etc) may be smaller in area.

This is all very much a “new school” philosophy, but I don’t see the problem with that at all. I simply can’t be an old school “grand manner” gamer due to sheer lack of space, so the new school of 28mm skirmish-oriented game design is a godsend to me. More than a godsend, it’s a prerequisite for me to be in this hobby in the first place.

I have also returned (with slight hesitation) to collecting figures for one or a couple of 28mm “skirmish plus” games – notably Beyond the Gates of Antares – that still state 4′ x 4′ or 4′ x 6′ as the standard area. So that’s the far end of the spectrum for me. I’m not a stranger to that standard as I have been a WHFB, 40K and WAB player in the past. Currently I no longer have any board, mat or set of tiles for so large an area, but I aim to have one again. I also don’t have finished playable armies for these games yet, so it’s not a bridge I’ll have to cross just yet.

Aside from 28mm, I have several projects each in 6mm and 15-18mm, and one in 12mm (Heavy Gear). I’m considering taking up 10mm (Dropzone Commander) and 3mm. My general philosophy is that smaller scales entail larger scopes of warfare but unchanged playing areas, so that 3′ x 3′ “ish” is a good middle ground (from which I can occasionally strike out in either direction) regardless of scale.

[McKinstry]

I am a shameless small scale advocate and while I do not begrudge the tragic environmental damage caused by the excessive use of limited resources implicit in 28mm and up, I do think that eventually we will do our bit for the planet and melt those 28mm+ down into more prudent scales – for the children.

That said. I do 15mm Wild West Skirmish on a 4×6 but otherwise Crusades in 10mm and everything else in 6mm except naval (which I do a lot) and even in naval, I do 1/2400 through 1/6000 with 1/1200 being a bit too big for me. My minimum table size is 4×6 but 5×9 is my absolute ideal as I like lots of maneuver room.

I am seriously thinking about a 3mm venture into WW2 land.

 

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[Whirlwind]

2’x2′ – 5’x3′ table, the vast majority of my games are in 6mm, a small minority in 28mm.

All the best

 

 

 

[Mike Headden]

1220mm x 2000mm dining table used for 2/3mm, 6mm, 10mm, 15mm land games, a 20mm Sci-Fi RPG and 1/2400 (Armada period) or 1/3000 (WW1/ WW2) naval ones.

To be honest, figure gaming is often solo and fitted in between the two or three board gaming sessions I have with friends every week.

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[kyoteblue]

15mm all the way. that way all my terrain works together.

[Ivan Sorensen]

I own a bit of everything but I have been trying to focus on just 15mm, with some 3mm and 28mm for selected purposes.

[Rod Robertson]

Norm:

6/12/15/28 mm on either an 8’X5′ table (home) or up to a 12’X7.5′ table (club).

Ancients (15mm), WWI and WWII Aerial Combat (6 and 12 mm), WWII Land Operational and Skirmish (6 and 15mm), Modern/Cold War (6 and 15mm) and Ultramodern Skirmish (15 mm). 28 mm for fantasy RPG’s and potential skirmishing is a work in progress.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Piyan Glupak]

I am a solo gamer now, and all the wargames that I expect to have will be at home.  The largest table that is available is 6′ by 30″ (about 1.8 metres by 75 cm).  It is usually inconvenient to use all of it (because of toy train bits and pieces), or have a board that overlaps it.  A 2′ or 30″ deep playing area is a lot more convenient for me than a 3′ or 4′ deep board.  The boards that I use most often are the 2′ square and the 30″ square boards.  The largest that I have are 5′ by 3′, and 4′ square.

Most of my wargaming is now with 15mm or 6mm figures.  I do have 25mm and 28mm armies, but I don’t use them very often now, because I find the 15mm armies that use a smaller playing area much more convenient.  For 6mm ancients and Hordes of the Things fantasy I tend to use triple sized armies, which need either the 4′ by 2′ board, or if I am feeling like giving them a lot of room, the 5′ by 3′ board.  My English Civil War armies are in 6mm.  The Napoleonic armies are a bit of an oddity in that I use 6mm figures on 60mm by 30mm bases (artillery on deeper bases) and use boards that I would otherwise use for 25 or 28mm armies.  (I would play Napoleonic games more often if I didn’t use the larger bases, as I really like the DBN rules.)

Whilst I don’t see myself getting rid of my 25mm and 28mm armies in the foreseeable future, I have no ambition to buy any more figures in those sizes.  I do still occasionally buy 15mm and 6mm figures.

[irishserb]

Scale is a function of the scope and available figs, thus I game in 6mm, 15mm, 20mm, and 28mm for land battles.  Air battles are in 6mm, and 15mm.  Naval battles are in 1/2400.  All of my games use 1:1 individual representation and singly mounted figures, with the exception of 6mm WWII and post war infantry with squads/sections represented on small stands.  I have similar quantities of 6mm and 15mm figs which are the most numerous (1000s of each), and much smaller quantities of larger scale figs.

I would guess that I have played slightly more 15mm games than 6mm over the years, and in the last few years, 15mm probably makes up 80% of the games, mostly due to running a campaign in 15mm and not playing very often.  In recent years about 70-80% of my gaming is solo.

My current table is 6’x9′, which has a removable section to make a 6’x4′ table for when my daughter was smaller and still interested in games.  When we bought the house, the plan was to finish the attic space which would have allowed me to have modular 6’x20′ table, but job and finances changed shortly after we bought the house, and that has never materialized.

Over the years, most of my gaming has taken place on a 6’x12′ or larger table.  My previous table (before the house) was 6’x12′ and games at my friend’s house are on a 6.5’x14′ or larger table.  I guess that availability of large tables over the years has made me a bit of a space hog, and must admit that my 6’x9′ table feels very limiting at times.

[Chris Pringle]

Main scale: 6mm (some 10mm)

Table size: 6’x4′

I think this size table is ‘industry standard’, in UK at least, and is feasible for most gamers either at home or at a club. We had that very much in mind in developing “Bloody Big BATTLES!”, which is deliberately geared to enable gamers with limited time, space, and figure resources to fight entire battles in a club night in a manageable way. To quote from the BBB rulebook:

“The important battles of the late nineteenth century involved armies of up to 100,000 men or more, on battlefields 10 miles wide or more. We were tired of trying to recreate them with rules that needed 20 players to wargame on a basketball court for a week. With BBB, you can fight a major battle to a conclusion in an evening, get a clear result, and gain a real understanding of the historical event.”

BBB’s not quite down to 2’x2′ games that you can finish in an hour, but it’s in a sensible place on that spectrum.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!

https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info

http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

[Patrice]

28mm, 1:1 adventures and skirmish, typically on 1.80 m x 3 m tables; 1.80 m x 3.60 m when possible; sometimes 1.80 m x 1.80 m when a scenario doesn’t need more for exploration and pursuit etc.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Rhoderic]

In regard to table size, it’s interesting that there seem to be two spectrums that don’t overlap much. There are those of us to whom 4′ x 6′ is a stretch, and then there are those to whom that same size is rather piddling. There are a few to whom that size is “middle ground”, but not many.

I wonder if this is a growing “privilege gap” in the hobby, and in the future we’ll see an even more distinct division between “small table gamers” and “large table gamers” with a diminishing number of people in the intermediate space.

[Noel]

I mostly play miniatures games with friends who provide everything.  They are mainly collectors of 28mm, but occasionally bring out 15s.

Their homes are much bigger than mine, they have space for 8′ or even 12′ long tables.  These games are often amazing spectacles.

I have a 3’x5′ dining table that we play on, for the rare occasion that something other than board games get played at my place.

I used to be a strictly 28mm collector, but I love 6mm and 10mm models and their presence on the table.  I still mostly paint 28mm, but 6mm is always on my mind.

[A Lot of Gaul]

My dedicated home wargaming table is 6′ x 4′, and my tabletop armies are comprised of 15/18mm figures.

"Ventosa viri restabit." ~ Harry Field

[Patrice]

The size of tables also depends on the local wargaming context…

In France we don’t have very big wargames conventions as in the UK or USA; however we can negociate to run large game tables in RPG conventions, and in miniature models conventions; in both cases we can run larger tables than at home, and the local journalists are very attracted by us, because we are the only tables in these conventions where something entertaining and spectacular and moving happens!

http://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/pontivy-56300/le-cest-de-vivre-une-aventure-4038776

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[PatG]

My table is 4’x7′ but can be broken down into 2 2×4 sections and 1 3×4.

28mm WWII Chain of Command Home Guard vs Fallschirmjager – I love the Foundry HG figures and the figure size works well for platoon+ and skirmish
25mm VSF/Colonials – my biggest collection mostly RAFM Space 1889
20mm WWII Chain of Command North West Europe – Cheap plastics Airfix et al
15mm Science Fiction (Gruntz) – Some figures are 35+ years old
15mm Ancients DBMM, DBA 40mm frontage
1/100ish Car Wars 3x using Hotwheels/Matchbox/Dollar store vehicles
6mm Ancients DBMM, DBA currently in progress but I am leaning toward 25mm figure scale bases with 60mm frontage

Future Plans: I am looking at selling off 15mm ancients and rebuying in 6mm. Future WWII is likely to be 20mm or 6mm for the Desert (using I Ain’t Been Shot Mum). I have a very old copy of the Striker miniature rules that I would like to do in 6mm – ground scale is 1:1000

[Blackhat]

I play 15mm, 20mm (WW2), 28mm and 54mm on a 9′ x 5′ table (Table Tennis table) at home.

A lot of the magazines are geared towards 28mm because it tends to photograph better, the people supplying articles to promote their latest rulebooks are all 28mm manufacturers and it’s a conspiracy against us 15mm manufacturers (ok, maybe not the last one!).

Out of this month’s magazines I was very pleased to read WSS which actually seemed to cover something about MY hobby rather than the latest set of commercial rules in an advertorial….

Mike

 

[Guy Farrish]

I started off with 25mm because that was all there was (except for 54mm and very expensive 32mm stuff – and a few tanks in 5mm (not a typo))

That meant the minimum realistic area to use was 6’x4′ and this was the max space available my parents would allocate.

That seems to have stuck – probably habit more than anything else, plus the size of rooms in British houses. I have had bigger tables when I was single and in the garage I still have the folding table tennis table I used for a while and had such plans for. This has to some extent moulded my scale/figure size/level of actions choices.

So 6’x4′ table standard normally – odd larger foray for 28mm Great Italian wars.

On the standard boards go:

28mm Lion Rampant

28mm Dark Ages Dux Bellorum

15mm Medieval – using Impetus or home grown

15mm 18th Century Imaginations currently experimenting with Honours of War

15mm Late WWII -WRG Armour Infantry (1973)

1/200 Early War WWII -Blitzkrieg Commander and Megablitz

1/200 Vietnam Cold War Commander

10mm ACW Longstreet

10mm 30 Years War – Home Brew

6mm Napoleonics Volley and Bayonet (I want BATTLES not piddling divisional scraps!)

6mm Modern Cold War Commander

Some of these in the smaller scales I fit small actions on a

4’x 3′ board – along with

6mm Ancients Sword & Spear

On a 2’x2′ board

6mm modern platoon action -No End in Sight

15mm Renaissance skirmish – Irregular Wars (sometimes 4’x3′)

6mm and 15mm Modern skirmish -Black Ops

 

Looking at 28mm Frostgrave

(There are 2mm Horse and Musket armies, 15mm Renaissance Poles and Turks, and some 6mm SF (Angel Barracks) waiting for effort/decisions about rules, basing, size of actions, talent for scratchbuilding buildings/terrain etc somewhere)

Good job I rationalised my wargaming a few years ago isn’t it?

 

(this does not take into account my counter/marker/chinagraph pencil games of kriegsspiel and the like of course for which my figure size is measured in microns rather than millimetres)

 

 

 

[Author]

Posts