Your experience on 6mm vs 10mm

[Deleted User]

In your experience how differently does 6mm skirmish games play vs 10mm skirmish using the same size area?

I don’t expect much for fantasy and other predominantly melee games but curious about modern/scifi where ranged combat is the norm.
Does 6mm offer significantly more of a game with range and maneuver?
Do 10mm terrain eat up too much space and make the area cramp?

I want something like necromunda/zona alfa on a 12″x12″ area
The added details of 10mm makes it really attractive, but I don’t want to commit only to find out it becomes a game of hide and seek around the single building because terrain gets so big range becomes a stone throw away.

I’m thinking for old west kind of games, 10mm would do fine with the shorter weapon range and how towns are laid out.

Thanks in advance

[Mike]

My gut says go for 6mm on that sized area.

You can probably use the same distances and ranges for both without it seeming off. But the 6mm terrain will take up noticeably less space I feel.

I would say 6mm gives more options in terms of models but I am not sure that is a concern for you?

I would have thought at either scale that the majority of weapons would be in range on such a small table?

[Jim Webster]

The people I know with 10mm actually regard it as a bijou 15mm rather than a bigger 6mm, but they are predominantly ancients players so they like the look of more figures on the same base

https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

[MartinR]

As Mike says, the main thing is is to keep the terrain items with the smallest footprint possible. I usually use subscale terrain anyway, as I generally prefer it to be in line with the ground scale. 10mm figures and 6mm terrain? Although Tbh most “10mm” stuff thes days is as big as 15s used to be.

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

[Jim Webster]

MartinR wrote:

As Mike says, the main thing is is to keep the terrain items with the smallest footprint possible. I usually use subscale terrain anyway, as I generally prefer it to be in line with the ground scale. 10mm figures and 6mm terrain? Although Tbh most “10mm” stuff thes days is as big as 15s used to be.

 

Yes I still have some of the original Peter Laing and Mikes Models. Even modern Peter Pig figures are dwarfed by some modern 15mm
I see that Lancashire Games is now producing 18mm and I keep meaning to look to see how well they match 20mm plastics 🙂

https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

[Guy Farrish]

I’ve never done a skirmish game with 10mm, no idea why and tempted now I think about it. I’ve done 6mm but never on a 12″ square board.

If you want to go down the route of ground scale = figure scale, always a fun corrective to get an impression of real engagement distances, your Western handgun is going to shoot right across the board at both scales.

But effective accurate range is going to be about 7.5cm in 6mm and 12.5cm in 10mm. I know plenty of pistol shooting enthusiasts claim to be able to hit a gopher at 200yds, but with adrenalin, movement and people shooting back at you, I reckon you’re going to be lucky hitting what you aim at over 25 yards. I could regularly hit a man sized target at 25 metres/yards but at 50 metres I reckon you ‘d stand a fair chance of survival as long as I was aiming at you! Of course the bullet is still travelling for a long way after that, but not necessarily where you intended it going.  Worth seeing if the Judge, Miss Elly or Cousin Hank are behind the target somewhere?

 

[Don Glewwe]

Do 10mm terrain eat up too much space…

…prefer it to be in line with the ground scale.

 

This is the key point, imo, for skirmish games – and I would lump miniatures into the mix as well, because a figure’s base that takes up an inordinate amount of real estate on the table hurts the game as much (if not more than) an overly large house, wall, whatever.

To borrow from Real Estate: It’s ground scale, ground scale, ground scale.  The further away from it with the minis/terrain, the more harm done to gameplay by prohibiting troops from occupying much of the tablespace simply because something else (be it another fig or a piece of terrain) is getting in the way, or by creating unrepresentative distances (either for movement or weapon range) because the table is set up to ‘look right’ with the too-large figures.

[Deleted User]

I’m highly influenced by OldBen1’s post

10mm Fantasy Village

I don’t know how much scatter terrain I can fit in there for range combat to be interesting.

@Mike @MartinR
Yeah, terrain has always been my big issue. I’ve found out that even if the footprint is disproportionately small. Terrain need to be a certain height to look right and with smaller scales moving minis between buildings is a pain.

I’m definitely going to make my own minis, having found out Dropzone commaners makes 10mm plastic sprues I can use for conversion. Going 10mm would let me do thinner limbs and tell weapons apart by sight.

@Guy Farrish
I was thinking effective weapon range as well. Mainly, I’m thinking of using scatter terrain to block shots and wondered if 10mm would mean there aren’t enough scatter terrain to make for a good fight/maneuver on the small board I have.

@Don Glewwe
My mini bases are pretty tight around the minis. Thinking of using 6mm hole punch for 10mm minis.

[Mike]

Deleted User wrote:

I’m highly influenced by OldBen1’s post

Yeah that is cool.

[Paint it Pink]

IMNSHO it comes down to how comfortable one is with disparity between figure scale and ground-scale, which I would label as granularity.

The greater the disparity between each in the game (granularity) will feel more abstract. Arguably, this can be measured on a scale between formalism (style) and realism (verisimilitude).

One is good, more is better
http://panther6actual.blogspot.co.uk/
http://ashleyrpollard.blogspot.co.uk/

[Sigur Squrrl]

I skirmished in 6mm (Tomorrow’s War), but used unit bases to depict fire teams, on 12″ tables. (well, boards on tables, obviously)

If you wanna play something really tiny like Necromunda/Zone Alpha I suggest going with 10mm, not the least because it makes line of sight a bit more manageable. Which as far as I remember is quite a factor in Necromunda. More so than the ground scale, which is basically given by the rules anyway, and we don’t see that many regular buildings in Necromunda anyway, as people in 40k don’t live in houses, but in shipping containers, leaned on a ruined wall with 2 levels above and metal walkways. 🙂

[Whirlwind]

MartinR wrote:

As Mike says, the main thing is is to keep the terrain items with the smallest footprint possible. I usually use subscale terrain anyway, as I generally prefer it to be in line with the ground scale. 10mm figures and 6mm terrain? Although Tbh most “10mm” stuff thes days is as big as 15s used to be.

Funny you should say this: I was just browsing the Pendraken stand at Partizan and they reminded me a little of my first 15mm Napoleonic figures (by Warrior, c.1985-6) before I noticed they were 10mm.

I wouldn’t be bothered about ground scale or anything like that, but individually-based 6mm are probably not going to have much smaller bases than 10mm for true comfort, unless you are going to not use bases at all. I did this for 6mm Warhammer 40k earlier this year  and it was okay, but in general I would always default higher for individual skirmish figures, if there is any doubt.

[Mike]

hmmmmmm 6mm RT you say?

/goes epic hunting

[ian pillay]

Deadly idea……might be worth pursuing

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

[Author]

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