"mixing scales?" Topic

What is the general idea of mixing different scale within a game setting. I was thinking of 25mm and 28mm not 15mm and 54mm. So there would be close in scale anyway,,,

I always find few problems (at least in fantasy) as long as you are representing heroes with the bigger and of course different races with different scales 25mm men to 28mm orcs or proxy 15mm dwarves for gnomes or 54mm for monsters for example.

I always think that the main problem is the equipment. I will happily mix 25mm with 28mm where the equipment was not produced to standard sizes (fantasy and most ancients for example) but where two figures are meant to have the same rifle and the rifles are different sizes it does not work for me. Some times with standard weaponry mixing two manufactures at the same nominal scale does not work,

x42

a mix is easy in SF/vsf type games. The aliens can be different sizes and for that matter so can humans from different planetary environments. I have a mix of 2mm to 15mm figures. Smaller armies are less effective against larger scale ones unless handwavium has endowed them with stronger weaponry.

Cant remember the book but a human infantryman is sitting on a rock grabbing 3inch tall alien infantry whose attack upon him seems more like bee stings than serious threats and throwing them. Ridiculous proposition. Gotta upgun when hunting giants.

A 28 mm ogre makes an awesome giant in 15mm.

I have a mix of older 25mm units acquired in the 70s & 80s and newer, larger 28mm units acquired in the past 10 years. On a table, it doesn't matter. Most players aren't going to worry about the exactness of the scale match, when they need reserves to stop an opponent.

Rick

I too have mixed armies – Scruby 25s in the same army as [modern] 25's and 28's. As long as I don't mix scales in a single unit mixed scales is not a problem.

I had a grand plan to use 15mm natives as pygmies in 28mm Darkest Africa games. There's a cool story called "Luckundoo" that describes an explorer looking for a tribe even smaller than standard pygmies!

I haven't found any 15mm tribals I like yet. Which is just as well, I have way too much on my hands now.

Cant remember the book but a human infantryman is sitting on a rock grabbing 3inch tall alien infantry whose attack upon him seems more like bee stings than serious threats and throwing them. Ridiculous proposition. Gotta upgun when hunting giants.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

I only do this sort of thing for Sci Fi or fantasy games, and then only sparingly. Otherwise, it can look cheesy. For example, I personally think 15mm figures usually do NOT work well as 28mm halflings or dwarves or whatever--the proportions are all wrong.

I do use a lot of small robots, monsters, and other critters from 28mm-scale lines as 15mm figures.

I've picked up few 1/87 or 1/72 scale tanks to use with 15mm (1/100?) sci-fi, where unusually large tanks are a time-honored tradition!

I also have a 28mm figure to use as a god in Hordes of the Things.

For me, that's about it. I wouldn't use 1/72 figures in a 15mm ancients game, or anything like that.

In fanatasy games I use many scales to represent bigger and smaller creatures.

I almost always use subscale aircraft (say 1:144th planes with 1/72nd fgures) and terrain.

I have sometimes used subscale other things which are 'far away', particularly artillery, so 6mm guns with 15mm figs/vehicles.

Once I ran a game where the north 1/3rd as 15mm and the south 2/3rds were 20mm. Obviously the stuff in the north was 'far away'. Bizarrely it worked, but only did it because I was short of 20mm stuff (Cambrai, it needed a LOT of tanks, and I ran out).

25mm and 28mm may be OK. More extreme range comparisons, no. 10mm does not work with 15mm. It is iffy between even 15mm adn 18mm and not definately 20mm.

I'm ordering some 25mm and 28mm figures..I got a ton of 15mm. I been mixing 15mm and 18mm--not on the same base but on the field of my martian battles..

I mix 25mm and 28mm on the same battlefields regularly, for everything from medieval and colonial to sci fi to fantasy. Everything get mounted on round "slotta" type bases, but the 25s usually get spacers as well to help even out the height distance between them and the 28s. As long as they are not mixed in the same unit, it is not that jarring a difference.

I didn't think that there would be a problem as long as they are not on the same base.

I made the jump from 15mm to 25mm-28mm. Don't know why, but I still love the 15mm. I need some nazi zombies next..

In my Wild West skirmish and modern zombie games, I do it all the time and no one ever objects. After all, people are of different sizes and weights, so a little variety doesn't hurt at all. Now, 32mm is too darned big for people… but they do seem okay when using giant skeletal warriors. Monsters probably should be a bit bigger.

We've done historical medieval mixing 10mm with 15mm and it doesn't look too awfully bad… but if you are using rules that require specific basing it can be a problem.

We've also used 15mm infantry with 10mm (1/144) tanks and again it doesn't look too awfully bad. We've also mixed 1/72 with 1/76 and HO (1/87) but you need to have all the same scale in a given unit or else it really looks odd.

I've also noticed that different manufacturers in the same scale often have slightly different sized tanks, just off enough so that if you put them side by side on the table it is noticeable.

And there are folks who use 1/72 plastic figures for 25mm ancients competitions (and even mixing down the other way to 15mm) and it works, again as long as the basing is correct. I've even seen 15mm figures used for 25mm scale competitions – you put twice as many 15mm figures on a 25mm sized base – makes it look more like a battle and less like a skirmish.

It is quite common to mix 10mm and 12mm, 1/72 (which is close to 22mm) and 20mm, 1/72 and 1/76 and even with 1/87, 1/144 and 1/160 (N scale), Z scale (1:220) with 1/285 with 1/300, and 25mm with 28mm.

For an interesting scale of actual human size, look at picture at this website: brooklynwargaming.com/tag/15mm