"6mm Rule Set?" Topic

I'm looking at going into 6mm, can anyone recommend a good rule set?

Ideally something which doesn't have small numbers of massive blocks, I tried a rule set at some point where there were 4 units on the table, my infantry, his infantry, my cavalry, and his cavalry. Didn't grab me at all…

Do you want granularity? Four total units does seem a bit static! Units can be a single element, or composed of many individual bases. Using 6mm figures you could put several to a base; whereas using 25s would be a single figure per base. But the game would play the same either scale of miniatures used. I've never understood why a given set of rules must be played with only one specific scale of miniatures.

If you don't like the route of basing per DBM/FoG types of systems (which I can understand as you will need to use a lot more figures), you can always decrease the stand sizes by 50%.

Don't know what complexity level you want. But here goes:

Simple Games
1. DBA
2. Impetus Basic
3. Hordes of the Things (really a DBA variant but works too)

Medium Complexity (that I have tried)
Might of Arms
DBM
Impetus (have not tried this but I am tossing this in :-)

Higher Complexity (that I have tried and liked)
Field of Glory

Have not tried Terry Gore's rules. Tactica is okay but I think Might of Arms is better. Armati is okay but I prefer Might of Arms for this level of complexity.

You could play WRG 6th but frankly I like Might of Arms better (see a trend?)

I play FoG myself but plan on trying out Impetus in the very near future. It will have to be 'better' for me to jump as I can get a FoG opponent with no problems.

Might of Arms is a great game. My only beef is the dismounting rule. Armor rules a bit too much in combat. Allowing heavy armored horse to dismount too many units can cause game imbalance. House rule of no more than 1 or 2 units of dismounts would probably fix this. Other than this, I think the game plays well enough.

For simpler games, I probably prefer Basic Impetus, it is free and the mechanics are straight forward. I just seem to prefer them over DBA these days. HoTT are good rules too and they share much of DBA. I don't care for what seems like the 100s or rules revisions to DBA. The original game was fine.

The other alternative would be Warmaster or Hail Caesar. Warmaster Ancients is a better combat system than Warmaster original. And I have been told that HC is better still.

If I had opponents, I think I would probably prefer Might of Arms first. I would probably like Warmaster more with more games. I don't care for the shooting adjudication in Warmaster or Warmaster Ancients but have been assured that it works fine.

My current favorites are Might of Arms and Hail Caesar. That said, in 6mm even DBA armies look good, and the game can be fun. The version 2.2 rules are still available for free, I think. I can't seem to get into Impetus or Mighty Armies, but many seem to think highly of them.

Doug

Hail Caesar is great but as Basic Impetus is free you should check them out first. dadiepiombo.com/basic2.html
Just remember Hail Caesar has very gamer friendly basing conventions so you're not painting yourself into a corner if you base for another system.

Irregular Miniatures do some 6mm rules:

link

Scroll down a bit.

I have not played it but polemos spqr by Baccus 6mm may be a god choice.

I think you can play pretty much any set of Ancients rules using 6mm figures, you just put more figures on the bases.

I guess it is more a question of what sort of game you are looking for?

thanks for that guys, I'll have a go with Impetus first.

I have designed sets of ancients rules specifically for 6mm, adapting Comitatus mechanisms for the smaller scale and big battles. The Legio VI series can be downloaded for free from my link
Simon

Another good one that occurred to me from the quick play end of the spectrum – Ancients D6 link

Doug

I think the general concenus among the Baccus forum users and maybe the Impetus forum is for everything for Impetus should be on 60x30 sized bases as depth in the game especially BI isnt that critical

For what it's worth, one bet might be to look at Mantic's Kings of War ruleset available free on their site.
We play with Romans, Syracusian, Celts and Greeks in 1/72 but I'm starting a 6mm fantasy outing for it as well.
This will likely be followed by Vikings and then on to some ancients (particularly a Syracusian army so I can use lots of siege machines!)
The basic premise is a single stand (in my case 40x20mm) is a troop, a 40x40 block a regiment, an 80x40 block a horde.
As there is no removal of figures (or stands, even) I felt this was a good system to "base once, use many".

I'm still undecided myself after my MDF practice games as to whether converting inches to centimeters or halving the inch measurements suits my play style better. That is to say you can't play "out of the box" because a 6mm soldier firing an arrow 24" is well….it just doesn't work, let's put it that way!

The ancients version is available here, as well.
link

Again, free. Try it out, if you like it the basing I'm employing doubles for Warmaster and its variant, DBx and its variants, and Impetus as well at a pinch (ie if whoever I'm playing against is willing to use my armies in lieu of his/her own). And Piquet as well, wherein a stand is 40x40.

Hope that helps somewhat
Steven