"A BASE IS A BASE, RAPID FIRE 6mm" Topic

Hello, just got myself a copy of Rapid Fire, not having a huge gaming table to use mine is 4x4 ft, I have decided to use 6mm.
My plan is too base 3-4 figures per base and have 8 bases ie a company according to rules, also to still have single vehicle and gun bases.
Second plan is to change inches to cm, not sure on this bit may need to try it out.
The reason why iam posting is I would like to know if this all sounds good and if it will work or not?
What do you guys think?

Gary

Works fine. We have done thos in our group.

Have you done the 8 base idea, what about measurement what did you do?

I've used that idea for 6mm as well.

I have also played RF with bases but only used 2-4 per company and just tracked hits where necessary.

What size bases are you planning on using? if you halve the ground scale but use eight bases per company, you may find unit footprints end up somewhat larger compared to e.g. artillery blast templates.

Not sure on base sizes yet, some I have pre cut in plastic are for infantry 2x2 cm and for armour etc 3x3 cm?
As for the art template I have a thought of halving the recommended size from book?

Second plan is to change inches to cm, not sure on this bit may need to try it out.

As for the art template I have a thought of halving the recommended size from book?

If you change ins to cms you'll have to change the artillery template accordingly.

Ah yes that's very true! May need a little thought on that!

others have answered already but, we used two bases with 4 troops on each. 8 bases while switching to CM from inches is just too large an area.

Have seen it done several ways. You can go with several figures on a base and 8-10 bases to a unit and this works well with small engagements. It also simplifies book keeping or cluttering the table with hit markers for the infantry (still need for armor and crewed weapons). The other way is 4 or 5 bases using a single marker when a base takes a hit (something like a red pom pom from craft store works well and doesn't look bad) and removing at second hit. For a unit still a low count of markers. For instance your unit of 4 stand takes 3 hits. You remove one stand, mark one with a marker and you are good to go.

And yes, for the smaller scales like 5/6mm have seen them converted to CM and work just fine especially with smaller tables. Just downsize the burst radius from 2" to 2CM and that works just fine.

Thanks very much for all your help:) TMP Does it again!

This is exactly how I planned to do it, and what I said in a letter to Wargames Illustrated in pre-internet times. I have always had a problem with having 8 figures representing a company, and at least using bases of multiple 6mm figures gives a better illusion of a crowd.

My problem with this is that while 8 groups of 6mm men can replace 8 20mm single figures-what does a single 6mm vehicle now represent?

If it is one vehicle, then you could have the odd looking sight of 24 plus men crowding into one half track.
You also have that one vehicle having a much smaller footprint in comparison with the infantry company, than it did as a 20mm model.

OR you could make everything on a 1-1 ratio. 8 6mm figures on, say, 2 bases is a section…though some book keeping or marker would be required, and one vehicle/gun = 1 vehicle/gun.
One section then boards one half track without looking silly.

You know I never thought of that! Maybe if I base two vehicles per 3x3 base it wouldn't look so bad , that way will only need markers for them not the figures?

You can try 3 or more vehicles on a base – whatever you want (we use 3). As I recall it RF has one tank as one platoon so you could have 4 or 5 3mm on a single base!

In other periods people put blocks of infantry on a base and call it a regiment, cohort or legion; for more modern periods people seem to be over-focused on skirmish style gaming. I once saw the Ardennes campaign played with one tank to a base representing a battalion! You just need rules that compliment the basing.

I once saw the Ardennes campaign played with one tank to a base representing a battalion!

Yup. Megablitz does just that.

Im going through this same exercise with 6mm WW2 while I'm painting up my 20mms.

For my 20mms I intend to mount them 1 fig on 1p, 2 fig on 2p.

For my 6mm I'm mounting them as 2 figs on a 1p. I also have a humungus lot of old German 1 pfennig pieces from when I was basing casualty markers for my Nap Adlers, so I can put 1 figure on a pfennig. I guess a small tiddlywink counter would do for individual mounting if I didn't have the pfennigs. Big tiddlywink for deployed guns and crew! (or a 10p coin!)

That keeps everything in proportion for the rules, vehicles included, using cms for distances. And using a smaller table is possible. Or having an awesome game on a 6 x 4! :)