"Fantasy Mass Battles: 6mm or 10mm?" Topic

I'm planning to get into large fantasy battles, and want to build up at least to armies (for now ;-)) so I can provide troops for potential opponents.
But I cannot decide on what scale to use!
6mm or 10mm miniatures?
Please help me make up my mind.
TIA!

6mm, super fast to paint and look great en mass. Microworldgames.com

I love both scales

But if I had to choose I think I would go for 10mm as there just a little bit more choice when it comes to non human races

10mm, for me fantasy gaming needs a bit of individuality/pazazz which is easier to see on the table with 10mm.
Heroes stand out because they look different not because of the base they're on and the rank and file get a better variety of poses. Not mine but look at the Pendraken forums.

link

I prefer 10mm as you can easily see what the troop types are on the tabletop. And, they are quick to paint with just a base coat and either some drybrushing or an ink wash to bring out super detail.
Here's some pictures of a recent game:

And some from last Hisotricon:

I like 10mm

10mm is the way for me:

link

G.

Lead Death painted up some very nice 6mm for fantasy armies of GoT.

See the rest on his blog:
bagrationsarmies.blogspot.com

Baccus has very nice 6mm Fantasy models here: link

Scroll down and click Fantasy.

10mm allows more detail to be shown in the paintwork without having to be good at it and you can tell what the figures actually are and what troop type.
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cheers Tom

I was very enthusiastic about 6mm fantasy about two years back, but soon discovered that the ranges available were not satisfactory to me. The figures from Microworld, Baccus and Irregular didn't match each other (sizewise) at all. I also tend to like a lot of variety in poses, even in 6mm, and that was another aspect where the ranges were lacking. Building a whole unit from two poses doesn't really do it for me.

I even started sculpting my own 6mm figures (the few that I finished turned out half-decent), but that was a fool's errand as I wouldn't have had (and still don't have) the funds to mold and cast them. I still dream of releasing my own extensive 6mm range of fantasy armies, but it's not gonna happen.

As for 10mm, back when I played Warmaster, I was somewhat unhappy with the fact that the armies didn't turn out looking as big (in terms of manpower/quantity) as I wanted them. 10mm feels to me like an awkward compromise between 6mm and 15mm.

I think 10mm is great for mass battles. Better detail than 6mm, faster and easier to paint up than 15mm.

I like 10mm. There's enough detail to look great, while remaining very easy to paint. Plus, there are a number of manufacturers, some quite excellent. Also, for monsters you can expand into 15mm lines like Splintered Light (and others). After all, how big are ogres, giants, trolls, ents, dragons, giant spiders, etc.? A: As big as you want 'em to be.

I'll recommend Copplestone Castings, Kallistra (slightly larger), and Eureka. GW's Warmaster line is wonderful, but alas has gone out of production, and prices vary widely on e-Bay. Pandraken also does 10mm as individual figures (many are the same as Kallistra's line).

EDIT: Since everybody's showing off…

v

I would strongly suggest buying some samples of each,(1 unit's worth) and paint them up and base them,; and then see what you like better.

I've gone with 6mm, Microworld has a growing line of interesting races, and there's a lot that can be borrowed from historical lines from Irregular or Baccus (and some others). There's also a lot of terrain around, particularly if you use 6mm for other periods.

For mass battles 6 mm always looks better but in case of Fantasy 10mm shines with heroes, wizards and the great variety to choose from.
I play in 10mm:

I use 6mm for scifi so that means there's terrain handy for 6mm fantasy as well.
If I were going to go bigger I'd go up to 15mm, where there's a treasure trove of choices. 10mm just feels 'in between' to me, as does 20mm.

I will add my voice to those voting for 10mm. 6mm stuff is generally just too small for fantasy for me. For some reason I do like it for sci-fi though.

I would say 6mm, although I am slightly biased.

I have been at the miniature business thing since 2009, and from time to time these threads pop up, and I feel like 10mm is usually the clear favorite, which is fine and understandable.

But I also always read some of the same comments about 6mm, such as not being able to tell what they are on the table. I really don't see that as being true in practice (except maybe for dwarves)

I think everything is pretty recognizable, or at the very least around the same level as 10mm.

And I do offer a fair number of characters:

And is the selection still that far off? I have 10 full armies, some with 13 different unit codes. By the end of the year I will have 12 armies released, I feel like I must be getting close!

Regarding 6mm characters, a little bit of converting can also go a long way to add diversity. A cloak and hood here, a different-looking shield and a helmet crest there, that kind of stuff. Sculpting/converting in 6mm is quite easy assuming one has a "base" figure to start with (it's sculpting the bodies from scratch that's difficult) and one isn't doing very fiddly stuff like weapon swaps in outstretched hands. I also think character bases can look quite "characteristic" when made as tiny dioramas: A circle of wizards, a commander with attendants (horse holder, helmet bearer, etc), a warrior hero with a pair of hard-as-nails-looking companions at his/her side, and so on.

Now, to turn right around and explain why, after all, I'm not doing 6mm fantasy myself:

And is the selection still that far off? I have 10 full armies, some with 13 different unit codes. By the end of the year I will have 12 armies released, I feel like I must be getting close!

I think you're doing a good job carving out more space for 6mm fantasy gaming, and if I did take up 6mm fantasy again, Microworld would definitely be my range of choice from those available. Irregular's figures are (with some exceptions) too gribbly and indistinct. The Baccus fantasy figures, aside from being limited in scope, are rather big and have kind of a "bobblehead" style (at least judging by the elves I have) that unfortunately puts me off. So Microworld would be it. Still, relying on one manufacturer alone is a bit problematic for me. For instance, you chose to have your orcs sculpted in the cartoonish "massive jaws" style, whereas I would much rather have orcs in the style of the classic, iconic Lord of the Rings illustrations. You've also generally gone for the "quirky" style of fantasy (dwarves riding bears, massed ranks of pixies, etc) which isn't quite my cup of tea. And as I said before, I'm not fond of building whole units from one or two poses. I understand that cost is a big factor when having poses sculpted, so I'm not holding you "at fault" in the least for having gone with the one-or-two-poses option. It's just that this approach is not quite satisfactory enough for me. It looks a bit silly to me personally, even from a distance, when half the figures in a unit are holding the exact same weapon aloft in exactly the same way. Feels like a holdover from the old Epic days, when wargamers generally made do with fewer poses (regardless of scale) than what's become the norm today.

So, I think 6mm is fundamentally a more ideal size than 10mm for massed fantasy battles, but desperately want there to be more "compatible variety" (meaning, a variety of figures, perhaps from multiple manufacturers, that are nonetheless compatible with each other in terms of size, proportions and general sculpting style). Maybe I'm just part of the "late majority" – the sort of hobbyist that only takes up a project once all the trails have been blazed by the early adopters.

10mil for me.

I bought 6mil and then decided I preferred 10mil.
I like Pendraken.
link

Wow.
It's 11 years since I painted those miniatures.

If I was starting out anew I'd go with 6mm. Currently, with the local small scale fantasy scene being Warmaster dominated and my rather large existing collection, it is 10mm all the way. Both work well, but 6mm is cheaper and paints quicker if you ask me.

Edit: Lovely pics guys! Very inspirational.

6mm, definitely. The fantasy ranges are not (yet) as extensive as those available in 10mm, but then you have much larger historical ranges to use when appropriate, too. I do occasionally use 10mm (or larger scale) figs here and there for larger creatures. For example, 10mm beastmen look 10' tall next to 6mm humans, and a 25mm dragon looks like a DRAGON in 6mm.

Doug

I guess it depends on how large massive is. I have vast amounts of 15mm and 25mm fantasy armies. I also own 6mm and a single Warmaster 10mm army. 10mm came along too late for me to dive in. I like 6mm in general. But it languishes since I work on the larger figs.

Thanks,

John

Yeah, like Elsyrsyn mentions… 6mm still lets me use all the 10mm monsters, just that they're even bigger and scarier… and larger scales are HUGE. It creates a really nice effect having that range of size.
I suppose the 10mm folks can use 6mm figures as pygmies or gnomes? I know I use some 15mm fantasy as familiars and such for 28mm fantasy.

I suppose the 10mm folks can use 6mm figures as pygmies or gnomes?

I've been hoping to find a 6mm substitute for the impossible-to-find Bo5A dwarven archers. I figure a decent Viking or similar norther-european "hairy" army might have suitable figs. So far, no luck, but I might have to look at Microworld's 6mm stuff. I must say his lizard men in the above pics look like they might make a nice kobold force!

FOLLOW UP EDIT:

Okay, popped over to Microworld's site. Nice stuff, but alas, not what I would want as substitutes in large units. The Viking archers would work, but it looks to be one pose only; I prefer the variety I get from the 10mm suppliers. Even three or four different poses allows me to "break up" my units into a natural-looking mix rather than the clone effect of just having the same guy over and over and over again. I also prefer strip mounted efforts, as the Warmaster approach or Copplestone's "individuals on strips" method. It makes for much quicker painting and much easier basing. I really don't want to individually glue over 720 figures to bases (that number being roughly the bare minimum figure count in a Warmaster entry-level army). 8-P.
But the sculpts are impressive, and I might have to mull my little kobold idea. And, with a little more variety in the sculpts, I'd certainly consider doing a unit or two as substitutes for special units in the classic "pygmy" humanoid races.

Thanks for all the answers!
I think I'll follow Chris Palmer's advice, and get some minis in both scales for further judgement :-).
Though I must admit that I feel a slight tug towards 10mm…

I'm loving the look of the Microworld stuff and will hopefully be able to get an order in at some point soon. I'm also curious what rulesets people recommend for 6mm fantasy; so far I've been considering using HotT but with the 25mm base sizes to really get that 'massed army' feel but I'd kinda like some more granularity than HotT provides; could you use Mighty Armies or Pride of Lions with 6mm figures? How would you base them?

I'm not knocking 6mm, but characters are much more recognizable in 10mm. I've even seen nutcases painting individual heraldry at 10mm, can't say I've seen that in 6mm.

As far as Game of Thrones goes, isn't it just the English Civil War with more factions competing for the Crown? ie, all humans?

At the present, there's a much greater variety in non-humans available in 10mm.

As far as grabbing monsters from a larger scale goes, imagine just how huge that Rackham Titan Dragon is compared to 15mm troops! Almost the right size for one of those crazy Record of Lodoss Wars elder dragons, where the exposed eye of "Shooting Star" (the bigass Red "demon dragon") is the size of a knight on horseback!

6mm all the way.

The Pendraken figures are lovely, but 10mm just seems like a compromise between 15mm and 6mm.

Plus I do 6mm for historical, ultramodern and sci-fi, so to do anything different for fantasy would be a) weird and b) mean not being able to use the same scenery as some of the others.

Rebel Minis has a 10mm Mighty Armies fantasy starter army set that looks pretty good. I believe it's called Warmonger and the armies are Wild Elves and Orcs. 10mm seems to have the detail and also the mass effect as well. My humble opinion.
Thanks Bob

PENDRAKEN and COPPELSTONE have fantastic 10mm as well. 10mm for me for massed battles. Nothing wrong with 6mm, however.
Bob

Just received some Orcs and War Trolls from Copplestone, their 10mm fantasy range. The detail is fantastic, can hardly wait to paint them up. Great looking figures.

Bob

Just received the PENDRAKEN Warband Dwarves in 10mm.
They are very well sculpted. Great figures. Will order
more.

10 mm fast to paint? Those Warmaster figures are some of the slowest I have painted. I cant believe all the detail they have. Still like em a lot.

JPK

Lion said: I'm not knocking 6mm, but characters are much more recognizable in 10mm. I've even seen nutcases painting individual heraldry at 10mm, can't say I've seen that in 6mm.

You have now:

I just put together a fantasy human army heavy on the knights, and for two of the units, I made sure that every figure had a unique shield emblem or a unique barding pattern. At that scale you can't do a whole lot of detail, but as you can see in the above picture, it isn't impossible.

For the record, those are Heroics and Ros crusaders mounted on a 2-inch by 3-inch base for use with Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame Rules. You can find more photos on my blog, but here's a shot of a full 6mm force of undead. One of the tricks you use for distinguishing troops types is basing – loose versus ordered can tell you an awful lot about a unit.

From left to right that's archers, knights, knights, heavy foot, and light foot.