"What rules for 3mm Modern" Topic

What rule sets cover 3mm scale figures and models an what type of battle and time scale (days of action or mutes), Forces and ground scale. peaked my interest having talked a bit about it at Sheffield Triples today.

You can use 3mm (or 2mm) stuff for pretty well any set of rules, particularly element based. Just put more models/figures on them, so my 'Spearhead' sized bases have three Chieftens/T64s etc on them instead of just one.

So, whatever floats your boat really, I tend to use them for brigade/division sized actions.

As Martin Rapier says, you can use most any rules (some need a tweak here and there). I like FFT3, but I'm eager to see what the Too Fat Lardies' modern rules will look like.

We use Cold War Commander and it works really well. We base a platoon per stand and it gives you the mass you need to see with vehicles that small.

The TFL modern rules will be a lot like IABSM, same ground scale and unit scale.

There are a number of folks who are using the board game Blood and Bridges rules. I created a stat sheet so you could use miniatures. I am using my 3mm for it.

link

Thanks,

John

As others have mentioned, you can use 3mm with just about any rules, time scale, ground scale, etc. My first inclination was to use them at 1:1 unit scale with as close to 1:1 ground scale as possible, for something like company level actions. This makes for a table filled with lots of terrain and very few minis, perhaps realistic but not visually pleasing in the traditional wargaming sense, not enough toys. I also haven't found rules that I like for this scale (I've experimented with the modern Crossfire variant and FFT, two very different games), any suggestions are welcome. Since then I've thought more about using them for divisional/corps level rules (e.g. Modern Megablitz) with the number of figures on the base representing the number of base points in the unit (i.e. about 1:15 scale, only representing combat vehicles). In my opinion this is a more satisfying use of these tiny figures and is similar to what Martin described for one level down.

Pigbear,
Its all about what you want. I play at 1:144 becuse I play a ground scale of 1mm =1m roughley 5 times bigger gruond than figure scale on a linear basis. We use Maneouver Group (we did write it so a bit of bias here). We run at this level as it looks OK. Compared to a real situation is cramped but you generally you put a hedge, ditch, road etc where one is on the map and it does not look stupid. No we need 1:144 as the easy way is to turn the turret of a tank so you model buttoned up, un buttoned etc without a lot of hastle. It gives a reasonably convinceing game. Tanks in colum down the road look like they shoul and dispersed in position with alternate positions they take up the right anmounbt of space. should

Contiunued – seems to have posted accidentaly. The tanks take up the righ amuont of space.

To me 3mm might be used for realy big battles. I t would be impossible to turn turrets at this scale. It does however off some credible way of marking a platoon as taking up the right ground area. Many current rules become pure fantasy when they make 1 tank eual to a platoon as the ground covered is uttely un-representative. Perhaps you would imply turret position (i.e formation) by positioning models in formation echalon right would mean a level of fire power and observation to the front and right. Box, less in any direction but all round. Line ahead all in front etc. Clerly this would need some serious thought about weapon factors a you have to acount for the firepower available in the various directions but it does seem possible. Clearly urban areas pose significant problems in reting a reasonable result. Proably you decleare stuff as on the edge and so treat as normal or inside and just abstract it as placement of individual teams would not be practical.

MG has no intention at this time of writing 3mm rules but I would be happy to help with some of the issues if anybody wanted to explore the issues. Not sure its that easy as you would need to move a lot of items still or have some sort of "ajustable base". Perhaps vehicals held magneticaly on a base that could be turned coloum, line etc.

Thanks UshCha. I will definitely give Maneouver Group a look next time I get the itch to delve into company scale. I'm still fascinated with the idea of using very small minis but agree that immobile turrets is a problem.

I would use Cold War Commander Rules hope it helps.

Take care

Andy

I mainly use Fistful of TOWs. There are plenty of battle reports on my blog if you scroll back through:

tinytanks3mm.blogspot.com.au

The usual ground scale of FFT is 1:4,000 (1"=100m). But you can use 1:10,000 (1cm=100m) with no problems for larger games, which is particularly suitable for 3mm minis. Having said that, I still like the smaller ground scale of 1"=100m because it allows me to put a platoon of model vehicles on each platoon base.