" Small scale popularity " Topic

For mass battles in an ancient/dark ages world, what is the most popular scale to get figures for? 10mm? 15mm?

(does anyone do fantasy figures in those scales? Since warmaster is gone….)

Copplestone makes Fantasy in 10mm.

As for mass battles in ancients, it seems 15mm is still popular for DBA and DBMM, possibly also for other games (like Warrior). But I did see quite a few 10mm armies in the Art de L'Guerre competition @ Historicon.

6mm

For DBA/DBMM 15s remain overwhelmingly the most popular. Although there are a smattering of folks who use any other available scale.

Pendraken and Magister Militum both make a lot of 10mm, including Fantasy.

It seems 6mm is more a British thing than a US thing? After 28mm, it seems 15mm is the de facto standard in the US. 10mm has a following but much smaller. 6mm much less popular. BTW you can play WM in any scale! It's never come close to rivaling other rules, like WAB or DBA. It's always been niche, even for GW. Go with what size you like and paint both sides.

TMP has run several polls on this over the years. I'm just recalling the info from them.

First Edition Battlelore fantasy figures will take paint and you still might occasionally come across some GW Battle of Five armies plastics.

I still prefer 25/28mm. Just use a bigger table.

@ TKindred- not everyone has American sized basements! Some of us struggle to find room for a 4x4, so 10 mm is great. Also a hell of a lot cheaper than 28mm.

6mm is our little groups standard here in North Georgia. Nothing to do with basement size and everything to do with mass.

Exactly. You just can't get the same feel of a mass battle unless you have a huge table to play on.

Even a huge table doesn't do it.

Much as I enjoy seeing 25/28mm figures they're not really any good for mass battles,yes they look good but that's until terrain enters into the equation.

With 70 odd foot required for a scale mile ground scales and figure ratios are needed.Great until terrain enters again,forests become copses and rivers turn into streams,lets not mention hills all with figures dwarfing them.

I'll stick to my 2mm troops.With figure ratios and ground scales of 1:1 or even 2:1 battles look like battles albeit from a hillside view.Added bonus is if you base figures according to formations rather than nations or uniforms they'll do for any army.

Not for everybody though,some need nicely painted figures
and I'm not knocking that.It's a very valid aspect of the hobby.

Believe me, 6mm is very popular in the USA. The problem is that the country is so large and the hobby so dispersed that if you don't see something happening in your own circle of experience it becomes all too easy to dismiss it as not happening at all.

The US is our second largest market after the UK and by far and away sees our largest overseas sales by volume.

15mm may be about many things, but it certainly is not about mass. If you want to see large armies in a small area, or even better huge armies in a big army, then 6mm is very hard to beat on any count.

I second Baccus statement about 6mm in the USA. In our area 15mm is the most popular, particularly with tournament players, and 6mm is the next most popular. There are quite a few fantasy ranges in 6mm: Baccus, Rapier, Irregular, Microworld…

Checking out Baccus website ;)

We've got all sorts for both Ancients and Dark Ages in 10mm, drop me an email if you'd like some samples sending out.

We're also working on a full revamp of our Fantasy ranges to go with our new Warband rules: link

And a few pics to tempt:

I had totally forgotten Pendraken does Fantasy! I have a ton of late medieval knights from them somewhere, I think I was going to do a knight in shining armor Brettonian army for Warmaster!!!!

28mm

Before switching to 2mm I had loads of 6mm and 10mm.

Leon's Pendraken range is fantastic.The Dwarves and Hobgoblins were a favourite of mine.

Been tempted to try his Warband rules for a while and he's a great fella to deal with.

People have started working down the scales generally. 25/28 to 15 to 10 or 6mm. When they all get to 2 or 3mm I'll be long gone!

6mm

With advancing years, even 25/28mm are becoming a bit small to paint :-(

John the Seucid

With smaller figures there's less details to worry about,
Baccus (I think) has a good piece about it on their website.

Now I'm tempted between 10mm and 6mm……

If you're keen to go down to a scale where the figures can disappear into the luxuriance of the native flora then an army of sylvan elves could be represented by a handful of visible painted samples ("sorry that's my Entish ally you've just charged not a bit of scenery")

I personally would do what I like. I don't think any scale is the "right" scale for mass combat… granted, i wouldn't want to have to paint 20,000 54mm miniatures!

My prefered scale is 15mm. It's big enough to have lots of detail but it's small enough that a base of them looks like a large group of people. 6mm fields look great in mass and modern 6mm have a lot of detail on them. Heck, 6mm armies actually look like real armies. Like the guy above said, look at Baccus.

But again, it really comes down to what appeals to you.

The intial post asks what scale is most popular for ancients & dark age gaming. I don't have an answer to that, yet I'm not sure it needs to be about most popular, unless a person is looking to be involved with what is most popular in their local area. Beyond that, it seems to be personal preference.

I've gravitated towards playing Impetus in 25/28mm because that is what seems to be most played in my area, and I like the 25/28mm scale for "massed" battles as well. As I've got involved with 40mm AWI, I'd consider that for ancients or dark ages, if I wasn't already doing both in 25/28mm. The scale is that good where I might just do it anyway, if someone produces such someday.