"Who Wargames on a 6x4 table?" Topic

And what figure scales and what number/size units do you use?

Most of my games are in 6x4 these days. Use 6mm, 10mm, 15/18mm, 28mm. Number of figures varies from 50 or so a side (28mm SAGA) to several hundred per side (or even thousands) for Naps Battles, Fire and Fury ACW etc.

Sounds like SD2 games in my basement. But he doesn't.

But his description fits my situation perfectly.

We typically play on an 8'x 6' table with 15/18mm figures. Usually 1-2 Corps per side.

I built a house and specifically made room for and set up a 10x5 table, then struggled to find any mats I could use (I hate lines/gaps of tiles and such). Two years later I moved and now 6x4 is about the best I can do; that is fine, however, because the great cigar box mats I have are that size and I would likely only skirmish game in 28mm or else play DBA with smaller armies.

8x6 or 10x6 feet usually

We do for 15mm games quite often, but go larger when we can, especially for 28mm skirmish etc.

I do, using 15mm figs or 28mm Dead Mans Hand.

Usually game Ancients using FOG and 800 pts a side.

6' edge is a bit of a waste as my opponent usually uses only 3' of it.

I usually play on a 14x6 (cut down from a 18x6.5). But I recently made a portable 6X4 table. I have found that many of the games played on the larger table didn't need all that space. Games are usually 28mm and some 15mm.

We commonly do Big Battle DBA (36 elements, 25mm) on a 4x6 field; do the same with 15mm DBR @ 300- 400 pts.

We generally game on a 5'x6' table using 28mm, 40mm and rarely 15mm. for big battles 8-10 units (12-24 figures)per side or 30-50 figures for a skirmish game.

The table is two 30"x 72" pushed together.
I don't often take pictures of the whole battle

I've got a 6x4 set up now. It's got 15mm on it, but I'll go as big as 1/72 normally and more reluctantly 28mm. For larger castings or larger 28mm units I prefer a larger table. I can use 5mm on a 4x6, but don't always need to. And I don't need anything above card-table size for 2mm. That's why I built them.

For flexibility, I have two convention style folding tables that I can put together to create a 5x8; or break apart for smaller Triumph tournament style gaming.

It is somewhat of a dilemma isn't it? With 28s, we can get so much figure and terrain fidelity, but we lose battlefield breadth without having to go big-boarded, or just accept shrinking our engagements down to being skirmishes, or snapshots of battles (which can be fine and as much fun actually, but you can't claim you've "done" Gettysburg). ;)

4X6 (at a shop)

3.5X10 (but at a con)

6s-10s-15s allow for that greater battlefield perspective in a smaller area.

3X4 below (involving a couple 15mm Brigades across the board). Can easily do a Division engagement on a 3X6 or 4X6. Depending on movement rates, ranges, and the board's terrain density, sometimes 3ft. of depth is just enough to allow for maneuver to contact, and to get the sides engaged w/o too much lost time.

For example, our 15mm AWI battles with their smoothbore musket ranges can easily be done on a table with a 3ft. board depth.

Personally, I'm still on the "scale" fence (no pun intended), but it does affect the board sizes we can tackle. I like the ability to field or command larger amounts of units, with extra room for maneuver, AND, to be able to envision the game as being a significant sector of an ACW battlefield. Those, as opposed to doing 28mm skirmishes, but with somewhat greater visual fidelity, and with skirmish rules fidelity (if your rules take advantage of things like individual "specialist" figure abilities, that can be enabled by larger figure "recognition" for example – and of course skirmish-quality terrain interaction).

I started with a 12x5'table but it was too big and difficult to move. But now I most often game on a 4x6' table. I sold all my 28mm Napoleonics which were in 24 figure battalions because they just did not work on a 4x6' table.

I now have ACW and Napoleonics in 15/18mm and can division+ sized games easily on a 4x6' table. On the same table I play 20mm WWII and various skirmish games in 28mm. I have a special 4x3' mat made for SAGA.

After 15 years of a lot of gaming I think 4x6' is the ideal size. I have that size in my gaming area and the same size in a fold up portable format. Most mats are sized thus.

John

I play on a 6 x 4 table most of the time. I can expand to 8 x 6 or 12 x 4 but haven't done so yet..

Example of a 54mm napoleonic game played on 6 x 4 this week:

More details on the blog:

mikelewis.info/littlewars/?p=709

I am thinking of revising my collections and playing "battles" exclusively in 15mm, using element stands, while reserving 28mm exclusively for single-based figure skirmish gaming.

For club games 6x4 is about as big as we ever go and more generally we use 4x4 or 3x4. So for 15mm Napoleonics we might have fifteen to twenty units a side (a few divisions), similar for ACW.

A lot of this stuff depends on your rules and ground scale. I did the paired battles of Waterloo and Wavre on a 2' wide table in 6mm using the original Horse, Foot & Guns! But the elements were divisions and the manouvre units Corps. I did Blenheim in 2mm on a similar size, and Borodino in 6mm.

We do some 54mm Horse & Musket and ACW games, usually on a 6x4. HG Wells style, so units of 10 to 20 figures.

Usually a 6 by 4 table. Games vary from skirmishes to 200-300 15mn figures per side.

The first time I met 6x4 as a required (underline) table size was with WRG 3rd Edition 1973.I don't think any other rule set required that size before 1973. WRG seen to have inspired that size. In addition WRG inspired the 4cm for 15mm Ancient base frontage size. Well done Phil.

Had a ping pong table that had water damage along 1 side and corner. Cut it down to 5 x 7 and secured it to an old dining room table. I cover it with either game mats that have hexes superimposed or linen fabric from the sewing store. I game 20mm skirmish, a platoon + per side max with a few AFV's with Arc of Fire. I also game 15mm FOW based using a variant of 5Core company commander.
I found the odd size 5 x 7 lets me reach into the table middle fairly easily.

One of the ways I've resolved to ground issue is, I no longer worry about the number of figures in a unit. Generally I organize my units my bases. The number of bases in a unit will represent the sub -groups within (a Battalion the bases would be companies or platoons). Frontages of units are based upon a ration between unit types and ground scale. I don't remove figures as casualties, units are assigned a combat effectiveness value, actions are then applied against this value. I've played games were a single figure has been a company and ones were it has been a regiment. Yes I could just play with wooden blocks (and have), but I do enjoy the eye candy.

I'm with AICUSV. My approach exactly. My Napoleonic battalions have only 6-8 figs in 15mm. Sometimes those same stands are for Brigades. Scale of the ground and figures represent more men changes but not the stands foot print. 4x6 table but I do have extensions for really big battles.

We've gone for a method of maintaining the same game scale and rule ranges between our different ACW figure collections (for gaming in 28mm or 15mm), while still having a single base equal the same number of combatants, and a unit (ours being Bn. & Rgts.) having similar numbers of stands within to maintain rules functionality. This way we could play the same rules (with the same movement rates, weapon ranges, and similar frontages, and therefore play either scale collections on similar-size gaming areas) – and therefore within similar overall gaming space limitations/options.

How I figured this, was to have the group mount our 28s on "double-size" washers – 1 inch washers vs. the 15s being mounted on 1/2 inch washers, but to mandate a formed line of 28s to be aligned in double ranks (as opposed to the 15s stretched out in single base lines – but aesthetically-looking like 2-ranks w/their staggered figure mounting).

This way the unit frontages stayed the same, and therefore the move and gunnery ranges could stay the same, along with our typical board size dimensions [and limitations]. The double-rank, formed line requirement for the 28s, also opened up the game mechanic for reflecting open order by physically reflecting a skirmishing unit by being placed into a single-figure line (with additional spacing between bases allowed).

The same mounting method could be done for 6mm or 10mm figures too, where the stands in a unit would stay within the same rule-prescribed parameters, irregardless of model scale – there would just be more base area to populate with the smaller scale figures – and units would look even more "true-to-scale" by doing so!

I do think of 6'x4' as the 'industry standard', at least here in UK, but hadn't realised we owe it to WRG. Thanks, I do like a bit of history.

Consequently BBB, the ruleset that has been my staple diet for abut a decade now, was geared to fitting every historical battle (bar the odd exception) onto that 6'x4', by using elastic ground, time and troop scales. Seems to work.

Figure scale: nearly all my armies are 6mm; I have a few 2mm; some of the guys in our group have 10mm. The smaller scales give the right mass effect when you're doing the whole of Waterloo, Gettysburg, Koniggratz etc on 6'x4'.

Size/number of units: the ideal seems to about 10-15 infantry and cavalry units a side. Units are made up of 1" square bases; 2-7 bases for a unit (usually a brigade or division); cavalry units rarely larger than 2 or 3 bases.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
link
bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com

I would imagine that 2mm would work on a 6x4 table. You might even be able to fight the entire Western Front on one.

Have you ever sneezed and blown your 2mm army off the table?

I wargame on a 6 x 4 all the time using 22mm Musket Miniatures on JRIII 15mm basing guideline. This size is good enough for battles such as Devil's Den, Little Round Top and Wheatfield combined. 30:1 ratio per fig.

Ahhh, I LOVE IT! as I gaze at the game tables I take in all the bald and/or gray heads and WRINKLES!!! More wrinkles than a litter of Shar Pei puppies!!! Now I don't feel so old!
I am a little concerned though, what about the future of miniature gaming? I had my son for a while doing RPGs moving slowly into miniatures, but that ended shortly after college began. Looks like it's up to my grandkids, (although 3 and 6 might be tad young yet) maybe the gene skips a generation.

When I started out as a child in wargaming tagging along at wargaming clubs some 30 years ago, most of the members were pretty old and I was considered an outlier. I dont think it's a case that the hobby is getting old; I think it's always been that way and todays fantasy nerds will become tomorrow's historical nerds.

Although, there are a lot of defensive bullies, know-it-alls and all around grumps in the hobby too and I would think that today's younger people dont have the stamina to stand up for themselves in group confrontations the way I used to as a child.

Additionally, the value of material metal/plastic soldiers may not interest younger people who prefer a virtual world. It could be a matter of values. Just like oil painting on canvas was primarily to present viewers with displays and boasts of the painting commissioners' wealth, so the metal figures may represent a form of accomplishment which doesn't interest people anymore.

I made a comment on another thread about some 40mm figure requests, of which there is a scarcity, and someone else snapped, "Why do it in 40mm, why not in 28mm?"

In a way, that demonstrates to me the never ending material collecting (and clutching) that wargamers can display and, even when they have 15,000 28mm Napoleonic figures, they will still get irritated when a young guard figure comes out in 40mm instead of their preferred scale.

There's times at the shops I feel we might actually be scaring away the younger set, with all the grey hair, wrinkles, and balding scalps. :)))

A few of us also have hearing aids – but that might actually help from overhearing the inevitable "old fart" or two.

And then the reply…..Cpt. Who?

I dunno, I'm still a little worried, recently went into the local shop here where I'm still new and overheard two younger fellows discussing Kursk 1943. Didn't catch the whole conversation, guess my hearing aid batteries were getting weak (wink wink) but they both seem to be firmly convinced that the reason the Russians lost WW II was due to their earlier loss at Kursk.

Where's Ron Serling when you need him?

I just realized, this thread started out talking about who games on 6 x 4 tables. It took a hard right back a couple of entries.

It was about 6 x 4 wargaming tables. I am confined to one and wanted to know if anyone else gamed good games on the same size.

Although I am tempted to get this 2 x 2 add on:

link

Supposedly my firma Terra table and this extension would be the same height (33") but I wonder, do calculations like that ever really pan out?

firmerterra.com

Also, nothing is quite as curious as how out of touch older people are. Due to the Internet/social media, video games and a lack of sporty activities combined with the rise of hundreds of social sub-groups which further divide young people, there is no longer a concept of "generation".

I see that young people are perfectly comfortable with old people in a manner I never was when their age. Thus, just thinking young people dont want to associate with older people is to date oneself.

I reach out to young people at all our game events, example (and discussion) -

"Joe came with his friend Heath and his father Dave. I had never met Joe before, but he's the type of new player we all want for this graying hobby of ours!"

And link –

TMP link

All the social diversions mentioned might indeed create inevitable issues of 'focus'. Then again, how can we ever expect lads today to paint up thousands of miniatures when checking their smart phones, or accessing all their social sub-groups is seemingly so important.