"Smallest playable Napoleonic battalions of all time" Topic

link

2mm, 13 figure battalions, 10mm frontage.
These are 3D printed. I'm working on cavalry, artillery and officers with compatible basing/style.

Goal is to allow players to field armies with hundreds and hundreds of units like this on coffee tables. Leipzig in a small apartment at the battalion level? It can be done! A roster will be needed, however…

I agree with 10mm per battalion as standard but why troopers are there in loose order?
They must stand shoulder to shoulder.

I have shoulder to shoulder versions of the same models.

The bases at the top are actually musician stands for the 1:1 battalions, of the type you see below painted as Austrians. For such small battalions the extra space is useful to get more painting space. The more color at this size, the better. That said, I'm more bothered by the lack of a third rank! But, the extra space on the base provides a nice spot to write down a roster number, or even the regimental number. You can easily use these models to create a very detailed, full-size army.

I have some identical bases without the officer in front. Those are perfect for turning these into multi-base battalions. They're 30mm in line, but can be placed into columns with the correct width/depth ratio.

I use 10mm battalions but without the extra space on bases.
These battalions are sub units for game unit and I don't have need to mark them separately with numbers.

Don't worry about the missing third rank – they've either gone to fetch water or are doing "skirmishing".

If you could colour them whilst 3-d printing that would really open up the field.

Hmm. I would generally regard fighting Leipzig at a battalion level as a mistake--and the more so if I were manipulating stands less than half an inch wide.

Forwardmarch, don't diminish the charm of your figures by tying them to a particular notion of miniature warfare. There are many possibilities.

Hi Robert,

Well, I have over 260 figures in the range, so there are lots of possibilities. There are bases of all sizes and shapes. It contains 20mm battalion pieces, 30mm pieces, 40mm pieces, and 60mm pieces. With and without flags, and with one or two flags, and in two, three, and four ranks. That's just the original infantry range. I've expanded the range to include 1:1 style models based on historic schematics of formations, such as the Austrians above. So, you can play in true 1:1 with all of the drummers, sappers, officers, NCOs, and individual troopers present, and in the correct formations based on their national doctrines. I made the 1:1 companies available in different numbers of figures, so that larger and smaller battalions can be made with normalized companies.

When I'm not doing something new I get bored. I took up 2mm because I saw a chance to innovate in the hobby. So, these are just a new way of doing things that I came up with.

Writing rules to use with the figures is a *lot* harder than coming up with new way to use the figure range…

IIRC Paddy Griffith's rules for large battles from Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun (1980) used 10mm-wide bases (with 5mm figures on) and a roster.

I'm having some troubles looking at 15mm, those little guys might be the breaking point.

These are pretty small-scale, even for 2mm. I'll admit that. You would be hard-pressed to go much smaller while showing tactical units.

There is a major advantage to these though. If we assume that each 10mm square base represents a battalion in line, taking up roughly 100m, that ground scale works out to a very healthy 1' = 3000m. On a 4' x 4' table, you'll have 12,000 meters per side, or 7.4 miles. That's plenty of space for most battles in the period. Only the very largest would require something a bit larger. More important than the width is the depth. If you want to talk about maneuver, here's your chance.

you may as well play with blocks imo

you may as well play with blocks imo

Oh, I don't know. I'm not a 2mm player myself, but there seems to me to be a big difference between playing with cardboard counters on paper and this:

You beat me to it!

Sorry, not even close:

link

Priceless Extra Crispy. Remarkably the TMP thread hasn't been bumped from 2005…

I'm working on putting the 10mm units into the FMS Library. By the time I'm done there will be cav, arty, some officers, and a few odds and ends. I'm keeping it basic with this particular set.

400 of those 10mm infantry bases will only run $25 USD to print.

Think about that for a quick second. How much would it cost to print off 400 color markers in a hex and marker style wargame? 3D printing is really getting cheap.

Here's an example of how you could use these figures. I prefer maps for this size unit. Here's Grandjean's division at Wagram. The line are painted as line, the 10th Light are painted as light, and each battalion has its regiment, battalion number, and quality (as three dots) annotated on the base.

Click for high-def pics at the blog: link