"How do you handle occupying buildings in 6mm or 10mm?" Topic

For 28mm I always had removable roofs and figures could move around inside the buildings.

Now I am playing 10mm ww2 and I'm not sure how to handle occupying buildings. Putting pieces inside is pretty fiddly in this scale.

Maybe buildings should have a ceiling underneath the roof and I just place squads on top?

Usually, I try to build or buy complexes rather than single buildings--say a farmhouse, a barn and a fence of wall, or an L-shaped building with a wall--with an open area big enough to hold the stand I would expect to garrison the place. Plan B is to leave the garrison off-board but make a note of where it is.

I just place the units behind the building. If its a rather fast moving game system, players seem to be able to handle this lack of aesthetics for awhile. If you plan to be in the building for longer period, then just remove them and note the location.
Mark

Depending on the roof of the building, either on top or behind.

Make them hollow and put the troops inside.

Place them just to the rear or in front of the buildings, but touching them.

Us counters and put them underneath or inside.

Make a map and put the figures on that, OR record that they are in there in writing, or with cardboard chits.

I try to use buildings with courtyards – otherwise, what microbiggie said!

We placed out buildings on grey felt squares. When someone was going to occupy a building we removed it, leaving the grey square to depict where the building is.

Thanks for the responses, I didn't even think of simply removing the unit from the table..

Make a floor plan to scale of the building. Remove bldg. and insert troops where necessary.

Unless you are playing 1:1 skirmish rules with 6 or 10mm figures, the footprint of a model building is never going to come close to matching the ground scale. So, similar to Tom Reed above, I designate a built-up area using fences, walls or hedges, and then fill it up with buildings. They can be moved out of the way temporarily when troops move through, and be replaced when the troops leave. Removing buildings is less fiddly than removing troops, and doesn't give rise to any questions about where the troops are actually located in relation to the rest of the table. Any troops within the outline are considered to be in (or among) the buildings, thus:

I do the same thing for WWII (except in 15mm):

I've always used the trick illustrated by Tom Reed and War Artisan.

I tend to use areas decorated as dirt patches or forest floor or pavement underneath the 3D objects (buildings, trees, etc.); the 3D objects simply move aside when the troops move in. When a battle is raging in a piece of terrain, the buildings or trees or blobs of lichen get displaced to aesthetically acceptable areas of the table; when the troops move out, the 3D objects come back to fill in the area again. I do most of this moving myself as the GM.

Only in rare cases do I use specific buildings to represent specific structures, though the GM (me!) is typically the only person present who cares which structure it actually is. As an example: I have a stone church I spent many hours painting into a frenzy of mixed stone colors, so I nearly always feel compelled to make it into a notable structure with a defensive value, and a name (e.g. "the church" or "the monestary" or "the seminary").

Several of my 15mm scale buildings have their own custom-sized patches of ground that live in the storage box with them, and come out onto the table when the building is placed.

- Ix

Unit is hidden in a building: owner keeps a record and gives a copy to the referee.

Unit is in a building, but not hidden: the unit gets a chit to show that it's inside, and is placed somewhere convenient, like on a flat roof or adjacent to the building.

On top, behind, next to. I use BUA templates these days and the buildings move around as required.

In a 6mm Team Yankee tournamnent I played at Cancon 'XX nen we placed stands diangonally on buildings to represent occupation. But recent podcast ramblings have pointed out that actual troops in combat often prefer to dig in in the garden or courtyard rather than setup in a building. interesesteestsing. ..

I use 5/6mm scale buildings on templates with my 15mm Horse & Musket figures. A cork coaster with three loose varied buildings works well as a small village in my games. The buildings move out of the way of units as they advance. I want it to look right and roughly agree with the ground scale. A thatched cottage with 150yd long walls makes me wince.

15mm buildings are for same scale skirmish games these days.

For 6mm I made small strengthened paper houses with no floor. When a stand of infantry occupies, simply pick up the house and place it over the stand or over part of the stand. Works great.
For my 10mm East Africa WW1, I made buildings out of card with removable roofs designed to allow 1 stand to fit inside. Then ready to Tanga!

But recent podcast ramblings have pointed out that actual troops in combat often prefer to dig in in the garden or courtyard rather than setup in a building.

A collapsing house -- not built to withstand artillery fire -- can kill you, unlike a collapsing tomato planter.

Now that I think about it, I have put non-hidden units inside buildings. The buildings either have removable roofs or are just inverted boxes, and we pick the building up to see what's inside.

I haven't actually made individual rooms, but have just given everyone inside a building defensive advantages.

That's for 25-28mm games. For micro scale (1:285-1:300-ish), I haven't had openable buildings.