"3mm Imperial Army for Battle Masters game conversion" Topic

Hey All,

Here's the little Imperial Army I've completed for a conversion project I'm working on for the 1992-era Battle Masters game.

The metal miniature strips are from Microworld Games' 3mm Fantasy line.

Painting up the Chaos Army comes next – I'm thinking of mounting those units on round bases, for more of the "horde" look.

(just some small, steady progress)

Warmaster?

Hi OSCS74,

These are Microworld 3mm figs, so they come in at one third the size of Warmaster 10mm strips – for a scale reference, the hexes on my mat above are 3-inches flat-to-flat.

link

They're amazing in their sculpted detail for miniatures this small….and then it's up to the gamer to mount them taking advantage of the mass-look that's achievable with their tiny "footprints". ;)

That's an impressive looking force when viewed at a distance, though I am not totally certain I can recognise each unit – which one is artillery and which one is crossbowmen?

These are also the first 3 mm fantasy models that I have seen, so the bases look a bit thick to my unaccustomed eye – though they cannot be any thicker than what I use for 28 mm figures, and hopefully make the figures easy to handle on the board.

I notice that you have gone for three bases per unit – are you planning still to remove individual bases during the game to represent damage?

As for the chaos force, round bases might be a bit trickier to easily handle in the game, especially when you need to move up to three bases at once – unless you come up with a sabot system to move multiple bases at once. Another option could be to use similar rectangular bases as for the Imperials, but rotate them 90 degrees for a slightly different look.

Hi Griefbringer!

The stands slide right along on top of the fleece mat, and so a unit of 3 stands can be moved together at once. I just tried this with the round tests stands too, and they can be group moved with one hand – it's super easy, and kind of slick in fact.

The bases are only 3mm thick, but I did experiment with 2mm thick stands, and they weren't tactile enough. Typical board game counters are 1.5-2mm thick, so these stands aren't much thicker than game chits, but I will be transporting these epic armies in magnetically attached storage boxes, so they need to provide a little something to grasp for pulling them out for a game.

I've also had something in the works for my own idea on activation counters, instead of needing cards (wasn't going to show this stuff quite yet – but the opportunity calls).

The activation counter in my hand above is 1 inch in diameter, and on a 3mm thick, clear acrylic disk (same size as the Mighty Cannon counters I showed in the WIP thread, and shown again below – they have a great feel to them). These will go into a chit bag or can, to be pulled for activations. The troop symbols on each counter will match the card artwork on the disk, and these symbols will match those on a force board aid that players will also have for referencing their dice stats. A separate unit symbol can also be cut and stuck under a miniature stand, for a 2nd visual reference, if a player needs to cross-check the troop type (the formation shapes that the infantry are grouped in here do also clue to the unit type mounted on a stand).

If and when we start playing the game, these 1 inch activation counters could be placed into separate pull-bags for each side, and even put into activation "chains"……like laying out order sequences, etc.. When the disks are upside down, they can't be seen through – so if laid out for programmed activating, they'll stay hidden to the enemy until flipped over. This versatility will allow me to easily modifying the basic game's activation mechanics.

This little Epic remaster of Battle Masters is going to have some game "legs" to it – yes, but very tiny ones, once again. ;)

For hordes I'd go with more irregular shapes than circles. Maybe something like this:

link

Great looking army very colorful!

Thanks Mark!

I'll be giving the Chaos Army stands more thought…..

Very cool! I remember getting Battlemasters as a kid and played it nearly every day…over the ages it got lost and destroyed, so I ended up buying another copy just to have it again. This is a great idea!

MG, thanks for recounting those fun memories!

I missed out on Battle Masters the first time around, but after many decades of historical wargaming "seriousness", I'm l really looking forward to some lite fun with this project.