"The Joy of Six: "For Those Whose Boats Are Not Floated by 6mm..."" Topic

Besides being the most brilliantly named convention, ever, this event looks like an awful lot of fun. I love the enthusiasm and the welcoming approach. Almost all my gaming is in 54mm these days, but I'd kill to go if I only lived closer. Hope it goes well!

If I ever get to Blighty, this convention will be on the agenda.

Though I game only in 2mm I'd love to go,just for the amount of ideas I would get.

Sadly it's a bit far from Scotland by public transport.
Maybe next year.

Would also love to be there, if not for the Atlantic Ocean! I take it it's about the same time every year, just in case I ever plan a world tour?

Leeds Wargames Club will be back again. Excellent show plus the added excitement of Sheffield's equvalent of the Bermuda Triangle known as the one way system!

Go if you can this really is a great event.

I hope it goes well also. I have some 6mm armies – and as an owner of some 6mm figures I would be interested to see how you counter the "just too small" comment. I mean, they are only 6mm tall for foot figures. Like I say, I have some, I game with them, but I have to admit that they are small !

But Giants next to my 2mm figures of course.

'Just too small' is a piece of cake. Lots of ways to answer that one, so let's just go with one. Rather than 6mm being 'too small', I'd argue that they are the perfect size for wargaming medium to large size battles. On the other had, 28mm are 'just too big'.

We've all seen attempts to do big battles in 28mm where the sheer tabletop footprint of the units mean that there is edge to edge lining up of opposing forces and tactical nuance is left to advancing on the enemy to the front slowly or quickly. The equally huge footprint of 28mm buildings means that what should be small features dominate the battlefield leading to even more congestion. As a means of playing big games, larger scales are 'just too big'.

On the other hand, the reduced footprint of the smaller scales allows for a much greater percentage of the available table space to be used for manoeuvre and gives a meaningful shape to historical setups as opposed to finding a way to shoehorn yet another large 28mm unit into the action.

6mm are not 'too small' – they are the perfect fit of form and function for battles involving large numbers of combatants.

And that's just for starters…

You make some excellent points, Peter (I assume it's you writing the above). Although these days I usually game at the opposite side of the size spectrum from you, I think I see the attraction of the little fellows. We've all seen them: games that consist of two lines of formed troops crossing the entire table, with no real flanks and little opportunity for manoeuvre, that appear, at least to the casual observer, to be reduced to little more than two advancing lines, a kind of wind-up and roll forward situation that never looks that fun to me. Now to be fair, quite a few battles WERE little more than this, and I'm sure there is a lot of pleasure to be had in such games if they have good scenarios with a nice set of rules, but there is always the sense that something is missing. I recently saw some photos of a Sudan game in 6mm and it was very impressive--there was a real impression of open spaces, the vastness of the desert, which was extremely atmospheric and isn't easily attained in larger scales.

One thing I've tried to do with my big fellows is to paint up matching 6mm armies for the big battles in a campaign, and then play out large skirmishes and vital parts of a larger battle (a crucial salient, etc.) with my 54's. I do find I don't like painting smaller figures as much as the large, but the finished product does tend to look good. They look like real armies. My "smaller" project has stalled for the past year or so, and reading the above makes me think about getting it going again. I must say I find your friendly, patient advocacy of your little men to be most compelling. Well done, and here's hoping your convention is a resounding success. Wish I could pop by!

Daryl, thank you for your very positive response. You have pretty well nailed the point of what I was getting at. If you are playing games with a low figure count and at a low level of action the larger figures are the right tool for the job. That is their 'fit for purpose' role. The reverse is the case for 6mm. I've seen pictures of loads of Waterloo games done in 28mm over the past few weeks and all of them suffer from the usual overcrowding effect and the need to distort the battlefield to accommodate the reach of the average wargamer. It will be interesting to compare these with Ian Willey and Lee Sharpe's wonderful Waterloo game which will star at the JOS15.

This is why we really do want those who aren't 6mm fans to come to the show. When game after game on display allows for the positive use of space in the spectacle of the presentation it may allow a few pennies to drop.

Personally I like 6mm (and yes, the smaller 2 or 3mm) because of how many you can fit in the foot print of 15mm or 25/28mm. A battalion starts to look like it.