"6mm DBA 3 / HOTT A few questions" Topic

I prefer to do smaller scale figures due to space, money and moving constantly. I searched as well as I could for other posts and found some really old posts that did help some.

I was going to use 40mm frontage bases and was looking for guidance to the number of figures to use. I was thinking 3-4x the number listed in the book. What do others do?

If I did a 6mm army using the 40mm frontage, I assume I could play against 15mm armies in a tournament without issues (other than people feeling like they are fighting an army of dwarfs)?

It looks like most people recommend Baccus, Irregular and Heroics & Ros. Do they go well if mixed together or should I stick with 1 vendor? Are there other vendors to check?

Any other hints/tips?

TO

If you intend to use these in tournaments were 15mm are the norm then do make basing distinctive enough to notice the difference between "fast" and "solid" troops. (All my foot troops for 3.0 armies use the deeper base option).

The number of banners or standards might work well to notice solid blade from solid warband or solid auxilia.

I have never seen a tournament in which players were allowed to mix scales. In addition, the cost of 6s add up when you start filling up the stands with them. If you want to play in tournaments, I suggest you buy at least one 15mm army.

Heroics and Ros are really 5mm and decidedly smaller than the others. Largest of all are Adler, don't know if they do ancient/medieval figures. I think Baccus and Irregular are very different styles.

I agree with VT. Adler, Baccus and H&R don't really mix that well (and I was the US dealer for Baccus for several years – may be again, we'll see). H&R are really noticably smaller and Baccas/Adler have very different styles. OTOH I'm a scale heretic and happily mix anything close in my own armies…

The cost issue is also a wash I find. A pack of 15mm cost about $4.50 USD for 8 figures (give or take). So call it $0.55 USD per figure. A stand has at most 4 figures or $2.20 USD. An army has at most 12 stands so $26.40 USD Add a few dollars for a camp and you get about $40 USD with a few mounted.

Baccus 6mm run $0.48 USD per strip of four figures. Put four of those on a stand and bang – pretty much the same as 15mm.

However: most 15mm makers make pre-packaged DBA armies so you get just the figures you need. So if you need just 2 slingers you don't need to buy a full pack – you get just those 2 figures. Whereas with Baccus you have to buy a pack of slingers with lots of leftovers. (Baccus stopped making DBA armies a while back).

If I were doing DBA in 6mm I would use the 25mm frotages of 60mm – really take advantage of the mass effect of 6mm.

Just to add to what Mark put, while we don't do DBA army packs any more, we do have a 'Buy by the unit option' on the website. Just click the 'Build a unit' icon on any Ancients code listing and you can effectively build your own base of figures and even decide on the number of ranks it will have.

No need to buy full packs and you get a fully customised army. They only thing we stipulate is that you must get a minimum of 12 units.

There are so many competing Ancients rules out there, all with their own basing conventions and takes on army lists, troop definitions and compositions that it became impossible to support them all. The buy by the unit option enables us to let you design your army for your chosen rules set.

That is an excellent idea and great customer service!

Most likely I would play in a tournament once a year. I do have a 15mm army that I've had for awhile now but have started having more interest in DBA so I wanted to look at making more armies. Especially since no one in my area plays, it would most likely be me providing the armies.

Should figure scale matter if the base widths are the same? Is it just aesthetics?

Baccus, thanks for the information about the unit builder. I never noticed that link while looking these past couple of days.

Extra Crispy, doing the bases at 60mm width is not a bad idea. As you point out, it would look nicer. I think that is what is drawing me the most into 6mm. Unfortunately that most likely removes the cost and storage advantages.

It definitely gives me some things to think about.

It still has storage advantages. 6mm is lighter and the box does t have to be so high to deal with cavalry and spears. I have bought some cheap A4 filing boxes that are about 2.5cm deep and they stack. You can get a lot of armies in a small space.

I also went down the 6mm for cheapness method. DBA/M/R use to have a narrower and thinner 6mm scale, but like others have said, I ended up agreeing that it looks so much better using 28mm scale bases for the mass effect.

You will get mixed opinions about using 6mm figures in a 15mm tournament, despite the base widths being the same.

Cheers,
JohnG

Good point about storage, platypus01au.

No one seems to have mentioned Rapiers 6mm range, worth a look.
Adler dont do Ancients in 6mm, we have gone up to 10mm for that period.
L

With regard to storage:

Regardless of the figures used – 15mm or 6mm – if you use the 15mm size bases, the army takes up the exact same footprint. So the saving is 1" of height. And 90% of that will be air.

Frankly, if you think it will save "storage" you'll be disappointed. Same footprint, close to the same weight if you have a lot more figures, but nothing meaningful.

Unless you have 80 armies, but how many will you deal with at a time?

I adore 6mm. I think the mass visual effect and ease of painting makes it worthwhile even without storage or cost concerns.

4x Baccus strips fit neatly on a standard 40mmx20mm wide base.

The best tournament option for DBA is a matched historical pairs format. A player brings two historical matched armies, and in alternate games uses his pair or his opponents pair.

I have run such tournaments where some players brought 25 mm figures and some brought 15 mm. But as they were pairs it didn't matter what anyone person brought. So this is a tournament That 79PA has never seen :).

For the player with 6 mm figures, such a tournament is perfect. Bring two matched 6 mm armies and you will fit right in. Do be careful to indicate differences between solid and fast types. I Have not seen a tournament of this type with 6 mm but no reason it would not work.

All of my DBA 6 mm elements are tight packed, fitting as many figures as possible for heavy infantry fewer for medium types and fewer still for lights. I have not yet figured out how to differentiate fast and solid.

Thanks for that info, Bobgnar. I do not think I've seen that format before.

Most likely I will stick with the 15mm base width if I do decide to go to 6mm figures, but you never know. Gives me things to look into during the summer convention season.

For some great pictures of 6 mm figures in action take a look at the first article in Great battles of history for DBA and see Charlie Z's battle of Gela. Fantastic terrain, excellent write up, Beautiful board. The figures are OK I guess (they were my contribution to this otherwise great article) :-)

PDF link

Thanks again, Bobgnar. I will check that out.