Originally published at: Shrinking down your tabletop wargames | Boing Boing
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Why stop at 10mm?
You could have 6mm which is what Epic 40k was meant to be except Games Workshop have never stuck to actual scale. But then no manufacturer is that fussed about being spot on.
6mm is still reasonable.
You could go bold and go for 2mm…
http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/indexes/2mmindex.htm
Other manufacturers are available.
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Obviously the trend can be taken further – with multiphoton lithography, you could run miniature WWII battles with every soldier and tank represented.
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The thing I like about smaller scales is that the ground scale and the figure scale are closer. My other observation is that the smaller the figures are, the more you see the terrain, and so the better it has to look.
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The GW Adeptus Titanicus did a version of this that I found really interesting. In order to make the scale of the Titans practical to play with, they made tiny little space marines and vehicles that came in the set. They were an afterthought in the gameplay, but I thought it was great and wished they made an entire game just on those scale pieces. Entire units of marines fit on a 1” square and with the right rules you could have a fun epic conflict on a breakfast table.
I love GW games, but the mandatory 4x8 play surface is a tall order and has kept me out of it since I was a teen.
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That’s pretty much what Epic was.
ETA: I mean Space Marine, although I gather Epic 40k was pretty much the same. I was out of playing GW by the time they actually got round to issuing a game called Epic but they called the Space Marine scale “Epic” long before reissuing/renaming Space Marine.
It’s really the only way to get Titans and any other troop type on the table at the same time. I couldn’t believe it when I saw they were trying to get Titans in WH40K scale games.
It’s a little bonkers. I mean if you’ve let enemy infantry within handgrenade range of something like a Titan something’s gone badly wrong.
It’s like letting a couple of nutters with an RPG in a speedboat pootle up to your aircraft carrier.
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I spent an unrecoverable number of years painting lead miniatures for D&D and Napoleonics for basement weekends and the annual GenCon at Lake Geneva and later at UW-Parkside in Kenosha, WI. What a joyous time…
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Are you aware of GrimLite? It’s basically a cheap and more open version of 40k by the chap who is responsible for Bastionland. It has his distinctly British humour (not unlike the early Games Workshop back when it was slightly less mercenary) and is designed to incorporate coversions and mentalness.
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My housemate and I in the early 90’s bought a couple of 4’x8’ sheets of particleboard and ripped them lengthwise so that we could play on a deeper table. With some 2"x4"s and a couple of folding sawhorses we had a big gaming table that we could take apart to store behind the couch. Playing Epic scale on a 6’x8’ table emphasized maneuver in a way that doesn’t happen when playing on half of a 4’x8’ sheet in the store. Because in the stores, it was pretty much "line every figure up on the edge of the table with the figure bases touching, each side moves forward one turn, and then stand there shooting until somebody wins. We would literally go to the GW store, pick of a few players and then have them follow us to our apartment to play on a BIG table.
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I’ll check that out. I’m a big fan of OnePageRules’ Grim Dark Firefight
And, welcome aboard, Comrade.
Also, Eh-up, our lad, Luke, has made it to Boing Boing. 
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I’m sure that they had a good Reason.
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Thanks for that shout out to GrimLite. I’ve had a read, and it looks like good fun. I like simple games and solo/co-op games too.
The ironic thing is that 15mm armies was the norm for the longest time because that’s HO scale, until Dungeons and Dragons made the 25mm figure common. It really wasn’t even TSR driving the size since there weren’t really much need for army figures, but (pre Games Workshop) Citadel, Martian Miniatures and the other foundries. Traveller figures were 15mm, and the original Striker rules were written at that scale.
To be taken with a grain of salt, as I am remembering my own misspent youth hanging out at the RPG store every day.
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