I have all sorts of games I want to play but sadly not enough space to keep them, time to paint them and budget to buy them.
So I'm trying to adapt them to 10 mm figures instead of their native larger scale.
Have any of you done this? Do you have any tips or tricks to share?
Here is my own progress
Measurements.
For movement and ranges I'm converting directly from inches to centimeters. This keeps everything very simple
Bases
I'm using tiny 10mm round washers with a 4mm hole inside and a 4mm magnet in that hole. One base per man.
Movment trays.
every game will be different but there are opportunities to make things easier
for Blood & Plunder unit cohesion range is a 4 inche circle template. This translates to 40mm round base that functions as a movment tray.
(https://i.imgur.com/lpQaZQt_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium)
For test of honor they already use large 60mm circular trays to hold 3 figures. So I sculpted my own scenic version at 25mm scale.
(https://i.imgur.com/66jXv7K_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium)
Very good, I like the idea of the individual mini washers then the larger rounds for cohesion range and movement.
We also use cm instead of inches for 10mm Black Powder games.
I'm fairly certain that a lot of folks on the forum (and they won't be the only ones !) have 'adapted' rules to use 10mm figures.....and I've never heard anyone saying that hadn't worked pretty well, at least.
Nice ideas you've got already, Paper. Look forward to seeing the progress.
Let us know how you get on. :)
Cheers - Phil.
Those are superb looking solutions to the problem of managing small groups of little figures.
Flexible, practical and Photogenic.
Not sure if you are looking exclusively at skirmish or large battle games (although basing does suggest skirmish only?). Anyway, I'm a Horse & Musket gamer and I don't have a large table or 28mm armies so, I'm constantly converting to a different scale.
The measurements in Black Powder (BP) are easily divisible and so very adaptable to 2/3rds and 1/2 scale. I have downscaled Quick Reference Sheets (QRS) for both BP and Field of Battle (FoB) which I have either acquired from other forums or adapted myself. Honours of War (HoW) whilst written by a 28mm gamer, has both lower and higher scale QRSs. In fact, some of us use the HoW 15mm QRS for our 10mm units because the frontage of our units is the same as the 15mm units.
I personally dislike converting inches to cms in most cases. For example, with my ageing eyesight I would need a magnifying glass to cope with musket ranges of 2, 4 and 6cms. Plus, if the recommended base size for 28mm in the rules was, say, 1.5 inches square like FoB, I would find 1.5cm square bases too fiddly.
Another solution is to make your own rulers. I have measuring sticks in two scales; one where the unit of measurement (1 inch) is actually 2cm, and the other where one unit of measurement (1 inch) is actually 1.5cm. Thin strips of wood or dowelling are easily and cheaply available from DIY stores like B&Q in the UK.
Another tip is not to be fixated by the number of figures recommended by the Rules to make up a unit. In many, if not most rules, nowadays, the author specifies the number of figures he likes to have in his standard units. But unless the rules require casualties or fighting efficiency to be recorded by figure removal, the number of figures used by the author means diddly-squat. Sometimes gamers also get fixated by the number of bases specified per unit - but as long as you can replicate the various formations, this should not be an issue. For example, in HoW the rules recommend twenty 28mm figures per 20cm wide foot unit on 5 bases but I use thirty-two 10mm figures per 10cm wide foot unit on 4 bases without any problems whatsoever (this equates to half scale). Essentially, when downscaling, if you can keep unit footprint and weapon ranges in roughly the same proportions, you will have no problems.
There are also many mdf basing suppliers out there, like Warbases, that are very accommodating in making inexpensive bases customised to your own specifications. Magnetic Displays also offer inexpensive magnetic and steel paper sheets.
Quote from: Westmarcher on 01 March 2019, 11:55:42 AM
There are also many mdf basing suppliers out there, like Warbases, that are very accommodating in making inexpensive bases customised to your own specifications. Magnetic Displays also offer inexpensive magnetic and steel paper sheets.
Having had some very weird shapes created by our hosts here I feel I have to sing the praises of Pendraken when it comes to non-standard bases.
Leon has been amazingly understanding, to the point of suggesting I might want to consider the very items I'd trundled up to ask about!
Quote from: Westmarcher on 01 March 2019, 11:55:42 AM
I personally dislike converting inches to cms in most cases. For example, with my ageing eyesight I would need a magnifying glass to cope with musket ranges of 2, 4 and 6cms. Plus, if the recommended base size for 28mm in the rules was, say, 1.5 inches square like FoB, I would find 1.5cm square bases too fiddly.
In a similar vein, I've experimented a lot with converting measurements for Hail Caesar. I initially tried the inches > cm conversion which is okay on a very small table but can lead to quite slow going in the first few rounds on a normal to larger table (5ft x 4ft is the largest I've played). I also tried halving all the measurements but that proved to be quite faffy too with half inches. What I've settled on and has worked for a couple of games now is doing 2/3 measurements. So a 6 inch infantry move becomes 4 inches, 9 inch cavalry move becomes 6 inches, etc. This has the benefit of not dealing with half inches. Of course, I then realised that 4 inches is pretty much 10cm. And 6 inches is pretty much 15cm. So from there, I was able to scribble out a QRS that had movements and ranges in easy to manage multiples of 5 and 10. There's something quite pleasing about how a 10cm base movement fits with a 10mm figure. Doesn't appear like they're whizzing across the field, nor do they seem to be slowly slogging along.
I did that with Dux Britanniarum, putting 2 (skirmishers and cavalry), 3 and 4 (commanders) figures on pennies and tuppences, each coin representing a single 28mm base. The three photos show an infantry unit in shield wall, skirmishers, commanders and troops not in shield wall (on a War Bases zombie template):
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7831/46332626985_c1a0d0bcd2_z.jpg)
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7865/46332625725_b35afb9390_z.jpg)
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7897/46332626505_deba9686d7_z.jpg)
This reminds me of an inspirational article in Miniature Wargames (Jan 17) when
someone converted Saga 'Crescent and Cross' from 28mm to 10mm, retaining
the original base size and all move / firing ranges but replacing single figures with
multiples. Apparently this worked very well (the article certainly made me want
to have a bash at doing something similar).
Phil
That looks great Leman.
Quote from: Ithoriel on 01 March 2019, 01:22:28 PM
Having had some very weird shapes created by our hosts here I feel I have to sing the praises of Pendraken when it comes to non-standard bases.
Leon has been amazingly understanding, to the point of suggesting I might want to consider the very items I'd trundled up to ask about!
Yes I have just received some custom movement trays in speedy quick time
The only games that I have found to be a bit tricky to adapt for 10mm are those like Chain of Command where the individual figures type of weapon is important. Ie is that a rife or a BAR he is holding.
This can be got around by clever basing or putting a tuft on the base etc. I just prefer larger scales where this is important
I'm currently working up a 10mm version of the Portable Napoleonic Wargame by Bob Cordery which is not scale/size dependent but certainly had 28mm in mind during its development.
I'm using 8 figure infantry units on four 20x10mm bases which are useable on a Heroscape battlefield.
I'm looking at the Divisional version and hope to get at least 2 Divisions per side on table, i.e. a small Corps.
A Division in this case would be like a Division Commander, 4 Brigade Commanders each with 4 Regiments of Infantry, a Battery of Artillery and a Regiment of Cavalry with another Commander. I hope to increase the numbers above that depending on actual playing time. A Corps versus Corps game is not beyond the bounds of possibility.
You can see some of my thinking at:
http://jim-duncan.blogspot.com/2019/02/just-for-you-bob.html
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jCktt5oZfBk/XG8nRh179II/AAAAAAAAIos/Myc4YNzjNyA4CkFZY-HC82V3-TOUAUYXQCLcBGAs/s1600/P1000936.JPG)
Jim
QuoteThis reminds me of an inspirational article in Miniature Wargames (Jan 17) when
someone converted Saga 'Crescent and Cross' from 28mm to 10mm, retaining
the original base size and all move / firing ranges but replacing single figures with
multiples. Apparently this worked very well (the article certainly made me want
to have a bash at doing something similar).
That was one of my articles, and it did work very well, I also increased the size of the armies from 4-6 points to 10-12 with 3 players a side.
The result was massed Crusader battles that look very nice and thanks to the Saga battle boards the different factions play completely differently using the same basic mechanics.
The main reason for keeping the movement and shooting distances the same in 10mm as the 18mm original was to make the distances look further in relation to the figure size. I can't recommend the practice highly enough.
We've been playing What A Tanker! in 10mm since it was published. We convert every 1" into TWO cm, rather than one, so we still get enough movement to feel dynamic. 1"-1cm felt very... static.
I've also tried Chain of Command. I base each 10mm figure on a 12mm washer, with a colour ring around the edge, coded for squad (red, blue, green, etc - brass for the HQ and grey for supports). at the rear of the washer I can put a dot of white - one dot means 'this is not a rifleman', two & three mean junior & senior leaders. You still have to look at the minis for non-riflemen weapons, but at least you know which to look at... Looking at some of the youtube videos of games in larger scales, some of those weapons aren't so obvious either! It is fiddly though. What A Tanker! works better.
Same works for sharp Practice, but I got some custom sabot bases from Minibits for formations.