Why 10mm for WW2 gaming?

[Ferb]

Like most wargamers I have figures in multiple scales for the same period (28mm BoltAction/CoC, 15mm & 20mm Battlegroup:FotR/Chain of Command). I'm thinking of getting some 1/300 stuff for WW2 tank battles but I got to thinking about maybe going 10mm instead. So I was wondering what people saw as the benefits of 10mm over 1/300 and 15mm/20mm.

Thanks,

Ferb

[fred.]

I went through this decision process a few years ago, and choose 10mm. And am happy with that choice having seen friends models in other scales.

With 15/20mm the infantry are great, but the tanks are big and expensive.

With 6mm the tanks are good, but the infantry is tiny.

With 10mm the tanks aren't too big, and the infantry are big enough to see what they are. So with 10mm you can get a good sized combined arms  force on the table - without it being too crowded or too expensive.

[Orcs]

Hi Ferb

I havve large WW2 armies in 20mm and early war armies in 10mm .  I have gamed WW2 in  6mm

20/15mm

Considerably more expensive than 10mm and a lot more stoage required - especially terrain.  Very good for small scale combat Platoon up to a company, unless you use rapid fire where larger actions are viable

10mm

Significantly cheaper than 15/20mm.  15mm figures are three times the cost, 20mm about 4 times. Vehicles in both 15 and 20mm are about twice the cost.

Can be used for skirmish level such as chain of command even if there are multiple figures on a base by using hit dice . They are big enough andvdetailed enough to use them based individually for skirmish games.

Stands can also be used on higher level games such as Blitzkrieg commander, where one stand represents a squad/platoon.

Terrian is much smaller than 20mm

6mm

Obviously cheaperthan 10mm - approx half the cost.

Figures are too small to really do skirmish games. Most rules use a stands as the basic unit.  

Not a visually pleasing.
Less storage than 10mm.  
Infantry tend to take up early the same space as 10mm as you tend to use similar size bases with more figures on.  this does negligate the cost saving as well.


So I use 20mm (as I had a load of kit for it ) for ww2 Skirmish games ie Chain of command

For bigger actions I use 10mm with BKC.


If I was starting again from scratch  I wouild go with 10mm for all of it , its the best compromise for looks, storage and cost.

[Ithoriel]

For me it's the balance between table space, cost and identifiability, especially the latter.

When most figures are in shades of grey or green it's nice to be able to tell them apart without having to tag a label to the base.

Also, for me, 10mm is the smallest scale I can do little dioramas on bases.

[Norm]

It's already been said really, 10mm gives a good balance between infantry, anti=tank guns and tank size. I love the looks that Piers is giving to his 20mm games - but my 4' x 3' (tops) pushes me towards the smaller scale.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I'm awful tempted to say why not. It gives a balance between skirmish and btn level games, so that you get the best of both worlds.

That says it all really.

IanS

[JimLeCat]

Hi Ferb,

I went for 10mm for all the above reasons, plus I like the look on the tabletop. In particular, for WW2, I play a lot of IABSM, for which the ground scale is 80 yards to the foot (or 1:240). 6mm is a slightly better fit to that scale, but I decided the figures were just too small for me. 10mm is close enough, so I can get a game where the figure scale almost matches the ground scale, but you can still easily identify who is who and what is what. For WW2, which in deployment terms should be a skirmish writ large, it allows you to start seeing the ranges as they should be, especially on a larger table.

Cheers,
Jim

[Ferb]

Thanks for your thoughts, guess it's time to check out 10mm a bit more thoroughly. :-)

[Raider4]

6mm
Obviously cheaperthan 10mm - approx half the cost.

Heh, and the rest. 10mm Sherman is £2.60, Churchill is £3.00 from Pendraken. 6mm from H&R they're both 40p

But I prefer 10mm for squad level games, 6mm is for playing Epic with.

Cheers, Martyn
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