Mini Monday: What 'Scale' to Wargame

Some of my various projects

So in what 'scale' do you prefer to wargame? For those new to wargaming, miniature ranges can come in all sorts of scales. 6mm/10mm/15mm/18mm/20mm/25mm/28mm/32mm/40mm/54mm, and trust me I left a lot out.
Now the term scale is a bit misleading but we'll go with it for now, ?mm is 'usually' used to represent the height of a figure from foot to the eyes.

Usually roleplayers deal with 25mm-32mm figs, though there are fantasy characters out there in other scales. Wargamers usually deal with 6mm to 28mm.

This was the topic of a chat I had with a friend yesterday afternoon at the local game store. He was starting to consider the smaller scales of 6mm and 10mm for a wargame project. I chuckled, because I had the same projects in 28mm.  Now this is quite common, heck gamers often have the same period in different scales. But it sucks when you  move to a new state with your 28mm Napoleonics and find that the local clubs are all using 15mm for Napoleonics!

Nope! Not going to happen!

The truth is that there are no 'rights or wrongs' in picking a scale. It really depends on what you prefer.
Some very general guidelines:
25mm -32mm- You love to paint beautiful detailed figures. You're using a small amount of figures and really want the 'character' of the figure to show. Also a wealth of options when it comes to ranges and choices of style out there.

Clearly Greeks

20mm- a wonderful scale which combines some of the best qualities of 15mm and the larger scales. But not a lot of ranges out there.

20mm Spanish Civil War

15mm- A scale to consider especially for huge armies or lots of vehicles. Plenty of detail but less to paint and usually easier on the pocket book. Plenty of different ranges and manufacters to chose from.

15mm Team Yankee

10mm- Interesting scale that combines the cheapness of 6mm with the detail of 15mm. Lot more ranges coming out in this scale.

Romans vs Britons

 
6mm-  A lot less detail and you can usually paint these guys pretty quick. But what you lose in detail you make up on mass. Perfect scale for the poor college student with dreams of conquest!

Kurt's 6mm World War 1 game

Now another element to choosing a scale is terrain. The smaller the scale the more 'epic' your 6x4ft table can look. ex. A WWI trench game in 28mm may only have a few lines of trenches on the defenders side. But a trench game in 6mm could have the attackers starting point , defenders trenches and the field and town beyond the trench.

Kurt is the master of 6mm and fills the table

Now often the big glossy rulebooks will often have lots of 28mm pictures. This is usually because the 28mm figs are more striking and often inspiring. But don't go thinking that this is the only scale for the rules. It is very rare that you can't use another scale for a set of  rules.

A final word on choosing your scale. If you are really into the project and want to build opposing sides then choose whatever feels right for your dreams and pocketbook. But if you only want to build one side then ask around and see if anyone else is playing or interested in the same period. Then work it out or go with that scale so that you will have a a sparring partner.