Question about rules

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I received this question via my YouTube channel today:

I’m a newcomer to the 6mm scale, what would you recommend as a good rules set for microarmor with a 1:1 scale [ one figure represents one of what it represents ( also known as WYSIWYG { what you see is what you get } ) ]. ( it doesn’t matter if it is WW2 or modern, just a good launch pad into the hobby. )

Here is my answer:

Jacob, that’s a question that you can ask a dozen people and get a dozen answers.  My favorite is a set of rules that was published way back in 1981 called TACFORCE.  For some reason it was only published once then simply faded away.  It is a 1 to 1 ruleset and it’s a great mix of ease of play and realism.
The main issue with it is that since it was published in 1981 and at the time it was considered “modern” you are not going to find M-1 Abrams or T-90s in the rules, the vehicle data stops at the M60A3 (although they have something they call the “XM-1”) and the T-72.
Fortunately one lunatic (yes,,, me) has spent the last 30 years updating the vehicle and weapon data for the rules and in the end basically created a whole new game system loosely based on TACFORCE.  Write me privately if you want more info on that.
If you are fine with playing scenarios from the VietNam era through the Cold War, see if you can find a copy of TACFORCE on eBay and pick it up.  I do not think you’ll be disappointed.

New GHQ Minis On The Way

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This week I ordered the following new GHQ minis:
W-101 T-72 TUSK
N-577 CV90105
N-578 Challenger 2 (TES)
N-579 M977 HEMMT Armoured

I got an email from Channing at GHQ today telling me that my order was being processed today … so I expect to see these new minis sometime late next week.  I’ll post photos of these the moment they arrive.  I’m real curious what the T-72 TUSK will look like, I’ve seen a few versions of the real thing on the Internet … so it’s still anyone’s guess what the GHQ model will look like.

GHQ has already posted one photo of the new Challenger 2.  It looks pretty cool.

N578-a

Ground Scale vs Actual Miniatures Scale

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People that are new to miniatures gaming often ask why there is a scale for miniatures and different scale for distances (Ground Scale).  It would be great if the miniatures scale and ground scale were the same but in most cases this simply not practical.  The problem with using a ground scale that is the same as the miniatures scale can be seen in the photo below. In this photo you see a set of game boards that belong to the author, the entire setup is made up of 18 individual boards, each one is 20” x 20”.  One of the reasons 20” was chosen for the board size is because at a ground scale of 1” = 50  meters, each board is one square kilometer.  If a true 1/285th scale ground scale was used it would be aprox. 7” = 50 meters.  You might be thinking “what’s the problem with that?, that would be perfectly realistic”.  Yes, a ground scale of 7”= 50 meters would be very realistic, but it creates real problems for the game. 

One problem is vehicle movement;  Image you have an M1 Abrams at the far end of the table, and it’s on road movement is 1100 meters per turn.  1100 meters at a scale of 7” = 50 meters is 154 inches of movement per turn or almost 13 feet.  This means that an M-1 could move from one end of the table to the other end of the table in one game turn. 

The other problem is firing ranges, at a true 1/285th scale ground scale, a 50 caliber machine gun could cover the entire table, and larger guns could cover two or three table lengths.  If you had that sort of space to play a game that would be great, but most people do not have that much space.  So, the compromise is a smaller ground scale.  With a 1 = 50 meters scale, that same M-1 moves about one individual board length per turn instead of the entire table length, and it can fire just over 3 board lengths rather than across multiple tables.

So, this is why we use ground scales that a significantly smaller than the miniatures scale .. it just makes the game more playable.  It’s worth noting that in small skirmish games that involve only infantry and are played at larger scales like 15mm, 20mm, or 28mm quite often they are played at a ground scale that is equal or very close to the miniatures scale.  In armor games, especially modern armor where vehicle speeds are high and gun ranges are very long this is simply not an option.

©Allen Rockwell, GameCraft Miniatures 2014

GHQ’s New T-55MV

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I really do not have a lot of Russian made vehicles(or as I like to call them, “targets”) in my collection  but I think about 10% – 15% of my collection is Russian made stuff.  So,,, I really don’t talk about them much or post too many pictures of them really …. but this new piece is really nice so I thought I’d share a few photos of it.  It’s GHQ’s new T-55MV (number W100).  These photos don’t really do it justice, I have not painted any of them yet, this unit is just shot with white primer and then blackwashed.  I’ll post some photos when I get a few painted.  But for now I think you’ll get an idea of the depth of the detail on this piece.


GHQ’s New CV9040 (#N574)

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In case anyone cares, GHQ gets 10 points out of 10 points for dimensional accuracy on this model.

I measured the model and compared it to the dimensions of a full scale model and the accuracy is as close to perfect as you could expect.

________Full Scale__Should be in 285th____GHQs Model____Differnece
Length___257.875___0.904824561________0.8955________ -0.009324561
Width____122.047___0.428235088________0.4115________ -0.016735088
Height____106.299___0.372978947________0.3725________ -0.000478947

The length is off by 9 thousands of an inch (thickness of three pieces of paper) and that’s without that little extension on the nose, if you add that extension it’s over slightly over in length …. but I do not think the full scale dimensions take into account that extension. So if you average the with extension and without extension dimensions, it’s pretty much perfect.

The width is a little hard to compare because I think when they give full scale width dimensions it’s form the outside of the tracks … not any extra armor added. So that’s the way I measured the model,,, so it came out 16 thousandths under … but as above, if you add the extra armor outside the tracks it comes out a little over but not an amount that anyone would notice. Again averaging the with extra armor and without extra armor dimensions, it’s damn near perfect.

Height came out 1/2 of 1 thousandth of an inch short (or 4.7 tenthousandths of an inch),,, you don’t get much closer than that.

These are all very tiny differences and I would call the model VERY SCALE. Well done GHQ.

Photo Fun….

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I do not have any other gamers around so sometimes I just like to get out some miniatures and combine my love for Micro Armor with my love for photography and just have a little photo shoot.  Here’s today’s effort.

How the Thunder Run boards get from place to place

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The question was raised on the GHQ forum  about how I transport and store the thunder run game boards. So I thought I would post a few pictures to show you.

First there is a flat board with four casters on it and four small wooden dowels sticking up out of the base which fit into four holes on the bottom of the first shelf unit. That first shelf unit also has four small wooden dowels coming out of the top of it which fit into the holes on the bottom of the top unit. This arrangement makes it very easy to transport these boards in the back of my truck, or possibly even a small car. Once I get to the venue I just stack the boxes on top of the base, and wheel the whole assembly inside.

IMG_5425

Thunder Run 2003 – The Final Big Game

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Had a great game tonight with 6 players, 3 per side. In the end, the Iraqis made a hell of an effort and eventually lost but they took out a lot of American armor in the mean time. The Americans ended the game with 2 M1A1 Abrams and 3 M2 Bradleys remaining. I think the Republican Guard would probably consider that a pretty good day against the Americans.