A Tale of Two Portable Wargames and Smaller Grid Space

For some time, I have been contemplating the benefit of a smaller square for my grid. 6" feels right, but limits the grid to 6 x 6 most of the time (It can go 8x8 on my 4' square plywood, but I can't easily set that up and leave it out). 4" doesn't look quite right with the large scale CTS armor, and is a bit small even for 1/43-1/50 vehicles, although it has the benefit of a 9x9 table. 5" allows me to go with 7x7 (4.75 would give me 8x8 on my card table, but I don't feel like messing with fractions when measuring).

So, Friday, I painstakingly set out little stones to indicate 5" squares and setup Tabletop Teaser #1 (yes, again). For some ambience I kept the lights low and used the light from my little houses:

Soviet infantry and HMG companies guard the town while their commander entertains a visitor.

I turned the overhead light on to get a picture of the entire table.

The commander, furious about all of the noise that has ruined his evening, comes out to find the Germans at his doorstep.

The Germans managed to capture the bridge before the Soviets had a chance to blow it up. The 5" grid seemed to work well enough.

Was it better than the 6x6 game? Not significantly.  

However, it did allow me have a little more space to maneuver, for units to fall back to avoid taking damage, and turned a one grid space woods into a three grid space woods, which I rather liked. However, in terms of fun, I think it was about the same. Then again, I have fun just pushing figures around my table next to my laptop and rolling dice, so my standard is pretty low.

Next, I set out Tabletop Teaser #3, The Advance Guard Action,(available here) to try out the smaller square/more squares further. I had never played this one before which made it harder to judge the impact of the grid. 

The sides have identical forces but at "mid-day" they may receive reinforcements.

The Lend-Lease recon unit is visible on the Soviet side.

German motorised infantry race for the town.

Each side has reached its primary objective and threatens the enemy at the other.

The Soviets assault the German defenders in the town. A rather uninspiring picture of a tank battle.

The struggle for the town.

The Soviets force out the Germans and get comfy.

The German attacks on the Soviet positions near the bridge are repelled and the Soviet infantry occupies the cover of the woods.

The German reinforcements arrive.

But are outgunned by the Soviet reinforcements.

The Germans are running out of steam and have neither objective in hand.

Although their armor was able to drive the Soviet armor out of the town, they were flanked and destroyed by the second Soviet armor unit. Their force whittled to nothing, they abandoned the field.

The Germans had very little success in this one and when they reached their exhaustion point it really was the end for them - as by that rule, they couldn't advance to either objective. The Soviet T-34 reinforcement drove the last nail in.

This scenario definitely benefited from the extra squares - motorized infantry (subbed in for the light infantry) and recon units (light cavalry) chew up ground quickly.

The only time I really felt the smaller space was off was when enemy tanks faced off in adjacent spaces - their butts had to hang into the squares behind them even as their fronts nearly touched. Still, a minor inconvenience, and I do have a number of 1/50 scale tanks (just not for the Soviets although I have finally found some reasonably priced sources for resin prints of them) if it really bothers me. 

Is it worth sacrificing a few feet of my ground cloth to make a second grid cloth so I don't have to put out little stones? I think so. So, that's next on the docket.