A Game of Inches

The other night I decided to experiment with a half-sized play area for One Hour Wargames - just to add my voice to the chorus of those who are happy to celebrate that you don't need a lot of figures or space to play miniature wargames that aren't 1 figure = 1 man/lizard/orc/etc. And you can use 28mm+ sized figures to do it.

Some will no doubt guffaw at such a spectacle, but not all of us have room for large tables, permanent or otherwise, nor do we all have easy access to clubs or stores that provide tables and space to game.

I have used 3" wide bases many times, and that is half the max 6" width Neil Thomas recommends, but usually I play on 2/3 size surface with them, just to have some more room for maneuver or to play 8 v 8 instead of 6 v 6, or to better fit some of my terrain pieces, which were intended for the full-size 36" square.

Enough rambling!

Here is one of my favorite scenarios, set out on my kitchen island using an 18" square (my 36" surface folded into 4ths!)

The Black Orcs, which I treat as "shieldwall", are hard to see, but they are in the village. The savage orc "warband" covers the gap between the road and the mountains.

 

Bottleneck!

No room around this.

Next!

Turn 5 - Orc first wave of reinforcements arrive.

And quickly take over for the fallen warband.

And do a splendid job of it.

Turn 10 and the second reinforcement wave arrives. The lizards are cooked. I call the game after another turn or two.

The game, enjoyable as it was to look at, felt frustrating as play went on. 

The lizards could never get a second unit up between the orcs and the mountains and so one unit of orcs at held of a far larger force. When they finally fell, they were replaced by reinforcements and the pattern continued. 

Realistic, but not how this scenario usually plays out (often the attacker at least reaches the village even if they don't capture it).

Then it occurred to me: I never go this small an area because my terrain is not sized for it!

The mountains are 7" across - which means they truncate the center as do the 8" diameter woods. Neither piece should be over 6" if they are to occupy 1/9th of the table per the scenario setup.

So I moved them slightly apart (overhanging off my cloth just a bit) and the result was much more satisfactory - I could fit another base through the gap now. 

The game started out almost identically with the orc unit defending the road eliminating the lizard cavalry, but a second lizard unit was able to move up and attack the orc unit from the flank. This opened the way to the village (where the orc "shieldwall" was located).

I love the colorful look of the lizards.

This time, by the time the first wave of orc reinforcements arrived, the lizards had already begun their assault on the village.

The orc cavalry are dangerous but this time the lizards come out on top.

 

The skinks assaulting the village are driven off, but the orc cavalry repulsed.

A second attempt at the village is made!

And the second wave of orc reinforcements arrive. Note, I decided they couldn't flank the crocodile unit as they are nearly up against the "table" edge and no room for a unit to squeeze in.

The village falls!

The lizards capture the village but it's going to be a close run thing.

End of turn 14, this is how things stand,

The game should have ended on turn 15, but I played one more turn. The lizards were victorious - having captured the village and the remaining orc cavalry retired to regroup and try again another day.

This worked much better - more like how it usually plays out, with the attacker having an actual chance of winning. For future half-sized games I will remember to adjust the size of area terrain to fit the playing area! 

I have the space on this counter to go up to a full 36" square, but there's just something about this tiny setup that I find very appealing so I expect I'll do this more often. 

It also effectively doubles my troops without having to paint anything else. If I need two units of shieldwall for the orcs, I can put 5 per base instead of 6! These (and, the Boar Boyz), are old GW metal sculpts and are kind of pricey to buy enough to make a full unit - so the savings are not insubstantial.