How often do you see someone with a sword run up to an emplaced rifle squad without getting the absolute bejeezus shot out of them?
I mean.. it was such a problem in the First World War that a few things were invented to help with it.
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| Clankity! Clankity! I'm a Tankity! |
Yet, i've seen plenty of wargames where someone with a sword , or exclusive close combat type kit can not only charge and engage at a greater range than the rifle, but can also do it before the opposing unit has a chance to shoot.
"Realistic" - No. But then, suspension of disbelief is a thing in Fantasy & Sci Fi wargames. I do have limits however.
The thing I notice, which bring up the subject of the post is the SCALE of the game
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What I mean, is that in a wargame there are three basic scales - all of which can vary.
Figure Scale.
Ground Scale
Timescale.
Figure Scale
This is two things - 1 is the physical size of the mini - 6mm,10mm,15mm,25mm,28mm etc - This should be fairly self explanatory.
the other is what it represents - from 1 'man' to several.
For example:
Third Empire (15mm SF Skirmish)
We use 1:1 - A base with 1 model on it represents 1 man. 1 vehicle model represents a single vehicle etc.
Legions - 15mm Mass Battle
This has a mixed ratio - but, as it is based on the 'element' - Generally a 50x40mm Base it can be slightly more abstract -
For Most Infantry we have 6-7 on an element base, with a 50:1 ration - each physical mini represents 50 'men' so an element is around 300 ish troops.
Cavalry is the same, but with only 3 to an element base.
Polemos - 6mm Historical/ACW
This ruleset by Baccus has two basing styles, depending ont he size of battle represented - Regimental level, or brigade.
For Regimental level:
A 60mm x 30mm base of cavalry represents a regiment of 300-500 men and
horses.
A 30mm x 30mm artillery base represents two batteries each of 4 to 6 guns.A 30mm x 30mm Officer base is use for Generals, Corps and Divisional
commanders
For Brigade Level:
A 60mm square base of infantry represents an infantry formation of between 1200 and 2000 men. This may represent a brigade or division, depending on the size of the army being modelled.
A 60mm square base of cavalry represents between 1200 and 2000 men. This may represent a brigade or division.
A 30mm x 30mm artillery base represents 16 to 24 guns,
Third Empire - Micro - 6mm SF mass battle
Another Mixed ratio - This is more 1 base = 1 squad, so the 5 or 6 minis on the base can represent 5-20 odd depending on the organisation.
Vehicles are still generally 1 to 1 individually based.
Third Empire - Pico - 3mm SF mass battle
Much smaller mass battle - for most units, 1 base = 1 platoon (or equivalent).
Superheavy Vehicles and walkers are generally a 1:1 basis.
Time Scale
This can be rather nebulous, as missile fire, especially modern weapons can fire ridiculously quickly, so 1 shot per element per turn may seem low, unless you consider it as representing a whole turn of firing and the rolls are for the effect. Again, a little abstract, but not too much.
Generally, we look at a turn being 30 seconds to a minute for 15mm sci fi
5 minutes a turn for 6mm sci fi and 5-10minutes for 3mm sci fi.
This, combined with ground scale (see next) is what really sets up how fast unit should move.
Ground scale
the way I look at this, is for skirmish games, a 1:1 ratio to figure scale isnt too bad - E.G. for 15mm Skirmish we use a 1:100 ground scale (15mm is roughly 1:100-1:120).
but, for a massed battle, that starts getting a bit wierder - Generally, for Fantasy massed battle we use about 1:200 or so
for smaller scales, it get's even more abstract, for 6mm/1:300 (Fntasy and Sci fi) we use 1:3000 ground scale and for 3mm/1:600 we use 1:6000 ground scale.
For various ranged weapons, and, indeed statlinew we start of with a baseline - usually an 'average' human and assault rifle.
for example a Modern assault rifle can shoot around 350-550 ish meters. thats in ideal circumstances, so feasibly, under combat circumstances, halving that wouldn't be too unreasonable - so 175 to 275 meters - average it out to 200 meters for simplicity.
That, in the various scales would give us ranges of:
15mm/1:100 ground scale: 200cm/2meter range on the tabletop -
The way we work the ranges in 15mm is everything has an infinite range, but they also have range bands - where the chance to hit decreases after each band, meaning the actual effective range would vary depending on the skill of the firer along with a few other factors.
6mm/1:3000 ground scale: 6.6 cm range on table top.
This could be generously increased to 10cm, with a 5cm range band (meaning it gets harder to hit after every 5cm of range)
3mm/1:6000 ground scale: 3.3 cm range on table top - effectively close combat/assault only.
Overall
What I'm trying to say, probably quite badly as my brain is bouncing around various bits & bobs, is that, when designing a wargame, the Scale(s) are a major part of it.
In certain well known 28mm scale games, it appears to me that the ground scale for shooting, and moving are VERY different, and that affects the whole thing.
For example
28mm scale is roughly 1:72-1:64 depending. So, lets split the difference to 1:68.
No ground scale is mentioned in any of the editions I've ever read, so we can assume it's the same as the model scale.
Similar with a turn - there's no mention of how long is represented by a turn.
One, actually, most of of the standard (or, you could say - baseline) weapons has around a 24"/60cm range.
So, for 1:68 scale, would be just under 41 meter range (40.8m)
An average walking speed is around 4 miles, 6437meters an hour.
In a turn, most units could move 4-6" (10cm-15cm) that equates to 6.8-10.2 meters.
107 Meters per minute
Which, at 6437 meters/hour would take about 3.8--6 seconds
Yeah.. a bit bonkers I think, especially when you consider some units could move at 4 times that speed.
Table sizes come into it as well.
So, going with the above scales:
26mm = 1:68
15mm = 1:100
6mm = 1:6000
3mm = 1:3000
However, there have been interviews with the original rule designer, where they have stated that weapon and movement ranges were based on table size, not any particular scale... which... Hmm...... Especially when you consider that a 6x4foot table would be about the size of a rugby pitch and a half, and with what's int he game nowadays
Well, if you enjoy it, more power to you - as I've said before.
Play the game how you want it.
I'll stick with a movement/weapon range that are proportional, after all - There are more historical examples of charges getting slaughtered by weapon fire, than not.
