Going small...Modern Armor 1/285th

[Noland]

So I elected to get micro armor instead of the Battlefront Team Yankee. For the price of just the Soviet box ai scooped up a T-72 company, A BMP company and an M1 Company with eight buildings.

 

Pro:

1. Cost. You cannot beat $40 for a company box set, I should have opposing battalions up for about the same cost as the BF starters

2. Terrain. It is cheap and easy to produce

3. Time. I painted a triple color Soviet Company in two hours after the primer dried to include flocking

4. Scale. A 4 x 6 table could really fill up fast with Battalions and bring

 

Cons:

1. MBT guns are as fragile as German 2cm models...they bend if breath too hard

2. I hope you have a stock of extra 15mm BF bases, they are excellent for this scale:

a. Small bases for units

b. Medium bases for building city blocks

c. Large bases for farms and town squares

d. Kits come with no bases and they really help protect the models

3. I think I am the only guy with MicroArmor....sigh, I will roll dice solo for a while

4. The rules in the box read odd, I think, you could use the BF rules

 

 

What are your thoughts Generals?

[barca]

I don't know much about your local peers, but in Portland, we do have some people who see 15mm as the wrong scale for Team Yankee, and would do bolt action in 15mm instead of 28 mil. JesseLowe is one who comes to mind, but there are other voices with same perspective.

 

Just because it looks like the wilderness around you, does not mean that u r alone.

 

If it is worth getting a league started, I might have some cold war stuff in micro armor scale in storage, that I could pull out.

 

But If I have it; not selling, but might play it...

[barca]

Could u list ur retail source, since some gamers might follow in ur footsteps.

[Noland]

Game Matrix (Tacoma) has box sets for WWII, alternate WWII (Germany 1947), Cold War and Moden War. They also carry a wide range of blisters and supportive materials. The only thing I am going to have trouble with is trees. I might have to hit up a railroad hobby store for something that is durable and looks good.

[Noland]

Prices are also good. Off sale, company box sets are $40 and five tank blisters are $10. Pretty good deal as you can expect Team Yankee is going to expand quickly into French, British and Warsaw Pact creating a huge money pit to invest into.

[barca]

If looking for model trees from model railroad sources, then 6mm or 1:300 or 1:285 modeling scale is approximately equivalent to Z or ZZ gauge model railroad.

 

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_transport_modelling_scale_standards

[barca]

If you want, use this guide to select the model size for realistic tree sizes:

https://www.arborday.org/trees/righttreeandplace/size.cfm

 

This diagram is not specific for scale models, but the relative sizes in the pic, and the heights of different trees listed, should allow you to calculate the model tree size in your scale.

[barca]

for example, a 40 foot tree would be scaled to a 1.6 inch tree model in 1:300 or micro armor scale.

[fingolfen]

Honestly I like the 15mm scale - good compromise between being able to get a high level of detail and playability - 1:285th is too small to paint up beyond a basic standard for all but the most talented artists... 28mm gets very big if you're using vehicles...

[ZEKE]

I was just doing some math and wondering, Using micro-armor and 1/285th scale stuff to go with, can you play FOW on a miniature table? if so, how do you convert the scale measurement?

 

Answer is YES and Conversion is easier than you think.  In the FOW rules, where-ever  you have inches, read it as centimeters. Technically its a little off but its small enough that your not going to notice it. 12" converted down would be 4.59" and 12 centimenter is closer to 4.75" (close enough).  

Standard game table that is 48" x  72" (or 4'x6') would be 48cm x 72cm.   

Standard tank movement would be 12cm,  

Standard infantry movement would be 6cm.

Most tank main gun ranges would be 32cm.

 

That would be a 19" x 28-1/2" gaming table.  That could be the outside of a briefcase unfolded and laid out flat and there is the table, inside the briefcase could be smaller containers holding terrain and game pieces. What an interesting concept! Anybody in for this?

 

I'm not saying this would be easy gaming, especially without tweezers, but if you have alot of that micro-armor just sitting around, it can be put to use as "Travel - Flames of War".

[barca]

Great idea. very low-budg.

 

Here are some resources in Mirco-Armor scale:

http://brooklynwargaming.com/2014/03/31/micro-armour-getting-started/
http://www.ghqmodels.com/pages/military/
http://gcmini.mybigcommerce.com/6mm/
http://gcmini.mybigcommerce.com/micro-armor/
http://www.microarmormayhem.com/
http://allensmicroarmor.com/
http://modernspearhead.net/quartermasters/micro-armour-quartermasters/
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/topics.mv?id=302
http://ptdockyard.com/1300-aircraft/
http://www.panzer-war.com/
 

[Noland]

I am working on my battle box now to contain turf, tree and tanks. I like small for this era...changes things up a bit

[lazarus]

Some of us in portland had been looking into playing cold war comander in 1/285.  For big battles i think it would be a great scale to play in.  All i have so far is 2 apache choppers right now though.  But if some one has spares i would be happy to push tin with them.

[barca]

now I am tempted to dig into my storage and inventory what I have.

Big mystery to me, since I have not seriously looked at it in years.

Just recall I have a large box labelled "mirco-armor", and that buds and I collectively laid out 200  Cold War vehicles in that scale many years ago.

If there is enough there to get started in this scale, then something like this - Team Yankee in micro armor scale - might be happening in PDX.

But don't expect it to be in the next few weeks.

Like many of you, I have multiple projects I am juggling...

 

"You cannot die while you still have unpainted models"

[Centurious]

I picked up a box of the Abrahms at the Matrix along with a couple cobras.I am contemplating sending in an order to GHQ as well to pick up some other things.

[Noland]

This might be something we could pull together during Enfilade? A demo of Cold War armor in Europe? Thoughts?

[jesselowe]

This might be something we could pull together during Enfilade? A demo of Cold War armor in Europe? Thoughts?

Do it! This year's theme is Against All Odds and they're still looking for games, so set one up and see what you get.

[barca]

If someone wants to run this event, I will bring some sort of Soviet force and participate, so long as schedule does not conflict with FoW tournament (all day Saturday) and 15mm Team Yankee events.

[barca]

I will post what I have and what I plan to buy and paint in a few days.

Found the boxes in storage. Should have a free hour later this week to poke through and inventory the non-WWII stuff.

[Noland]

I would normally like to assist on setting this up, but two things are holding me back:

 

1. I have no clue who to engage with to get this moving to Enfliade

 

2. We (the I-5 Warriors) need to determine if this game would be micro armor on BF or using another rule set. I think there needs to be a little group talk there first. Just because geography is a barrier and people are used to BF rules, I think it would make sense to mix micros with BF systems?

 

Concur with Barca, minimal interference on existing games. Either Sundsy morning or a Friday night warm up.

[taran.shannara]

For running a game at Enfilade, one needs to eventually register for the event and but can submit a request to run a game now here -->. http://nhmgs.org/enfilade!.html

 

On the form, it asks all the questions like table size requested, what game, what version ruleset, what time slot you want, who is running it, description of game, etc.

 

Enfilade 2016 Pre Registration is set to open on February 1, 2016 and will close on April 27, 2016.
Enfilade 2016 Event Submission is set to open on January 1, 2016 and will close on May 13, 2016.

[barca]

I am flex on rules. My input on this is that it would be helpful to have at least 2 people familiar with the rule set, so that the pace moves along reasonably.

 

Rule sets - so many choices:

A Fistful of TOWs 3 "FFT3"
Battlefield Evolution (Mongoose Publishing) "BE"
Battlegroup (Iron Fist Publishing) "BG"
Challenger 2000 / Challenger II (Tabletop Games) "C2k" / "CII"
Close and Destroy {Timeline} "C&D"
Cold War Commander "CWC"
Combined Arms: Modern Miniature Wargaming (Command Decision) (GDW) "CA"
Fields of Fire: Miniatures rules for modern combat (Proving Ground Games) "FoF"
Fire fight: Modern skirmish rules (Tabletop Games) "FF"
Force on Force + Cold War Gone Hot: World War III (Osprey Publishing) "Force"
Micro Armour: The Game - Modern (GHQ) "MATG"
Modern MICRO ARMOUR TANKS (GHQ) "MM-T"
Modern Spearhead (Arty Conliffe) "MSH"
Tankwreck (Vandering Publications) "TW"
Team Yankee (Battlefront) "TY"
The Battlefield: Miniature Modern Warfare (Brent Spivey Creations) "TB"
Wargames Rules for Armoured Warfare at Company and Battalion Battle Group Level 1950 to 1985 (WRG) WRAW"
(Zvezda Models) Battle for Oil Alternate History Hotwar Board Game (Zvezda) "BFO"

[taran.shannara]

If you are getting interested in 1/285th scale modern gaming be sure to check out www.tac2game.com for rules and vehicle data cards.  It is done by a guy I get some of my terrain from.

[jesselowe]

I would normally like to assist on setting this up, but two things are holding me back:

 

1. I have no clue who to engage with to get this moving to Enfliade

 

2. We (the I-5 Warriors) need to determine if this game would be micro armor on BF or using another rule set. I think there needs to be a little group talk there first. Just because geography is a barrier and people are used to BF rules, I think it would make sense to mix micros with BF systems?

 

Concur with Barca, minimal interference on existing games. Either Sundsy morning or a Friday night warm up.

 

My vote as a kibbitzer is to do a couple test games. I have copies of Cold War Commander and Spearhead Modern available if you want to test them out.

 

For a con game you'll have different priorities for a rules set than you would for a tournament or the usual pickup game. If I were doing this, I'd be trying to decide between promoting a system or setting up a scenario/historical refight.

 

Am I trying to promote a particular system? In that case, said system is a given, so I'll tune the scenario to show off the system's best aspects, and provide plenty of play aids to cover any hiccups in the system. (I'll also try to ensure that the rules are easily available from online retailers and, preferably, a vendor at the show.)

 

Do I want to refight a particular battle - or in the case of Team Yankee, a hypothetical scenario? In that case, I'll look for the rules that best fit the scenario in question.

 

Regardless, I'd look for the following:

Ease of play with people who are likely to be somewhat tired, having difficulty hearing (Enfilade can get a bit loud), and are probably new to the rules. Things I've been thinking about are flip charts for turn phases - to keep everyone on the same page - and written orders, though I'm having trouble figuring out how to do the latter without it being cumbersome.

 

Quickness of play: the more time people spend fiddling around with dice, unit stats, or poking at their phones while someone else resolves a combat or the referee explains something, the less time they're playing the game.

 

Balance in scenario: Nobody likes a one-sided game, especially the guys on the losing side. There are (at least) two ways to do this: Going for balanced forces and terrain, or tweaking the win conditions so that they're not the usual "break the enemy/hold ground" deal. Fighting Withdrawal in FoW is one of my favorite scenarios for this kind of thing. You can also have fun with assigning individual objectives for the various commands, so an individual player can be "winning" even if his side is losing (and, of course, vice versa.)

[Noland]

Sorry all for falling off the radar as of late. Time to post some thoughts.

 

I am going to experiment with the FOW rules on the micros. My reason is that most everyone is familiar with them and they play easily. Now I am not the end all of discussion, so please experiment and report back to the group of successes and failures.

 

For adding this to the Enfilade schedule, I think groups need to play test and talk the results. The more common the system, the more likely people will jump into playing.

 

I am having a great time painting them up though...MicroArmor is a great scale to play at.