Hello all,
This is a bit of a ramble, but I thought worth sharing.
It came about due to my recent interest in 6mm miniatures. I wanted to do a period that I have never tried before and for which figures are available, so I have used Rapier Miniatures and bought a small Sumerian army pack. Including postage they are £17 and I have managed to paint a 9,500 point army from it.
Much thought went into how the game would play and look before I made my purchase.
Basically a BW is 2cms and I have used a fixed base size of 6 x 3cms for all the units in this period. This was to reduce damage to the figures by having lots of smallish fiddly bases, to speed up the game and to make the most of using more figures. This therefore allows a Maximus game to be played on a 3 x 2 foot table.
Whats not to like? Not having individual bases I hear you shout, unbeliever, heretic etc. etc.
However, the low cost, speed with which I can finish an army and compactness of this option totally sold it for me.
So as far as the rules go a certain, but limited, simplification has taken place:
1. All units have a fixed minimum frontage of 3 bases, which they must maintain.
2. Any rear rank figures can fill in anywhere at any time. I use large units, minimum size of 6 for the battle carts, most are in 8s or 9s. So if a bow unit is down to 4 bases it simply has one file two deep, and the owner chooses where this is. The same applies in combat.
3. Part of a unit cannot turn to a flank or rear, either the whole unit does or not at all.

And I really cant think of any other issues?
There will be a certain number of `spare` cards more than usual therefore, but with most of the armies in that period being tribal or formed I dont think its a problem?
The unit bases comes with a 5mm dice frame to show colour, therefore command and the dice to show strength. OK, so a  strength 9 unit starts by showing a 3, that is 6 plus the 3, but players quickly adapt to this system. The benefit is that although only using the same number of figures as in a 15mm game, they are in half the space and so give an effective impression of mass. If I knew how to post pictures then I would, must look into it.
Other periods might need smaller unit frontage bases, probably a two base frontage, but this in itself doesnt present any game issues.

One army is painted and another on order, as is the play mat and 6mm buildings and material for terrain templates.
Of course this will not be to every ones tastes but I thought that it might encourage others to have a go.
Lance.

What you could do is base all on 40 mm frontage and just play the regular version of the game.
Some do this for 10 mm figs

Quote from: Jilu on January 10, 2021, 01:15:46 PM
What you could do is base all on 40 mm frontage and just play the regular version of the game.
Some do this for 10 mm figs

Sort of misses the point.  You then need a lot more figures if you want to play Maximus!  Clearly you could play Pacto but some people prefer a longer game with less randomness.

Hi Jilu,
Richard has better understood my intentions probably because we have had chance to talk it over.
My aim was to speed up my ability to play Maximus with reduced cost, whilst not losing any of the important aspects of the ` big` game.
I also believe that being relatively close, that is physically, to 6mm figures improves their look and increases the appeal of this scale.
Lance.

We play Pacto with one base of 6mm figures equates to one base (SuG or TuG). Each base is 60mm x 30mm. It depends on the unit type whether it takes 4, 3 or 2 hits to kill. We play all the Pacto rules plus the 'slowing under fire' rule. We have great games with quite a lot of bases on table. I'm glad I found MeG!

That sounds like a good idea!
Lots of opportunities to use 6mm troops in so many different ways.
Lance.

I should clarify. One 60mm x 30mm base equates to one full unit.

OK.
Whose figures do you use?

All our armies are Baccus 6mm figures. Besides being a local company they have quite an extensive range available.

Indeed I use them a lot, but unfortunately they are having production problems at the moment, hence my experimentation with Rapier who have turned out to be quite good.
Lance.

Will take a look at Rapier. Always room for extra units in my Greek/Macedonian/Successor/Roman armies!

Let us know how that goes.  The system is quite adaptable and that will look great.

S