Interested in Moving Away from 28mm

[throwsFireball]

What would you guys say is the most commonly played otherwise? I've grabbed some 15mm Ral Partha stuff to play Frostgrave / Otherworld FS with but I was interested in mass battle.

I'm considering 6mm but Pendraken's 10mm Warband Fantasy has some REALLY nice looking miniatures.

[Vermis]

What would you guys say is the most commonly played otherwise?

Blimey...

Or for a longer answer: there's so much appearing and reappearing in a lot of scales that I guess it has to be an individual decision, based on what you like and what people around you are playing with.

GW's 10mm Warmaster range, with the addition of the Middle-Earth BOFA range, was extensive and pretty well made. I have a decently-sized high elf collection myself, with other bits and pieces. Though since that's all disappeared, despite the fact that there's still a fair amount of 10mm choice with Pendraken, Kallistra, Polar Fox, etc., it's much more of a toss-up between 10mm, 6mm (like Microworld's impressive range) and 15mm. (Demonworld, Khurasan etc.)
I have to admit that if I started out with smaller-scale fantasy today, post-Warmaster, I don't know which scale I'd go for. As it is I'm still not sure if I should concentrate on 10mm, or dabble in the other two. I'm especially torn on the issue of 15mm: as people say you can build bigger armies with minis that still have a lot of 28mm's character; but on the other hand I wonder if, by the same token, it's a negative compromise? Less character, but still too big for that 'grand army' feel of 6-10mm?

I can't really say much about that, since I haven't seen too much 15mm fantasy in action. So I'll piggyback on your topic and ask pics of big armies. Argonor, Steam Flunky, y'there?

[Elbows]

I'd say it depends heavily on what genres/eras you game.  The only other popular scale I've seen for fantasy is 15mm.

[DoctorPete]

http://www.battlevalorgames.com/

Check out these guys for 15mm fantasy. 

[AndrewBeasley]

If you can get to a show have a look at Kallistra figures https://www.kallistra.co.uk/?page=19. These are so so tempting...

They are a little large compared to Pendraken 10s http://www.pendraken.co.uk/Fantasy-c21/ - closer to Splintered Light www.splinteredlightminis.com (watch the scale changes between ranges) or http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/15mmfantasy.html

Another 10mm is http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=6&page=1

Thought the 15mm from Copplestone http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=18&page=1 are limited in range but great.

Others are HOT http://www.15mm.co.uk/collections/hot-15mm-fantasy-range Essex http://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/collections/15mm-fantasy (looking old old now) Magister http://www.magistermilitum.com/scale/15-mm.html#order=name&limit=36&p=1&dir=ASC&cat[]=59679 and For me it's 15/18s all the way for anything not skirmish.

[Pictors Studio]

I like 10mm myself.  15mm seems too much like 28mm in terms of what you can do with it and the size of armies you can put on the table.  I'm doing some GW Lizardmen right now for Warmaster.  I will have a unit of cavalry with a frontage of 60mm and a depth of 40mm and it will have 12 models on it.  In 15 mm you would have something like 6 tops on that area. 

With the infantry it is even a bigger difference.  I think  you only get 30 Saurus warriors in a unit but for some of the other races, like elves you can get 36 figures with a frontage of 40mm and a depth of 60mm. 

That is based for Warmaster but looking at the stands themselves people usually put 3-4 15mm infantry on a 40x15 of 40x20mm stand.  In 10mm you can get 8-14 figures on the same size stand.  It really starts looking like a real army very quickly. 

[Pijlie]

I collect and play a lot of 28mm but this is used more and more exclusively for skirmish gaming.

I find that 10mm produces easy and fast to paint, beautiful armies of massive sizes that look terrific on the tabletop AND have enough room to maneuver on a 6x4 table, which makes for interesting games.



20mm or 15mm look good, but lack this size advantage so you might as well use 28mm which looks even better.

So for mass gaming, 10mm will be my choice for future periods.

[zemjw]

I've been mulling doing some smaller scale stuff recently as well - although not sure how my eyes will react to the change.

I have a couple of Irregular Miniatures 6mm fantasy forces painted up (back when I could paint this size without needing an optivisor) and one army unpainted.

However, 10mm would probably be (slightly) easier on the old mark 1 eyeballs, so I may take a closer look at the Pendraken stuff (they're usually at Carronade)

Another nice thing about the smaller scale is that it's a lot easier to store the stuff

[sukhe_bator]

It also depends on what kind of settings/terrain/scenery you are contemplating having... There's a lot more period crossover with 15mm, so lots of choice of manufacturers for all those twiddly bits that make a gaming table interesting. If you go down the scratchbuilt route, select a scale that is supported by suppliers of the materials you are likely to need (which need not specifically be wargames related) - e.g. architectural bits and bobs such as doors, windows, and vehicles etc.
I'm modelling/wargaming a WW1 period railway scenario in 15mm, and because there's only a few relevant models available in the closest railway modelling scale TT (3mm:foot) am having to convert between 00 gauge (1:72/76th 4mm:foot )[too large] and N gauge (2mm:foot) [too small]...
zemjw also raises a valid point - you should ask whether your Mk1 eyeballs can also support the new scale.
 

[Vermis]

That is based for Warmaster but looking at the stands themselves people usually put 3-4 15mm infantry on a 40x15 of 40x20mm stand.  In 10mm you can get 8-14 figures on the same size stand.  It really starts looking like a real army very quickly. 

That was my thinking, too.

I find that 10mm produces easy and fast to paint, beautiful armies

Here are the Warmaster orcs I mentioned in the 6mm painting topic. It's ridiculously simple, but I still like how well a basic black wash works on them. It's almost a blacklining effect, and I think the strong contrast of that benefits 10mm more than 28mm; I'd say the medium also applies better to 10mm, with smaller details - fewer wide areas for wash to go blotchy on.



http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4426.0

[Shaved Dwarf]

Well, for me 6mm is too fiddly. What's more, I like to recognise the units on the table without having to touch the tabletop with my chin. With fantasy I consider this point even more important than with historical armies.

I decided to go for 15mm, because
- I think it is the scale (of the smaller ones) with the most manufacturers,
- I think it is easier to lure others to switch from 28mm to a smaller scale,
- it is easier to make conversions than with 10mm or 6mm,
- one can use, at least for human-like factions, an enormous assortment of historical miniatures on the market.

[David the Kiwi]

I would also put in a vote for 15mm Fantasy. Having played Ancients and Renaissance period wargames in 15mm for many years, 15mm Fantasy seemed to me a logical progression.

Here is an article http://isentropicendoscope.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/15mm-fantasy-kings-of-war-battle-2.html (and some poor photos) of a Kings of War game I played back in January. We used a 3' x 3' playing area which perhaps a little large for 1500 points. Still, it looked quite good.

A couple of other manufacturers of 15/18mm worth considering are Splintered Light in the US http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/
and Eureka Miniatures in Australia http://eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=87_110_116
(stocked by Fighting 15s in the UK and Eureka USA in the States). Splintered Light have some very nice Dwarves, Orcs and Dark Elves, amongst others, while Eureka's Orcs and Man-Orcs are very Lord of the Rings inspired.

[Sir_Theo]

Ultimately I think it's a decision you'd need to make based on what you fancy painting! Personally for mass battle I think 10mm is the sweet spot between detail on the miniatres themselves and that epic sense of scale.

Games like Kings of War can easily be played at this scale as well. Although I'd give a recommend to Mayhem, which is a brilliant mass battle fantasy system.

[throwsFireball]

I think I'm gonna go for 10mm for most of the units. I'll probably end up using 15mm for heroes and the like to make them stand out (also then I can individually base them and use them for stuff like 15mm Frostgrave).

Now, the question is what army to actually build... I wasn't considering Chaos Warriors until I saw these guys and started drooling.

[Brummie]

I'd argue for 15mm.

Although there are some very nice minis in 10mm, you will have a nasty shock when you realise just how sporadic scale wise these ranges are.

Some are more 12mm, some are even borderline traditional 15mm its best to to some hard research into the scales, and you may be forced to prioritize a single range.

That said I heard Copplestone is going to be expanding his 10mm range eventually, so that may be worth a closer look.

15mm on the other hand is slowly coming into a position where there is quite a bit to choose from; Battle Valor, Copplestone and Demonworld are all close to the same size at least in terms of their humanish forces. Splintered Light and Khurasan are good places to go for non-human and more exotic forces, although there humans can be a bit smaller in places, its not deal breaking, I have a load of his Dark Elves (using them as 'Frost Elves) and they are very nice. 

Its worth noting that ALL of the 15mm companies mentioned above, bar Demonworld are actively adding to their ranges. Demonworld is adding some extra bits and bringing older moulds back into production, but not a lot "new" AFAIK.