FOW for 6mm Part 3 : Movement

Part of an ongoing series of posts on adapting the Flames of War rules for 6mm Wargaming

Movement

When I first started looking at converting the FOW rules for use with 6mm figures my initial reaction was that I would need to change every distance or range listed. However I quickly realised that things liek the ranges in particular work muhc better if you don't change them. Once I had made this decision I began thinking that it would complicate matters considerably if I kept the ranges but converted everything else and thus I decided to keep all distances given in the rules, the same for 6mm war-games. The rules give all distances in inches and centimeters but for the purposes of this review (and my games) I'll be using imperial measurement... as a friend of mine once said "Real wargamers do it in Inches!"

The principle benefit of chosing to keep the distances the same IMHO is that distances (and ranges) 'look' better at this scale. Movement and maneuver are more realistic (ranges are still a little truncated but are better than at 15mm) and the tabletop feels less crowded. In short by maintaining the distances but scaling down the models and bases creates more room on the tabletop. I'll be testing this out fully in a few weeks time when I run a large game (4000+ pts per side) on a large table (6'x8').

Movement through gaps is clearly defined in the FOW rules and for the most part is easily transferred to 6mm games. The only exception is infantry. In the rules it says infantry cannot move through gaps of less than 5mm but compared to a 6mm model the gap is huge. I'd suggest that any gap of more than 2mm is passable by infantry at this scale.

This infantry team can easily fit down the Alley 

Similarly with vehicles passing through gaps you'll have to agree with your opponent on some mutually acceptable option. I'd suggest ignoring the bases and using some common sence. If the tank or vehicles would fit through the gap then it should be able too regardless of whether the bases will fit through the gap.

This tank can easily drive past his burning college, regardless of bases sizes. 

The rules for bogging checks should also not require any change but its worth noting that with smaller scales the potential for larger games means that there might be many more models on the games table than a regular FOW game. This in turn means that players will need more tokens and markers than normal. This isn't a rule issue as such but it is something worth bearing in mind for large, multi company games at 6mm.

Another small change relates to Transports which would normally be removed from the table after dropping off passengers. On a typical 15mm scale games table there is little room for transport units to stay 'in play' but on larger 6mm games there may well be space to keep them around. If it is safe to do so (ie no enemy within LOS and in range) then I suggest moving transports back from the front and keeping them available for potential retrieval operations later in the battle. Transport units remaining on the table in this way cannot be targeted by the enemy and cannot be used offensively. The only exception to this latter stipulation would be German transport teams using the Armoured Assault rule.

There isn't much more to be said about the movement rules, which are pretty simple to start with and need little or no tinkering with just because the figure scale has changed. Next time I will look at the Command rules and discuss some of the options for scaling these for use with 6mm figures.