As well as Hind Commander I’ve been looking at a few of the other rule sets out there that can be used with 3mm. One that’s interested me is Modern Spearhead. While its intended as a 6mm rule set it works on bases that are 1 1/4″ square (30mm). This size base will work for 3mm as I can put 2-3 miniatures on the base to give more of a group feel. Each base in Spearhead represents roughly a platoon, so it should have around 5 tanks in it, but that will look like a car park. Before committing to anything I experimented with a few different configurations.
First we have two MBTs (in this case M1 Abrams) on a 30mm base. I find this configuration quite pleasing. Obviously not a realistic spacing, but also not too dense.
Next we have a couple of large IFVs (M2 Bradleys) on a 30mm base. Again, quite happy with this configuration.
Now, two modern MRAP cars (M-ATVs) also on a 30mm base. Again, looking good. However these things are huge more the size of a tank than a Jeep/Humvee.
For something smaller here are 2 recon cars (BRDM-2s). Now these are look a bit more sparse, I may even like this spacing more and they are recon.
However, if we try with 3 then it starts to get a bit car park-like:
Lastly, I was concerned how something small like a Humvee might look with just 2 on a base. I needn’t have worried, however.
So for the troop platoons it’s 2 vehicles per base. Now for command the rules say to use the same bases, but there’s no real reason as they don’t count for much. So what I’ve done is put one vehicle on a 20mm circle to make them look distinct.
This little guy is a BMP-1 in Egyptian colours for the Yom Kippur War. Another thing you might notice is the label, while not super important it is good to know where everything belongs for Spearhead so I’m going to be labeling everything (the 30mm bases above were actually a couple of tests I’d printed out). The labels involved 4pt type so they’re pretty small. However, I think they’ll work quite well.
The Lego head is there to give some scale. I’ve never understood why people use coins on the internet: each of us use a different set of coins that vary massively in size. I like to use a AA battery for larger things as it is near universal: everyone on the internet would have handled these batteries hundreds of times and would have them nearby. They are about the right size for a 25/28mm figure. However for the 3mm stuff it just towers over everything. The smaller batteries are about the right size, but there are so many different sizes; none have the universality of the humble AA. I got to thinking and I figured that the little Lego Minifig head was about the right size. While not quite a universal, it is once again something that almost everyone recognizes and has handled. Plus he looks so happy.
