Should I introduce my oldman to BA with his old 1/72 scale soldiers

[SenInt]

Hello fellows/comrades/ol’-chaps/etc.!

I want to know if it would be possible to try introducing Bolt Action with all small 1/72 scale troopers and tanks for my oldman?

He pretty much was the one who introduced me into building and painting model kits from where I later on got into tabletop wargames, and in past year he has been pondering if there was actually any wargames what could be played with those 1/72 scale models we have got piled in boxes upon boxes (for mother’s annoyance).

 

So in short; ”Is playing BA in 1/72 scale good or stupid idea?”

[richard zamudio]

Not that I am expert on Bolt Action, quite the contrary! However, I see nothing wrong with you doing Bolt Action in 1/72. As the figure/vehicles are smaller, you may want to fiddle with the ranges/movement speeds. My thought would be to play on a 4/6 table and keep the range/speed the same. It would give the range/speed  a  more “realistic” feel. Go for it!

[SenInt]

Thanks!

so all I’ll need to adjust will be the movement ranges.

I got one time given a tip for basing 1/72 infantry onto washer/slug/tray/clout/medal (or is the correct word for the thing in English something like ”spacer” or ”socket”) one can buy cheap for a pouch of 100-200 pieces. Not sure if he meant M6 or M10 in machine engineering language…

For movement adjustment I bet it will be somewhat either halved, or 2/3rd of the originalmovement scores.

[Stuart Harrison]

One common conversion is simply to use centimetres instead of inches for smaller scales – alternatively you can leave the measurements alone and enjoy a slightly less crowded looking table.

 

[Nat]

@SenInt – washer / spacer would be the correct term..

As an aside 1/72 is pretty much 20mm scale.

[SenInt]

@Nat Thanks. It’s not easy to find correct English terms/words for things what have no (direct from English) loan words (I am from Finland).

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by SenInt.

[Ken]

You could use the same scale for 20mm if you want or you could reduce the scale to 2/3 normal for 20mm, works well with the Imperial system since most of the ranges are multiples of 6.  Should translate well to centimeters as 6 inches is just over 15 cm so reducing it by 2/3 to 10 cm or @4 inches would be 2/3.  If you play on a 4×6 foot table it would allow a little more maneuver and you might want to extend the scenario length from the normal 6 to 8 turns or increase the size of the deployment zones from the normal 12 inches to 18.

[SteveT]

I’ve recently started alternative armies for BA in 15mm. (using Flames of War figs).  Base them on metal washers as it stops them falling over.  I went for 15mm diameter. 10mm bases won’t fit on some of the smaller figures built in bases, and 20mm just leaves them looking too spread out. For a mortar or MMG team, I base them all on 1 regular BA single-man base.

Just convert all inches to cm, as others said. That is all.

What you can do well is get more into vehicle-heavy platoons, as in  Tank War,  as there is just much more space, and small vehicles are cheap and easy to paint.

 

 

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