On Scale: From soldiers to buildings

One question that comes up regarding most war games is "What scale is it?".  Most of us give the easy answer as either 28mm or 1/58th scale.  But what scale is your game really in?

We'll start with the basic table top game, what most people play:  28mm.   Now technically speaking there is no such scale as 28mm.  Most historical skirmish-level games and role-playing games are 25mm.  28mm is the same scale but is exaggerated, thus called "Heroic" scale.

Lets take Warhammer 40K and the Space Marine.  He only stands one and a half inch tall.  And according to Jes Goodwin, "Space Marines are 7' to 7'6" with the mass of four basketball players 'bolted together'."  So by this we can extrapolate that 28mm is the equivalent of 1/58 scale.  That 1 model inch equals 58 inches in real size (58" equals 4.8333' multiplied by 1.5 equals 7.25', pretty close).

So now if we know the actual size of a Space Marine, lets see how the rest of the equipment stacks up.

A Space Marine Rhino (Mk 1) is 21 feet 8 inches long, 11 feet 10 inches high, and 14 feet, 1 inch wide and holds two crew and 10 Space Marines.

Model has changed, the stats haven't.

 

The M113, an actual APC which is comparable to the Rhino, is similar in dimensions:  15 feet, 11.5 inches long, 8 feet, 2 inches high, and 8 feet, 9.7 inches wide and holds 2 crew and 11 passengers. 

 

Still in use today.

 

But in model form, we get a different picture.  In game terms, if we take the same Space Marine at an inch and a half tall, the Rhino should only be 4.483 inches long, 2.24 inches high, and 2.914 inches wide.  The model is actually 5 inches long, 2 inches high, and 2 inches wide.  The measurements are very close, until you look at the Space Marine and Rhino models together.

Measurements are in inches.

Take Forgeworld's Damocles Rhino.  It has two Space Marine crew manning computers.  This is the same size Rhino as the plastic kit.  So how can a Rhino hold ten Space Marines when only two are sitting cramped with no extra room?  Where do the other eight Marines sit?

By just looking at the models side by side, we can see they will not fit.  So is this some sort of trickery if the numbers come out correctly?  How can they both be in scale with their "real" counterpart but not with each other?  The answer...they are not the same scale.  The Rhino, while truly in scale with the real M113, is probably 1/58 but the Space Marines should be closer to a 20mm (or 1/80) scale figure.   And if you compare a Space Marine with an Imperial Guardsmen, who is an average human of 5'9", they are both the same height.  Now shouldn't the Space Marine be taller if he is 7'6"?  But now if he's taller, shouldn't the Rhino be bigger to accommodate them? 



So how is that possible?  Let's look closer at the Space Marine.  A Space Marine's head is 1/35, his body is 1/60, arms and legs are 1/48 in scale.  Now we can see why he doesn't match up and why some of the other models, while looking correct, aren't.  So nothing is the correct scale.

Why then aren't they?  Wouldn't it be more realistic?  Not really.  This would mean the figures would lose a lot of detail and would not look as imposing or impressive on the battlefield.  Figures used for Flames of War are not to scale for the same reason.  The tanks and equipment are pretty close to 15mm (1/107) but at that size, a human is going to be similar to a matchstick.  Make them a little bigger and now you can get better detail: faces, equipment, etc.  This now means the Rhino's dimensions are wrong and now the whole 40K universe is out of whack!



If we were to build everything to scale, even the soldiers, there would be no room to actually fight on the tabletop.  The models would become even bigger to keep the correct scale.  If a Rhino would become bigger, how large would that Land Raider be?



So why does this matter?



As someone who builds scenery for war games, buildings and terrain are made to certain dimensions so they have the right look and are playable.  But with a table only 4' X 8', there is not a lot of room if you stick to scale.


In Warhammer Fantasy,  scale/distance could be determined by weapon stats.  With the Longbow, historically we know the effective range was 300 yards.  Now if we translate this from the rules,  a Longbow's range is 30".  So, one can deduce 1" equals 10 yards.  Take that to the bigger picture, we now see a 4' X 8' table would be 480 yards by 960 yards (or one quarter mile by a half a mile).

And this is where your mind melts.  In the example above, if 1" equals 10 yards, how tall is that model that is an inch and half?  Obviously, your favorite general is not 45 feet tall (although sometimes it feels like he should be).


Battlefleet Gothic seems to set the question of scale in perspective.  In Battlefleet Gothic, the ships are between 2 to 10 centimeters (25/32 inches to 3 15/16 inches).  But, the actual size of the ship on the board is the size of the tip of the stem that supports the models.  The model is only a representation of the ship.  Battlefleet Gothic Rule book, page 6:  In order to include interesting and exciting features such as planets and moons on the battlefield and have ship models which are not the size of molecules, Battlefleet Gothic takes some liberties with scale.  In short, the ship models are designed to look good and be nice to paint, but they are not intended to be in scale with planets.



In the X-Wing table top game, there isn't any mention of scale.  The ships are what you see is what you get.



So what have we learned from this?  Scale is not important to the game, only it's looks.  If it looks right, then it is right no matter how the math comes out.