Post by Matthew on Jan 26, 2010 8:09:59 GMT -6
Daniel Collins has posted some interesting musings on matters of scale on his blog today, though I am not sure I am following it all correctly. From what I can see, he surmises that both time and space change in scale as the figures represent larger numbers of fighting-men. Obviously, one of the big problems with Chain Mail scale is that, though the scale of figures may change, neither the distance they move, time it takes, or distance they shoot is stated to change at all. This last is most troublesome, as even changing the time-scale has no impact on missile range.
So, let us get to it.
1:1 Scale
Collins takes as his basis here the height of the figure to determine table scale, whilst noting that in fact most of these men must have an individual frontage of 3'. What he perhaps does not realise about table-top war games is that even at 1:1 scale the size of the figures is not as important as the size of the bases on which they are mounted, and width is more important than length (an old adage... ;D). So on what size bases are the figures available to us mounted? 1" seems like a reasonable answer from the photographs I have seen and from discussions with other folk.
Further, Chain Mail notes on page 40 that Swiss and Landsknechte further than 1" apart are not in close order. Apart from suggesting that figures were rarely placed side-by-side, it also suggests the basic 3'/6' open/close order relationship that is usually assumed for medieval and ancient warfare, based on the commonly available writings of Vegetius and Polybius. So, it is likely at 1:1 scale 1" = 3' in Chain Mail, meaning that figures would typically move very slowly, 18', 27', 36', and 45' per round, in fact, though if we were willing to round down to 5' increments (or 1" = 2½') we get 15', 22.5', 30' and 37.5', neither of which is particularly satisfactory, even if 30' per round would work out quite nicely as a walking gait in the context of a six second round (being on tenth the time-scale of 1:10).
The range of the various missile weapons would be rather short under this paradigm as well, with long bows limited to a mere 63' (or 52.5') and heavy crossbows 72' (or 60'). Perhaps not untenable as short range categories, but a bit troublesome for maximum effective range!
1:20 Scale
Of course, Chain Mail was in fact designed for an explicit scale, which is to say 1 figure = 20 men, 1 turn = 1 minute, and 1" = 30'. So, we know exactly what are the base assumptions and can confidently say that 1" on the table-top provides enough room for two ranks of 10 men deployed in close order. They move at a rate of 180' up to 360' or even 420' per minute, which is to say 3', 6', or 7' per second, or around 2-5 miles per hour.
Missile range becomes a matter of hand held weapons reaching 90', short bows 540', long bows 630', and heavy crossbows 720', all of which are entirely reasonable estimates.
Only time-scale is a little problematic, as we know walking gait is not really what is being represented, since troops moving five consecutive turns must rest or become fatigued. Knowing that a sustained long bow shooting rate is something like 1 per 10 seconds, though, we can solve this by slashing time-scale to 20 seconds at 1:20 scale, which gives much more reasonable estimates for rapid movement, working out to about 1 mile per hour per inch, which is to say 1" = 90' per minute = 5,400' per hour (slightly higher than the 5,280' mile).
1:10 Scale
So what happens at 1:10 scale? If we change the ground scale, we have to revise all of the missile numbers and time units and so on, and Chain Mail gives not even a hint of doing that. However, if we simply assume that 1:10 scale means one rank of ten men we can solve this issue at a stroke. The only problem worth worrying about is that at 1:20 scale 4 ranks of "real men" may shoot, whilst at 1:10 only 2 ranks may do so. This can be solved by allowing 4 ranks of figures at 1:10 scale to shoot.
Of course, base size may have an impact there. If 1:10 scale figures have bases only half the size of 1:20 figures, then it makes sense to assume two ranks of five. All that need be worried about in that scenario is that the space between figures be about half that allowed at 1:20 scale to qualify for close order.
Conclusion
Although Chain Mail really cries out to be used at 1:1 scale in many ways, many of its assumptions of scale are better fitted to 1:20 scale, even if that assumes very abstracted time units, which is to say units are standing around doing nothing for two-thirds of the time we assume them to be moving. Trying to get 1:1 scale combat to fit with the distances and time units of 1:20 or 1:10 scale rules with figures of the same base size is a bit silly. All distances would need to be multiplied by 10 to get an exact transfer, whilst reducing the time scale does nothing for missile weapons.
That is to say, the 1:1 scale rules are written mainly for playability, and with a lot less concern for historical simulation than the 1:20 or even 1:10 rules.
So, let us get to it.
1:1 Scale
Collins takes as his basis here the height of the figure to determine table scale, whilst noting that in fact most of these men must have an individual frontage of 3'. What he perhaps does not realise about table-top war games is that even at 1:1 scale the size of the figures is not as important as the size of the bases on which they are mounted, and width is more important than length (an old adage... ;D). So on what size bases are the figures available to us mounted? 1" seems like a reasonable answer from the photographs I have seen and from discussions with other folk.
Further, Chain Mail notes on page 40 that Swiss and Landsknechte further than 1" apart are not in close order. Apart from suggesting that figures were rarely placed side-by-side, it also suggests the basic 3'/6' open/close order relationship that is usually assumed for medieval and ancient warfare, based on the commonly available writings of Vegetius and Polybius. So, it is likely at 1:1 scale 1" = 3' in Chain Mail, meaning that figures would typically move very slowly, 18', 27', 36', and 45' per round, in fact, though if we were willing to round down to 5' increments (or 1" = 2½') we get 15', 22.5', 30' and 37.5', neither of which is particularly satisfactory, even if 30' per round would work out quite nicely as a walking gait in the context of a six second round (being on tenth the time-scale of 1:10).
The range of the various missile weapons would be rather short under this paradigm as well, with long bows limited to a mere 63' (or 52.5') and heavy crossbows 72' (or 60'). Perhaps not untenable as short range categories, but a bit troublesome for maximum effective range!
1:20 Scale
Of course, Chain Mail was in fact designed for an explicit scale, which is to say 1 figure = 20 men, 1 turn = 1 minute, and 1" = 30'. So, we know exactly what are the base assumptions and can confidently say that 1" on the table-top provides enough room for two ranks of 10 men deployed in close order. They move at a rate of 180' up to 360' or even 420' per minute, which is to say 3', 6', or 7' per second, or around 2-5 miles per hour.
Missile range becomes a matter of hand held weapons reaching 90', short bows 540', long bows 630', and heavy crossbows 720', all of which are entirely reasonable estimates.
Only time-scale is a little problematic, as we know walking gait is not really what is being represented, since troops moving five consecutive turns must rest or become fatigued. Knowing that a sustained long bow shooting rate is something like 1 per 10 seconds, though, we can solve this by slashing time-scale to 20 seconds at 1:20 scale, which gives much more reasonable estimates for rapid movement, working out to about 1 mile per hour per inch, which is to say 1" = 90' per minute = 5,400' per hour (slightly higher than the 5,280' mile).
1:10 Scale
So what happens at 1:10 scale? If we change the ground scale, we have to revise all of the missile numbers and time units and so on, and Chain Mail gives not even a hint of doing that. However, if we simply assume that 1:10 scale means one rank of ten men we can solve this issue at a stroke. The only problem worth worrying about is that at 1:20 scale 4 ranks of "real men" may shoot, whilst at 1:10 only 2 ranks may do so. This can be solved by allowing 4 ranks of figures at 1:10 scale to shoot.
Of course, base size may have an impact there. If 1:10 scale figures have bases only half the size of 1:20 figures, then it makes sense to assume two ranks of five. All that need be worried about in that scenario is that the space between figures be about half that allowed at 1:20 scale to qualify for close order.
Conclusion
Although Chain Mail really cries out to be used at 1:1 scale in many ways, many of its assumptions of scale are better fitted to 1:20 scale, even if that assumes very abstracted time units, which is to say units are standing around doing nothing for two-thirds of the time we assume them to be moving. Trying to get 1:1 scale combat to fit with the distances and time units of 1:20 or 1:10 scale rules with figures of the same base size is a bit silly. All distances would need to be multiplied by 10 to get an exact transfer, whilst reducing the time scale does nothing for missile weapons.
That is to say, the 1:1 scale rules are written mainly for playability, and with a lot less concern for historical simulation than the 1:20 or even 1:10 rules.
