I've always wanted a hex mat and now I have one. However I can't decide what to do with it, so I've tried it out with a range of my figures and models to see what looks good. Here are the results:
6mm base that I kind of did for Blucher.
Perfect fit!
Information on Blucher Hexes can be found here:
I should note that I have only five bases of 6mm figures, although lots of 6mm figures in varying degrees of painting and basing.
I wonder how my Impetus bases fit?
Perfect!
The Light Cavalry base is the biggest, so all the rest would fit fine.
Maybe some large units might have an issue...
Just need to convert Impetus to hexes to give it a try.
One of the initial reasons for getting the Hex Mat was to see how it would work for Napoleonics.
This standard cavalry unit from Napoleon's Battles is a tight fit.
But a two base cavalry unit is a much better fit.
The hexes are roughly four inches wide.
A big Napoleon's Battles infantry unit.
Again, a slightly smaller unit fits better
and allows for different formations or postures to be depicted.
Column of Manoeuvre
March Column
There's even room for artillery.
Not quite limbered artillery...
But where there is a will, there's a way!
Do I have enough hexes for a system like Bag the Hun?
Sadly my hopes for using this mat for Rommel ain't going to work.
So I'm making plans to add hexes to the reverse side of my squared desert mat.
Hexes are versatile but I always have difficulty placing terrain so as not to mask the grid. You showed great foresight in planning your basing schemes across many periods.
ReplyDeleteMy planning was close to 100% luck. I bought the mat without checking the grid size, not that it matters.
DeleteA lovely looking mat. For hexes, Basing really needs to take into account those occasions that both unit and a terrain feature need to sit in the same hex.
ReplyDeleteTrees are not an issue as you can have two trees per hex, remove one when the unit enters and move the other to whatever position best accommodates the figures. This moving doesn't matter as a woods hex is always a woods hex regardless of where the actual trees are. Buildings are a harder matter to resolve and certainly stepping down a scale helps.
Yes, terrain... Haven't given it any real thought (except for trees as you suggest). Air war doesn't matter and I have to decide I like the rules if I go with any for Napoleonics and if successful then tackle making some custom terrain.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Another miniatures gamer trying out hexes. I notice that you also do boardgames so the transition isn't so 'alien' for you.
ReplyDeleteWhat size are yours? 10 cm? And where did you get that mat? (Apologies if that last question sounds a bit like an old song).
The hexes are 10cms across. It was a purchased via a Facebook wragming sell/buy group.
DeleteThe motivation was to play some airwar games that need hexes as well as look at doing Rommel (which is square based) in hexes. Same goes for Blucher, but that is a lower priority as I have a different preferred Napoleonic wargaming set of rules.
I've been a boardgamer (hexes) for as long as I've been a miniatures gamer which is getting on fifty years now. Previous attempts to make a hex mat have been a failure and so I took the punt and bought one when I saw it going at a good price. But it is yet to be used.