Have you ever wanted to field battalions that look like real battalions, cavalry regiments that look like real cavalry regiments, artillery batteries that look like real batteries?

If, like me, you have found, that various combinations of figure scale from 25mm to 6mm, with every possible number of figures in a unit from 12 to 60, either don't look right, reduce your ground scale, your wallet or your eyesight (re painting) to the point where you begin to despair, then perhaps here is the answer. 2mm Scale!

Don't stop reading with shock.

This scale although it has been around for several years is now beginning to find favour with wargamers around the world. Why? Simple, the massed effect of these figure blocks, the shear economy of expenditure, both financial and painting time, can reduce an ardent '15 miller' or in my case '6 miller', to the state of quivering megalomaniacal frenzy.

How can this be? They are small shapeless blocks? You can't paint them? You need needle point fingers to handle them. Wrong on all counts.

The first obstacle that you need to get over is that both Conflict and Irregular Miniatures market these figures as Battalion/Company or Squadron/Regiment blocks. I believe that this is bad marketing practice by both companies. I for one cannot relate to these blocks as being a battalion. Both companies I feel put to much emphasis on the fact that the ground scale for a battalion would be 1mm = 12 yards, (about 6" to 1 mile). Sorry chaps it doesn't work for me, and it put me off for at least four years!

I have decided to use a ground scale of 1'764 yards, which for those pondering this odd choice is double the 25mm Ground Scale for Empire rules (1"/32 yards). You may however prefer something more easy to handle say VV50 yards or 1mm/2 yards. This being a scale in more common usage, and will be used for the following cost comparisons.

By using one or more 2mm blocks to represent a company, between two to four blocks for a cavalry squadron, and one gun model to represent 2 real cannon, units with an exceedingly realistic appearance can be built up.

Now hang on this sounds expensive, that's 6 blocks to a battalion, 3 to 4 to a battery and 12 to 16 for a cavalry regiment. This is going to cost a fortune.

Wrong again, as I hope the following will demonstrate.

Let us assume that at lmm/2yards we want to field an Infantry Battalion of 600 - 720 men on a 150mm frontage.

Starting with 6mm we can get away with 24 figures in this space, assuming the figures are based in a single rank, the cost of a Heroics & Ros figure is around 3p, this gives a unit cost of 72p.

For 15mm the average cost being 12p, using 12 figures in this frontage the cost would be £ 1.44

For the big boys, we could squeeze in 6 25mm figures and assuming a figure cost of 40p our battalion cost has risen to £ 2.40, personally I don't think that a 25mm. battalion looks right unless it has around 36 figures in it, this would push the cost to £ 14.40 and require a barn sized surface to play on.

So how much would a 2mm battalion cost. 36p! Now, OX you don't get to paint all of the fancy facings, moustaches, eyebrows, cross belts, musket barrel loops etc. What you do get is a good visual representation of a three (or two) rank infantry line, as it would appear viewed from two hundred yards or so.

With regard to other formations, using four blocks to a squadron based two behind two to represent two ranks oi cavalry the cost rockets to an astronomical 96p, set against £ 3.60 for 8 15mm figures. Artillery, now here the benefit, are really felt, a deployed gun, a limber and a wagon to go with, total cost 18p, or 48p for a complete battery. In 15mm, assuming you get a cannon, the crew and limber to fit a Minifigs pack, if you use one set to represent a battery it will cost you £ 3.10 or £ 12.40 for a 4-gun model battery.

For those that want detail even at this scale, flags an cast onto the blocks, in the case of the Conflict model mounted officers are available cast into the front rank c some blocks, and on their skirmisher strip there is a figure loading his musket(!), honest even with my green screen jaded eyes I could see it!

I must stress that this scale is not for anyone who is uniform connoisseur or who spends more time painting hi figures than he does wargaming, but if you want a goo visual representation of what a Napoleonic line looked like, I strongly recommend that you go for it!

Painting

A common reported complaint with 2mrn is that you can't paint them. To a certain extent this is true. If you try to paint these figures in a conventional style, unless of course you are one of those people who can carve the Lord's Prayer on a grain of rice, you are doomed to failure. The best way that I have found is to paint them in , impressionistic style. I hope the following method w illustrate what I mean.

Step 1. Glue as many of the bases to long strips of ca or wood as you can manage at a time. Now paint the black, all over, leave no gaps.

Here I must stress that I mean black as many possible, I painted my first division of 12 battalions, cavalry regiments and three artillery batteries in an ho and a half and spent most of my time waiting for the bla to dry.

As will become apparent later I recommend that you use acrylics for this method.

Step 2. Get out the white and with a heavy hand and large brush, dry brush the blocks all over. This leaves black in the impression, give a good gap and shadow effect. In the case of cavalry dry brush the horses white as well.

Step 3. The Tunic colour. Once the white had gone, I gave the top half of the block a fairly thin wash of the tunic colour.

Step 4. Dry brush, lightly in white the front rank of the block, to give the effect of cross belts and or lapels. In the case of coloured lapels, dry brush white and then use a thin wash or the required colour.

Step 5. Get the black out and dry brush the shakos. At this stage you will see that you have a good visual representation of three rank infantry company. Put another 5 along side it and your battalion comes to life.

Step 6. Finishing. I found that by lightly dry brushing the leading edge of the shakos on all the ranks, in the appropriate company colours, it amazingly looked like pompon and plumes.

Paint in any flags and horses. Horse should be painted as described for tunics (Step 3). Further embellishments can now be made, such as painting trumpeters horses in different colours, and even adding a little variety to the cavalry line horses. Cavalry Trumpeters and line drummers where appropriate can be picked out with a dab of paint in the appropriate colour.

Basing

I recommend that you base on thin card, with the base extending by at least 3mm to the front and rear. The addition of the base makes the block very easy to handle, try moving one with and one without and you will see what I mean. The addition of a base, enables you to go to town particularly with cavalry, both manufacturers supply command strips, these individuals can be mounted to the front and rear to represent the various officers surrounding a squadron, again enhancing *the visual impression.

The available Figure Blocks. Both Conflict and Irregular supply 3 rank Infantry, 2 rank infantry, skirmishers, Heavy Cavalry, Light Cavalry and Lancer bases, not to mention all of the attendant artillery and equipment. They both supply suitable terrain pieces, of which more later.

When I received my samples, I found that there was little to chose between any of the cavalry supplied from either manufacturer. I did feel that the lance pennants on the Conflict lancers were better defined than on Irregulars. You may feel that at this scale it does not matter. But the lance pennants add greatly to the impression of the lancer units. The Irregular cavalry horses are beautifully modelled, being nicely rounded and separate of each other.

The infantry are as different as chalk and cheese. I found that the Irregular blocks, appear to be more cleanly cast and come in different frontage bases. There has been some serious attempt to detail these blocks with cross belts etc. However, the impressions between the individual figures on a block are not very deep.

Conflict Infantry, look a mess when you take them out of the bag. That was my first impression. In fact , it is the impressions between each figure on the block and between each rank that give this effect. I found that it is the depth of impression that makes all of the difference to the finished effect.

When I painted up the Irregular samples, incidentally after I had my first ever go at 2mm painting Conflict, I found that my first attempts with Conflict gave a better result than my practised attempt with Irregular.

Although, it may be my painting ability, the depth between ranks doesn't work on the Irregular blocks. Set against this, however, Irregular do provide the different frontages, which is a big plus and Conflict would do well to imitate.

The artillery and limbers. Again little to chose here. I preferred the Conflict artillery simply because the cannon and crew are more well spaced. Against Conflict is the fact that quite often limber riders and gunner are headless. I know you wouldn't see their faces, but it does make a limber appear to be ridden by two men and a dwarf. I have not found this a problem with Irregular's equipment.

Wagons and Command figures. The Irregular Wagons are excellent and lend themselves well to dry brushing. Conflict's Wagons are good but again have a tendency to suffer with headless rider syndrome.

Irregular Command figures are nicely defined and come in groups of 2 to 3 figures. For me, Conflict score a big plus here, as they supply their command figures in strips of 10 for 4p, which I find ideal for cavalry units.

Terrain

Well here Irregular have more terrain pieces than you can shake a stick at. The buildings are sold as modules, prices varying from 12p to £ 1.25 for the largest item, a beautiful Cathedral and surrounds. The modules cover a range as diverse as a Courtyard Farm to a Castle/Fortress.

Again 2mm scores over the larger scales as to cover the same area as the Cathedral with a 15mm building with the same ground coverage would cost ou around £ 2.50. Ian Kay has recently released a Russian Village and a Suburb/Country Town both retailing, for 75p. They are pure works of art, and a joy to paint. Unfortunately, as a consequence, his early terrain pieces, designed by Brian Gregory, now seem inferior and need to be brought up to this new excellent standard.

Conflict Buildings are nicely designed and are sold not as groups but as individually cast buildings. Unfortunately they are sold in packs consisting of a Church, 4 Buildings and a couple of bridges for 11.00. The mix that you get varies from pack to pack, and to be honest I would rather, if I had to purchase in this manner, have the option of buying a pack of bridges, a pack of churches or a pack of houses. They are better scaled than and comparable to the Irregular terrain features, but are no where near as good as the later Irregular pieces

Trees. Irregular trees are sold as copses or forests, and look good when painted although I found that mounting these large modules on 2mm bases slightly smaller than the terrain piece raised them up closer to the correct height. Again I found that this was one area where Conflict came out on top. Conflict Trees are sold as individually cast items, similar but obviously smaller than the 6mm Irregular trees, and are sold for 20 to the pound.

Well, I set out to give an overall view of the 2mm aspect of the hobby. If you have read this far and I have managed to stir some interest, I whole heartedly recommend that you spend at least a pound with each of the manufacturers and try painting some up. You have nothing to lose except a couple of pounds and possibly may gain an entire new dimension to your Napoleonic or other 'horse and musket' Wargaming. I believe that for those of us who don't want to count the buttons on a tunic as you move a battalion, or those amongst us, myself included, who as figure painters are totally inept, then this really is the scale for you. Nothing else offers you the chance to control an entire Cavalry Corps and to have it actually look like one.