In Great Lakes member John Scoville's eyes, the smaller you get, the bigger the picture you can see. He has been using his own custom-constructed 2mm miniatures to host refights of historical battles at area conventions for the last few years. Scoville, a 58-year old professor of Humanities at Columbus State Community College, wrote his own rules (Jeu de Guerre) to take advantage of the 2mm scale.

I was intrigued by his project when I played in one of his games in Advance the Colors 2002, and thought it would be of interest to the membership. Here are the results of an interview with Scoville.

The Herald: What made you decide to make your own miniatures, rather than simply purchasing ones produced by gaming manufacturers?

Scoville: The issue of why I decided to make my own miniatures has to do with how I wanted to represent battles. As a novice playing Napoleonic wargames some 25 years ago, I realized that in spite of having a 12'x6' table, only a small portion of a battlefield could be represented using multiple stand battalion formations.

When my interest in miniatures was renewed in 1999, I thought I'd try to design a game exactly to my liking. I reacquainted myself with miniatures by buying all sorts of historical rules for all eras. It was an eye opening experience. Finding good rules was not a problem, but none precisely fit my requirements. The game had to be one in which complete musket era battles could be staged, while allowing for stands of figures to deploy in different formations at the battalion level. Since I don't have a specific space dedicated to miniature play, I wanted something that could be set up on the dining room table. The terrain had to be modular so it could be reconfigured for different battles and different eras. In addition, I wanted rules that provided fast enough play to be completed in an afternoon.

The key to the physical problem was ground scale and its relationship to battalion sized formations. I did numerous calculations trying to figure out what would work in each kind of scale. The more I considered it, the more I kept revisiting 2mm scale. I had heard of "twos" years ago, and more recently read of them in the DBM rules. However, I couldn't find anyone locally who sold them. Given this, I thought it might be fun to try to make some 2mm prototypes. After all, I reasoned, 2mm figures couldn't have that much detail. True scale for 2mm (or 1/900 scale), where ground scale is equal to vertical scale, is 1mm = 1 yard (or 4"= 100 yards). I realized that there was some real space saving possibilities here. True scale still proved too big, so I settled on 1" = 100 yards. This is the same scale as Volley and Bayonet, but my representation is based on battalion level formations, rather than brigades as in V&B. Thus, my 48" X 80" two piece playing board represents somewhat less than 3 by 5 miles. Good enough to stage most musket battles.

I discovered that making the "figures" was relatively easy and decidedly inexpensive. Another thing I really like about 2mm is how the actual ranks are modeled rather than based as a single line of figures on a stand.

The Herald: So, now that you had your scale, how did you make the armies?

Scoville: I used a 2mm scale for human figure height for all eras, but depending on the period and size of the units, the ground scale may change. My original base design for linear formation infantry and cavalry was 1"x5/8". A stand of infantry in three ranks is idealized to represent approximately 360 men that would have roughly a 100 yard front. This particular ground/figure scale is what I call Jeu de Guerre scale. It's used for the ACW as well as the Napoleonic period. Battalions generally consist of two stands, sometimes three, depending upon era or nationality. Thus, two stand battalions are given idealized establishments that conform to their two hundred yard front.

I'm using a second scale for the smaller battles of the American Revolution and the 16th and 17th centuries. I'm working on rules to reflect this ratio, calling them Jeu de Guerre Zoom-In. For these, I'm making three rank infantry bases with the dimensions 20mm x 7mm, and two rank bases that are 20mm X 5mm. This type of stand is intended to represent 40 or 60 actual men at a 1:1 man to figure ratio on a ground scale of 1" = 25 yards.

In hindsight, I probably should have constructed stands for Jeu de Guerre with these smaller dimensions and still kept the 1"= 100 yd frontage of Jeu de Guerre scale. It would provide a more accurate battalion frontage reflective of a generally smaller establishment.

The Herald: Could you describe the technical process of creating your miniatures?

Scoville: The making process is a hybrid system that uses a single mold casting technique. As an example, in the case of linear formations of infantry, I employ a technique that I call semi-casting. To start with, several master bases are made from styrene strips glued to a cardboard base. From this, I make a flexible mold from Alumilite Quick-set RTV Silicone. Eventually, I end up with a master model with several bases from which a mold with six or more impressions can be made. Then it's a matter of production.

Initially, I tried to cast the ranks and bases complete, but the ranks often came out disfigured because the liquid plastic didn't pour into the 2mm deep, 1mm thick impressions of ranks. Remember, I'm only using one-piece molds and gravity is the only force pushing the plastic. I now insert styrene strips right into the mold and simply poured the plastic for the base on top. This creates a base with ranks of styrene strips fused to it.

Once the bases are cast, I apply a Dremmel tool to the tops of the ranks to break up the uniformity of the strip. The next step is to spray paint the bases with the basic uniform color. Then the base is painted green. If the troops wear a different color trousers, I dot the lower part of the front and back ranks to further give the impression of ranks of men.

The process for making musket era bases is essentially the same for all periods. The exception is WW II plastic vehicles that are cast singly as base and vehicle. Gun barrels are added after casting. WW II infantry squads are based same as musket era skirmishers because of their spread out configuration.

That's the basic idea. You can get fancier if you wish, but quite frankly, super detail tends to get lost on a playing surface with hundreds of battalions on it.

The Herald: How many different periods do you sculpt miniatures for, and do you use the same "figure scale" for them?

Scoville: I have pretty much complete armies for all the major powers of the Napoleonic era excluding Spain and Turkey. In addition, I have the equivalent of an 85,000 man Union army and a 65,000 man Confederate army. I have 45 cast plastic 1:2400 scale sailing ships, one of my early experiments in plastic casting, as well as the start of armies for the 16th-17th century, American Revolution, and WW II. My goal is to be able to represent the major styles of warfare during the general era of the musket through WW II, something very attainable in 2mm scale.

Right now, I'm working developing three eras: WW II, American Revolution, and 16th-17th century.

The Herald: Your own rules, Jeu de Guerre, what sets them apart, or makes them best suited to your miniatures, as opposed to others you've read?

Scoville: The major difference is the capacity to efficiently fight large scale battles at the battalion level. There are some major difference in the order of play, cavalry charges, movement and combat. I've tried to avoid dice rolling where possible and focused on result rather than process to resolve combat. There are three reference sheets one of which is the Sequence of Play that provides a step-by-step procedure for each round of play. My basic philosophy is that although battle is a confused affair the process of play need not be. In spite of the differences, Jeu de Guerre has much in common with other sets of rules and accordingly makes the rules easy to learn.

The Herald: What is it that you like most about games using your own miniatures and own rules?

Scoville: With 2mm figures, you really get the massed effect. You see the actual ranks and get a true sense of the formations. When I put on Antietam at last year's Advance the Colors, I was working until the last minute on the terrain, so I didn't actually see the battlefield until it was setup at the convention. When the terrain was adorned with battalions, I was very pleased. It looked just like those historic bird's eye views of civil war battles one finds in books.

In addition to large scale battles, 2mm offers the possibility of small to moderate size battles in 1:1 proportions. My new 2mm zoom-in scale shows you exactly the actual formation proportions. When you see a 400 man battalion arrayed at a 1:1 figure/ground scale, it is evident that no other scale, not even 5mm, can so easily replicate actual formation proportions. And you'd be surprised how very different they actually look in comparison to traditional miniature basing.

It's also an interesting exercise to see how very far a Sherman tank's target looks at 500 to 700 yards (20"-28") when accurately scaled. Even at this relatively close range, these diminutive tanks look incredibly small with a huge distance between them. What I most like about 2mm figures is that they literally can give a new dimension to wargaming.

Of course, the rules are designed to my taste so it would be difficult for me to not like them in general.

The Herald: What are things you think still need some work?

Scoville: Casualty status is a weakness in this scale. Most Jeu de Guerre battalions have only two stands. Thus, the removal of stands is not really an option and casualty caps are equally impossible. My first attempt at solving this problem was using rosters, but battalion level rosters, with several Corps worth of battalions is a pain to set up and equally painful to use. So this concept was eventually dropped. I then used colored casualty tab combinations that fit between ranks. This was better but still not completely satisfactory. I'm now thinking of using a single tab that indicates the numeric equivalent of casualties. I might mention that in zoom-in scale, this problem is solved because casualties can be assessed largely by simply removing stands.

A particularly glaring weakness in the rules is revealed with the command and control system. You can use general figures as morale pieces but real command and control is does not really have a presence in the game. It's something that I've been thinking about. I encourage everyone to adapt the rules as they see fit.