This page is being posted to take a look at how game with Classical Hack in the new smaller scales of 6 and 10 mm. Pretty much I am simply posting what Kevin has recently sent in to our Yahoo Group. The ideas are completely his and I think they deserve taking a look at. Dave has also posted some comments and I will also up date his ideas at a later date. Your comment will certainly be welcome.

Dear Phil, I'm thinking of posting this on the site, mainly re: 6mm, but by inference 10mm as well (try using 30mm X 30mm stands). You may see influences here drawn from Legio VI, a reasonably historical and free online ancient rule system devised specifically for 6mm. I think that the ideas below do make for a workable stop-gap. For a thorough (non-improvised) re-working of the rules for small scales however, the Hack casualty/ morale system would have to be definitively altered, so that the stand becomes the basic unit of play instead of the figure. What is your opinion?

Figure range wise at 6mm, in my opinion Baccus figures are by far the best and most accurate/ detailed, so I have used them as the basis for the guide below.

K.

It is true to say that Classical Hack (CH) is a great set of rules, but almost exclusively designed for use with the 25mm and 15mm figure scales. This is because Phil's rules use the figure as the basic building block rather than the stand, which makes gaming with small scales very difficult. Below I will set about proving that even so, with some modifications, the smaller scales CAN still be used with the CH rules (6mm is illustrated here, but similar alterations might be generated for 10mm, 5mm and 2mm).

For 6mm battles with the Classical Hack rules, use a measurement scale of 2cm = 1" in CH, with 20mm X 20mm stands. Note that at 6mm, all base depths are kept at a universal 20mm, whether foot, cavalry, chariots, elephants or artillery. This allows you to deploy aesthetically onto narrow frontages for columns of march (which can swing a stand in column 90 degrees into a line, and vice versa). The 20mm stand frontage likewise fits snug along roads and through gateways at 6mm scale. Below is the standard CH chart for figure representation that is observed. Note that 'figures' here are abstractions for gaming purposes, and often have little correlation to the actual number of models on the base (more on this later). Thus from now on when I talk about FIGURES I mean the number of figures per stand in game terms, and when I talk about MODELS, I am referring to the number of lead miniatures per stand (here using 6mm Baccus miniatures as my standard).

Foot in close order: 4 figures per stand Under strength foot * in close order: 3 figures per stand Troops in loose order: 3 figures per stand Troops in open order: 2 figures per stand Elephants, 4 horse chariots or ballistae: 5 figures per stand 2 Horse chariots or wagons: 3 figures per stand

* Close order foot who tend to fight in a shallow line (such as Roman triarii). At 6mm scale these typically deploy into 'under strength' stands along a longer frontage, but count only count 3 figures per stand.

Units must be organised into complete stands. You cannot have a unit of, say, 3 1/2 stands. Note that there cannot be any peculiarly based units, as this would make working at 6mm scale feel like fiddling while your patience burns. Thus a player will probably have to compromise historical exactness with some awkward sized units in order to achieve playability.

EXAMPLE UNITS: At 6mm scale, a player decides to organise a Macedonian pike chillarchy into 4 stands of close order. That is 16 figures total, or about 64 men per figure. This is a workable man to figure ratio to work in for Hellenic armies. For exceptionally large battles, you might want a larger scale, doubling the troops represented (1 figure = approx. 128 men). Thus a 4 stand pike unit at the larger scale would represent a double chillarchy. Again, at a scale of, say, 100 men per figure, a Republican Roman legion complete with its integrated Italian alae could conveniently be represented by 5 units. The four hastati and principes units could either be each 3 or 4 stands strong in close order (12 or 16 figures), depending on whether they are 'normal' or 'emergency' legions. The one triarii unit would on the other hand be represented as 4 'under strength' stands of close order foot (12 figures total). Alternatively, for smaller scale hoplite battles you could halve the 64 man ratio we started with to 32, which would give you a single lochos or mora for a single 4 stand unit in close order. Again, an early imperial cohort configured at, say, 40 men per figure, would have 3 stands if it was fielded in close order and 4 stands in loose order.

In order to make this work and look balanced on table, it is recommended to adapt the existing Classical Hack rules for 6mm, and drastically cut back the deeper weapon ranks. Unless part of a Theban attack column or something similar, troops formed any deeper than 2 ranks tend to look way out of place at 6mm, and this alteration helps to reflect that. Note that a second or further rank after the first will still have advantages as far as unit resilience and morale absorption of casualties are concerned. However, in order to redress the imbalance created by reducing ranks, weapon skill factors have to change as well. Suggested new weapon lists are below:

Melee Weapon Ranks/ Bonuses *:

Pikes — ranks: 1.5 if charging, bonus: +4 if in good order Hoplite Long Spears — ranks: 1, bonus: +2 if in good order Celtic Foot Sword & Javelins — ranks: 1, bonus: +1 in the 1st round Germanic Foot Spear/ Javelins — ranks: 1, bonus: +1 in all rounds Other Foot Spears — ranks: 1, bonus: +1 in all rounds HTW & Sword — ranks: 1, bonus: +2 in the 1st round, +1 thereafter Triarii Spears — ranks: 1, bonus: +2 if receiving a charge, otherwise +1 Later Roman Javelins etc — ranks: 1, bonus: +1 in all rounds CWP — ranks: 1, bonus: +2 in all rounds (n/a in close order) Mounted Lance — ranks: 1, bonus: +2 if charging

Special Formation Ranks/ Bonuses *:

Theban Attack Column — ranks: 2 if charging, same bonus as long spear Macedonian Wedge/ Rhomboid — ranks: 1, bonus: +4 if charging in good order Germanic Attack Column - ranks: 1.5 if charging, bonus according to weapon All other special formations remain the same as in the rules...

Shooting Ranks/ Bonuses *:

Hand Hurled Weapons — ranks: 1, optional +1 for shooting skill Slings/ Crossbows — ranks: 1, optional +1 for shooting skill Bows — ranks: 2 unless elephant/ chariot, optional +1 for shooting skill Ballistae — ranks: 1, no shooting skill bonus allowed

* You may not agree with the balance of these conversions. As they also reflect my own personal views on ancient weapons and tactics, you can always change them to suit yourself. But in the conversion of Classical Hack's main 25mm orientation to 6mm, it is I'm afraid INEVITABLE that the rules will have to be changed in some way, and focusing on ranks and weapon factors seems to be the most painless way of doing it. This way almost all the other rules can remain unchanged (excepting exchanges of order type, which are I believe far too problematic to work at 6mm at all).

How many models on each stand? As the figure strength is taken care of by the stand's representation, it's entirely up to you and your budget. Elephants, wagons, chariots and artillery will probably look best with one model per stand. Cavalry could work quite normally with 3 models per stand for loose order, and 2 models for open order. Foot are variable, but for ease of identification they should be strictly proportioned by type and order. For example, if using 6mm Baccus, you might try basing 3 X 4 man strips of close order late Republican legionary HI onto a single stand (counting as 4 figures for game purposes), while the same legionaries in loose order could be represented with 2 X 4 man strips (these counting as 3 figures for game purposes). Early Republican triarii might likewise have 2 X 4 man strips per 20mm X 10mm 'under strength' stand to quickly identify them (counting as 3 figures for game purposes). Gallic LMI might be based 3 X 3 on each stand using the same proportions (counting as 3 figures for game purposes), while Cretan LI skirmishers might be 4-6 single models scattered randomly over a single stand (counting as 2 figures for game purposes). If desired, detachable Commanders might have smaller circular or oval 'single figure' bases with 1-2 mounted models, or 3-4 foot models. These latter should however have no effect on the battle as figures, apart from their command and inspiration bonuses to attached units etc. Identifiable 'command stands' (those including fully integrated Commanders) could be replaced by normal stands of their type when they are killed.

Casualties get removed strictly by the full stand. There are (commanders excepted) no single figures at 6mm, so you must either mark down a unit's casualties on a roster, or else experiment with non intrusive/ aesthetically pleasing casualty counters that can stack up next to the unit until a whole stand has been eliminated. One idea is to use small pebbles as unit casualty counters, which do not look so out of place on a battlefield. You might also subtract counters from the morale value or combat figure total of the unit in question, in order to reflect its weakening status more incrementally.

It is important to accept that the guidelines above are (and can only be) an improvisation, and in order to properly accommodate the smaller scales into CH it would most likely be necessary for Phil to bring out a FULLY MODIFIED set of the rules, using the stand as the basic building block of play rather than the figure (the bright side is that the two versions of the same rules could be marketed simultaneously; for example like The Chaosium's 'Call of Cthulhu' role playing game, which is available in both the 'D20' and 'BRP' system formats).