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My friend & I (as proud owners of 3d printers) want to make ourselves some 10mm 40k armies to do batle on a 6' x 4' board, which we anticipate will make the game a lot more interesting as currently any range of 36"+ is pretty much a given that you can shoot with it (I can't remember the last time I had to reconsider anything over 24" range because it was out of range). Objectives are so bunched up that there's a 90% chance of getting wiped off one on the next turn, because the whole neemy army can choose to do anything.

So, we're going to make some 10mm armies, and use 10mm = 1" to scale it down by about 2.2x, so a range of 48" is now 48cm, so positioning matters, so does repositioning (transports!)

So, I am contemplating what rules to change or tweak to make the game flow smoother at a smaller (or larger, to be fair) scale.

- Advancing will be +6cm to move, not a roll, just because speed matters and on such a large battlefield it will not be overpowered.
- positioning type scenery will be added to the game (EG a set of tunnels underground which you can use to move more quickly about the board)
- the number of turns may need to be adjusted, or the way you score points. I might even revert to the old 40k method of scoring at the end of the game, as positioning is so important - having 6 objectives to prioritise means that your first few turns might be positioning and lining up for assaults. 40k tends to be over (for me) in 2-3 turns anyway, so 6 turns where you portion up your army to claim objectives and then have to fight over them for the last 3 could be a good approach. You would also need t oweigh up sending reinforcements and so on. The current situation of scoring objectives for as long as you're there would just make fast armies always beat slow ones.

Can anyone else think what would need to change for this to work? I am considering adding some new deployment stratagems for forward forces, to start closer to the opponents deployment zone than the rest of your force (negating speed issues at the cost of being more exposed).

I'm excited for this project!

I’d suggest either playing with the Epic Armageddon rules. Alternatively try using the Warhammer Apocalypse rules rather than porting the 40K rules for the 10mm scale?

Net epic, epic armageddon, and a stack of other rules would be better suited for what you want!

Thanks for the replies!

One thing that's important to note - I don't want to play as huge armies on a huge batlefield, I want to play as normal sized (1500-2k points) armies on a realistically sized battlefield. So epic armageddon might not work so well for our intent, as we want to do 40k but with room to manouever.

My main concerns are to remove things which are currently made random due to the size of the battlefield (IE advancing being a D6 roll), and to try and root out any other rules which will make this work a bit less effectively than it could. I'd like to make this my own somewhat, with a brief set of rules to use to make it good fun and tactically engaging. I would like to see actual space on the battlefield, not to see the whole board filled with 10mm miniatures!

I totally understand what you're trying to do, but I think you will find that the granularity of 40K rules will make it difficult- melee combat is fiddly enough in 40K, and having in-melee-range distances of 1cm is going to make it particularly tricky. Line of sight is awkward with smaller models. Exact positioning leads to stuff falling over.

Apocalypse isn't as abstracted as Epic, and can be played with as little as the equivalent of 2000pts of 40K. With a simple 1" to 1cm conversion as you described, a pair of 2000pt 40K armies played under Apocalypse rules will have plenty of breathing room on a 4x3 table, and on a 6x4 will have plenty of scope to size up the battle without being quite as grand-scale as Epic.

I'd recommend taking a look at Grimdark Future from One Page Rules - there's a few mechanics there you might want to dial in

Echoing catbarf above, 40k simply isn't the best chassis to build on if you're looking to end up with a tactical manoeuvre game. All the points you've raised are already somewhat taken care off in Apocalypse or various Epics because they've always been designed for it, unlike 40k which is a squad level skirmish stretched to fit the shoes of a platoon level action while creaking at the seams.

Apocalypse in particular works fine with smaller 2k forces as well, I've played it with 6 mm minis and 1"=1cm conversion. As for Epic, at least Armageddon also has the Minigeddon variant for less grandiose engagements too.

Epic armageddon is my favorite way to play 40k....

No advice to give but would like to say have fun with it.

As I've mentioned on other threads we enjoy games where inches become cms and have a blast with 3-a-side Questoris matches, using the Knights and terrain from Adeptus Titanicus. GW is definitely missing a trick here...

Awesome project. As much as ten mm everything would be so cool, there is terrain and so on to rescale. I dunno why it isn’t possible to use a big table and switch inches for cm while using original scale models.

As others have said, this is basically just Epic 40k

 Skinflint Games wrote:
I'd recommend taking a look at Grimdark Future from One Page Rules - there's a few mechanics there you might want to dial in

I'd second this. It's more abstracted than 40k, which will help with fiddlyness when you're dealing with small figures. However, it's not aimed at massive Battalion level play like Epic.

A few other suggestions.

-Multi-basing or moving your figures on movement trays.

-A movement bonus when traveling on unobstructed roadways

-Given your complaint with ranges and standard size 40k, it sounds like you may want to play with more terrain on the board whether in 28mm or 10mm.

Good luck with the project whichever way you decide to go. Playing in multiple scales can be fun. We sometimes play Mech Attack (generic, light battlemech combat) in 10mm on club nights and then I put on convention games in 28mm (5-7" mecha).

Lots of good suggestions on this thread, but I'd say that the best thing to do is just give it a crack and see how it plays out. You can always modify the rules afterwards.

You may find it overly fiddly, you may find it gives units room to breathe if weapon ranges shrink to 1-2 feet. Lascannons become scarier when their long range becomes more meaningful. As Eilif says, that makes LoS-blocking terrain very important too

The hills, forests and rivers you already have probably work better at 10mm than 28mm scale anyway - they're that bit closer to what they really would be, that bit more daunting to cross.

Buildings are pretty easy at that scale - you can buy little papier mache jewellery boxes a few cm wide in bulk on eBay. Spray them grey, draw a door and you can make a city in an afternoon. Or 3D print them!