More Pico Armor Fun

Soviet T-72 tank, BMP-2 APC and infantry section - and a Canadian penny

Over the past few years I have periodically dabbled in the Oddzial Osmy's 3mm tanks and troops (example here).  We have even played a game of Cold War Commander using them (back in 2008, I think, but I'm guessing - I couldn't find it on the blog, so it must have been a while).

Motor rifle company in BMP-2s

I am very impressed with the sculpting and casting quality of this range - these are really, really neat.  And the scale offers a chance to "air out" the game a little bit on the table, with engagement ranges that "look" more realistic on the table, and crowds of armour that don't crowd up.  But would this catch up with other gamers?

BMP command unit (round base), BRM recon track, and a platoon of BRDM AT launchers

When I had first purchased these figures I based them in groups, so each stand would literally represent a platoon. But the look still didn't quite work for me - I have always loved tons of tanks on the gaming table, but disliked the "hub to hub" effect this produced in terms of the look.  This happens even with the smaller size figures like 15mm (for examples, see nearly any Flames of War game).  

ZSU-23-4s - an essential for any Warsaw Pact commander

The hub-to-hub effect happens for a lot of reasons on the gaming table which I'm not going to drone on about here.  I thought 3mm might solve it, but the group bases still looked crowded...even allowing for the smaller scale, the tank platoon, for example, still looked crammed into the square base. 

Before on the right, after on the left

T-72 command base (20mm round)

There are certainly times when armoured vehicles mass on the battlefield, but generally they are quite spread out. How to get this on a reasonable sized table, while still playing with a ton of tanks?  I started to experiment with individual basing for the 3mm stuff last summer - example here.  Recently I finished another round of the figures, and re-based some of my previous stuff on individual bases, enough to get tonight's game going.

T-72 company

I think Oddzial Osmy has a devoted fan base - the range is very, very comprehensive and new stuff keeps coming out. Check out the Pico Armor online store to see for yourself. On forums like TMP, however, I have often seen the small scale panned on the grounds that the figures are impossibly small, and "might as well be paper counters".

Leopard C1 squadron

TMP door-knobs aside, 3mm will not be for everyone. For me, it is a lot of fun to work on these little tanks and troops.  It is a challenge to find the right colour shades to make the figures more visible, to shape the groundwork a little bit, etc. You can get a pile of them for a small sum, the range is unbelievably complete, and I even love that they mildly evoke counters - after all, I was a huge fan Avalon Hill games like "France 1940".  I'm also a big Cold War tank geek, so I can "see" the shape of the vehicles right away.  I'm not sure that will hold for the more casual participant.  These will probably need some labels to help with identification. 

Another view of the Leopard C1s

Will this work for gaming? We'll see tonight - we will be playing an imaginary WW3 game, using the overall Soviet invasion plot of the 1984 movie "Red Dawn", in which three Soviet army groups crossed the Bering Straight and tried to link up with a southern Communist pincer coming up from Mexico.  The Soviets are trying to pass through Brandon on their way to the states - and the Canadian Forces have a little something to say about it!