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Big Hearts, Small Men

Ever since I first started wargaming the Vietnam War I have held the vision of large-scale, sweeping, battalion-sized battles. Numerous things prevented me from realising this vision, such as figure-scale, figure availability, expense, time, rules availability and so forth. Consequently, like most other gamers of this period I have, until now, stuck with the tried and tested, namely 15mm and 20mm skirmish gaming.

But there is an alternative, it's called 'down-sizing'. If I wanted games of this size and magnitude I had to adopt a new approach (or else win a fortune and grow very long arms) and so I decided to look at smaller scales, namely 10mm.

Big Hearts, Small Men is an account of this new venture which I hope will encourage others to give it a try.

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Vietnam wargaming with 10mm scale figures

  • Introduction - why choose 10mm? It's benefits and drawbacks
  • Force Composition - planning for and organising your forces. Basic TO&Es. Figure Availability. Cost comparisons with other scales.
  • Painting Infantry - requirements of painting at 10mm scale. Step-by-step guides to US and NVA infantry
    • US Infantry - illustrated 'walkthrough'
    • NVA Infantry - illustrated 'walkthrough'
    • Main Force VC - walkthrough with illustrations (Submitted by Matt Spooner)
  • Allied Infantry - illustrated guide to figures available
  • NVA and VC Infantry - illustrated guide to figures available
  • Armour - US and NVA armour organisation and painting guide
  • Helicopters - painting guide
  • Riverine - review and painting guide of Kennington Miniatures Armored Troop Carrier (ATC), Armored Troop Carrier, Helicopter (ATCH) and Monitor.
  • See also: Terrain - making suitable terrain pieces for 10mm scale
  • Rules - availability, reviews
  • Battle Reports - after action reports of games played
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Down-size...

10mm and 20mm figures

Land of the Giants, a 20mm figure alongside a stand of 10mm figures.