6mm Sci-Fi: Why I love it

Maj. Diz Aster here, this is a first in a series of posts by the staff of Planet Ares VI, sort of a group of introductions by each of us.

First off, my name is Steve and I've been into RPGs and wargaming since the late 70's. Started with Traveller/Striker, proceeded to Battletech through most of the 80's into the early 90's, then got into 40K for about a decade, became disillusioned, dropped out of gaming till 2010 when I got heavily in 15mm scale sci-fi minis. After a time I developed a love-hate relationship with that scale, and at the masterful coaxing of Angel Barracks returned to 6mm sci-fi, something I hadn't worked on since my Battletech days. I'm glad I listened to AB, I've gotten nothing but satisfaction working and gaming in 6mm scale.

What's not to love about 6mm Sci-Fi? The scale has so many options available for tabletop gaming. You can find all kinds of infantry, armor, and terrain in this scale. It's very economical, you can put together a very large fighting force for what you'd pay to build a mechanized infantry company in 15mm scale or a small 28mm scale platoon. You could even put together two moderately sized fighting forces to oppose each other for about the same cost. Storing and transporting 6mm scale minis is also another reason I love the scale. I can build up pretty massive armies and still be able to store them much more easily than an army composed of minis from a larger scale. I can transport two 6mm scale armies in the same carryall as one 15mm scale company. Forget 28mm. 

I really love painting 6mm minis. A lot of gamers claim that 6mm scale minis are "just too small to work with" or "they have no detail". Wrong on both counts. It's easier to paint several minis at once in this scale, and you can do so with very simple techniques, that will provide you with an impressive looking army, plus the detail on today's current lines of 6mm minis rivals the detail in 15mm scale minis, and the detail level continues to increase. 

With 6mm minis I can play a large scale battle on a relatively small tabletop and still have plenty of room for maneuvering my force, plus the movement and  weapons ranges are so much more realistic than playing with larger scales.
Although there's currently a lot of hype over 15mm scale Sci-Fi, 6mm Sci-Fi is still more diverse, and probably always will be. Heck, 6mm wargaming has been popular, as far as I know, since at least the late 60's - 15mm just recently got popular. So this is one instance I'll stick with "age before beauty".

Like Angel Barracks is fond of saying "6mm FTW" and "Size Matters!"