Question on mecha sizes

[sunspear]

Just starting 15mm and I am a little confused about the size issues on mecha sizes. I think personally that 28mm (or the rough equivalent) would be a good fit for light mechs. But after that I am a bit lost. I have seen some really huge models, which I think are cool. I have two questions really.
1. What are your thoughts on mecha sizes?
2. What models do you use for larger (than 28mm) mechs?

[RuneCaster_Aris]

Play as you feel.

My assault mecha is a Reaper Mini's Thunderbird. It's only 3" tall, but looks like it's made of pure metal.

My good friend Papabees, uses a N-Scale Atlas as an assault, and it stands on the closer end of 4" tall.

I would judge by appearance more than anything. If it looks like it could take a direct shot from 2-3 tanks and then fight back in kind, I'd call that an assault mech. Khurasan Miniatures has a light mech out there too. I have a picture of it in my army blog here: gruntz15.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=yg&action=display&thread=1220

It stands about... 1.25" tall and feels like a light mech.

[davicusprime]

I'm new to this system myself. I'm beginning to think that the size-to-class aspect of things is going to require a lot of guesswork and tweaking to fit your particular army/models.

I've played a lot of Battletech back in the 80's and 90's and sizes were pretty well fixed but the scale differences in the models were kinda hazy. So it was pretty common to have well defined classes on paper, but you didn't always know by looking at the models. Also, in BT, the pilot sits entirely in the mechs head, which requires that even the smallest Mechs to be quite large.

In more recent years I've been playing Heavy Gear Blitz where everything is pretty well classified AND the scales are very clear in the models. But they are all generally smaller compared to the Battletech classes of Scout/Light/Medium/Heavy/Assault. In Hvy Gear you have Scout/Trooper/Elite/Fire Support. And in their case, the pilot sits in the upper torso with their head extending into the gear's "head" almost like a helmet. So the gears are significantly smaller in comparison to other game's mechs.

Another odd quirk of HGB... Just everything in Hvy Gear is wheeled (Robots on rollerblades) to lessen wear on the actuators and for additional speed on paved or open ground. So taking the wheeled option would be done across the board.

The way I look at it is that you've got to take your models and compare the size and weapon mounts between them and assign them to the appropriate Gruntz size classes that fit your concept. Keeping things internally consistent with the rest of your army is going to be the important thing. In the end your idea of an assault mech might be 5cm while an opponent might classify his 7cm model the same way. In the end, neither of you is wrong. They'll play the same, though the smaller mech may find it easier to hide behind things.

The thing I'm having trouble with is figuring things out without having the models in hand. I have yet to purchase anything in the 15mm scale, so eyeballing things on websites without a common size reference is driving me batty.

-DavicusPrime

[inrepose]

Yes I agree here it is a case of judging for your own army. You might use a something as small cargo loader as a scout mecha but for other players you might prefer visually to start scout at a larger size representing models that fit the Battletech type profile like a Stinger which would still be a big model in 15mm scale (if you can find one).

[twogunsblazing]

Forvehicle and Mech sizes, I prefer to have models look as though they can actually believably contain crew/pilots in them...as much as possible anyway. So in regards to the larger Mech you ask about, I like to use quite large models...N scale at least.

[RuneCaster_Aris]

N scale is a great starting point for Mecha. and most 1/100 gundam-type models seem to feel good too.

[comstar]

It's a personel choice.

I try and balance force aesthetics as much as possible so a compact mech could be a medium for one force but a heavy for another.

Go with what you feal is right as you have got to use them!