Are 2mm figures really no better than counters?

It's an accusation that gets levelled at 2mm and 3mm figures by those who normally play using larger scales. What's the point of 2mm figures they are no better than a cardboard counter is the common statement. I can understand where these questions come from if you are used to painting exquisite 28mm soldiers and can identify a unit by it's turn back colour and button patterns, but 2mm isn't intended for those gamers. Those tiny 2mm chaps are for the sweep of large units showing formations and playing out grand tactical problems. The other comment I hear a lot is how can you possibly paint these. Which is a little strange given the level of tiny detail many painters of larger scale figures are capable of showing. It's no harder than the frogging on the chest of a Hussar in 28mm.

Are the figures really no better than a counter?  Take a look at the picture below and decide for yourself.

Counter v 2mm casting.  The casting wins!

As for detail and the ability to paint them, well again a single picture is worth a thousand words as they say.

Some of those horses have forehead blazes and socks!  Note the Infantry Battalia in the background.

There is detail there and it can be picked out.  Some castings are better than others but careful use of paint helps with the less detailed ones.  The cavalry in the pictures are Armoured Pistoliers in three ranks of five.  These are grouped three castings to a base with separate officers added by splitting open order cavalry bases down.  It gives a look of mass and doesn't require the sacrifice of portraying the rear ranks.  Cavalry are an area where 2mm really does come good.  In larger scales I could never get the correct numbers of horse onto the table.  In 2mm it becomes achievable.

Infantry castings moulded shoulder to shoulder are the basis of most of the rest of my ECW forces although I use some loose order for clubmen and will do the same for highlanders when I start onto the 1645 Montrose campaign figures.  I also use those for ACW dismounted cavalry firing lines.

Six battalia of Foot each of 900 men

Deployed in six ranks, note how long and thin the formation is

The first thing which really struck me when I created these formations is how long the line is compared to it's depth.  Most rule sets for larger scales get the frontage right for the ground scale, but have to exaggerate the formation depth to get the figures to fit the bases.  Not a problem to depict in 2mm.  It also starts to show why battalia were divided into smaller formations of around six files width.  

To explain lets do some math!  A NMA battalia aimed for a 2:1 shot to pike ratio (as seen above) and based upon pay returns I estimate that at Naseby they averaged about 900 men each after deploying supply train guards and the forlorn hope.  So that gives 600 musketeers in two wings of 300 men and 300 Pikemen.  The musketeers formed six ranks deep which means that each rank consists of 50 men.  At the order they would deploy with one man every 3 feet.  So a frontage of 50 yards.  Imagine if using introduction fire (where the front rank fires and then retires to the rear to reload) making a single rank file around the entire 50 yard long block before the next rank can fire.  Firepower would be dramatically reduced instead the single large block was divided into 'divisions' of between 4 - 6 files with a space between the divisions.  Ranks moved from front to rear (or vice versa) using those spaces so they only had to traverse a maximum of 6 yards before moving to the rear.  Allowing a further yard (or so) between divisions I have based each block of 100 musketeers on a 20 yard frontage (100 men in six ranks gives 16 and a bit men per rank plus 3-4 yards for the spaces or close enough to 20 yards).

The formation in the photos above are three blocks of 100 musketeers on each side of the pike blocks.  The pike blocks are at close order so have half the frontage of the shot so overall the battalia has a frontage of 150 yards!  Depth between ranks was almost always at 1.5 yards until pike blocks closed ranks before coming to close combat.  So six ranks at 1.5 yards gives a depth of 9 yards.  (I cheated and used 10 to make measuring bases easier).  2mm allows the use of more realistic unit foot prints than their larger brethren and starts to show up some of the command and control issues a battalia commander would face when all he has to transmit orders are drums and a good shouty sergeant!

Hopefully this post goes some way to showing that these castings are far better than counters and can be painted to a reasonable wargames standard without going blind!