MY HISTORY - PROPORTION ISSUES: 1:1 vs 1:5 vs 1:10

One of the main result of papersoldiers is their low cost and possibility to put one next to the other.

For this reason I started firstly with a 1:20 proportion (1 papersoldier represents 20 real men), but it seemed to me really very limited as proportion (imagine that 1 battalion of 600 men would be represented by 30 soldiers. This can well happen with normal plastic/lmetal soldiers but the effect - let me say - is that of a little re-anactement of some friends from the same block.

Here below a little idea: very well painted and great. But a battalion is about 20 models!

So I moved on to the 1:10 proportion. I stuck to this proportion for a long period, considering it the best compromise between numbers, playability and visual impact.

Here below a picture of time ago with papersoldiers still little brimmed out.

Very funny to play with (this was the battle of Abensberg 1809), but still....

Then my - at the time - fiancée "suggested" me to downscale the proportion to 1:5; firstly I was totally against, because of the need of space required for this and the new job to be done.

Then I tried, even reducing the size of the soldiers (from 25mm to 15 mm), and I started with the Battle of Blennheim (1704)

Total vision of the troops attacking the Village of Blenheim at 1:5 ratio

Above the Hessian Brigade. Bottom the British brigade attacking the village of Blenheim.

Well the 1:5 proportion was a real good compromise: the number increased as the vision of the battle, even though it was quite easy to use on the tables.
Then, I told myself: "Why not to try to increase the numbers, glueing the papersoldiers quite close.

So I passed to a 1:1 proportion with battalions increasing the width to 70 cm each! Bottom

 

Top: Battle of Lund December 1676 The Lvregiment of the Danish Army at 1:1 ratio 

Bottom: Battle of Leuthen - Decmber 1757 Prussian Hussars: Zieten Regiment

 

Bottom: close fighting between Swedes and Danish at the Battle of Halmstad 1676. 1:1 Ratio.

Bottom: Major commanding a coloumn of the Novgorod Regiment the morning of the Battle of Austerlitz - December 1805. 1:1 Ratio

Bottom: the night at the village of Leuthen. 1:1 Ratio

You have to admit that the effect is quite different!

So followint this path I started to project battles with 1:1 ratio, and writing rules for wargaming without dice.
But lately, I realized how huge is my project as dimensions: tableboard at least 10 meter X 3 meter and so on.
So I tried to come back and using the tight space that I am already using for glueing the papersoldiers at 1:1 ratio, I did 1 battalion at 1:5 and 1:10
Here the pictures:
1) here at 1:10 ratio: about 58 papersoldiers i.2. 580 real men.
I preferred to array them in 2 rows, trying to give the real idea of a battalion of the epoch

 Top; as you can see the papersoldiers are very close one to the other.

 Bottom: here a battalion at ratio 1:5. About 120 papersoldiers in 2 rowsi.e. 600 real men

 Top: The effect is quite good and manageble
Bottom: I tried also to array in 3 rows but I think in this way it lacks of reality.

 So I came back to the 2 rows battalion

 My dream would be to recreate the - just as a start - the battle of Leuthen at 1:5 ratio!