Micro armour

Micro armour (or micro armor) refers to small figurines made of lead, pewter, die cast metal or plastic, usually used for wargaming purposes. Variations of the name include: mini armour, mini armour, microscale, mini tanks, miniature armour, miniature armour, miniature tanks, micro tanks, minitanks, minifigs, armour figurines, tank figurines, etc. are also used. Micro armour is a sub-category of model military vehicle miniature figures used for military simulation, miniature wargaming, scale models, dioramas and collecting.

The specific term "micro armour" originated and was trademarked by GHQ founder Gregory Dean Scott in 1967 for a line of metal 1:285 scale armour miniatures. GHQ also published Micro Armour: The Game - WWII in 2001 some 34 years after founding the company. Early on, a competing company called C in C offered 1:285 scale micro armour starting in 1974.

Currently, games such as Flames of War and Axis & Allies Miniatures are widely popular and use 1:100 scale mini armour figurines and 15 mm infantry.

Micro and mini armour consists primarily of the following scales, from smallest to largest:

Beyond squad-level scale there is half-platoon scale, platoon scale, company scale, battalion scale and division scale.

Micro armour is usually differentiated from tabletop games based on human shaped heroic scale / infantry skirmish game scale figures (even if the high and low ends of each respective category overlap) because the scales used by most micro armour games are smaller (armour skirmish game scale) and the represented playing field larger - though it is not nearly as large as in naval wargaming. In typical micro armour based games (such as Micro Armour: The Game - WWII) a single tank would represent a typical military unit. Contrast to larger scaled games, such as those using 20 mm - 54 mm heroic scale / infantry skirmish game scale miniatures, (such as MechWarrior, Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer, AT-43, Warmachine or Dungeons & Dragons), a tank would be unusually large and more akin to units like dragons or large catapults which human sized units must gang-up against to defeat. Infantry skirmish games such as The Face of Battle and I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! demonstrate this very well as they are designed to be played with 15mm, 20mm and 25/28mm scale figures, as contrasted with 6mm - 12.5mm armour skirmish figures.

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