Epic Scale Ancients, WW1 and WW2

I am sure that any players of Command and Colours, be it via Memoir 44 or the Ancients series (and, if rumours are true, the Napoleonic version) will be familiar with the 'Epic Battles' concept. This usually involves a couple of mapboards butted to together or a large, purpose produced scenario map, a larger than normal number of units, usually two sides of players (usually up to four a side), a special set of command cards and some additional rules. The idea should appeal to the big battle enthusiast (which probably covers most of us!) and I am no exception. I was highly delighted then, to note that the three boards I collected from Mr Gow are the double sided version. Side A has the usual 13 x 9 hex playing area whilst side B has a much bigger area suitable for butting against another board to make a double sized and then some playing area- a whopping 28 x 9 in fact. The B side also does not feature the Ancients logo and so I guess you can see where my fevered imagination went!

20th century in the desert. Home of the fighting against the Turks in WW1 and the Germans/Italians in WW2. That seems like a good idea but I have no Hexon desert tiles! No problem, why don't I just use the boards that are available (and by extension the ordinary Memoir 44 boards)? Why not indeed? The hexes of a standard Ancients board are a shade over two inches across the flat sides or roughly half that of a Hexon tile. Producing figures in an appropriate scale for use on this board would ideally mean 15mm or smaller models. 15mm would be the obvious choice but not being one to go with the obvious choice I am thinking that perhaps 10mm might be a good alternative. There is a pretty good selection of models available in  this scale for WW1 and WW2 so I think I will give this some serious consideration. the models have the advantage of being easy to paint and are cheap as well. Terrain for any desert set up is minimal but buildings and the obligatory palm trees are available and knocking up hills etc should not tax my modest modelling skills over much. The big advantage though is I would not have to invest in any desert Hexon tiles.

One to look at and ponder further methinks.