loop over subcategories instead of looping over categories

[mayid]

I needed to show just subcategories in the main page, and i take the long road. I mean, i'm using the categories module, but i'm just skipping the categories and showing the subcategories. Now, the problem is that i just can't count them!

Categories can be count, and the wished amount can be set in the control panel. But subcategories are harder to handle. And i don't know much about smarty. Could you please guys give me a tip? This is the code i'm using in category-tree-branch.tpl

{if $node.children|@count == 0}





   {$node.name|escape:html:'UTF-8'}


   {/if}

   {if $node.children|@count > 0}

           {foreach from=$node.children item=child name=categoryTreeBranch}
                   {if $smarty.foreach.categoryTreeBranch.last}
                               {include file=$branche_tpl_path node=$child last='true'}
                   {else}
                               {include file=$branche_tpl_path node=$child last='false'}
                   {/if}
           {/foreach}

   {/if}

[mayid]

With just PHP i'd just put a counter, a conditional, and loop six times:

i = 0;
if (i < 6)
--- the loop
...
i++;
---

But with Smarty i don't know how to handle this.

[mayid]

Any clue on this? The above solution is not possible in smarty because it don't allow declaring vars, as far as i know.

EDITED: nevermind. I'm using another module now, that can be controlled easily. I'm referring to the featured products module.