I tried out the rules at Historicon, got hooked and began painting 15mm British two days ago. I realize the system is fairly flexible with regards to base sizes. However, will there be official base sizes for tournamets? I am considering basing my stuff on one and one eighth inch bases.
Basing Advice
(6 posts) (6 voices)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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For 15mm, its seems that most people have 40mm x 30mm basing as per the book.
cheers
Posted 1 year ago # -
Bernhard, yes, you are correct. The basing can be whatever your would like it to be. For 15mm figures, the rules book recommends eight infantry figures on a base, and the base width (BW) is 1-1/2". Keep in mind though that 1-1/2" actually equals 38.1mm and not 40mm as suggested in the rules book. This base width (BW) is used for the infantry (8xfigs), cavalry (3xfigs), and artillery (1xgun+figs). For depth, it seems that the accepted standard is 1" for infantry, 1" for cavalry, and about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" for artillery.
But getting back to what you were saying. Yes, as long as everyone uses the same BW for their armies, it doesn't matter what that BW is. It could be 1", 1-1/8", 1-1/4", 1-1/2", 2" 3", 20mm, 30mm, 40mm, 50mm, whatever.
My gaming group for example uses bases that are one and one eighth inch (1-1/8" or 38.1mm), and we mount six 15mm infantry figures per base. We were going to use 1" bass with six figures, but a lot of our collections have figures that are on 1-1/8" bases, so we picked this as our standard because we did not have to re-base everything. For ranges (firing and movement), we just use standard inch rules, that is one BW = 1". We should be using one BW = 1.125" (1-1/8"), but we found that the 1/8" (0.125") doesn't really effect the game all that much. And if a situation ever does come up that it will, we would take this into account.
So, I would say go with what works for you. "The most important criterion is that you and your opponent use the same system for basing figures. The second most important criterion is that you like the way your figures look!" (Page 5, Lassale rules)
The other reason for this six infantry figures per base is that most of our collections are based for 1:30 ratio gaming, so 24 figure units is the norm. Sure, we can just paint 8 more figures per unit, but when you have 100+ units - meaning 800+ more figs to paint - and a lot of the figures are no longer produced, it makes it very difficult.
Don't get me wrong, those 32 figure Lasalle units look great. Heck, I even think 36 figure units (1:20 ratio games) look good. But our collections are based for 1:30 ratio games and so forming 24 figure units was easy, and 24 figure units still look good.
So what happens when we are faced with a new opponent who has based their figures for the 1-1/2" "Recommended" BW? Easy, one of the club members had made some extenders that turns a 1-1/8" base into a 1-1/2" base. Bingo, we are ready to play with 1-1/2" BW. So you see, our Napoleonic armies are more flexible. For example, if we play a game with you and your figures that are based at 1-1/8", lets just play because we all have the same BW. But if we play another player that uses a BW of 1-1/2", no problem; before the game I would attach the base extenders.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have some trouble in choosing the basing system of the Russian army I'm planning to assemble.
In Italy 3cm Base width seems the standard (derived from other sets like POW or Shako).
Personally I prefer 4cm base width as suggested by the rulebook.I know that if both armies are based the same and use the same BW for distances it works whatever basing has been adopted, but I wondered if someone has tried to play with armies based in a different way, I mean what are the main troubles if one army is based at 3cm and the other at 4cm (using the same BW measures of course)?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I think you played in the game I put on. I use what's in the book. 8 figure infantry stands and three figure cavalry stands.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi
"I mean what are the main troubles if one army is based at 3cm and the other at 4cm (using the same BW measures of course)?"The person with the smaller base widths will have an advantage particulary in melees because he can get more bases in contact than the person with larger base widths.and when u contact one another there will be overlaps attacking 2 units when if the base widths were equal there wouldnt be one unit attacking two units.
cheers
Posted 1 year ago #
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