Tournaments, Pickup Games, and Basing Variation

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Tournaments, Pickup Games, and Basing Variation

(14 posts) (5 voices)

Started 2 years ago by pcelella
Latest reply from blucher

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pcelella
Member

Hi all - first post for me on this forum.

I'm planning to pick up a copy of Lasalle at Cold Wars, but I have a question about coordinating basing with my local gamers. There are several of the guys that I game with who have existing 15mm armies, but depending on the players, the armies are based either for the old 'Empire' or 'Napoleon Battles' standard - i.e., infantry stands that are 1 1/8" wide with 3 figures in a single row, or ones that are 3/4" wide with 4 figures in two rows.

Now, of course, nobody wants to rebase, so I was wondering if it is possible for everyone to still play against each other with these armies. My thought is that it might be reasonable to use a BW of 1", and then just go from there. In addition, would it be conceivable to run a tournament with people showing up with armies based to both of these standards?

Anyway, even it rebasing does eventually become necessary, it would be great to have an universally accepted standard to use - especially if tournaments at places like Historicon become a regular event.

Thanks

Peter C

Posted 2 years ago #
Sam Mustafa
Le Grand Fromage

You may want to use a larger BW of 1.5" and make some sticks or strings for that.

The Nap's Battles guys can put two of their bases side-by-side, and thus be 1.5"

The Empire guys did a variety of basing systems, and it varied per-country, so it's often hard to say. If they did 1 1/8" bases, though, you could require that they use tape or white glue to affix those bases to some thin cardboard underneath, thus making them 1.5".

If I'm not mistaken, two Empire artillery bases are the same width as one Nap's Battles artillery base?

I think the more important problem would be the very different cavalry basing standards.

Posted 2 years ago #
Clay
Member

This is the 800 pound gorilla. I'm thinking we almost have a third basing standard now.

The illustrations with 15mm figures clearly show eight figures on a 40mm x 30mm base, but there seems to be resistance to that from players that have figures based for Empire. (1 1/2" is NOT equal to 40mm)

I'm hoping this gets shaken out over time by tourney organizers.

Posted 2 years ago #
pcelella
Member

'I'm hoping this gets shaken out over time by tourney organizers.'

Of course, that's a bit of the chicken or the egg thing, isn't it? I suspect that many tournament organizers will not want to put together a tournament until they know what the 'standard' tournament is using :-)

Maybe once a tournament gets put on at Historicon, or some such venue, people will feel more comfortable with what the baseline is.

Peter

Posted 2 years ago #
Sam Mustafa
Le Grand Fromage

Nobody likes re-basing, but it's also true that very few people still play "Empire," or for that matter any game where a Russian battalion is based differently from a French battalion or a British battalion, etc. Nearly all games in the past decade or more have adopted standardized basing schemes. If you have the old-style Empire or ITGM bases where the British are 2 figures, the Prussians 3, the French 4, and the Austrians 6... then you're pretty much shut out of 90% of Napoleonic games nowadays, anyway, so rebasing is probably just a fact of life for those figures.

Posted 2 years ago #
losart
Member

I think that rebasing is anyway better than don't use the figs at all.
Lasalle is becoming day after the day more popular, for sure the most popular set within a picked game / tournament approach. That is, in my opinion, that the game has all the potentintial to create (and impose) a standard.

I'm starting an army from scracth so I have no problem of "rebasing" but I think that the choice of a common standard is very important (also for people like me that have to decide which adopt).

Posted 2 years ago #
pcelella
Member

Ah, but just what will that standard for basing be? I'm not against rebasing, but if I do it, I only want to do it once only. Although, the more that I read this forum, and posts on other ones, it seems to me that the standard looks likely to become 40mm wide bases, with depth of bases not really mattering that much. Does that sound correct?

Another thing, if I was to rebase my infantry to 40mm wide bases x 20mm deep, would it look reasonable to use 3 figures per stand instead of 4? I presently have 3 figures per 1 1/8" wide by 1/2" deep stand - if I use 3 figures also on the wider stands, I can use the same unit configurations without needing to paint up new figures.

Basically, if Lasalle tournaments eventually become a common occurrence, I want to make sure that my rebasing work meets whatever standard will be used at those tournaments.

Posted 2 years ago #
Sam Mustafa
Le Grand Fromage

[ Ah, but just what will that standard for basing be? ]

In part that depends on what country you live in.

In the USA, where Napoleon's Battles and Shako replaced "Empire" as the most common basing standard, I suspect that the recommended 4x2 infantry base will be the standard, as it can be done either metrically (40mm) or imperial (1.5") and be within a couple of millimeters of all participants.

I don't know what the most common pre-Lasalle basing conventions were in places like Britain, Australia, etc. But whatever can be converted most easily to Lasalle, in those systems, will hopefully emerge.

Posted 2 years ago #
pcelella
Member

What size basing will you be using for the 'tournament' at Cold Wars, Sam? That would be some indication of what most likely will end up an US standard.

Posted 2 years ago #
Sam Mustafa
Le Grand Fromage

All of our 15mm games use the 40mm bases and a 1.5" BW. The 28mm games use a 2" base and BW.

Posted 2 years ago #
losart
Member

in Spain it seems that 4cm frontage is the preferred format. In Italy, where I leave, most of the tournament scene was based on NPOW with 3cm frontage (or even 2,5cm).
The 4x3cm with 6 figures (instead of 8) is my preferred.
Sam, when you speak about 4x2cm do they use a single row of figures (4 figs per base I suppose)?

Posted 2 years ago #
Sam Mustafa
Le Grand Fromage

[ Sam, when you speak about 4x2cm do they use a single row of figures (4 figs per base I suppose)? ]

No, I meant four figures wide by two figures deep, as in the book illustrations.

Posted 2 years ago #
Clay
Member

I disagree with the concept that Empire basing has somehow fallen away. And as it turns out, 40mm x 30mm is perfect for creating sabot bases. I can attach my Empire figures easily without rebasing.

Posted 2 years ago #
blucher
Member

Im trying to promote 40mm BW 10mm figs in our club but just two so far.

You could easily get away with 30mm BW with microscale but I like the big units.

Posted 2 years ago #

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