"Johnny Reb III & Fire & Fury Basing" Topic

Hi all,

I recently picked up several sets of ACW rules, to give them a go and see if any meet my needs. Some of these sets, when it comes to basing, say things like "If your figures are already based for Johnny Reb, they will work fine." Similar comments for Fire & Fury.

Then they go on to offer their own basing sizes in case you are coming into the ACW fresh.

To maximize the use of any figures, can someone tell me specifically what the JR III and/or F&F basing requirements are? I might as well base for those so my minis can work not only with these rule sets, but those other "leading brands" as well.

If they have them, I'd like to know 15mm and 28mm specs.

Thanks.

Steve

JR III basing is 3-5 figures on a 1 inch by 3/4 of an inch base, with three figures probably being the most common. The rule book does not make a big deal out of a ¼ inch either way. Others may have different mileage but that seems to be the ‘norm' with my limited experience with third edition. The figure scale is one figure equaling 30 men. It has a ground scale of one inch equaling 50 yards. One cannon model represents the battery with the number of crew signifying the number of sections.

Fire and Fury uses two scales a 150 man base and one gun model being 6 actual guns with 45 yards per inch. The second scale is a 200 man base with 60 yards per inch scale a gun stand being 8 guns. Fire and Fury can be anywhere from three to five figures on a 1 inch square base. So the above basing would serve you well for either. There is no difference in my humble opinion between a one inch square base and one that is 1 by 3/4. So you really couldn't go wrong with using the JRIII basing.

Can't give the 25mm stats off the top of my head, but would guess that the dimensions would be x 1 1/2 distance and base size. Though not your question you can't go wrong playing both. They deal with different aspects of the same animal.

Nathan

I use 1" x 1" basing for both infantry and cavalry. 1" x 1.5" for artillery. 1" x 2" for wagons and stuff like that.

I know this is wrong -- oh so wrong, but you know what it works just fine. You can put 3-5 inf figs on a base or (as I do) just mount 4 to a base. If I want a unit that is small regiment I insert a single 3 fig stand to denote they are all supposed to be 3 figs. If a large unit, I insert a 5 fig stand to denote they are all supposed to be 5 figs. This maximizes your flexibility -- and at 15mm there is very little to be gained by having a slightly bigger or smaller base for those odd sized units -- most are smart enough to know that the frontage for the small unit will be smaller than the 4 fig units and the 5 fig unit frontage will be more than the 4 fig units.

I do not paint units for ACW. I paint bases. Again, not a purist but it works out very well in the end.

Finally 1" x 1" does not tip over very easily, protecting your figs.

mjc

Technically, JR has 7/8 inch wide bases for 4 figures, so that a 480 man regiment takes up 3 1/2 inches instead of 4. Most people fudge this though.

FnF has all but some command stands a standard 1 inch wide, hence the reason why 1" being the norm.

I would also suggest looking into 10mm. As stated by quidveritas 1x1 is a good idea or it becomes top heavy. Also, 15mm figures from most companies these days are going to look cramped if you put them on a suggested base of 1x3/4. That's why the vast majority of people only put 3 figures per base. Especially when you need 200+ bases just for one side. For 10mm figures, you can easily fit 4 figures on a 1x3/4 base, and it will not be top heavy. And when the bases are less than 2 inchs away from each other, they will not appear to be almost nose to nose.

another big advantage, is that the houses will not be 150 yards long, and smaller trees mean less cost.

I've been basing my 15mm ACW on 1"x1" bases with 3 figures per base. I like it much more than 4 on a 1"x3/4" base, which usually looks like an odd double-rank line to me. Each stand to me is a small diorama/scene. The entire unit then is one larger diorama. I'll hopefully get some photos on my blog this weekend.

I use my own regimental ACW rules, which began life as ACWarmaster but has changed substantially over the years.

CPBelt, Warmaster is an interesting set of rules. How did you modify it to represent the more unique issues that rifle armed armies bring to the table?

Nathan

Thanks for the info. I appreciate knowing what others have done.

As for 10mm … I just can't do it. When I thought about getting into WWII minis I bought up some sample infantry (DAK) and a tank (Pz III) in 4 scales: 6mm, 10mm, 12mm and 15mm.

I came to the conclusion that I just can't paint anything smaller than 15mm, and that is already pushing it. My old eyes are not what they used to (been wearing corrective lenses since I was 8 years old).

And the few 15mm figures I've painted I am not all that happy with (the job itself is okay, but I didn't enjoy painting them). I enjoy painting 28mm.

So my dilema is (A) go with 15mm and struggle to get motivated to paint, but save money on minis, and buildings, and have the battles look better on a 4x6 table. Or (B) go with 28mm, enjoy the painting, use my same hills and trees, but pay more for proper buildings, and more for minis, and have things look a bit cramped on a 4x6 table.

If not for the Perry plastics, I would probably just sigh, go with 15mm, and be done with it. But the lure of cheap plastic troops to form the bulk of my forces, coupled with my preference for painting 28mm minis, and it's now a hard choice.

So while debating that internally, I wanted to know what the basing standards were for the more popular rules, so I could figure out the best weay to base either sizes, in a way that would let me use my troops for other rules.

Steve