"Basing vehicles in Classic Battletech?" Topic

We're looking at a bit of a CBT revival locally, and I've been digging out the handful of old acquisitions and making new ones (as my Pledge posts can attest) and I've come up with a usage question.

While it's fairly obvious that people expect mechs to be based on hex bases sinbce facing is extremely important, its less obvious what people do with vehicles (since the other locals are high-born mech-driving snobs… but I digress). Would basing vehicles make sense?

I haven't played CBT in 13 years…

But when the group I was in existed back then, we never based our vehicles. This was weird, since we played without a hex-map on a regular miniature board, so the hex bases were important for measuring turns.

Nope I don't base my vehicles, I think they look better without bases!

As for game play it doesn't really make a difference as you can tell which part of the hex the front of the vehicle is facing.

I can't remember if I used tobase vehicles or not (haven't played for about 15 years!)

However, if starting again now I would base vehicles for consistency of look, and to give players something by which to pick them up.

None of my vehicles are based, for mapless play we just use a straight edge and estimate the turn. We don't restrict ourselves to the 60 deg turn increment on the table top.

Speaking of Battletech, it looks like Iron Wind Metals cycled a *lot* of painted pictures into the webstore over the last week or so.

Jury is still out on bases here, though I'm considering sourcing from Litko to allow the bases to scale with the minis. One of the definitions of "silly looking" is a Savannah Master recon hover (at maybe 1/2" long) looking lost in the middle of a 1-1/4" lipped hex base. Sitting on a riser above a 3/4" flat, on the other hand…

Havent played CBT but once in the past decade. We're getting ready to do so again. That being said, we didnt base our vehicles and we were playing as straight miniatures and not using the hex based maps. We'll most likely do that again.

The only BT vehicles I ever put on bases were the small ones like the Savannah Master hovercraft. They were tiny and would often get forgotten in the "foliage" only to turn up a few games later.

Yes, they did look lost on a base but it was better than the alternative of not knowing where the heck the mini was.

I never bothered with bases for any other vehicles and I played table top with no hexes.

Thanks for the answers, all.

I think I'll go with the hybrid solution here, as per Typhoon. If a mini "needs" a base, it will be a hex base (or incorporate a hex, in the case of the hover-based minis), while vehicles that are already easy to pick up and/or have a clear facing will stay "neat". I can always base them later if need be.

Alright. I've used a template, Warmaster bases, and flush-cutters to produce the bases for my small army of Savannah Masters and Gabriels. The other vehicles will remain unbased for now.

Pictures, for those interested in the look, when I get the chance.