"10mm - basing for Pike&Shotte (and others)? " Topic

Hi, I'm currently pondering how to base my TYW armies.

Primarily, the rules system I'm looking at is Warlord Games' Pike&Shotte which puts little restriction on the player in terms of units frontage and my plan was to just use 40x20mm bases. Something like this:

Musket: 2 bases of 40x20, 7 or 8 models a base
Pike: three to four bases of 40x20, maybe six for large units, two strips (using Old Glory minis for those) a base
Heavy Horse: three (maybe four?) models a base, alongside (20mm frontage per base, 40mm length), three to four bases side by side for a unit
Light Horse: three models a base, 20mm frontage, four to five bases a unit
Artillery: Not quite sure, possibly something round for guns attached to infantry batallia and 40x20mm bases for batteries, depending on how much space the crews and equipment require.

It's probably not the best for accuracy but it's rather simple and I won't have to bother with variying base sizes across the armies. Now my main questions are: Will this work for other systems as well (DBR, Father Tilly, Basic/"Full" Baroque, FoG:R, …) or do you have any suggestions on how to base these models so it makes a bit more sense?

Second: Is there any accepted standard for basing skirmishing infantry in 10mm scale? Just a handful of fellas scattered lightly across a bunch of bases?

So this is my plan for now. What do you more seasoned and knowing 10mm people think? :) Thanks very much in advance.

Far from being a seasoned and knowing 10mm guy (I'm actually 6ft…) my take was basing all foot and artillery pieces on bases of a square inch containg 6 figures or 1 gun and crew. Horse requires a slightly larger base (30x30mm for 3 figures).

This has of course a disadvantage of lots of small bases and the advantage of….. lots of small bases! With these you can represent line, blocks, column or squares for various rulesets as well as skirmishers (a single base unconnected to other bases).

Of course if a ruleset demands a specific size or number of figures per base, you're in trouble,but then a generic approach is not possible anyway.

Thanks for the reply! I'm fairly sure that I've just seen you over on the Pendraken forums ("Pike&Shot&Ordnance"), haven't I? :D

I would go with the 40mm wide stands as you can play against 15mm opponents with FoG Renaissance rules. Might seem strange at first but it works as long as the stands are the same width. Or you could go with all 20mm side stands knowing you will need double the stands to play FoG: R.

40mm is a standard that exists out there and is in wide use. Having the 20mm wide stands will give you more flexibility.

Thanks, ancientwargamer. I think I'll stick to 40x20mm then (because I already got the bases and many of the infantry I'm using will be on strips). I'll consider 20x20 though for some units. Sounds like a neat alternative.

Once upon a time, when I was thinking about how to represent 17th century formations in 10 mm, I tried to take into account the different densities of pike and shot, the shot having a deployment with greater gaps between individuals to allow for the safety margins necessary when dealing with lighted match. I came up with a standard one and a half inch square base, containing 16 pikes in four ranks of four, and 10 musketeers in two ranks of five. Horse ended up with five figures in a single rank on the same base size. I now forget exactly how I arrived at these figures, but they look about right. I am now thinking they may provide a good basis for a Maurice variant – I hope so, 'cos I have thousands of them!

Mollinary

I am using 20 pike (5x4) on a 40x40mm base, 10 muskets (5x2) on a 40x20mm base, 8 clubmen (random scatter) on a 40x30mm base, all horse 4 figs on a 40x30mm base and 3 dismounted dragoons ona a 20x20mm base.

Thanks for the replies, people! :)

I went for basically what I listed above.

8 muskets a base, 2 bases per unit in battle line formation.

12 pikemen a base (40x20mm) in two ranks.

3 Horsemen per base for light and skirmish cavalry (5 bases per unit)

4 horsemen per base for regular and heavy cavalry (Arquebusiers and Cuirassiers), 4 bases a unit (with a backup base per unit just in case I feel like making them five bases anyway).

Dismounted Dragoons are five guys per 40x20base in skirmish order, three bases per unit. So it's 15 guys just like on the Dragoons units. :)

Got the first units based now and the first two units close to finished painting. Woo!