"Basing a 2mm division - advice please" Topic

I have dug my 20 year old 2mm Horse and Musket out to use with Sam Mustapha's La Grande Guerre. The question is How To Base.

You DO NOT need to know the rules, this is for pure aesthetics. The game is played by bases, so what is on the stand is immaterial.

I have two choices: a 60mm base or 30mm base. (if I go for 30mm I will play the rules in cm not inches, allowing for HUGE battles!)

1 stand is a division. The blocks are lines a little over a cm long, so I can get 4 in a 60mm frontage How would people base these to represent a division? I played around but 3 wide and 4 deep looked boring.

I have based mine on 40mm bases, in two rows with a command pair in front.

I have differentiated elites by adding a base extra of skirmishes.

What lay out of blocks did you use?

You could try and represent line, columns and mixed formations as the particular nations did at the time – difficult to say what that should be as I don't know what period you are going for.

Good point by Maddaz to make designs that make it easy to spot the type and/or quality of the troops on the base.

Napoleonic (I've only posted to the Nap board)

If you are using divisional bases, then I'd go with divisional formations (assuming each strip then represents roughly a battalion).

So, as a standard I'd go with a double line, with variations thereof – chequerboards, asymmetrical triple lines, possibly a divisional mass etc. Possibly intersperse the odd gun in the front line for nations who dispersed their batteries, and possibly also put a line of skirmishers out front.

mine are boxed away, so not able to photograph

but …

XXXX XXXX XXXX

XXXX XXXX XXXX

SSSS CC SSSS

with XXXX being the infantry bases.
SSSS being skirmishes
CC being command.

Martin – I can't find any diagrams of divisional formations – I keep hitting photos of wargames!

I also have a few with square base ends (still represent divisions)

XX CC XX
XX XXXX XXXX XX

SSSS SSSS

I am using the irregular bases.

my British are in two lines of two men, each of two bases

Militia types are in denser formations 3 rows – with an irregular spacing or a slight angle of one of the blocks

My Artillery are two guns, with limbers and a command figure.

Divisions often (not always) formed up in two lines. Both might be line formation, or in columns. Sometimes the first line would be in line and the second in column. At Austerlitz Soult's divisions attacked in wedge or arrow shaped formations, two lines each in column.

There are diagrams of divisional formations in Chandlers 'Campaigns of Napoleon', Jomini (albeit in some cases a bit theoretical), iirc in Nosworthy and they are also described by Clausewitz.

It is interesting that every single contemporary writer states that a double line is the preferred (indeed essential) formation for infantry, yet so few rules reward a supported line and the ones which don't allow interpenetration positively discourage it.

Guess who suddenly remembered he had Nosworthy 'Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies'

Some test layouts (you'll note that not all painted!) All taken from front. I am planing to leave a strip 1cm deep unflocked at the back, so I can cover in wipe off sticky back plastic so I can relabel.

link

Click in a pic to see my comments

That is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind, they look very good.

A strip at the back is a good idea, I often find my 2mm stuff ends up pointing the wrong way! I've now put a coloured strip for each nationality on the back of the bases.

Tiny

That is mental.

F

I went 30 mm bases for LGG and used cm instead of inches.

I did think about that (did it with Black Powder WSS in 10mm), But not sure I can get 2 wide on a 30mm base – that is possibly the next test.

There is little reason on not doing it per the as photos – the only down side is the bases are 60mm instead of 3" (76mm) is it affects the Command radius. A 6 x 4 ft table is huge at ground scale; 8 miles wide – Waterloo was only about 3!

As an aside I looked at Peninsular battles – they would only be 6-7 infantry bases a side!

Update – just checked by quartering the base with pencil. Not enough space on a 30mm x 30mm 2 wide JUST fit (but may over hang), and there would not be much room behind a column of 2. Sort of negating the idea of 2mm!

The 60mm base is dictated by the storage – Really Useful Box hobby trays. If I go to 75mm I don't have effective storage- I can't stack in a box file like I can in the individual compartments in the tray, where they won't slide.

Yes Ferg, they are stupidly small, but I have them, and no other use (they have stood in in a number of rules, including F&F). 10 blocks on a 60mm base is better than 20 10mm for the level depicted.

I have 180ish 10x2. I have 72 8x3 blocks; I don't like these- they look too short for the width- I will be using them for the dense Austrian formations, and the rest of the 20 man blocks for Russians which will be 2 or 3 lines of 3 blocks. The French will have lines backed by columns, so each of the 3 armies will look different.

My 10mm ACW is on 30mm- lots of rules use 30mm or near (1 inch, inch and an eighth), so I can easily use these and read the rules in cm not inches- in this measure Gettysburg would be 72cm x 50cm!

"As an aside I looked at Peninsular battles – they would only be 6-7 infantry bases a side"

You can dial it down easily to 4k inf/1.5k cavalry and 12-16 guns per base. This actually fits most OOB alot better.

My WSS stuff fits two strips side by side easily on a 30mm base, maybe you are using wider strips than me?

I've done peninsular battles with divisional bases, it works fine, although scaling down to fat brigades as suggested above might make it more granular.

I could file the ends and they would fit, but is seems silly- the point of the 2mm would be to show divisions, so just 4 strips would defeat this!

Thanks for the comments all.

Ever thought about using your minis with the Commands and Colors Napoleonics boardgame from GMT Games? The game board has hexes that are 2.2" across.

Last Hussar, i like your bases. I would use 6cm. You want to show Divisions, so go big! (What you can call big with 2mm models. ;-) )

Was browsing Borodino OOB today: French have on average
15(ish) btns to a Division, so I've got one strip to 2 bns.

For Imperial Guard I will be using blocks doubled up, so either 8 looking like a 4 spot on dice, or 10 like a 5 spot.

I'm going to use the Borodino Russian as the basis for their bases- might even try the insanity of correct Inspection standards in ratio- easy in 28s, possible madness in 2s!

I'm thinking for the Russians some two rows of four, others 3 of three, with 2 or 3 gun models on every base: keep it linear.

The Austrians will be the fat '8*3' blocks. Not sure how I'm going to arrange these yet.

Cavalry will be boring lines, 2 or 3 I think, for all armies.