"Chain of Command - Basing 6mm minis?" Topic

I should get a bunch of GHQ minis from Santa anytime soon and I'm looking forward to try Chain of Command.

Single mini basing isn't a option I'm even willing to consider.

I'm leaning toward basing them by team…

First question. I do want a base be fairly realistic (or at leas credible) looking representation of (WW2) team deployed in the field (thus assuming ground scale = miniature scale); what would be an appropriate base size for a 4-men rifle team? Or, put differently, how far from each other did the members of a typical WW2 rifle team operate from each other (I assume of course that mileage did vary quite a bit depending on the type, experience and training of the team as on the type of terrain and mission, but there must be some sort of norm/average)

Second question. Is it worth (from a gaming/rule point of view) the trouble to single base the section leader? If no, which team should he be based with? LMG team or rifle team? I assume there might be national/doctrinal differences here: for the record I'm considering UK motor infantry and GE infantry platoons.

And third question… What about the platoon leader and platoon NC? Both single based? Based together?

CoC doesn't specify base sizes. Put 'em whatever bases look right to you.

I would single base any significant individuals.

I'd single base the section eader beacuase if you split the teams of a section, he might go with either (or be a casualty).

Major: that's kind of my question, I've no experience with WW2 gaming so not sure how it should look like… Flames of War bases look a bit too crowed to me, but really I have no clue…

Advocate:
- I get the he "might" go with either team if they split, but will he, practically? Aren't they any hidden doctrinal or gaming reasons that call for him to always go with the same team? Not saying there is (keep in mind, no experience with WW2 nor CoC what so ever), but don't wanting to go the trouble of basing him separately if he'll always end up with the same team…
- I'll deal with casualties in teams by noting them on a piece of paper (not ideal, but IMO less a pain than handling a whole platoon of singled based minis). So if that's the only reason to base the squad leader on it's own…

There are nation specific rules that will help things and in some cases dictate where he goes but if there is a choice the player is allowed to make it. An example of one such rule is the Germans can use a leader to increase the effectiveness of their MG teams so the leader will usually stick with them.

I'd say 6mm may be going a bit far for CoC, as your figure scale is actually significantly smaller than the game's ground scale. If you are set on it, I'd suggest playing in cm rather than inches, in which case the ground scale becomes pretty close to 1/300. Then I'd base teams on whatever size looks realistic in "real life" terms (probably 1/4" per figure as a minimum, maybe a bit more.), and section and platoon leaders individually.

(I do think you need the flexibility of individual section leaders – while there's a tendency to default to him accompanying the LMG team to keep them in action, when you're putting in a close assault you'll almost certainly want him with the rifle group….)

The real ground scale of CoC is 15mm. Yes, leaders should be separate. Otherwise teams makes sense. You will need to keep track of hits and shock. Once a team or squad/section has more shock points than surviving members, they head for the hills.

Wow I think it's gonna be awfully fiddly trying to do this in 6mm. How are you going to base a two man team? (Because you'll need some of those and even one man teams as well.) The bases will be so small you'll hardly be able to pick them up! Have you thought about upgrading to 15mm? I mean more power to you if you decide to stick with 6mm, but it seems like an unnecessary headache given how inexpensive and widely available 15mm stuff is. I guess if you were planning on doing "Big Chain of Command" it might be worth it however so you can field a lot of tanks. Good luck!

How are you going to base a two man team?

On a 1p or 2p coin.

For basing individual 6mm troops I use a #6 or #10 washer (whichever is the smaller one – the other size I used for 15mm troops). The trick is to glue the figure to the inner portion of a hole punch hole and then glue that to the washer.

For groups of troops I use Linoleum floor tiles cut to the appropriate size.

Dom: yeah, I should have mentionned I intend to read "inches" as "cm" therefore making the ground scale about 1/250, close enough to the minis 1/285.

Vtsao: I'll probably make a series of cards, one for each team, with 2 kind of counters: I'll remove the one sort (let's say black silouhettes) to keep track of hits, and add the other (let's say orange explosions) to keep trak of shock. So if one card has more explosion than silouhette…

If two team join, I'll just have to put both card on top of eachother…

axabrax: 15mm minis are inexpensive indeed (certainly given that you can't buy just a dozen of 6mm), but my issue was with the board and terrain: I want good looking (and diverse) terrain, without it being too expensive. More importantly I want the whole thing to be fairly portable (I have no car and move around with the bus and train), to be playable on a regular table or desk (which isn't usually 4' deep)… In fact I want to be able to start a game, to put the entire board aside without removing the terrain and mini, and to start playing where I left the next days. So… 6mm!

axabrax: I have access to a laser cutter so I can pretty muck cut any shape and size of base I want out of thin acrylic or wood…

My 15mm sci-fi is based on 10mm circles (characters), 25mm cicles (small specialist teams) and 40mm circles (regular fire team).

Got an answer on the TFL forum recommanding about 10m for a LMG team and 20m for a rifle team.

And everyone seems to recommend single basing the leaders…

At 1/285 that would be about 35mm for the LMG and 70mm for the rifles…

So: 40mm for teams and 10mm for leaders?

I'll play around disposing minis on various size of bases and see how they look.

Team bases might give you some problems, since the casualty removal is individual in COC and you lose the ability to spread a squad out along a hedge row or something similar

Mini cost is not really an issue at these scale games – I would go 15mm

He's already said that it's for space reasons though….

Yeah, you can fit a 6mm platoon on a tiny table and still have plenty of space :)

Yes, 40mm for a team at that ground scale is about right. I have individual 6mm figures on 10mm bases too and that is quite manageable.