"Basing supernumeraries" Topic

If I was using very big bases (and/or very small figures) I'd put the officers, drummers, sergeants and ensigns behind a couple of ranks of musketeers. However, given the bases (25mm squares) and figures (10mm), there isn't room for this to look effective, so the supernumeraries if used will have to displace musketeer figures.

All the wargame armies I've seen seem to put them in the front rank where they show out, but I'm thinking of putting them in the rear rank which is more suggestive of their historical position. Has anyone else done this?

All the wargame armies I've seen seem to put them in the front rank where they show out, but I'm thinking of putting them in the rear rank which is more suggestive of their historical position. Has anyone else done this?

Yes.

I base my SYW and Napoleonics on bases, for 28mm 4 figs on a 40 X 40 base – for command stands, the officers and drummer in front, flags in the second rank

To clarify, I'm intending to put 8 infantry figures on each base in two ranks of four. That will be pretty well shoulder to shoulder which I think is appropriate.

For Napoleonic British, I like 40 figure. Sometimes I put an officer in the Grenadier company in the front rank, or an extra sergeant with musket in the light company, all 4 on single stands so they can be put forward to skirmish.

I like the 32 centre company figures to have all muskets in the first rank. The right most figure in the 2nd rank is a sergeant. The second figure from the left in the 2nd rank is a drummer. The center of the rear rank is 2 officers carrying the colours, with a drummer on the right of the King's Colour and a sergeant on the left of the regimental colour. This gives 6 "cadre" figures, which is about the right proportion for 40 people. The odd officer (grenadiers) or sergeant (light company) allows me to represent a command figure if I pull the grenadier companies together for a rear reserve, or to command the brigade skirmishers.

GdeP

I've been pondering this too, also with 10mm figures (Pendraken). I'm planning on using 2 ranks of 8 on 40x20mm bases (you can fit Pendraken figures on a 5mm frontage by clipping bases), probably two bases per unit. What I would like to do is have the flag and an officer in the center of the front rank (or ahead?), a pair of drummers behind the center of the second rank, and an officer/NCO with a spontoon behind the last file of either end. It still seems like a lot of supernumeries per fusilier, and it also involves basing them so that the only way the unit looks "right" is in the bases-side-by-side configuration (perhaps not a big problem for the WSS).

Depending on how many of those 25mm bases you are intending to use per unit, I'm sure you could do something similar.

You can get three ranks of 10mm figures on a 25mm base but they're very crowded which spoils the effect IMO. Maybe it would work with 6mm figures. 25mm (1") bases are very handy for measuring in Maurice and have a good overall footprint – not too big and not too fiddly.

Ha! I'm using figures in 'march attack' position, so I'm not sure at that stage whether the officers would have withdrawn or not…

With fairly large units like yours of 32, placing supernumeraries behind the ranks should look very good – except for the colours, which would be front and centre? Maurice is pretty forgiving on basing, so you could use 30mm bases and still have 1" as your nominal base width. Or use bases that are slightly deeper than wide?