"Most flexible 15mm basing." Topic

Hi,

I have some lovely AB Russians I'm thinking of making my winter project. What basing system is likely to be most flexible? I know I'd like to be able to play Black Powder, but is there a basing system compatible with that, which also affords me the option to play as many other systems as I can?

FMB

Two figure on a steel base 20x15mm. You can rebase with sheet magnet for almost every game out there.

3/4 inch x 1/2 inch. Two castings. It's a bit tighter than the mm EC gives.

My own three rank infantry are based to 8mm frontage and 11mm depth per casting in single rank. so three castings on 24mm x 11mm and yes AB 18mm figures will fit this. They are very close but I like that look.

The most important question is what frontage are your opponents on ?

It makes little difference what sizes the bases are as long as both side use the same.

That's just it – at the moment, I don't have opponents. Hence the desire for flexibility, so that when I drum some up, I'm good to go.

Ahhh, I see your dilemma,

You will not know how big to build your units ?

I be tempted by 10mm per figure frontage and 15mm depth and do multiples a max of 4 fig.
the horse 15mm per figure frontage and 30mm depth and do multiples of 2 fig.
I am stumped with the artillery (as small as they fit and still look good.

You will have to make shims for each unit and each set of rules you wish to play.

I think that may lead to madness.

I think you probable best picking a set of rules and base them up to them.

As the base and how you paint it is so very important.
Good basing can make and average figure look stunning and bad basing can make a great figure look average or poor.

That's why I settled on my basing. I like lots of rules and play several. This lets me play them all without rebasing.

To make move trays I just cut sheet magnet to size for units and spray paint green. The odd MM or two showing round the edge does not look bad.

Also, we never use figure removal so that's not an issue. If needed we use dice or rosters…

And a lot depends on your figures. Some 15mm (like mine) are what we now call 18mm and are pretty tight on some base sizes.

There's an important decision to be made about depth. I used to base on a single rank, but the fashion has moved to deeper formations on the table top, so that two rank bases become the norm. And I have to say that they do look a lot better, though it leads to footprint issues, especially for close columns.

You can, of course, simply use two single ranks on a tray (and Extra Crispy's advice on using a magnetic system is very sound here). But two rank bases look better in my view, and give you more "artistic"leeway to make them look really good. I feel strongly enough to be in the process of converting all my single ranks. And if you have figures with lowered muskets, it makes life quite a bit easier. It also means that infantry and cavalry bases are the same size.

Can't advise on what is the most popular size to go for though. Mine are one inch squares with 6 infantry or 2 cavalry – but I suspect that's quite esoteric these days. 40mm bases seem popular – but these need quite a bit of table space to work well.

Crispy, do you have any pics of units? I took a quick look at the DFHM webiste, but didn't see anything that seemed to correspond.

FMB

The issue with basing them on double ranks is that some rules don't use that system. If basing on single ranks you can easily double up if need be hence single ranks remain the most flexible.

6 figures per base works well for rules at 20:1 and is my choice as I like the look of more figures on the table. It will work for many rule sets but certainly not all. You need to make some decisions :-)