"Basing for Drums and Shakos Large Battles" Topic

I'm getting together a collection of 6mm French, British and Portuguese to run the introductory scenario in D&SLB. This will be my first foray into 6mm and I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to base them. I want the basing to be convenient, and to look good on the table. My main reason for going 6mm is the 'army on the march' aesthetic you get from having lots of men.

For those who don't know, D&SLB is a divisional level game. The units are defined as a battalion of infantry consisting of four bases, a cavalry regiment on two bases and an artillery battery on two bases. The bases need to have longer frontage than depth, a 1.5:1 or 2:1 ratio is recommended.

Can you help me boil that down into some plain instructions for basing? Thanks in advance for any help.

40mm by 20mm is what I used but Polemos basing, 60mm x 30mm, is really common for 6mm and matches Baccus unit sizes and frontages.

How many Baccus strips would fit on a 40x20 and a 60x30 base for comparison?

Baccus strips are four infantry figures on a 20mm x 5mm strip. Skirmishing infantry and cavalry are on strips that you cut apart (like Adler).

On a 40x20 you put four infantry strips on – 2 strips wide by 2 strips deep – and it looks pretty nice. The issue is that Baccus packages units as five soldier strips and one command strip (six strips total), so if you go with 40x20 you end up using four strips. Sooner or later you end up excess command strips. That is why 60x30 is becoming a standard.

Of course, if you have Adler, Irregular, or Heroics & Ros, then the packaging is all different (as are their sizes), so you are not necessarily bound the same way.

Here is my blog article on DSLB: link

Here is my review of the rules: link

I own these rules, but I never understood how a cavalry regiment had half the frontage of a infantry battalion. Good luck on your project!

Thanks, that's really helpful :) I've narrowed down my choice of minis to Baccus or H&R so I can add this info to my comparisons.

I love your blog, I had already come across it whilst researching the game prior to picking it up. So you're partly to blame for this :P

Thanks for the luck, Milkshake. As for the cavalry, I'm sure there's a reason that we don't know about, to do with ease of play I imagine. Most decisions Ganesha makes favour ease of play over simulation.

@Milkshake: You can always email the author, Sergio, and ask. He is very approachable. I had a number of discussions with him over these rules and 61-65.

@Akatori: Thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately my gaming buddy did not find DSLB to be his cup of tea. He did not like that there were no limitations on which unit(s) could react. He felt it should somehow be restricted to the target of or area where the trigger unit was.

@Milkshake If you find out let us know!

@Dale That's a shame. Abstraction vs. simulation is one of those things where people have definite comfort zones. I imagine you could work something out using sightlines to the activated unit or something. But the abstraction suits me fine, and keeps things moving.

Hello Akatori!

It's generally not a good idea to base for a single rule set unless it's a one off project. The 60mm x 30mm has proven to be very versatile as you can use it for just about any rule set out there. Most you can play as is, while others generally only require a few amendments or house rules. It's proven to be a very popular choice for many 6mm gamers.

However, in your case they might be too big as four of them would be 240mm long. So you would certainly need a decent sized table or a house rule. Perhaps considering one 60x30 as two bases might work. Otherwise the 40x20 might be a better choice, but even that base could be considered as two. Aside from the rules themselves a lot simply depends on the size of your table and the size of the engagements you plan to play.

If you do decide to go with Baccus they can adjust the number of command stands in a bag if you tell them that when you place your order. In fact you can also contact them before you place your order and they will gladly try to work with you to cover any basing requirement.

Let us know who you choose and what size of base you go with.

Best regards,

Glenn

Baccus has an option on their website that allows you to select how many strips per base and order by the base.

Hello vtsaogames!

Exactly where is the option on the Baccus site. I don't see it.

Thanks!

Glenn

Oops! That option exists for ancient figures. I don't see it for Napoleonics. Sorry about that. But it is true, talk to Peter about the ratio of command strips.

I'm not familiar with the rules so much. But it's a 28mm game right with 1 figure individually based to be 1 man. So what you could do is take whatever base size 1 28mm figure would use and put your troops on that. I guess 20x20mm square… which can fit 8 formed troops 2-4 skirmish troops or 3 mounted.

If the rules allow multi base figures then you have more scope.

@Glenn Looking at base widths I think you might be right that 60x30 would be too large. As regards considering one base as two, the rules rely on the four base set up to indicate formation. Though I suppose simple formation markers are an option.

@Glenn and Vtsao Thanks for the info on Baccus' flexible ordering, that definitely makes them a more attractive option!

@Edwulf You're thinking of the skirmish game. 'Drums and Shakos: Large Battles' is a related but separate rule set designed for division level play, as described in my original post.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone, this has been very informative :)