"Rulesets and Basing" Topic

"Almost any basing can be used with any ruleset."

True or false?

I think, in general, true, though both sides would have to agree to use the same basing convention.

True

True

True, provided you are talking about using sabots as needed.

Generally true.

True, though it implies a certain amount of good will on the part of both players.

Grelber

true

Pretty much true.

The word "almost" makes it true.

There is a threshold of pain beyond which rebasing becomes the preferred choice, even when it isn't an absolute requirement.

- Ix

Yes.

In the overwhelming majority of tabletop wargames, te base is an interface for a "unit" with the terrain and other unit bases. Because of the simplicity (linearity) of the interactions and the low precision tolerance for this interface usually governs, it is generally easy to compensate for any differences in your head.

Even where I have rules that use a "hours" facing system, you really don't need hex bases, you can use a round base and just "know" where 3 o'clock is. It's not like you're using calipers and protractors to measure. And even where we (generally a personal preference, not dictated by the rules) use "precision" measuring tools, we position them by hand and align them by eye.

For an "hours" facing system, a square base is, hoever, awkward for visual alignment.

I have come to believe it is true.

Mostly true.

overall yes. But it depends what you want the base to be. In my rule set I am working on.

basic stand in ancients is like a Regiment size troops. in sci fi each stand is a fire team or single figure.

just maybe you can mix if Sci Fi or pulp battles.

On most critical point this is not true at all.
If rules are written for gigantic napoleonics battles on tiny tables with realistic view, then some bases simply don't fit on table.

Generally true.

More or less.

You can always push figures together to make a larger group and the miniature scale is always out of whack with the terrain in any event.

True until you don't want it to be true.

True…

…at the same time I refuse to rebase my figures for any rules set.

You'd have have a hard job playing DBM (or any other element based game) with figures based on big unit bases (i.e. Impetus style basing).

Not true
3 examples
Years ago, I had a lively discussion over the frontages/basing for infantry in Command Decision 2, which appeared on the now defunct site that CD had set up to discuss CD issues. The irems included rebasing, zones of control, as some of us recognised that the platoons were on a too small base. Chadwick rejected any rebasing to include using figures already on larger bases.
With Ned Zuparkos Vive L' Emperuer, there was in the pages of Empures Eagles and Lions debate over historical frontages, which in part resulted in a fixed base size for 3 ranked infantry, which precluded alternative base sizes because the alternative basing would have been more unhistorical than the games basing.
And then there are or were games with odd basing such as the first edution of Ancient Empires, with a basing for the Romans unlike their enemies

It depends on your own mental flexibility. Do you want to play according to the spirit of the game, or according to the rules?

Some gamers will stick dogmatically to the prescribed base sizes in a ruleset.
Some gamers (for various reasons) work around the prescribed base sizes.
Some gamers realize that it all doesn't matter that much and simply don't care.

You can also play any ballgame with a ball that is not exactly the prescribed weight and dimensions.

If you use a softball, you cannot claim it is hardball. Sure it is a baseball game, yet there is a difference, just as if you use Roman legiins in an ACW game. It is a miniatures game,but there is more to it.
As for alternative basing, well, is a 6 man squad on a 4 inch base reasonble wirh a ground scale of 50yds to an inch or is this just too much?