"Stuggling with scaling up my SAGA armies" Topic

Our club is big on Saga and I have built up enough late Dark Ages armies that I can put on some big battle games with them.

The problem is that the figures are single based and do not work well on a sabot for rulesets like DBMM which are 2-3 figures per base. Saga is not meant for large battles. On top of that the DBMM cavalry frontage (20 mm) is too narrow for modern 28s.

I am looking for a way to use single or dual based figures for a large battle and still use them for Saga (note I am good with movement trays). Does anyone else have this issue and if so what do they use? I am wondering if Hail Caesar (which has some adherents in the club) might be the way to go.

I am about to embark on an early Dark Ages Saga project (Franks and Moors) so I would like to have sorted this out beforehand.

I have singly based figures for Saga which I also use for Sword & Spear, putting them on a large sabot base. This would work for any big battle unit based game such as Impetus, To The Strongest or Hail Caesar (as well as Sword & Spear). Although I believe Hail Caesar has different sized units so that might not be quite so straightforward. As you say, it won't really work for element based games such as DBMM or FOG.
I have infantry based on 25mm round bases and cavalry on 25mm by 50mm pill shaped bases, and I use 120 by 60mm sabot bases, with 8 heavy foot, 6 medium foot, 4 light foot or 4 cavalry to a unit.
You can see how they look in this video:
YouTube link

What MarshalMark said. Sabot basing of whatever kind will allow you to play a large number of rulesets.

Gripping Beast has addressed the problem through its Swordpoint rules system. The bases for individual figures is the same as SAGA They are then combined into multiple based units to form an army

The rules are different then SAGA and are standalone Armies are based on points and there are army lists Generally fewer figures are needed then for larger games like Hail Caesar.

If you use Sabot bases the figures can still be available for SAGA games.

For more information check here

link

Who cares what it says in the rulebook regarding base sizes. It matters even less if you are the one providing the figures.
I'm pretty sure every rule book says base sizes given are just guidelines.

As Ed from 2HWG says " It's Your game so play it ! "

edit.

From Hail Caesar rulebook. On Pg 14 Rick talks about using single based figures and multi base figures and suggests using both easily, quote " What matters is units should have more or less the same frontage.".

Gripping Beast has addressed the problem through its Swordpoint rules system. The bases for individual figures is the same as SAGA

Not from my understanding. The most common basing for Saga is 25mm rounds. The basing for Swordpoint is 4 infantry on a 40mm square base.

Latest Miniature Wargames (or was it WSS?) has an article on doing just this.

No problem at all for Hail Caesar. The important value is the size of the unit, not the number of figures on the tray. Build your movement trays so that both sides have the same length and width – fill with figures as needed.

Kings of War Historical would work as you could mount your singles on KoW unit bases.

War & Conquest should work, too, so long as you count figures.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Hail Caeasar I think satisfies all I need (and is popular in the club) but I am a little concerned about the volume of figures required.

My main issues are

1) Generals. I want them based individually so they can be Saga warlords too.

2) Pikes. I have a lot of Scots pike and they are basically no use for Saga as the spears are too long but I need them for a proper Scots army. I would prefer to multi-base 3 deep and use them only for big battle games and keep my spear for Saga

3) Size. As a Saga warband is about 24 figures I am looking for something that gives a decent game with 150 -200 figures.

4) Decent for the Dark Ages. A lot of rules treat the Dark Ages as one shield wall against another. DBMM had enough gradations to keep it interesting and show the differences between fighting styles (Scots pikes, Anglo Danish shieldwalls, Norman knights etc).

+1 Kodiakblair

@TodCreasey

Might be worth borrowing ADLG from somebody.

1) Generals are individually based.

2) Pikes are 3 ranks deep based. Medieval Scots have 6 to 18 bases of pike. 72 – 216 figures worth.

3) ADLG armies are about 20 units strong. Units are mostly 6 to 8 figures. 120 to 160 figures.

4) Haven't tried them for Dark Ages. Vikings would mostly be Heavy/Medium Swordsmen with armour option,Saxon Fyrd = Heavy spearmen with armour option. Huscarls for both Heavy swordsmen + armour option. There's things like Elite,Impetuous,2HCW and Mediocre to add different flavours.

Regarding base. ADLG say sizes are guidelines and if your figures don't match you just tell your opponent what they represent.

Sorry for adding yet another rule set to consider :-)

If you are supplying all of the figures, just do what you want regarding the size of the sabot bases. If the bases are all the same size, it should work fine.