"Basing question ? (Hail Caesar)" Topic

I have Hail Caesar rules and Warlord plastic Romans and Celts. The rules say use 20mm for foot or a 40mm by 40mm but this seems awfully crowded with the poses provided by the kits once assembled. Was thinking 25mm or 50mmx50mm squares.

Thoughts/opinions?

Hail Caesar itself doesn't care about base size. If you're making a pair of armies, no problem. You might need to negotiate a bit if you are playing other armies with differently-sized units.

Thanks !

I mount my figs on 40x40 and 40x80 bases for Hail Caesar. My Romans fit on fairly well, but for the Celts I take some license and drop a fig or two here and there in a unit.

HC is all about the unit size. I've seen some great looking mobs of Celts arranged on large stands. Check with your opponent, but I would recommend bases 80mm wide and 60mm deep. Then use 2 bases for a standard sized unit.

Romans should have no trouble with 20mm square basing. And rank & file basing is a sharp look for the Romans.

I found the 20mm bases too crowded as well (this is before I purchased "Hail Caesar", where base size does not matter), so based the Romans and their opponents on 25mm bases, allowing more room for weapons, limbs, shields, etc., and cutting down on the incidents of said weapons, etc., snagging on other figures' equipment while in formation…

I base my formed units with a frontage of 20mm per man and a depth of 25mm. I also base formed cavalry units to the same frontage as infantry, which means that for a six-man frontage they are actually on the equivalent of about a 26.5mm base rather than 25mm.

That's in theory, but in reality it's all about the unit size and I didn't give too much thought to base size per man: in practice what this means is that standard battle line units are all 160x50 and cavalry/warbands are 160x100, with freedom to vary the precise number of figures per unit. This has the pleasant effect that overall unit sizes are consistent across both infantry and cavalry.

I find that a 20mm frontage is perfectly adequate for the figures I'm using, and 25mm might well be too spacious, but 20mm depth is often too cramped for ranked units, hence the slightly unorthodox base size. I make my own bases from plasticard so it doesn't trouble me that it's not a standard proportion.

Skirmishers retain 20x20 bases, but it's even less important for them and I'm considering moving to unit bases there too. The main reason I add a bit of depth to the ranked bases is to avoid cramping: I found that on 40x40 squares some manufacturers required the second rank to be jammed right up the backsides of the first.

Much will depend on the figures you're using. I have found that 50mm depth is relatively spacious for Victrix legionaries, about right for Warlord, and still a little shallow for Foundry – even though all three manufacturers' figures are the same size. That's entirely down to the way the models are posed.

I'd advise working out the size of unit you want to use, and distribute the figures on it as looks best to you, rather than worrying too much about precise proportions per figure.

I base my figures on 60mm x 60mm for the most part, with six formed figures (eg legionaries) within this format. I mounted my Balaeres four figures within the same area. So far mounted figures have worked out two per base, with a couple mounted on 30mm x 60mm bases.

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I am doing 25/28mm Romans & Dacians. I am basing them on 20mm single bases and am using 6 by 4 20mm movement trays for the Romans 24 figures being a unit size for infantry. For the Dacians I am using 7 by 4 25mm movement trays and making them 28 figure warbands. Formed cavalry is being based on 25mm by 50mm stands with 150mm by 100mm (25mm) movement trays for standard units. 12 figures for large units. Small or skirmish units are 6 figures for cavalry. There are several other size movement trays for other types of units but the above should give you the general idea.

The Romans are uniform poses and lend themselves to tight formation. The warbands are dynamic with many different poses who all seem to be swinging, stabbing and thrusting so they need some room.

Thanks for all the input !

I'm going towards 120mm by 60mm myself to offer enough wiggle room, diorama options, and to give the figures enough of a margin to avoid being crushed by my fingers. It also lets me go 12 units wide on a 6'x4' table, which is just nice.

I also use 120mm x 60mm bases for the larger pieces (eg my ox cart) … so multiples of 30mm x 60mm with up to two foot figures on 30mm x 30mm.

Cheers

Paul
nortivsmaximvs.blogspot.co.uk