"Battle of Vimeiro - Table Size" Topic

Good Morning

I am hoping to fight the Battle of Vimeiro in 18mm (using blue moon / AB figures and GDA rules), but one thing I can't get to grips with is an appropriate table size. I understand that in theory I should work out the battlefield size (i.e 1 mile x 3 miles etc) and then convert that using unit frontage to get a relevant ground scale for my figures.

However maths has never been a strong point of mine (odd considering I work in the financial services industry)

Has anyone else fought the battle in this scale and what size table did you use?

My infantry is based on 45mm x 20mm bases but as this is a new project I can be flexible and use any size base.

Thanks

J

How big are your units? What is the frontage of a battalion in line?
That will give you a ground scale.

Wargame Scenarios The Peninsular War 1808 – 1814 by Jon Sutherland & Diane Canwell has a scenario for Vimiero on an 8' x 5' (or 6') table (worth getting the book – my copy was found on eBay for under £9.00 GBP – it has a lot of pre-prepared scenarios designed for their rules but which require little or no adaptation to work with whatever rules you use).

I prefer to use a 3 x 4 playing area for games whenever possible, see how the important bits on the map fit, and then not worry about scales – by way of example earlier this year I put on Dettingen link

Dexter is right--as he should be, of course. We don't need base size but deployed unit frontages or rules used so we can calculate ground scale. Once we have ground scale, there is a one-table and a two-table solution for Vimerio.

The alternative is to build your tabletop according to your map and bathtub the thing, but let's try ground scale first.

Check out J.J.'s blog

link

He has fought this battle using several different rule sets. Great AAR's as well as discussion of table set up and prominent terrain features. He also uses 18mm figures (which I believe are AB) and includes some great tutorials. A great resource and source of envy.

I understand that in theory I should work out the battlefield size (i.e 1 mile x 3 miles etc) and then convert that using unit frontage to get a relevant ground scale for my figures.

No. You should work out the size based on the ground scale of the rules you are using.

If your battlefield is 4 miles wide, and you use an 8 foot table, that gives you 24 inches per mile. That is roughly a ground scale of 75 yards per inch.

If your infantry is based on 45mm wide bases, that means one stand of infantry is roughly 135 scale yards wide.

That suggests that each of your infantry battalions should be 1 or 2 stands each. Probably, one stand for battalions of 500 men or less, and 2 stands for battalions of 500 men or more.

Unless you are much more finicky than your OP suggests, this would probably be a good working start.

But if your infantry is not yet based, you might look at a slightly smaller base to have battalions of 1, 2 or 3 bases.

Or go brigade level. It shrinks the table size

ferg, here is another way to work the table size but it relies on how many bases you use per battalion. A French battalion of 6 companies had a frontage of about 144m. If you use 4 bases at 45mm this is 180mm equalling 144m. This means 0.8mm = 1m.

So you using this as your scale, one mile (1600m) is about 1280mm. 3 miles = 12'6"

All

Thanks for all the answers and guidance. It was just something I couldn't get my head around.

I printed a map of Vimeiro from the internet and noticed that the first mile / mile and a half of the map was the atlantic ocean, so I binned that off.

In summary I felt that I could manage the main part of the battle on a battlefield 1.5 miles x 2.5 miles.

Using Major Functions calculation r.e my existing basing I estimate the table size to be 6.3ft x 10.5ft

Thank you

Regards,

J