"IABSM 15mm basing" Topic

Let me have it. How do you folks base 15mm.

I thought about going to route of sabot bases, but they are just too big and bulky. Do you base a full squad? (8-10 men) or do you do something like 3 or 4 men to signify a squad?

Still being somewhat new to miniature gaming I'm trying to gather as much info as I can before I jump down the rabbit hole.

Me again.

For IABSM you don't necessarily represent every member of a formation on the table – this is particulalrly true of command figures and their relationship to Big Men.

However, the rules do depend on the actual number of fighting men present as the number of dice a section or squad gets depends on how many soldiers have survived thus far. I represent most forces with pairs of figures on either a square (3/4" or 1") or circle (1") and a weapons team on a larger circle. Depending on your forces you might need a couple of singles or have a base of three, rather than two.

Neither of us is a surporting member so I can't PM you but if you want to drop me a line at Wellington Apsley AT gmail.com (no spaces and appropriate symbols) I can send you some pictures and let you know how we do it and share various info.

Jon

Captain:

I use my existing Flames of War teams as squads. So each base will have 3-5 men on it. Then weapons like Bazookas and MGs are on their own base. To track losses use a roster (my favorite, as your opponent is not sure how banged up you are just by looking at the table).

The mini scale to ground scale for 15mm IABSM is 2:1, so I base my squads "1 figure equals 2 soldiers" (which has the nice side effect of maintaining the right footprint and directly represents the soldier spacing seen on the base). IABSM v2 has only 8-man and 10-man squads, so that means 4 or 5 model bases, respectively. I use Flames of War models and bases for this.

For non-squads though (like weapon crew and teams), I just base the number of models that IABSM assigns (so flamethrowers, snipers, independent LMG and light mortars are two men, MMGs and medium mortars are three men and field guns are four or five men, depending on the weapon and nation).

I've done everything from individual basing to sabot, to multiple versions of group basing. What I finally landed on is 30x30mm for 2 and 3 man teams, 30x40mm for 4 man sections, 30x50mm for 5 man sections and 30x60 for the odd 6 man section. I do weapons and guns on 60x60mm. So a squad of German panzer grenadiers ends up as two 30x50mm 5 man bases. A US rifle squad ends up being three 30x40mm 4 man bases. Works for most games, as I feel like a basing system that is fairly close to flames of war is the direction the hobby has gone. Flames of War is a less desirable game in itself but its popularity has left a lot of WWII collections based on 32x50mm.

I base all my 15s on 30x30 bases. Rifle teams with 3 figures, LMG etc with 2.

For IABSM, I just use two such bases together. As it is roster based the number of figures is largely irrelevant (although obviously you can count figures if you want).

I was just about to start typing up how I base mine when I realised that Martin Rapier had just beaten me to it. The only difference is I have a few individual figures as "loose change" (in fact mostly based as NCO's for Crossfire on 15 30mm bases) or on washers.

In fact almost regardless of period or rules all my 15mm figures on 30mm frontage bases- some ancients being the exception.

I use FOW small 2 and 3 man bases and just keep a few spare bases to swap out to keep track of caualties. For instance my US squads are 2x3 man and 2x2 man bases. Take a casualty, swap out a 3 man base for a 2 or swap two 2 man bases for a 3.

I have loose change NCO, officers, snipers and FOOs too:)