"Basing a Lasalle and DBN compatible army" Topic

I've started my first Napoleonics project, and I'm interested in hearing some feed back on how I should base two armies so that they are more or less compatible for DBN and Lasalle.

My original plan was to make a 15mm Lasalle based project (without making the optional skirmisher bases) with battalions consisting of 32 soldiers on four 40x30 mm bases, 12 cavalry on four 40x30 mm bases, commanders with ADC on a 40x30 base, commander in chief on a 40x40 base, and artillery on 40x40 bases.

This is a classic basing style (from so I heard) that is compatible with many games. But I've started to also get interested into DBN, and would like to somehow make my two armies fully interchangeable between Lasalle (which uses way more figures) and DBN (which I should be able to create armies out of the hundreds of variety of figures that I plan to base for Lasalle).

DBN calls for:
All cavalry troops = 40x30
Commander = 40x30
Commander in chief = 40x40
Artillery = 40x40

Which all work perfectly for my current Lasalle basing system. The problem is that DBN calls for 40x20 bases for infantry, and I have my heart set on 40x30 bases for infantry, both because it would work best for my Lasalle system and also because I prefer the look of two ranks on one base.

So if I should continue to base all my infantry with 40x30 bases, would I be able to play a good game of DBN using infantry on 40x30 bases instead of 40x20? Is there someway I can make my Lasalle basing system compatible for DBN with few or no changes? Remember I am painting both armies so there's some flexibility there, but I would also like to have the proper DBN experience. I've thought I could also just paint more infantry on 40x20 bases just for DBN and things would be pretty seamless, but I don't feel like painting even more guys after what will be a bit of a marathon Lasalle project. Let's hear your thoughts!

Some DBN players double base their infantry and put on a 40x30 anyway, so don't see that it would make a difference at all really.

Frontage is the only thing that really matters.

Following DBA 3.0, frontage in base widths is all that matters, and frankly depths should be standardized as all equal to half or full base widths as well. Half of the finnickyness people hate baout DBX stems from the recoil and follow up mechanics with all of the different base depths; if everything were one of two different depths all of that would be much easier.

You know your a real wargamer when you agonise over basing and compatibility with other rules systems.

Twilight Samurai has the right of it. The struggle is real.

Do what you want; it shouldn't matter.

Agree with others, frontage only thing that really matters. I play lots of DBX systems and use different depth basing sometimes for reasons of aesthetics or practicality (fitting figures on).

Thanks for the help everyone! I'm about to base quite a few guys and wanted to make sure the project is as flexible as possible for other game systems. DBN in particular seems quite interesting although I am still learning about the game. I will definitely go through with the 40x30 bases for infantry as originally planned.

Stick to the Lasalle basing. Same basing for FOGN and the upcoming ADLG Napoleonic rules, which IMO would be an upgrade over DBN.

another possibility is 40x15 bases for infantry and use 2 to equal 1 LaSalle base , or 8 per battalion and however many required for DBN units .

or … do the 40x20 bases , 8 for LaSalle . the extra base depth doesn't matter in LaSalle , and with both armies based the same you're probably good for most of the rules out there with some fiddling .

Why does having extra depth not matter in LaSalle? Are there no provisions in there for flanking a unit. The deeper a unit is, the more vulnerable it should be to getting hit in the flank.

40x30 for infantry and cavalry is also the standard for FoGN as well, should you ever want to play that.

The only extra bases you would need are 3 or 4 divisional commanders on 40x40, and (say) 3-5 medium artillery pieces on 30x40.