"Basing 15mm for Oldhammer" Topic

Kinda' ended up with a 15mm fantasy figure job lot off of ebay. Figured I wanted to base them singly for various reasons and then wondered about basing them suitably for Warhammer since I've got both 2nd and 3rd WFB editions floating around the place. Wondered if anyone else has done this and how you re-sized the bases for consistency with WFB?

One way is to base your figures individually on one-step down base sizes, like 15mm square for stuff that would have been on 20mm square in 28mm scale, and 20mm square for what would have been on 25mm square—or something like that.

Another way is to use the standard 20mm/25mm square base sizes and put multiple 15mm figures in each base but declare them to be equal to one figure. This is sort of a "mass battles" approach.

Yet a third way would be to use your 15mm figures as equal to the same number of 28mm figures, but multi-base the figures in a way that makes sense so as not to have all single-based tiny bases.

15mm square bases for infantry, 15mm x 30mm for cavalry, 30mm square for ogre type units, 45mm square or 50mm square for monsters. That is how I did it for Armies of Arcana.

Thanks, I had thought about reducing base size using by a fixed ratio – only real difficulty with that is I end up with at least some base sizes I can't buy 'off the shelf'.

It all depends on what you want to do with them. Many 15/18mm skirmish gamers base on a 20mm penny sized base which are nice and stable for outdoor scenarios.

Urban/dungeon works well with 12.5mm bases. I use #10 SAE washers for 15/18mm figs. They are 12.5mm, usually galvanized steel, and thus magnetic. They are also uniform sized and widely available. I get a little box of 100 from the hardware store. I prefer to be able to store the finished gigs with something magnetic to hold them down.

Reducing the bases in keeping with the figures usually means scaling to 60% or so. 30mm => 18mm (penny); 25mm => 15mm; 20mm => 12mm

Probably going to go 15mm for 20mm and 20'ish for 25mm. I already use 15mm to base a lot of my sci-fi 15's.

I use 5/8 inch washers for most infantry, 3/4 for cav, and 1-2 inch for big things. Smaller ones also get smaller washers. Mainly what looks good. Unless your rules are very fiddly, individual base size shouldn't matter much as long as it is fairly consistent.

For WFB, the overall unit size is more important- base individually so you can play skirmish games and use magnetic stands or similar. Essentially WHFB just uses non-hero individual models as wound markers anyway. If you are using the base rules, most infantry units will be 80mm (4 man) or 100mm wide(5 man) with a depth of 20mm per rank. Big 'uns like orcs and chaos will be 100m (4 man) or 125mm (5 man) with a depth of 25mm per rank. Pretty simple.

Another simple way is to just cut the unit base out of cardboard and draw lines every 20mm/25mm so it makes it easy to see what is hit by templates. Slap your figures on top for looks, and go to town.

If you feel like the game is "too big' just cut everything in half. Or use cm instead of inches and keep the numbers the same. Again, make sure to scale templates!

Also, make sure to try other rules. Hordes of the Things, for example is a much faster playing system for blocks of troops.

Well, sorted the basing I want to use, and actually managed to get some done and dusted…. Using 15mm square instead of 20mm and magnetised. Using approximately the same ratio for the other base sizes but with a dollop of fudge. Bases are from Warbases and the 2x3mm magnets from a company called Spider Magnetics. Also glad I paid for the holes. Just need to get some movement trays sorted. In theory it should be flexible though in practice there will be problems with other systems that like to pack 15s close together. I have to admit though I didn't paint the army! It was a spontaneous eBay purchase of a DBX later French Ordnance army which I think proxies nicely for Empire, though more halberds would have been nice. Back in the day I started building a pike heavy Empire army with Ravening Hordes, but was never able to finish it. The Gendarmeries will also do for Bretonians.

Very nice! Those crossbowmen in flat hats look like some of the same ones (Alternative Armies/Medus) I use as not-Empire. There are some solid Swiss halberdiers in that line that make great Empire soldiers if you want to expand your ranks! I also like their pikemen, but clip them down for reasonable spears and add shields. Pretty sure they also have some good landsknecht with longswords that make convincing Greatswords.

The gendarmes I can't see terribly well, but look like they have sufficient barding and armor to be Empire knights.

I need to be less lazy and stop relying on my tablet camera. Its not great.

Yes the gendarmes are barded and the all the figures are AA nee TTG, which was pleasing since they are still available. Will hopefully get around to reinforcing it once I've rebased my pre-Feudal Scots, who can tolerably stand in for Norse and/or Kislevites possibly and some Orcs.