"DBA 3.0: 15 or 20mm base widths?" Topic

As a side project I'm painting up an army for DBA 3.0 and trying to determine if there is a consensus on the infantry basing width. I know the old versions are 15mm, but 3.0 allows up to 20mm. I would think that many gamers still have their armies based to 15mm, so I'm just looking for opinions on which base width to focus on.

I assume you mean depth. Personally I am a traditionalist, but that being said, if you have newer larger figures, I would go 20mm.

The pros and cons on this topic have been covered at the DBA Fanaticus Forum. Follow the link to the question on basing: link

I prefer the deeper base (20mm); less chance of bent spears or pikes, larger shields are no longer a problem and the additional grass tufts look great.

Cheers,
Robert

Yes, I meant depth! Thanks for the ideas so far.

I've gone with the deeper depth for my 100YW armies. It allows for easy recognition of English and French. It also allows the longbow and men-at-arms to recoil the same distance.

Joe Collins

I had 1200 figures based for DBA 2 on the traditional 15mm DEEP bases for heavy troops and have not changed for 3. I like lighter troops recoiling different from heavy.

We have thousands of 15mm figures built up over the years. We all agree we would use 20mm depth instead of 15mm if we could start over; likewise in 25mm scale, we do not like the 20mm depth but prefer 30mm (to get four figures on the 60mm width stand).

I prefer the deeper stand.

An important point is that 15mm deep topple over on hills. So I put a little paper under, used toothpick to spread some slow setting epoxy, thus increasing depth to 18mm.

Then a little flocking etc and done, without much trouble.

Still noticeably different to Ax bases, but the 18mm deep do much better on hills.

The differences are genuinely marginal so I'm guided mostly by aesthetics. That means a slight preference in new projects for 20mm … unless the army is a historical match for for an existing army already on 15s in which case consistency across both armies might win out.

The real difference is with larger scale figures (say 28s on 60mm frontages, which become a top-heavy nightmare on shallow bases) …

Phil

If I were starting now and expected to use the figures only with DBA, I'd undoubtedly go for 20mm.

15mm, however, has the twin advantages of fitting with my old stuff and being more compatible with other games that use WRG basing, so it's what I use in practice.