"15mm Napoleonic Diorama Style Basing" Topic

Most 15mm Napoleonics games will use the old standard 4cm wide, 2 to 4 cm deep based to mount cavalry, infantry and artillery, with some variations. In some rules two ranks of infantry are used on deep infantry bases, in other the bases are half width and two ranked. But on all cases the figures pretty much cover the whole base. (Command and artillery elements may be the exceptions)

I have noticed that in the 6mm world, especially when using big bases, such as with Blucher, which are 6cm wide and up to 4 cm deep, the figures are mounted in formation and with diorama like features, such as grass, rocks, etc. The effect is rather nice and you can see any example in this utube video: YouTube link

Has anyone done something similar with 15mm figure, such as extra deep bases with some diorama in front and rear, such as grass, etc. I suspect it would require a much wider base, which means all the scales are out, but it is something I am thinking of trying if it makes sense, but i suspect it requires a "big base" set of rules.

I knew someone, who made his Volley& Bayonet-Bases (3*3") in 15mm with small dioramas. He used few figures, but there was something happening on his bases.

Factors to consider are table size, storage space, and how much strain really big bases may put on small figures when people move your bases on table. The stronger the figures, the more lots on big bases becomes feasible.

>>diorama like features, such as grass, rocks, etc.

I can hardly comment, yet, this has been the norm for over 40 years in my world… left the boring stodgy painted bases back in the 70's…

I can't believe you've never seen better adoptions for 'natural' terrain before now.
FWIW ~d

Yes, I made my bases extra deep (4cm) and put the figures on the rear of the base. This creates a diorama effect as you can see here: link

15mm AB 1806 Prussians

One of the pb with herborists dios on bases: they look silly on roads, in redoubts, and half silly in villages.
More earth then green is better.

@Jcfrog, most mats and cloths I see are green, so it only makes sense to have a green grassy base. Besides, with a bigger base you bring your own grass ;-)

Figures based on grassy bases will always look wrong on roads and figures based on earth colours (eg roads) will always look wrong on grass. Neither of these facts is a reason not to do nice bases. People do what they want.

Anyone tried basing their figures on clear perspex? ;-)

Cheers,
John

Keep the roads clear of troops – messengers and artillery, not to mention ammunition caissons, need them.

A half-way house might be to mount the figures on magnetic/metal bases and then place them on the larger diarama-style base.

For the purists – supply a different diorama base for every conceivable landscape: spring meadows, summer corn, autumn plough fields, winter snow, etc, etc.

I like the 1806 basing

I'm doing some 15mm ships and have mounted marines and guns and gunners on clear bases. They can fight on any terrain!

Yes, i like the 1806 basing. The key of doing diorama on a base is the base needs to be bigger than required and the 1806 picture above looks good. I like the dead guy on one of the bases.

I come from a micro-armour background where extra diorama on a base is standard, as the bases tend to be much larger than the model on it. I would love to try this in napoleonic and it seems other's have done this already.

I will try some 4cm deep based for my infantry and see if it causes any issues with the rules i use. I expect it will work for DBN as they already support 3cm deep bases with two ranks.

the Prussians of Greuthungi look great – great miniatures, great basing, great painting, irresistible army ;.).

Quick question, what rules do you use with the 1806 figures? It looks like a low scale, perhaps each figure representing 20 men, or a max of 60 men.

I love 18mm AB Napoleonics, IMO they are the best 18mm you can buy hands down!!! Before I sold the armies to fund an Advanced Squad Leader purchase, that was all I purchased!!!

@pfmodel thank you. These are at 1:20 scale indeed. General d'Armee inspired me to base them like this, although it works with Bataille Empire and Lasalle (almost) as well. I'll even use them for Blücher. The Prussian musketeers are on 3x4cm metal bases, and I use magnetized bases as sabots in case I need bigger bases. My Prussian Grenadiers and Fusiliers, as well as Saxons, French, plus guns and cavalry are based on 4x4cm.
Skirmishers are individually based on 15mm round washers, then put in a three figure movement tray.

Greuthungi, my pleasure. I hope you do not mind but i wish to use some of your images in a video about basing, if you object to this please let me know. I will send you the link when its completed.

Greuthungi, This is a link to my video on Napoleonic basing styles. youtu.be/ECQB2laE9g4

Great video, just proves that bigger is better ;-) A lot of newer rules use base width as measurements in the game, like Blücher, Lasalle and Bataille Empire. Depth is less important, and as you mentioned, increases width messes up the ground scale.

I agree that they look great. In all miniatures games depth is greatly exaggerated. A Napoleonic French battalion column might be 30-40 men wide (a third of a company) but a maximum of 18 (6 companies) or 21 (9 companies) ranks deep. It's just something we have to live with. I assume the 'footprint' includes a bit of logistical set up behind ;-)

Cheers,
John

I agree that they look great. In all miniatures games depth is greatly exaggerated.

I totally agree, you will never achieve an accurate foot print, which is the same with all figure gaming. The only thing you can aim for is width and even then you have issues with column, lines, etc.

If you are using a figure scale of 200+ to 1 and a game-turn length of 30-60min then you can assume the foot print represents the area the formation can influence, with other formations behind able to pass through and support the formation to its front. Thus increasing depth may not be a major issue, unless the rules have some mechanic which causes issues.

An example could be withdrawing from a close assault, if its based on base depth no issue, but if it's a specific distance than you may (or may not) have issues. Other examples are when elements in the rear rank can fire over elements to its front, base depth will affect that. However all these issues can be resolved with house rules, if issues exist.

At the other end of the scale there may be more issues.