"Basing for "Beneath the Lily Banners" in 15mm" Topic

During the winter months I am hoping to paint my first 15mm British army units for WSS. Then there is the matter of basing them. I do not yet have the "Beneath the Lily Banners rule set, although I plan to purchase the book soon. I am wondering about basing. It seems 18 figure infantry battalions are the most typical, with an additional 3 pikes used as a marker if pikes are used at all. I have been looking at photos of WSS armies in 15mm and noticed that some seem to use more frontage than others, at least for infantry. I was thinking of basing 3 figures to a 30mm wide base. If I went the "roomy", route perhaps I would base 3 figures for a 36mm base, or even a 40mm base? Would this be compatible with the rules? Is this even advisable or is it a bad idea?

Cheers and Happy New Years!

Gallo

My bases are 40mm by 40mmm. I use eight infantry figures per base for aesthetic reasons but only count 18 figures per unit. Three cavalry figures per base.

I have found 40mm frontages work best. 3 cavalry, 6 infantry on 30mm deep. This allows players with figures based for other rules systems that typically use this frontage (FOGR, DBR etc) to also participate in large games. Regards Alan

40 mm seems to be a popular size. Alan, did you mean 2 ranks of 3 infantry on a 40 mm wide base? That would be quite roomy. How does it look? I was thinking of using 36mm for the base width, so 12mm frontage for each infantry figure. This would also allow me to use my generic infantry movement trays which are around 124 mm width (interior dimension) without having too mush extra space If I used 40mm bases they would fit even better. I usually make all my infantry bases 15mm in depth because that way they will all fit neatly in the trenches I've built for siege warfare.

Cheers!

Gallo

My group used the same basing that alan in canberra espouses.
We find it more visually pleasing that the deeper basing the Rules propose. Yes, we do 3 x 2 for infantry and 3 x 1 for horse.

Well, it all depends on what basing are going to use your eventual gaming mates. I've got accustomed to base my units on 30 mm frontage bases, following good old Principles of War system.

So, my horse squadrons use to consist of 4 figures on two 30 mm square bases, while foot battalions are 18 figure sized on six 30 x 15 mm "half bases", with three men each base (but these could equally be based on 30 mm squares, in two rows of three men each base).

I must admit, my motivation to use wider frontages is mostly aesthetic. I think the figures would look better with a little more space between them. Plus some of my 15s are Khurasan, more like 18mm. I saw photos of beautifully painted Minifigs and they were spaced further apart than the 10mm per figure frontage I was originally going to use. They were probably using a different rule system, because they had units of 12 or 16 figures, as I recall. At any rate, they looked great!

Historically, I suppose the musketeers were quite close to one another in their formed ranks.

Cheers!

Gallo