"How do you mark your unit stands for OBs" Topic

Wondering how people mark unit or individual stand:
For Organization
For Scenario Orders of Battle
For tracking during a game

Methods I have used
a-Label on underside of strands or command stands
b-Temporary underside label like Fire and Fury
c-Some element of painting on miniature
d-Some element of marking the base with paint – shapes or colors
e- Die tray for unit
f- Maker adjacent to unit or stand (have used flags and figures)
g --Roster
h – No marking needed – I know them all by sight as does my opponent
i – Too few stands to worry about it
j – a unique terrain item on base
k – unit trays

What is your favorite method? o What did I miss?

For AWI, uniform colors and facings.

My Grenzers go all red, all green, red and blue, blue and red, green and red….
Hungarian regiments have red trousers and facings, blue same.

Comanche… Someone please cite me a site that identifies the uniform for Happy Wolf's Light Dragoons. Or Likes the Ladies Mounted Bowmen.

For the ACW and WWII I use labels on the base bottoms. For Mediaeval/WotR the first letter of the lord's name on the bottom of the base, for those who are conveniently livery colour blind (yes, I know someone like that). For the rest uniforms/clothing and flags are enough.

I used to mark left and right corners with colors (dabs of paint). Left the Brigade- right the regiment stands). Playing WWII last saturday we had experienced that problem in getting units mixed due to the inability to read numbers on the stands. Using avery labels under the command stands worked for me since my ACW units for Cohesion- It's the Name of the game" all consist of 3 bases with the command /flag in the middle. The unit goes on the table as a unit and is removed as a unit.

I realize that this won't work for most rules but it does do 2 things:
1. Units do not get mixed up.
2. The less you have to flip over stands the less chance of doing damage to the figures.

Using the F&F mechanic of affixing a label from under the command base then flipping up a tab is good as the less you have to handle the bases, the less chance of breaking off a figure or bayonet. It also is quicker to get thru a turn as one can see where the unit is within the TO&E by sight.

Since I game in 6 and 10mm, the less my gamers have to handle the stands and less chance of having to make repairs.
When you have higher levels of command on the table (using LOTS of toys) one really needs some form of ID to keep the gamee play moving.

None are "fit all- fix all" solutions but such discussions may ferret out even better ways that someone might have stumbled upon.

Each stand of figures has a label glued to the underside –
eg 1/22 eme d'ligne or Natal Mounted Police etc.
These are printed in a specific army colour eg French Napoleonic are in blue ink, the NMP in red ink etc.

I used to include commander's names & larger formations but as these might change from game to game, this doesn't work.

The under base label cross references with a printed OOB, kept on the players' clipboard (with a QRS etc).

This keeps visual clutter off the table. The only exception is with command figures in games such as Hail Caesar. These baes have a small number or letter taped as to stick out & be seen. This then cross to the aforementioned OOB. This is useful because to give orders in these games you need to say aloud, "Brennus'chariots will advance & attack the Roman legion to their front." and you then don't have to constantly pick up bases.

Difference armies different marking:

ACW with regimental number/state on rear of stand. Brigade commander and above commander's name.

Modern and future wars with 3 digit code – squad, fire team, trooper and some have platoon, squad, and trooper.

19th century colonial – platoon leader with regimental number/officer number. Company grade officers have names.

Bottom of the base

For SYW not such a big deal – the uniforms are fairly unique

For ACW much more confusing (all that blue)

I play fantasy, and marking which figures belong to which Unit, is critical -- without a visible marking, they just all mash together into uber-Units on the tabletop. I use plastic melt beads, like these, found on Temu; I got mine from Wal-Mart's crafting section, however.

Here are some photos of fantasy figures with the colored plastic barrels marking their bases: Dwarven Spearmen (leader riding a Boar); Orcs (no plastic barrels, but wooden dowels are clearly visible); multiple Units in game (note that the beads closely match the Unit's flags).

Initially, I glued a small wooden dowel onto the figure's base, which allowed me to change the beads, to re-assign figure stands to different Units, as needed. Sounds really good, but in practice, it was just too much effort to change the Unit compositions up from one game to another. Now, I glue the beads to the base, without any wooden dowel, which means I cannot change their Unit configuration. It means that my army Units are relatively fixed in composition. To be honest, I am fine with that, as it saves so much time and effort: the Unit roster cards are the same, every game, so I don't need to tweak these for every game… I have armies consisting of 100's of figures per army; I need to divide these Armies into multiple Units, for control by different Players in my games. Over time, I discovered that the colored bead barrels would fall off of the dowels occasionally, while moving figures across the tabletop -- it was fine if I caught it immediately, but if I caught it several game Turns later, I lost track of which Unit the figures belonged to. I often have had different Player's Units intermixing in melee scrums, and this can become an issue if we can't tell which Unit/Player they belong to.

My bottom line is that I want defined, fixed Unit compositions. I can add/remove Units as needed, but to mess with adjusting the individual Units for every game, is too cumbersome, for me.

I play Army Men games, with all figures mounted on 50mm MDF square bases: multiple Units organized into groups for assignment to different Players, with different colored barrel beads; the Tan Army, again, mulitple Units ready to be deployed onto the tabletop by their respective owning Players as desired. There are limited numbers of poses available, so Unit cohesion and definition is critical. I use the same tubular plastic colored beads which allow me to tell which figure belongs to which Unit, very quickly.

I have found the colored barrel beads to be easy to use, easy to deploy, but most of all, easy to differentiate within the heat of battle on the tabletop!

For Unit leaders, I usually place a white bead barrel on the base, with a second Unit-colored bead barrel stacked on top of the white bead barrel. This indicates the figure is a leader, and this is important: if the Leader figure is eliminated, the Unit goes out of command, which really hinders their movement and fighting abilities.

There are many ways to skin an animal, but only a few select ways will achieve a good end result. LOL! Cheers!

My Napoleonic stands are numered or letter on the back of the stand in the smallest I could yet read

For our 28mm WW2 games I based 5 men to a stand to indicate a squad. When gluing the figures to the stand I also glued small squares of metal just behind the figures. Then I apply glue and sand for the terrain over that, which is then painted and flocked appropriately. To indicate morale hits on the squad, I use small magnets which stick securely to the metal plate beneath the terrain cover.

For our 28mm ancients games I did it a little differently- Since I wanted to avoid damage to the spear carrying figures from careless ham fisted gamers I bent rectangular pieces of metal at a 90 degree angle and glued it under the rear of the stand, so that the upright portion of the metal acts as a handle. The handle is painted black to make it very unobtrusive looking. On the handle go magnets in various colors to indicate ammo supply, disorder, attached leader, etc. Also, painting a corner of the rear handle is an easy way to indicate which units are in the same command.

I am a big fan of magnets because they reduce clutter and will not come off the stand until they are pulled off. And even if you bury the metal plate with terrain to make the bases cohesive as I do with the WW2 figs the magnets still easily stick

The 30mm Napoleonics have regimental designation on a label under the command stand. The individually-based 28mm horse & musket regiments each have unique uniforms. That's also true of the individually-mounted Ren/Fantasy and SF, now I think of it.

When I geared ACW for the sort of "chain of command" thing where you had to know which regiment was in which brigade or which brigade was in which battalion, I marked on the bottom or each command stand a numerical regimental designation and a brigade commander's name, never repeating the number or letter on the same side--Battle & Leaders was a big help--so the label might read "1st Maryland Eastern Shore/Ames' Brigade" or "12th Virginia/Lyon's Brigade." Then all you needed was a sheet to say Regiments 1-4 were in First Brigade today, or that Brigades A, B and C were in a particular division.

For my WW II stands a small paper label at the rear of the stand, facing the owning player.
For my old Napoleonics, the green stand has the actual numbered regiment painted on. If and when I remount the figures for AoE or Napoleon's Battles, I will try some other method

Depends on the scenario. Also what you are marking for.

We are probably mostly:

h – No marking needed – I know them all by sight as does my opponent

Which sounds way more impressive than it is. For the Battle of Puebla, there are up to eight standard "commands" – French inantry, cavalry, artillery, Zouves then Mexican infantry, artillery, rurales, and civilians. It's not exactly rocket science telling them apart.

The next most common would be:

c-Some element of painting on miniature

Not just painting, but the miniatures themselves, too. I suppose that applies to the above case as well.

For example, different elements of Teutonic barbarians might be gray fur, brown fur, white fur, etc. The opposing Romans might be in units of command as sword high, sword low, sword inside, sword back, sword inside, etc.

In Battletech and armor unit games, I paint the direction of movement side with a specific color for a Lance or platoon.
A system with multiple men per stand, I use a d4 doe as a marker with a different color used for units of a higher command.

I like the keep my stuff as generic as possible, but I do sometimes attach temporary labels and I also mix up figure poses on bases so I can group units by pose. I sometimes use sabot bases too.

In many periods it is pretty easy to tell which units are elephants, pikemen or Tiger tanks….

I avoid rule specific labelling like the plague. Rules come and go but figures last forever.

I play WYSIWYG. So in Napoleonics all Hussars, Swiss or Young Guard are Elite, all Grenzer, Landwehr or Marie-Luise are militia. Divisions are separated by look or by manufacturer. So one french Division has only troops in coats, one has Foundry miniatures shooting etc.

1871 FPW a, d
Black powder Crimea d (labels glued to back edge of 1/4" base

Napoleonics:

Each base has a typed label with the battalion name glued to the underside. Mounted officers get a small, flat temporary tag on the rear of the base and/or a number on the bottom. Since my bases are metal, I can write numbers with a sharpie underneath when needed and remove them later with acetone.

ACW, FPW, Colonial and AWI:

Each base has a number on the underside that corresponds to the scenario OB. Some units also have a label underneath with the unit name in that case I can write a number near the label. AWI mounted officers get a flat rear tag showing the officer's name and modifier. AWI and Boer War artillery get a flat rear tag identifying the gun type. If needed, I can also add a number near the label. The numbers are written with a Sharpie and can be removed from metal with acetone.

The paper tags are temporary and are usually in a color that blends with the terrain.

Basically for all periods I have a written scenario and OB. Each player gets a copy of his/her side they are playing. It has a number by each unit name. You just match the number with the number on the bottom of the base.

Addendum:

Col Durnford and Old Contemptable brought this up:

I am not sure if personality figures count as OOB or not, but my ACW generals do have their name on the underside of the base. Basically because I don't know them on sight. (I am missing one … I got the set of personality figures to paint one up as a present for a reenactor who plays that guy.)

My Stossei's Heroes and Bad Squiddoo (and a few other manufacturers) figures that represent specific personalities. You just know who they are.

mostly some combo of C & D

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