"Skirmish/RPG: Place" Topic

America. That would include FIW, AWI, 2822, see and of course, Wild West.

Fantasy can be any terrain you want. Kinda all-inclusive.

Arabian Nights= Fantasy desert
Mines of Moria= Fantasy caverns/"dungeon"
The Misty Mountains= Fantasy mountains
Mirkwood= Fantasy forest
The Dying Earth= Fantasy ruins of a lost technological civilization
Conan= Fantasy jungle, swamps, desert, forests, tundra, targa…

Really, it's too broad of a category to be an option.

Good point, Parzival. My initial thinking, I believe, was that (a) basing should match terrain, and (b) money and storage space are limited.Some subset of fantasy might address these problems. "Fantasy" as such doesn't.

I found myself drifting to a default base of a black sand/grit base dry-brushed gray, which works reasonably well for mean streets, starship decks, cobbles and flagstones, but it just won't do for halflings, ewoks or jawas. Same thing happens with terrain.

I try to base based on terrain, but it's hopeless, trying to be consistent. One does one's best but has to default to something. For instance, I pretty much place all my Fantasy minis on either natural sand bases or green flocked bases (outdoors, in other words), so they just look wrong when underground or in an urbanized landscape. Sigh. Sorry, Dark Elves! You must come up from the caverns for your battles with the surface dwellers.

I usually put Pulp figures on neutral grayish bases (urban, interior), so they look awkward in the woods.

I usually base seamen and naval types on brownish bases (decks), so they look out of place on beaches or on shore duty. Can't be helped. I suppose the clear base folks have the right idea but there's no way I'm going to cut off thousands of figures from their bases and re-do them.

What lurks in the back of my mind is some sort of unit morale/army break point penalty for castings whose basing doesn't match the terrain. They don't like this place, the natives don't like them, and it's too far from home.

This discussion is why I like flat black bases. It's a shadow on the ground beneath the figure.

Mediterranean is a good choice – from ancients all the way up to modeerns.

🙄

That would include FIW, AWI, 2822, see and of course, Wild West.…

Duh. 1812. 🙄

"Fantasy" may be an ill-considered option, but "all of these terrain types" just ignores the question.

As does an "other" or "none of these" vote without an associated comment, Last--meaning almost half those responding to the poll failed, really, to contribute. But I'd have to go back through old polls. That may be about normal.

Other: Use clear bases. I saw a great Wild west game where all the figures were on clear bases. The game was played on a wild west town mat. I also use clear bases for my ships letting the nice seascape mat I bought shine through.

I think Piper and deRuyter are mostly right about figure basing. But the answer came 40 years too late for me. Not rebasing 3-4,000 28mm F&SF. That said, the initial question was "place" rather than "mat" or "table" for a reason. If we could completely solve basing issues, we'd still grapple with immediate expense and permanent storage troubles every time we changed the setting of our battles.

If and when I start a new skirmish project, that isn't likely to share figures with anything I've got currently, I'll give clear bases a thought. But like most people, I detest rebasing, and have already done far too much of it.

Striking that when Bill announces a winner, it will be a genre and not a place.