"Might of Arms Question - part 2 (Strong opinion stated)" Topic

Okay, I am thinking MOA might suck me back into Ancients/Dark Ages/Medieval without the useless 25mm baggage I found before.

I would prefer 6mm because, well, because I prefer 6mm over expanding 15mm from a niche (SF – Stargrunt 2 – only games) status. Totally my bias but it is my bias…

But the MOA basing sucks IMO for 6mm. The advantage, to me, of 6mm is the 'mass' appearance of a unit. MOA has 6mm on a 20mm frontage (okay, even good) by 5mm (Horrible!) deep base! That's approximtely a single freaking stand deep after allowing for room for fingers to grasp the base without grasping the figures! Absolutely emasculates the strength of 6mm figures!

Yes, this is just for Knight/Heavy and subheavy Infantry. And yes, I could just ignore it and

1) use the same bases for Fantasy Rules! 2nd eg. (40 x 40) in 15mm scale and have historical troops able to double for FR! games as 'humans' but that creates problems for Med/Lt/SK Infantry that are on more realistic 20 x 10 stands (roughly 4 x 2 figure-bases per stand) or

2) I could use 20 x 10 bases for Knt/Hv/SubHv, double the Med/Lt/Sk Infantry stand depth to 20 x 20 which would share the same size stand as Cav/Camels (I doubt there would be any confusion versus infantry and cav/camelry even with the same size bases.) These infantry stands would represent the current two deep stands (3 x 2) in infantry units reccommended in the rules.

I would rather, however, go with something like 30mm (or even 40mm) by 20mm bases for the Knt/HV/SubHV stands ina unit and something like 30mm (or 40mm) x 30mm for Med/Lt/Sk infantry and so on for Cav/Camelry and Elp/Ch/Art/Wagon stands.

Does that sound reasonable?

What problems am I going to encounter if I go that route? Besides having stands different from other people's armies (which may not be a problem since I have heard no one else locally suggest using MOA rules…)

I could just mount a 'unit' on 60mm by 10mm 'double depth' stands too I suppose but that has all kinds of implications for the rules I have not taken time to consider in depth.

Gracias,

Glenn

biases, prejudices and all not withstanding – tempted by MOA

I think the easiest solution is to use the 25mm basing standard with 6mm figures.

You can cram lots of troops onto the base and not monkey around with the mechanics of the game too much.

I hear this is rather popular with 6mm DBA.

-Joe

Where a game is element based and dosnt require individual figure removement from the unit, just stick as many troops as you think is best on the base. Works for any game like this.

i have simply gone with Warmaster Ancients basing 40 x 20 mm as i have both sets of rules.

Thats in 6mm btw, the only true scale :)
16 (2 rows) figs per base for heavy inf, 18 (3 rows) for warband, 8 for skimish inf, etc and 6 cav per base.

That makes around 600 to 1500 figures per army depending on type. Nice :)

I looked at, and even started to base, with different base depths like the MOA / DBM rules state but soon decided to stick to a common base size.

oh ps – one thing i found i didnt like in MOA was the points for different units did not seem very balanced. Try comparing a Roman army with a Barbarian one and you end up with barely any more barbarians to fight with – and they die easy !
I think the unit points in WA are better balanced in that regard.

Is depth all that important? If not, then why not use 40mmx20mm for all troop types, if using 6mm figures? Would it really make a difference in game play? You could even use 40mm asquares and make diaramas on each base. Get that "en haye" look of 1 or 2 ranks of knights, or the dense pike column.

Or, what I've considered doing is Single Unit stands. Using a 15mm base (for compatibility, a HI unit would be 120mm by 30mm It would of course count as 6 stands. The single base for the entire unit would put down and pickup easy, would give a mass appearence, would be compatible with the very large number of 15mm armies out there and and most important, would protect the figures. An MI/LI unit would be 120mm by 40mm and SkI 120mm by 20mm.

Note: The number of figures on a stand DOES NOT MATTER in MOA because it is NOT a figure OR a stand removal game. Whole units are picked up when they rout.

For my new Greeks I may do this, although in 15mm. I can't conceive of a reason that they would be in any formation other than the standard.

"I think the easiest solution is to use the 25mm basing standard with 6mm figures."

Exactly. Doing it this way, you can even use the "Mini-MoA" optional rule (1-3 stand representation) and it looks GREAT.

Doug

I have come to the conclusion that basing is unimportant in wargames anymore, as nobody's idea of basing is considered correct by anyone else, so base how you like and let it go.