"Medieval Warfare by Terry Gore - basing?" Topic

Hi Guys,

I am going to buy this in the New Year for my War of the Roses battles. Can anyone enlighten me to what the basing requirements are for 28mm infantry and cavalry?

Gareth

Medieval warfare foundry edition has 3 stand size systems Small,medium and large. Movement shooting ranges vary depending which base size system you use.

Small stands are 20mm wide

Medium stands are 40mm wide which are what foundry call warhammmer standard and also happen to be WRG standard.

Large stands are 60mm wide.

The medium stand system seems to be the optimum one so with a 3 figure loose order cavalry stand of 28mm you would stagger them to fit.

Skirmishers are normally 2 to a base.
Close order infantry 4 to a base.
Cavalry 3 to a base.

The medium stand system seems to be the optimum one so with a 3 figure loose order cavalry stand of 28mm you would stagger them to fit.I play with 15mm so I don't have a problem fitting my troops but with 28mm you might consider 60mm wide bases.

Perhaps someone who plays with 28mm might advise?

So with 60mm wide bases, would you fit 6 x 28mm close order figures on these – 3 in the front and 3 in the back?

I guess when you say close order, you mean archers, billmen and men at arms?

Gareth

Close order foot would be 4 to a base. I don't use 28mm so I don't know can you fit them in a line on a 60mm base.

The rules do say that base depths can be flexible.

Just looking at war of the roses lists in the foundry edition.

Men at arms are full plate cavalry 3 to a base.

Billmen are trained close order 4 to a base.

Welsh archers are irregular loose order 3 to a base.

Shire archers are 4 to a base close order.

Hope that's of use and they are a cracking set of rules!

They are a great set of rules but the basing for 28mm may make it harder to get 3 cavalry on a 40 x 40 base..

I use 20mm square bases for infantry; 20 x 50mm for cavalry which is coincidentally what they call a small stand. These are individual bases which allow you to use the figures in skirmish. You can then mount the figures on 40mm x 40mm for infantry giving you 4 figures comfortably or 3 for looser order. The rules state on page 6 that close order and trained loose order cavalry are 2 figues per stand, but it is entirely up to you as the basic tenet of the casualty system is the removal of stands. Each stand (irrespective of actual models) has a strength value between 2 and 4. Casualties are taken in strength points so if a 3 stand unit takes 5 casualties it would lose 1 stand and carry 1 point if each stand was strength 4; lose 1 stand and carry 2 over of 3's and lose 2 stands and carry 1 if each stand was a 2.
In summary, it is up to you how you base them whether magnetic individual bases or glued to the stand as long as the frontages are consistent. I was planning on 40mm stands with 2 close order cavalry and 1 skirmisher cavalry per stand; 4 close order, 3 loose order and 2 skirmishers per infantry stand using Foundry, Front Rank and BTD figures for medieval, Artizan and Crusader for Viking. All seem to fit really well.
Also consider the army lists are in stands so the more figures you cram on a stand then the more figures you need to buy….:)
Hope this helps,

cheers
Jon.

Many of the Medieval Warfare gang started out playing WRG rules, especially WRG 7th edition. There was a lively debate in the early days to make 20mm the standard frontage for close order infantry and thus 80mm the frontage for large stands, but most of the group demurred. I use mostly 40mm square bases these days and don't pay much attention to number of figures by type per standard frontage, but I do have many troops based to WRG standards so I can play in tournaments without causing problems. I argued many a time on the Saga website that it doesn't really matter how many figures are used per stand, since all stands/units are supposed to be clearly labelled as to armament, order and class, and the game is really stand based (though you must track individual figure casualties). Most of us followed the Jeff Ball convention/invention of using little counters, aka casualty markers, to track partial stand losses until a stand was expended and the entire piece removed from the table. So ultimately you really only have to be concerned with the conventions of the people you game with.

BTW, when basing new units, I really use 2 figures for skirmish infantry, 3 figures for all others and no more than 2 cavalry figures per 60mm equivalent of unit frontage. The army lists and scenarios determine what the nominal figure counts are for gaming purposes. The disconnect between nominal figure counts and actual figures on the stands is resolved by rigorously counting casualties and making sure other gamers understand my basing.

If you base to the old WRG, or DBx or FOG standards you'll be fine. I'd recommend that just because I think it would make your armies compatible with the great majority out there.

Good luck, I think it's a great fun set of rules.

I always did DBM basing essentially. 4 heavy infantry. 4 medium infantry in close formation, 3 medium in loose, 2 infantry for skirmish units. 3 cavalry for heavy, medium or light units. 2 cavalry for skirmish units. Artillery or supply units on whatever will fit.

Sorry chaps I am still struggling with the 40mm wide bases, its fine for 28mm infantry but you simply can not fit 3 x 28mm cavalry on this size stand.

Going back to the question, if I use 60mm wide bases then it appears appropriate to use 6 infantry and 3 cavalry per base?

Now if you use these "large stands" does it do anything to the game play?

Yahoo group is helpful;

link

The rules base movement and ranges on stand size;
small are up to 30mm wide
standard are 30-50mm wide
large are 50-75mm wide

So as long as you are consistent it doesn't matter which width you use and they can be as deep as you wish. After reading this again I had another look at my lot this afternoon and may go to large stands of 60mm width myself and varying depth so I can simulate formations i.e. schiltrons or massed infantry, hordes of peasants or thin ranks of skirmishers and so on. As rddfxx says the stand is the casualty, the figures on it are unimportant.

Thank you gentlemen,

Gareth

If it's any more help, the old 'standard' WRG base sizes for 25mm are as follows:

Frontage for all = 60mm.

-Close Formation Foot (4/base), 20mm depth.
-Loose Formation (3 or 4/base depending on what they represent) and Skirmish Foot (2/base), 30mm depth.
-Mounted (skirmish 2/base, heavies 3/base, cataphracts 4/base) 40mm depth.
-Hussite etc Wagons (and Elephants for that matter), 80mm.

The 4 vs 3/base loose formation foot represent 'trained' vs 'untrained' troop types.

In the AW & MW army lists I have the number of figures per base are given for each troop type, 4/base loose formation foot are marked with an (L).

That's the basics, I've included a couple of ancient troop types for completeness because base sizes are the same across the Ancient Warfare & Medieval Warfare sets. Hope this helps a bit more when put with info already provided by other posters.

Hi gents,

With these rules could you use individual figures at 28mm?

You can, the stand is the important element here so your stands can be single figure stands (classed as 'small' in the rules) instead of multi figure. As long as you keep the army ratio correct, I can't see a problem with single figures?