"Basing for WAB/FOG/Impetus" Topic

Hi

I am wanting to start assembling my 28mm Ancients (Imperial Romans and Celts). I am unsure which gaming system we will end up playing locally. And thus unsure how to go about basing.

I have played WFb for years and lied the WAB rules when they were first introduced. We have a couple of WAB players locally. I look the look of the FOG supplements but no one locally currently knows the rules so don't know how easy will be to pick up. 3rd option is a couple of guys have got into Impetus. So depending on which game system we settle on I might end playing any one of these 3 game systems.

I have the FOG rulebooks and have read the basing section of Impetus website. So I dont need to know the recoemended basing. What I need help on from you guys is flexibility- how should I assemble my 28mm Ancients figures so that I can use for either WAB/FOG/Impetus.

I am leaning towards basing them singly for WAB on 20mm sqaure bases and then use movement trays for FOG/Impetus.

Can you think of a better solution?
Thanks for any pratical advice you can offer?

Cheers

James

20mm squares (or rounds, for flexibility when ranking up) work fine for WAB, obviously. Small movement trays for multiples of individually-based figures seem to work OK for FoG; the individual figure frontages will often mean that the numbers of figures per element will be off, but that can be worked around. Larger movement trays for individually-based figures are a doddle for Impetus.

You seem to be on the right track!

Allen

If you base them for FOG then u can use the same basing for impetus… just 4 fog stands = 1 impetus element… then if using WAB, modify slightly and do not remove casualties. instead of removing individual casualties put a plastic white ring for each death.. then remove a whole stand.
this would put your WAB HI on a 15 mm frontage… better yet just base them as above and stop playing WAB altogether

Base many of them for FoG. Leave some as "change" so you can pull off casualties for WAB. As well, maybe make a lot of change so that you can use various formation widths and depths for WAB.

Example, if you have stands of 4 figures, you can't really get a formation of 6 figures wide. You could if you had stands of 4's and 2's. You might also want two 1's to make change for casualties.

Impetus you can do whatever. They are chunky stands and are about 80mm wide for 15mm figures or 120mm wide for 25/28mm figures. Trays would work great for whatever basing system you go with.

John

Dear Wargame Insomniac,
I had almost the same issue, except I wasn't interested in FoG, but in DBA in 28mm. This is what I did; I based a Basic Impetus Early Crusdaer and Fatamid matched pair on the official 120mm wide bases. I simply doubled the scale ratios from normal 28mm DBA (offically 60mm wide bases). I decided to call that a day, limit it to BI and big base DBA and not expand either army into the WAB crusades period.
My mid Imperial Romans and Germanics, Palmyrans and Sassanids were another matter. Since many of these figs could be combined into a bigger WAB Mid Imp Roman or Palmyran army without much hassle, I decided, like you, to make the basing flexible to handle Basic Impetus (or full Impetus) AND WAB. I chose to go the Impetus 15mm basing guidelines but using 28mm figs (80mm width, depths flexible in Impetus), which is also double 15mm DBA wide (40mm). For close order foot I try to get 8 on a base and looser order/shooters 6 in two rough ranks-4x20mm or 3x25mm (roughly!) kind of matches WAB base sizes, too, or close enough anyway. So I pack in the figs in nice juicy clumps, like one big struggling heaving mass of men, flesh and iron on those 80mm bases. I then have either 2x 20mm or a single 40mm vignette of command figs, casualties, battlefield debris like shields, dead horses, the odd tree as a sabot if I play other Impetus people who use standard 120mm width, or leave as is if I play at home or with my own match pairs. All I need is a few packs to serve as singles for WAB and I'm good for double sized 15mm DBA, B.I with the spacers or WAB.
I am a real fusspot, but I'm pleased with my solution to this issue. It stopped me basing finished figs for about a year!
Hope this helps.
Tony Banks,
Sth Korea

I would base individually 20x25mm for inf and 25x50mm for cav (some open order inf will be 25x25). Then stick them on a magnetic (or even non-magnetic – cut-outs or raised sides) movement tray for impetus. That way if you still want to do WAB then should be no problem. I moved completely away from WAB (no problems with the rules etc just like Impetus more) and now look forward to making little dioramas for my Impetus bases.

Wargame Insomniac,

Don't lose sleep over this.

If you like WAB and just want to try the others, base the figures individually, as others have suggested, and then use magnetic movement trays/sabot bases of the right size for FOG and Impetus. That system retains maximum flexibility at the expense of some aesthetic appeal when playing FOG and Impetus.

or you could download some cheap trial paper armies from Rosser to play a couple games of Impetus….get hooked and then rebase accordingly

Thanks guys- I was leaning towards basing individually on 20mm squares and then using movement trays for FOG/Impetus. Good to know I was thinking along right lines.

The main problem is no one locally really plays Ancients in the period I wanted to do for Imperial Romans and Celts.

The 2 WAB players have got Spartans and Saxons. Of the 2 guys interested in FOG one has Vikings. Of the 3-4 guys that play Impetus they have mainly 20mm armies- I think I have seen Carthaginians and Republican Romans in 28mm.

So I had no obvious historical opponents in any of the game systems and was thus undecided which to go for. If Paul can do his resin movement trays then it really is problem solved.

At least this was I can start assembling and painting my figures on 20mm sqaure bases and start playing small games.

Thanks for advice

James

Why not play against the 20mm too? Unless it was for a tournament and the scale police come and arrest you. I plan on doing some WAB in 20mm with 28mm basing,and playing against 28's,so long as I'm having fun,who cares?

Base your models on 60x20 mm stands for heavy infantry three models to a stand; 60x30 for medium infantry three figures to a stand and two figures to a stand for skirmishers; 60x40 for cavalry (two models for light cavalry and two or three models for other cavalry).

This allows you to play any of the DBx games; FoG, Impetus; and WAB.

One other thing(s) to keep in mind are storage and transportation of armies. While single models seem to be a good solution, using DBx basing allows you to set up and take down your games quicker, they are easier to store and much easier to transport. Wear and tear on your models is less with mutli-figure bases.

Mik B

@ skinkmasterreturns:
mainly because their 20mm armies are an eclectic range of periods from Biblical through to Renainssance. I think they use the low cost of 20mm armies as an excuse to collect quite obscure armies. Whereas I want to go for more mainstream Imperial Romans vs Celts. Might be boring an unoriginal but what interests me. And I like the new plastic 28mm figures.

@ mbsparta:
For my WFB armies I used a couple of long regimental bases in my larfer units to make it easier to rank them up. Whay you are suggesting is pretty much the same thing so I reckon that could work. I could still have several of figures based singly for casualty removal etc/

Thanks

James