Basing for multiple rulesets

[ferg981]

Hey guys,

Looking to adjust my 18mm basing for different rulesets, and was wondering which option you’d all choose?

Changing my 18mm basing about..

Let me know which you think is best?

Kind Regards

J

My Blog - https://peninsularwargamingblog.wordpress.com

[Phil Dutré]

Wrong mindset.

Base in whatever way you like is more esthetically pleasing. Rulesets come and go, but your figures are with you forever. So, adapt the rules to your figures, not the other way around.

[Tony S]

I’d have to agree with Phil.   The old days of “17.5mm frontage per figure for British, 16.5 for French” are long gone, at least for me.  I based mine in a way that pleased me, but also in a way that can be used for multiple rulesets.

Personally, I’d go with option 2.  That almost the way I do it, but I centre my figures a bit more on the base.   If I need labels, I’ll simply tape them to the bottom of the base, but facing up and extending past the base’s rear edge, so that you can read it.

Just to muddy the waters, my units consist of 3 stands of 40×30, double ranked, so that the command figures and standard are in the centre (like yours) but I also add two bases of 20mm frontage by 30mm depth, on the flanks of the centre three stands.   I put the flank companies, 2 ranks of 2 figures, on each of them.

That way, my flag is in the middle, my unit has a frontage of 160mm which is quite common and with the equivalent of four elements can form square nicely.  But with the flank companies on seperate bases, I can easily strip off the lights to reinforce the voltigeur screen as some rules require skirmish elements or figures.   And in the rare occasion where grenadier companies were stripped off, I can do that too.

If memory serves, I seem to recall GdA was a ruleset where I needed to remove the unit’s voltigeur company.    Anyway, the whole point was to never, ever rebase again, while allowing maximum rules flexibility, because I have a bad habit of trying new rules!

[OotKust]

Phil Dutré wrote:

Wrong mindset.

Base in whatever way you like is more esthetically pleasing. Rulesets come and go, ….

Absolutely agree a ‘gazillion’ % [hey its in an ad so it has to be true right!].

My friends developed rules determined PG rules were the most efficient sizes, allowing tamper room for buxom features, so we’ve based on those since ’90s.

Never not had a game because someone close uses different sizes.

Scales/ movement/ time/ ratio are all just bunkum distractions of rules, when as friendly players, you can adjust your thinking (and on table characters) by aligning them to whatever -edges or centres etc. are necessary.

Though I have no 15/18 myself any more, thankfully we can battle with those and 25/28mm and get by easily. Despite the torrent of ‘heres a new…’

Cheers dave

Swinging from left to right no matter where the hobby goes!

[willz]

Always base your figures to what you like, I spent years not knowing what size bases to use on my figures.   Then I decided that I would use 40 x 40mm bases for all my figures (or 50mm x 50mm for cavalry), 20mm, 28mm and it works for me.  I also made tons of different sizes of movement trays for the 40 x 40mm and 50mm x 50mm so they can be used for different rules.

Chasing the base size dragon is a waste of your time, base your figures on the sizes that work for you.  Mine are on those size as they fit perfectly into the size of really useful boxes (10 litre) I use for storage.

[Deleted User]

I never bought into the basesize restrictions for each games. Same with measuring distance, as long as its consistent and proportional to each other the games played fine.

[Norm S]

I think the more modern rulesets are more inclined to accommodate any basing system, requiring only that both sides are similarly based.

More old school seemed to ‘dictate’ a base size, which in reality today we would treat as suggestions, but harking back in time, I think many of us were hostage to those ‘demands’ and consequently have endured the pains of re-basing several times.

For my own basing, I have gone single big 80mm base for ancients / medieval, just two 80mm bases for napoleonic and three 50mm bases for ACW. I like their look and function.

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