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Yes, that’s right – forces are gathering. Plans are being laid. In the West, the Ten Kingdoms of Uluthàn are marshaling the largest army seen since the fall of the Slann and sailing East towards the Old World. In the South, a mighty Orc warlord is uniting the fractious tribes and preparing to sweep out of the Badlands and descend on the unprepared Human realms. The world is turning!
By which I mean I’m finally getting to do a project I had long wanted to do, yet have been prevented from doing by the absence of its existence. To wit: a Fantasy game in 3mm scale! Rules will be Warmaster, and my first challenge has been deciding how to base my figures. Typically Warmaster will work with any base that’s in a 1:2 size ratio. Right now, what I have is well sized but ever so slightly too small in proportion (1″ x 5/8″), or is properly proportioned but slightly too big ( 1 1/4″ x 5/8″), or large enough and proportioned well but so sizeable as to make the game play too big for my tastes (1″ x 2″). But there it is.
On a 5/8″ deep base, you can get a comfortable three ranks of troops. On a 1″ x 2″ base I could get basically an entire battalion – two groups of four ranks with a command stand in front, but that implies a much larger game surface and I want to keep this small enough for my dinner table. The bases of the miniature strips fit very nicely on a 1″ wide space with a comfortable but not too large margin on either side, but when centered up on a 1 1/4″ wide base, that extra 1/8″ seems too much on both sides and makes the army as a whole seem to be standing too far apart in their ranks. In an ideal world I’d just order 1″ x 1/2″ bases, but things being what they are, I feel compelled to work with what I already have rather than ordering new things that may not arrive for several weeks, if then.
So, having determined that 5/8″ x 1″ is the right size visually, and 1 1/4″ x 5/8″ is the right size for game play, I have decided to do my traditional base label thing, and use 1 1/4″ x 5/8″ with a 1/4″ base label. My hope is that this will look good. If not, well, we’ll just have to see. But I’ve found that the base labels do not read as part of the base when you’re playing, so I hope it’ll all kind of blend away. Unfortunately it means that when you go into base-to-base contact the actual ranks will be offset slightly from each other, but I’m not sure I’ll care. And at this scale, and with my fading memory for rules, it does offer me the chance to put some game data right at my fingertips on the table. Here are some of my first layouts:
More as we go. We have a bit of really fine weather this weekend and I’m hoping to dig up some primer and get a few bases started off.
By the way, these are some photos which illustrate my basing predicament. I’m starting to doubt, a little, that the 1 1/4″ bases with labels will work correctly. They might make the tabletop look skewed.
Visually, this looks best to me, but as you can see it means that there could be misunderstandings when bases are engaged as to which unit is fighting which.
This is most functional but feels like there’s too much visual elbow room:
And this feels like it would only play on a way bigger surface than I really want, and although it would be pretty stunning would take me a million years to finish:
This is the “compromise” with base labels. It would definitely help determine facing but you can see what would happen when units engage. Maybe I don’t care? Maybe I do.
Yet another option comes to my mind. If I give units like Cavalry an “engagement zone” painted on the front of their bases, it would indicate which unit they were engaged with? I’m not sure the math works out on that. Maybe I’ll just go for what looks best and damn the game, just put the game at the service of the minis instead of the other way around. I’m dithering.
@Mr Average If the pack composition fits you could put a command stand in front of every base to denote front rank. Or scratch up banners of your own for the front rank. Or put mounted figure on either side of the front ranks, it’ll be a good way of filling up the elbow room in the second photo. Persoanlly I’d stick to 2:1 base size. Base size will definitely affect mass cavalry charge.
Now if that isn’t the ideal solution, I don’t know what is! What the heck else are all those little command strips going to be good for if not this very thing?
Perfect! Done deal!
So, can the elf strips be cut apart with any degree of success, particularly the archers, swordsment and spearmen?
Actually, yes, and therein lies my solution to the basing quandary.
The bases are 1/8” thick with a 1/2mm magnet sheet adhered to the bottom.
The spear men could be cut, but only I think at two discrete points in the line. You can see them below – the hollows in the casting. That would give you a four-man, five-man and one extra from each strip. Would probably suit most purposes.
An alternative with an in-universe justification is to use the leftovers from Swordsman strips and give each line of spearmen a pair of swordsmen at each end to protect their flanks. I’m considering this as a possible alternative to slicing up spearmen but it’s more frugality on my part, not wanting to waste the little extra swordsmen. I’ll dry fit and see how it looks.
And with an extra contingent cut not terribly carefully along the four-man line, for comparison.
I am afraid cutting them into individual pieces is not going to be possible due to the shields overlapping. Still not too bad and if I were to try it again I’d be a lot more careful and probably manage a cleaner cut.
Insomnia makes for minis time. Better than lying around watching the seconds tick past on the clock.
Some questions above arose about how cuttable the lines of Spearmen are. I find them very clean to cut, even at the non-choice locations. The cut conceals pretty well and the ranks, when filed down, run together such that it is nearly invisible at table distance. Below is my first Elf Spearman unit, for example.
Finally finished basing up my core High Elf army. We expect a dry evening here so I might be able to prime these tonight and then we’re off to the races.
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