Coming from the world of Warhammer this was a surprise. I'm very much used to one model per base, one man equals one man, gaming. Dead straightforward. Dead easy.
Historical, not so much.
So it seems that every system has its own way of basing although some may have similarities to let you use you your collection across a number of games. But there are so many differences...
The first mistake I made was not doing enough research into his before I started and just piled headlong in. Hence the random sizes and amount of men on the pictures above. what I seem to have picked up so far is so long as there's a consistency across the board then it doesn't really matter all that much unless of course you come up against someone who has specifically based for a certain game. can i play Hail Caesar with my Romans? yep, as the bases I've gone for work fine with that system. can i play Field of Glory? Yes in theory so long as a, my opponent is understanding about what my army looks like or i'm playing someone else using my collection who are based the same. the same applies for Impetus, DBA, whatever really. the only time it will become an issue is tournaments or finding a group who all have armies based in a specific way.
I've not found anywhere online yet that can give a good explanation of the most popular way to base up troops; a way that I could quickly arrange my bases to play in any system. I'm beginning to suspect what I need to do is base individually a la Warhammer so I can arrange troops however I want but then this seems to defeat the object of everything I've seen so far.
Things I've learned:
1. There are as many basing systems as there are different games
2. I shouldn't have based up all my troops before I did some reading (but maybe settling on a rules system would also be a good idea).
3. When it comes to painting i need to do the bases first before adding the minis. Learned that one through a very frustrating basing of the legionaries you can see above.
Next time: Medieval English and the frustrating of trying to be historically accurate.
Nice start to your new blog! I'm pretty surprised having come from the Warhammer background (like myself) that you've not come across Warhammer Ancient Battles and it's many great supplement lists? Although they are now out of print, most of the supplements and the best version of the rules are pretty cheap on Ebay...
ReplyDeleteA great start to your blog, welcome to historical gaming. A long and probably never ending journey has begun. I tend to base my 28mm figures on bases of 4,3,2 and singles. That way they can be placed on movement trays of any size, it allows for figure removal if called for and works well for such as Lion Rampant.
ReplyDeleteThanks both! David, I do actually have a copy of WAB and a umber of the supplements. I think because I was intentionally trying o move away from Warhammer that i've not paid that much attention to them yet. Although I guess i'd have to look at how that ties in with the basing issue as there may be problems with removing one man as required form my units. I suppose a dice casualty marker could be used though so long as the other players agree...
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