Post by iorwerth on Dec 1, 2017 10:09:46 GMT
(I posted this over on TMP, but thought I would also post it up here).
I am contemplating moving into some 6mm Napoleonics. I have never gamed this period before but have always liked the idea. However, I have never even seen a 6mm army apart from in photos, but am thinking they could give me the epic vibe I have always imagined, and be cheaper to purchase two reasonably sized armies. I have some sample figures being kindly sent to me by Mr Locke of Adler Miniatures as I type, so soon I will be able to tell if they are my cup of tea or not.
Anyway, before they have arrived I have been trying to figure out how I am going to base if them if I do take the plunge and start putting together a couple of armies. The rule systems I am planning on trying out (i.e. have in my possession) are General de Brigade and Age of Eagles. I do have Chef de Battalion, but figure I would put that aside for my first forays into the period.
Having done a bit of research (and seeing along the way how heated these basing threads can become) I thought through a few basing systems and came up with one that I thought might work. I don't really want to go down the route of 60x30, as I want more bases per battalion, and to do that with the figures needed to fill those bases would be too costly for my initial budget.
Looking at GdB I decided I did not want to use their system of counting figures on bases, as it seemed it would be a bit too fiddly at this scale. Instead I am going to keep track of battalion strength (GdB figures) either on a roster sheet or a unit marker next to the unit, alongside the unit's name etc.
So having laid that groundwork I then went and did some research on battalion line length for British and French battalions, to get some idea of how long they were and how I might try and replicate that. I did toy with each base being a company, but that seemed to entail having too many bases per battalion and so would require my having to purchase too many figures to get the number of battalions I wanted to start with. However, I also wanted a basing system that might allow me to later move to having each company having its own base without having to rebase, so that played into my thinking.
My research revealed that in a battalion of around 600 men, a British battalion in line, in two ranks, would be around 200 or so meters long, whilst a French line, three deep, would be around 125 or so meters long.
Given that, I figured that either a British base needed to be longer than a French one, or a British battalion needed to have more bases than a French one, as I wanted to keep a British battalion in line being longer than an equivalently sized French one.
At the moment I am thinking of having a British battalion of around 600 have 6 base (maybe 7) and a French one of the same size have around 4 bases (maybe 5). I figure four bases is a good minimum for ease of showing different formations, though a really small battalion might well only have three bases.
So, my plan at the moment is I to go with the following:
Battalion size = numer of bases (in brackets my alternative number of bases, which will require slightly more bases per battalion and therefore cost me more to purchase the figures needed,but might be better?).
French:
450-550 = 3 (or 4 bases)
550-700 = 4 (5 bases)
700-850 = 5 (6 bases)
850-1000 = 6 (7 bases)
British:
450-550 = 5 (6 bases)
550-700 =6 (7 bases)
700-850 =7 (8 bases)
850-1000 = 8 (9 bases)
While this does not quite keep the 200m to 120m ratio of a British to French battalion in line, it still does to a good enough degree, at least for me. If I later get enough bases then I can do one base per company as I mentioned above,which would give me 2oomm for a British line and 120mm for a French one.
My next decision is the size of the bases and the number of figures to put on each. My initial thought is that if the bases were 20x15mm (or 20x20, or even 20x10), then if I ever did go to a base being a company, a British battalion would be 200mm long and a 6 company French one would be 120mm, which would be near enough spot on to the real 200m and 125m ones in reality.
I am unsure whether 20mm wide bases will be too fiddly to play with, but I figured I could mount them on battalion sabots, for ease of moving etc, so am hoping that wouldn't be a problem.
By the way, sorry this post is going on so long!!
If I do go for 20mm bases then I need to decide how many figures to mount on each base. My thought at the moment is to have 3 figures wide on a base, the British would be in two ranks (so 6 figures/base) and the French in three ranks, (so 9 figures a base). This would almost be a figure ratio of 10:1 if I eventually managed 10 company bases for the Brits and 6 for the French. I realize that is a bit of an illusion, as once battalions move away from being around 600 men strong that ratio would go out of the window. I also realize that basing the French three deep is not as cost effective as doing them two deep, but I figured the visual appeal may be worth it.
So my questions (finally!) are:
1. Does my basing system make any sense?!?
2. Is there a better one that I may not have thought of?
3. Are 20mm bases too small? Would I be better on slightly wider bases e.g. 25mm, or even go 4 figures on a 30mm base or 35mm base?
Any advice would be really appreciated!
Another idea I wanted to run past people was to have the battalion command and colours section on a different base (maybe 10x10?) on its own. I noticed that a French battalion, with each company in line being 20m in length, wasn't actually 120m long, but was instead around 125m long. This was due to the colours in the middle of the line taking up about 5m themselves. This gave me the idea this might not be a bad idea to replicate, and so I could have the colours on their own base. Has anyone done this, or think it might be a good idea?
I have some ideas on cavalry basing to tie in with the above, but this post is already way too long, so will stop it here.
Any advice would be very much appreciated!
I am contemplating moving into some 6mm Napoleonics. I have never gamed this period before but have always liked the idea. However, I have never even seen a 6mm army apart from in photos, but am thinking they could give me the epic vibe I have always imagined, and be cheaper to purchase two reasonably sized armies. I have some sample figures being kindly sent to me by Mr Locke of Adler Miniatures as I type, so soon I will be able to tell if they are my cup of tea or not.
Anyway, before they have arrived I have been trying to figure out how I am going to base if them if I do take the plunge and start putting together a couple of armies. The rule systems I am planning on trying out (i.e. have in my possession) are General de Brigade and Age of Eagles. I do have Chef de Battalion, but figure I would put that aside for my first forays into the period.
Having done a bit of research (and seeing along the way how heated these basing threads can become) I thought through a few basing systems and came up with one that I thought might work. I don't really want to go down the route of 60x30, as I want more bases per battalion, and to do that with the figures needed to fill those bases would be too costly for my initial budget.
Looking at GdB I decided I did not want to use their system of counting figures on bases, as it seemed it would be a bit too fiddly at this scale. Instead I am going to keep track of battalion strength (GdB figures) either on a roster sheet or a unit marker next to the unit, alongside the unit's name etc.
So having laid that groundwork I then went and did some research on battalion line length for British and French battalions, to get some idea of how long they were and how I might try and replicate that. I did toy with each base being a company, but that seemed to entail having too many bases per battalion and so would require my having to purchase too many figures to get the number of battalions I wanted to start with. However, I also wanted a basing system that might allow me to later move to having each company having its own base without having to rebase, so that played into my thinking.
My research revealed that in a battalion of around 600 men, a British battalion in line, in two ranks, would be around 200 or so meters long, whilst a French line, three deep, would be around 125 or so meters long.
Given that, I figured that either a British base needed to be longer than a French one, or a British battalion needed to have more bases than a French one, as I wanted to keep a British battalion in line being longer than an equivalently sized French one.
At the moment I am thinking of having a British battalion of around 600 have 6 base (maybe 7) and a French one of the same size have around 4 bases (maybe 5). I figure four bases is a good minimum for ease of showing different formations, though a really small battalion might well only have three bases.
So, my plan at the moment is I to go with the following:
Battalion size = numer of bases (in brackets my alternative number of bases, which will require slightly more bases per battalion and therefore cost me more to purchase the figures needed,but might be better?).
French:
450-550 = 3 (or 4 bases)
550-700 = 4 (5 bases)
700-850 = 5 (6 bases)
850-1000 = 6 (7 bases)
British:
450-550 = 5 (6 bases)
550-700 =6 (7 bases)
700-850 =7 (8 bases)
850-1000 = 8 (9 bases)
While this does not quite keep the 200m to 120m ratio of a British to French battalion in line, it still does to a good enough degree, at least for me. If I later get enough bases then I can do one base per company as I mentioned above,which would give me 2oomm for a British line and 120mm for a French one.
My next decision is the size of the bases and the number of figures to put on each. My initial thought is that if the bases were 20x15mm (or 20x20, or even 20x10), then if I ever did go to a base being a company, a British battalion would be 200mm long and a 6 company French one would be 120mm, which would be near enough spot on to the real 200m and 125m ones in reality.
I am unsure whether 20mm wide bases will be too fiddly to play with, but I figured I could mount them on battalion sabots, for ease of moving etc, so am hoping that wouldn't be a problem.
By the way, sorry this post is going on so long!!
If I do go for 20mm bases then I need to decide how many figures to mount on each base. My thought at the moment is to have 3 figures wide on a base, the British would be in two ranks (so 6 figures/base) and the French in three ranks, (so 9 figures a base). This would almost be a figure ratio of 10:1 if I eventually managed 10 company bases for the Brits and 6 for the French. I realize that is a bit of an illusion, as once battalions move away from being around 600 men strong that ratio would go out of the window. I also realize that basing the French three deep is not as cost effective as doing them two deep, but I figured the visual appeal may be worth it.
So my questions (finally!) are:
1. Does my basing system make any sense?!?
2. Is there a better one that I may not have thought of?
3. Are 20mm bases too small? Would I be better on slightly wider bases e.g. 25mm, or even go 4 figures on a 30mm base or 35mm base?
Any advice would be really appreciated!
Another idea I wanted to run past people was to have the battalion command and colours section on a different base (maybe 10x10?) on its own. I noticed that a French battalion, with each company in line being 20m in length, wasn't actually 120m long, but was instead around 125m long. This was due to the colours in the middle of the line taking up about 5m themselves. This gave me the idea this might not be a bad idea to replicate, and so I could have the colours on their own base. Has anyone done this, or think it might be a good idea?
I have some ideas on cavalry basing to tie in with the above, but this post is already way too long, so will stop it here.
Any advice would be very much appreciated!