General Wargaming

Questons of a newbie on wargaming basing

Posted by Coen on 17 Jun 2011, 11:48

Well as I'm new on this forum I'll introduce myself first.

My name is Coen and I'm 19 years old, for two days now. I'm living in Nieuwegein, which is a sort of suburb to the south of Utrecht.
This city has been elected to be the 2nd ugliest city of the Netherlands :-D ! This year I'll start my study of history and Latin in Amsterdam.

I've been painting for just I few years now, think 3 years or so, with some breaks when things got to busy. Until now I've only been painting Napoleonic French, British and Dutch army's and the occasional different set. I'm really a slow painter but recently I improved my speed.
I'd love to be introduced in wargaming but in the area there aren't many people wit the same hobby, hence my question on this forum.
Wargaming would be the next logical step as it would combine my passion for painting miniatures with the passion for Total War games.

So, my question. As I have a lot of painted but unbased miniatures I'd like to base them with an eye on wargaming somewhere in the (hope near)future. I have done some research on the net and I believe that here in the Netherlands Blackpowder is quite popular (I could be wrong).

So I would like to know:

Which are the measurements of the bases for Blackpowder and how many figs will they support?

When you have a French battalion there will be 6 companies, 2 elite and 4 fusilier. How large will each compagnie be?
Are the command figures included in one compagnie or will they have there own bases.

Are there differences between basing for different nations? I 've seen pictures on the net of tightly base french and spread out Brits. I guess this has something to do with the fact that the French preferred to advance and fight in tight columns while the British often used formations with very thin lines.

How large would the bases be for canons and cavalry?
Is the crew of the gun also based on the same base or separate?

How to make some easy but nice bases?


As you can see this are an awful lot of questions but I'am an absolute newbie in tabletop wargaming :-D
So I hope someone can answer my questions.
An by the way, this looks to be a very nice forum! :love:

Groeten,

Coen
Coen  Netherlands
 
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15 Jun 2011, 13:30


Posted by Fenton on 17 Jun 2011, 22:15

Hi

I havnt played or own black powder, but from what I have read online there doesnt seem to be any fixed base sizes , though I have seen people who are using 50x50 bases though what this represents I dont know

I would suggest having a look at http://www.warlordgames.co.uk/ then click on the forum and have a look at the black powder forum there

I would also suggest that you try joing a wargaming club like this one
as they usually are wuite helpful and may have people playing black powder already

http://www.bod-utrecht.nl/?p=clubavonden


Hope some of this helps
Fenton  
 
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29 Oct 2007, 05:53

Posted by musketier on 18 Jun 2011, 01:46

http://www.fireandfury.com/ check these rule system out, its very simple to learn,a lot of fun, I know its American Civil War, but there have been a lot of periods done with this system as a base, including WWI, Napoleonics, age of Marlborough.
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musketier  United States of America
 
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Posted by Wheeling Turn on 19 Jun 2011, 19:20

Hi there,

we played a few games of Black Powder using ou on basing system.
3cm wide by 4 cm deep with 4 figures on them. 6 Bases per egiment/battalion call it how you will

it works and is fun. Black Powder has a quite flexible basing system so it is up to you.

cheers
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Wheeling Turn  Germany
 
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14 Dec 2008, 14:05

Posted by davbenbak on 22 Jun 2011, 16:38

Not having a club nearby can be a pain. Not only to share the painting duties but having some standard rules makes basing much easier. If you are stuck solo gaming there is a computer aided rule set called "Carnage and Glory II". I've been play testing the 30 Years War version but they also have Napoleonics.
davbenbak  United States of America
 
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15 Jun 2011, 14:30

Posted by Coen on 27 Jun 2011, 08:27

Thanks for the information guys. So as there are no standard base sizes it might be a good idea to choose sizes which are
usable for other systems? Does anyone know the sizes for most other games?
Coen  Netherlands
 
Posts: 21
Member since:
15 Jun 2011, 13:30

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Posted by Coen on 27 Jun 2011, 08:29

musketier wrote:http://www.fireandfury.com/ check these rule system out, its very simple to learn,a lot of fun, I know its American Civil War, but there have been a lot of periods done with this system as a base, including WWI, Napoleonics, age of Marlborough.



This sustem seems to be fun :-D . But a have a general question. Sites like this are often corresponding to measurements in terms as "20", movement "15".
Are this measurements in centimeters or inches or something different?

Thanks for the help.
Coen  Netherlands
 
Posts: 21
Member since:
15 Jun 2011, 13:30

Posted by Paul on 27 Jun 2011, 13:45

The measurements are generally in cm´s unless otherwise stated.
Easy way around different game system base sizes...make some like this
http://paulsbods.blogspot.com/2011/06/w ... bases.html
but with corressponding depth and width sitzes for each system..that way you can swop the bods from one to the other and not have to worry too much. ;-)
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Paul  China
 
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25 Nov 2008, 09:31

Posted by davbenbak1 on 26 Aug 2016, 15:05

Shako II gives some pretty flexible basing guidelines. You could go crazy trying to base by company like suggested by Bruce Quarrie. The basic 6 base, 4 base, 3 base or even two base battalions will work for most rules. You might just have to use markers (I use poker chips) to keep track of casualties.
davbenbak1  United States of America
 
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Posted by Ochoin on 26 Aug 2016, 20:44

Lots of good advice already but if I could weigh in with an observation?

Many wargames' rules give base sizes for 15mm & for 25-28mm figures but never for 1/72-20mm.

IMO always base your figures on the 25-28mm sized bases. Equally, use the measurements (movement, ranges etc) for that scale.

donald
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Ochoin  Scotland
 
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Posted by Wolfie65 on 07 Jan 2017, 16:36

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of base sizes as a mechanic, but some systems do require you to use specific sizes, and if everyone in your area plays such a rules set, you may not have much choice....
What I like to do with my plastic 1/72s is to base them individually on metal washers, which accomplishes a whole bunch of things at once.
It gives me a way to attach them to the painting base (I use bottle caps with a little modeling clay to hold the figure in place while painting), it makes them magnetic, so they can then be stuck to movement trays, thereby enabling me to put them on any size base game system X requires, and it gives them a little more...gravitas...so they don't fall over immediately if someone bumps the table, a random gust of wind comes through an open window or the cat decides to play nuclear weapon on the table top.
Wolfie65  United States of America
 
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14 Mar 2011, 15:04

Posted by zirrian on 07 Jan 2017, 21:07

If you want to bring the most out of them, base them separately on 20mm squares or rounds, then make suitable movement trays for them.

I multibase my Napoleonics - 24-men units, that's 5 bases of 4, and 2 half-bases of 2. That way I can arrange my command stand with the officer and standard to be in the middle in whatever formation they are in. For the French, one base of Grenadiers and one of Voltigeurs, the rest are Fusiliers - or at least that's how it'll be once I rebase them, right now I have three units of Line Infantry, a Voltigeur unit (with 3 figures per base) and a Grenadier unit.
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zirrian  Hungary
 
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