Currently, my 1809 French and Austrians are based with 20mm x 20mm bases, 4 bases per battalion.  It is kind fo fiddly, and I am thinking about rebasing for Polemos or similar rules with a single 80mm frontage base per battalion.

Has anyone done this and regretted it? Part of me is worried I will expend all of this effort and regret it, but the time consumed moving the bases, even when i try to sabot them, is irritating. The other part thinks "hey, I am a Division Commander at least, the battalion commander is smart enough to go into line / collumn / square as need be and I do not need to represent that on the table."

Opinions?

I did my AWI on nice big beefy bases and love it, not sure why I am vacilating on this.

I have been basing my Peninsular Armies Infantry on the standard Polemos 60mmx30mm bases. Two strips of figures deep and 3 strips of figures wide looks a good fit plus there is room for Skirmishers. When the bases are touching short edge to short edge, then it gives the impression of a long continuous line.

As you mention you are playing Major-generals and above. Someone further down the line of command decides the best battalion formation.

Hello Jozistinman!

We started with 6mm in the late 70s and mounted them on roughly 23mm bases and we thought it was just fantastic. By the late 90s we had clearly identified that they were a pain to handle, sort, remove, store, set up, take down and move everyone, every turn. It was also costing us precious game time as every player was burdened with a boat load of nit picking decisions. Not to mention the constant reshuffle every time a player overlooked or forgot to move or change something.

When we changed to single base battalions we realized a savings of roughly 30% in game time. That was huge! We never went back, never had any regrets and enjoy our games much more. All the useless tedious stuff disappeared and players were finally able to focus on the true challenges of the game "high command decisions".

Our first single base battalions were 75mm x 25mm which were just wonderful and looked great, but after a while we noticed that they were too big and were awkward to handle in tight situations. They also looked ugly and odd on small hills, in some valleys and pretty much any unusual terrain. We gradually realized it was more like handling a big diorama in a small arena. In other words the base was simply too big for 6mm figures.

It was then that we stumbled upon Baccus and the Polemos basing system. After much discussion within our group we agreed that Baccus had nailed it. The 60mm x 30mm was perfect. Infantry, cavalry, limbers, wagons all on one base size. Artillery crews and commanders on 30mm by 30mm. Only two base sizes for your entire army! The base looked like a battalion/regiment, was easy to handle and fit in very well with all the other 6mm terrain. The major break though was however the fact that our table increased in size by roughly 25% (75mm vs 60mm). Yes another thats huge!

So many 6mm players have seen the value of this basing system that it's now become well known by many as the "standard" basing for 6mm. This means that you can now find new players who are also based this way. Obtain these bases (painted) on ebay and other venues. Some clubs have even stated that this is their 6mm standard.

My entire collection which is well over 40,000 is based this way as are almost all of my friends around the world. My figures have been this way for over 15 years now. I have absolutly no regrets, nothing but praise and thanks to Baccus for bringing forward such a brilliant and great looking system. Not too big and not too small, just right!

Best regards,

Glenn

Shouldn't your first decision be to settle on the rules you want to play? If you make all your troops into big bases and then find you want to play a game that needs you to remove smaller bases as casualties, you've caused yourself a problem.

There is an intermediate option. You could just double up most of your bases - halving the fiddliness factor - but keep enough singles as small change in case you need them.

That's the approach I use with my armies for Bloody Big Battles (BBB). BBB units are usually brigades or divisions of three to six 1" square bases. I have a lot of figures double-based on 2"x1", as well as sabots for 3"x1". Photo of my FPW Prussians here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127771552@N03/15640889489/in/album-72157648610078060/

Whatever you choose, best of luck in finding a basing solution that suits you, and rules that give you good games.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!

https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info

http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for the inout, guys!  As for base removal, I have loads of casualty figures based in 1's, 2's and 3's that I intend toi use to show missing stands if I need to.  After some reading, notable Duffy's Military Experience in the 18th Century, I think frontage would not shrink much as you take casualties and if it did get to that point, you're probably fleeing.

ChrisBBB: I may follow your advice and just double the size of my bases and go 40mm x 20mm.  I can still doe collumn, line, and square, but with a lot less fiddle.  The only down side is centering my command strip.

Funny you should suggest I select rules first, then basing, as I have done the opposite with AWI!  I picked a basing scheme that I liked (10 strips on a 100mm frontage) and am looking for rules to fit!  I suspect the new Polemos rules will fit the bill. 

I love your BBB blog, by the way.

Going to noodle it for a while and will decide between 2 x 40mm wide bases or one 80mm wide base per unit.  It is a bit bigger than the Baccus Standard, but I am providing both armies and it gives a nice robust 32 figure unit.   I will let you guys know how I get on. 

Hello jozistinman!

One of the ideas behind the Polemos basing is it's designed for 6mm. Not too many rule systems do that. So although it's the base used for Polemos it will work for pretty much any rule system out there as is or with some minor house rules. So base for Polemos and you will never have to rebase your 6mm figures again. Regardless most modern rule systems today will accept any base size. Also present day thinking is it's better to base to match your scale first and rules second. So I don't see any problem with what your doing unless you finally decide on an "old school" rule system that requires only one size of basing.

I should also mention casualities are not recorded in Polemos rules. Some modern rules are now using cohesion as a better bench mark to reflect a units status. Something that Polemos has been doing for years.

You also don't have to worry about formation changes as that is assumed to have happened at a level lower then your role as a player.

Yes, indeed, the new set of rules were designed for standard Polemos players and those like you who want to use custom basing. 

Best regards,

Glenn

Thank you!  I cannot wait to get my grubby little paws on it after looking at the preview pages.  I have been tinkering with a modified version of OHW, but I think his may be my answer!

Here are my AWI in various states of usage: http://jozistinman.blogspot.com/search/label/AWI

I use the Polemos standard base size, but I use Litko .8mm plywood bases with magnetic bottoms. Then I can use metal 60x60mm bases and stick the 60x30mm bases to those. 

I play BBB mostly, but it's still flexible enough to use with other rules.

Brian

Your mindset about being a Divisional commander and the formation of the battalion is not your concearn so to speak actually fits quite well with Volley and Bayonet's mentality in that you are a Corps or Army commander and such formation are simply just not in your sphere of caring. You are only concearned with directing your corps or army. More to the point the rules utilize one large base to reprsent a Brigade or Regiment.

I am in the process of planning my initial delve into 6mm for Volley and Bayonet and I have decided to use the largest base Baccus offers which is 60mm by 60mm for units termed as massed units often from Napoleonic period to the American Civil War. Typically about 1000-2000 men per base. For the American War of Independence, French and Indian War, Seven Years War, Early musketry and early Napoleonics I intend to use the 60mm by 30mm for what is termed linear formations of up to 1,000 troops. Hope that helps at least some.

Agreed that higher level commanders mostly don't care about what tactical formations their lower level subunits addopt. However, in wargame terms, "formation" could also be considered to represent "mode" or "posture" - something higher level commanders very much do care about. You could for example have three different modes according to whether a brigade is emphasising (i.e. deployed and formed for) maximum movement, maximum firepower, or maximum close assault ability, in turn reflecting whether its orders are to march, to defend or to attack. Then the cost of changing formation, however your chosen rules reflect that, can be considered also to represent the command, control and communication effort needed to transition from eg defence into attack.

Chris

PS jozistinman - thanks for your kind words about my BBBBlog