Hello everyone! I apologize if this is not the right place for this post and also for another basing question. 

Last year I purchased some French and Austrians for 1809. I ended up not having time to do much with them due to it being my last year of school (for now). Now that I have graduated, I was looking to finally get started on my historical projects. I have accumulated a small collection of 10mm ACW, a pretty decent amount of 6mm ACW, and my aforementioned 1809 armies. Initially for the 6mm I had planned on playing General d'Armee and Pickett's Charge. For GdA I was planning on basing my minis on a 20mm square 3 ranks deep, and the same for PC, but only 2 ranks. However, I quickly found the multiple 20mm bases per regiment fiddly, and I have decided to use future 10mm purchases for those rulesets based on 25mm squares. The question still remained about what to do with my 6mm minis.
 

When I first discovered Baccus, I wasn't much interested in the 60mm x 30mm basing scheme because I wanted to portray the different formations, which is a common thing I know you have all heard. However, with the future commitment to 10mm, I'm not too concerned with that anymore, and the idea of playing larger army-sized games has become more appealing to me. For ACW, I found a ruleset that I really liked, Altar of Freedom, which uses the Baccus basing scheme. That leaves my Napoleonics though. I'm interested in Polemos, but I'm also interested in trying out Grande Armée and Blücher. I was wondering if anyone had experience with these rulesets using a single 60mm x 30mm base for a unit instead of the recommended 60mm x 60mm? Not only do I think 60mm x 30mm looks better than the square basing, but it would allow me to grow my collection quicker and cheaper since I will eventually be buying every army for the Napoleonics. With the models I have now, I would have enough infantry to make about 36 infantry units for both the French and Austrians using the 60x30 basing, but only half or even less for the big diorama bases. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

Alex

Hi Alex,  I am not involved in Napoleonics anymore (I was for thirty years in 25mm) there all the formation changes become tiresome if you want to do BIG battles... quite impossible in Solo Mode in 25mm... but that's another history. On the contrary ACW in 6mm YES that is quite possible and I went 60x30 all the way... for a longer answer  just go to my blog https://www.mytoysoldiersandme.com and have a look at the 5 posts about ACW there. Cheers. Alejo                                                                                     PS: there is a direct link on this forum under General, I started a Blog...

Hello Alex!

The importance of battalion formation changes is probably the biggest myth in wargaming and has a ton of distracting and time consuming problems attached. One of them in 6mm is the fiddly little bases syndrom. Although a lot of people today still game that way a lot of seasoned gamers in 6mm have moved to 60x30 and never looked back. In the Polemos series of rules this base cranks you up a notch and forces you to concentrate on higher command decisions. Which creates a much more satisfying and realistic game.

The 60x30 base can be used to play any popular rule set as is or with a few simple house rules. So yes you can play Grande Armee and Blucher with these bases. If I recall correctly I think GA used 60x60 so 60x30 is fine. For Blucher some people just use the 60x30 and record exceptions on an order of battle sheet while others use various markers. Some also use sabots with one or two 60x30 bases. The ones that use a single base on a sabot actully put some extra figures permantly on the sabot and drop the 60x30 in a space in the center of the sabot. Looks nice but would be too much wasted time and work for me.

You might want to also look at "Ruse de Guerre", the Polemos rule set that I wrote. It's the latest rule set in the Polemos series released in 2017. It covers the wars in North America from 1754 to 1815. It includes the French and Indian War, American War of Independence and the War of 1812 (a Napoleonic war). So you get four wars in one small rule book. My club and other players around the world also use them for the American Civil War.

It's the first rule set in the series to include skirmish and light infantry bases. It also has a unique sliding scale that lets you increase the scale of your battles as the size of your collection grows. If you only want a PDF you can obtain it from the Wargame Vault for about $11 US.

Glad to answer any further questions you might have on this or the rules. Just fire away.

Best regards,

Glenn

@Alejo thanks for the advice! And those minis look great!

@Glenn thanks for the pointers! I'll have to look into your rules, very interested in eventually doing a FIW project.

Looks like I'll go for the 60x30 basing for my minis then. Thanks again for the input!

Your very welcome. Lots of great people on this forum who are always trying to help people out in this wonderful hobby. Enjoy your adventure!

@lordadmiralalex  you are welcome!... In this hobby (as in any other hobby) the important thing is havng FUN... once this out of the way... do your own thing  and stick to your guns unless you wargame with others... there you need some compromises done... but remember even from a fan of 60x30 mdf bases... you do not need to fill the bases FULL... a lot of alternatives to glue the minis on it... yes it is ok two lines of 12 minis (24) and 4 skirmishers in front (4)... but once you have enough of those do some variations you will find it rewarding on the tabletop (we are talking brigades here)... and cavalry admits other stands than 60x30 "charging in line"... 30x30 comes very useful apart from artillery guns and commanders... you can order more smaler bases from suppliers as PENDRAKEN to do your "specials"... enough said... wish you fun!

The ultimate goal...

Lord Admiral Alex,

I have played both Grande Armee and Blucher, they work fine.  I actually thought for Grande Armee 60mm x 30mm worked better for me than 60mm x 60mm, because you need quite a deep table to accomodate the latter (although it looks very nice); I have found the same with Polemos Marechal de l'Empire (the big battle version), which also suggests 60mm x 60mm bases.

One suggestion if I may?  Whilst painting up your forces for these big battles, there are some quite good games to be had using rules like Glenn's Ruse de Guerre for some of the smaller battles.  Your chosen theatre is particularly well-catered for, since there is a guy called Michael Hopper (his email is in the linked OP here) who sells four volumes or so of scenarios for 1809 with everything from some small division encounters to Wagram.