kaiww,

Copyright lawyers can be very gaulling people!

On a more serious note: I have a lot of my minis based on 30x30mm. This works very well for rules like Hail Caesar, Black Powder and Pike & Shotte, on the principle that one base is equivalent to a 40x40mm base... So, a standard Black Powder unit has a frontage of 180mm instead of 240mm. (For cavalry and artillery, I stick to the 30mm frontage - this means that I can get away with reducing all ranges and distances by 2/3 for those rules). This allows the playing of Grant family Tabletop Teasers with an  "old school" look, where you rarely have more than a dozen units a side. It also permits "formations" to be displayed on the battlefield.

Stick two bases side-by-side to make the "optimum" 60mm frontage for 6mm and then you can play Polemos at battalion level, or even DBA on a 3 foot square table. Clump four together in a square and you can play the Polemos brigade scale rules. The system also works well for games like 'Infamy, Infamy!' because a century or turma really does look like one (where 6 bases are used for 8 single figures and 8 bases for 10 figures, etc.) It also works for 100mm hex based games. Magnetic sabot basing is possible to speed up movement.

Peter's axiom is that you should always adapt your favourite rules to the scale, not the other way around. (Obviously, this also depends on the size of your available playing area... I live in a small, tumbledown hovel).

As the Godfather of Six says, "Hope this may be of some interest!"... Thank you for the inspiration, Per.

A Spanish company has acquired to the right to make Asterix-themed metal figures based on the books.  They are just sitting on it, not making any models, but no letting anyone else make them either...

@Dave

I did stop war gaming nearly twenty years ago and only this February I did decide to come finally back to the hobby. At first, I was looking around, for months I was wrecked with indecision, because a dozen people were telling me what and how they were playing and what would be best for me to do, so I could connect to other players around me. Then I realized, due to some pretty serious events, that I do not give a crap what everybody else is doing and that I will not start playing something  I do not want to.

So I ended up with a miniature Size (6 mm) nobody around me is using and systems nobody around me is playing (Hail Ceaser, Age of Hannibal).

Long story short, if this is what somebody wants to play, let him base however he likes to base and yes i am in total agreement you can adapt nearly all rules to your basing. I am just a big fan of let the people Base however they want (Except for 40x20mm which should be prohibited by Law. *g*), just realize that you might have to bring all the Armies when you play with others.(After all this was thread about basing by Drake.;) )

@Peter

A shame, I had all the comics as a child and if they would bring out Miniatures i would buy and paint them for nostalgic effects. But it seems they do not want my money;)

I'm confused by this whole business ???? 

If your standard size was 2 bases of 60x30 i see how you can also do 4times 30x30 and then have the four bases width as in the examples in the rules, so formations should be doable. However, how do you measure distances? I was kind of hoping for inches to cm and all is great, but then wouldn't 60 mm be a more appropriate frontage then 120 mm? As in 60x2.54 = 152 mm just in the range HC wants.

Am I missing something?

bonus: what's the width of a strip?

No one here? 

Good evening.  For ancients, formed infantry strips are 20mm wide.  Skirmish infantry and all cavalry are about 5mm wide.  There is some variation on this as some poses allow for the base to be trimmed a little bit.  

I probably do not base my figures exactly as the Army pack is designed to support.  I use 40x20 mm bases for Hail Caesar and adjust the number of bases for the unit size.  My hoplites and pike have 6 strips on each base and my legions have 4.  For the hoard armies like the Germans or Celts, I put 2 or 3 complete strips on the base and fill in the gaps with individual figures either from skirmish strips or cuts about a formed infantry base.   

Hello everyone :)

Yesterday I finally got my set of Hail Caesar Imperial Roman Army Pack and so confused about basing now. I read this thread, took many looks into the 2nd ed. rule book and read the online article of Warlord Games.

So why should I prefer 60x30 and not 20x20 and do 3 bases, each base 1 length x 4 deep strips, for 1 Unit of 48 miniatures? 

Help please :(

Thank you in advance and kind regards.

Heya! 

There really is no one way of basing - it's ultimately up to your preferences and the game system you are playing.

If you are playing Hail Caesar, it's important that your units - on both sides - have consistent frontages. Depth isn't really a big deal.

60x30 is nice because it provides more area and ease with which to glue and base your minis. So there is a practical element to it. I simply prefer the look of 60x30 bases over smaller ones - they offer me the immersion, scope, and aesthetic of the "big armies" that I'm aiming for when I wargame in 6mm. For example, on a 60x30, you can base at least 6 strips of Carthaginian Veteran Infantry, which works out to 24 minis on the base. When units like these are massed, boy oh boy - does it look epic!

All of that being said, many choose alternative, smaller sized bases. And they look great. This Little Wars TV scenario shows how good your 6mm armies can look on smaller bases: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfObygs4_b4&t=901s

Go with 20x20 if that's what you're drawn to. You just may find them a bit fussier to work with. At the very least, try posing your minis on a variety of bases (pre-glueing and all) and see what suits your fancy :) 

Thank you so much Leafs87 =)

It really helped me with my decision. 

Since Hail Caesar has formations for units I wanted to be as flexible as possible. Also, if I get more minis for the Romans I could easily make bigger units by just adding more 2x2 blocks and have maybe real Centurys with 80-100 minis per unit in the end =)

Base sizes are a problem; if I gave as much thought to tactics I would be a better player. I use 40x20 but in an 'emergency' I have resorted to cutting adhesive floor tiles into a larger base size and temporarily sticking my units onto the bottom. You can easily peel them off later without causing any damage and they take flock or sand to cover the edges. Dirt cheap to get from pound shops or similar.