Howdy all, 

I'm doing small square bases for Austerlitz using Fast Play Grand Armee.  Should I put skirmishes on or not?  Then should I put 2 or 4 skirmishes?

All feedback is good!

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjC5VUd

?

With 4 skirmishers and flock of course! 

I think it is just a matter of aesthetics (esteticisme)... we all know that what really counts is the BASE and its size (that's what it represents... a brigade or whatever in your prefered rules or system)... I have long ago supressed all dogma about skirmishers in 6mm (for God's scale it is quite irrelevant... apart from aesthtics IMHO). Great work BTW. Love those minis. Cheers.

On that size base I would go for two, or at most three, to give a much more open look to the skirmish line. In a set of rules I have just started to use (Bismarck's Wars) skirmish figures are on a small round base, placed in front of the single base unit, as a token, to show skirmishers have been deployed.

I use a Divisional skirmish Factor for different years for my Naps.

I realise this is rather late.

At some point in my hobby-life I read an Osprey on Napoleonic infantry tactics. It described skirmishers working 1-200 metres ahead of their main body. I won't go into greater detail here.

It convinced me that skirmishers didn't belong on my unit bases.

I now play Valour and Fortitude. I have little bases with a few skirmishers on. I place them ahead of units which fire with skirmishers.

I think this is good reasoning. I am reasonably committed to my existing basing system, but if doing it from scratch, I would do it this way. I think I would mark the skirmish level on bases without skirmishers with light infantry uniformed figures (e.g. voltigeurs on Napoleonic French).

Plenty of good ideas here...

Personally I am never going to rebase my ACW 6mm Armies... but I have about nearly half of the with 4 skirmishers in front of a Brigade stand 60x30mm  I stopped doing so because having a second or third line with skirmishers deployed was absurd... they were on the rear of a unit of the same Army!... Of course now I would go for skirmishers bases (quite used as "markers" with "general uniform aspect" and interchangeable... too late for that... but I love mine as they are and would not touch them at all.

As someone has pointed out it is a matter of aesthetics... what really counts is the BASE. And I agree with that.

Great Forum as usual.