Hi all,

I'm gearing up for a WSS project later this year and there are a few considerations I'd appreciate your opnions on:

I'll go for either 6 mm or 10 mm, having had satisfying experiences with both. I prefer mass battles to skirmishes. So far I've ordered a copy of Maurice, but I'm not sure if those rules are any good for 6mm, considering that square bases are required. Has anyone tried them? Do you have any other suggestions?

As for Polemos: is there a sample I can have a look at? I found the Roman variety I got with my Romans and Celts a bit too complicated...

We use Twilight of the Sun King in both 6mm and 10mm - http://www.wfgamers.org.uk/resources/C18/Twilight/ToSK.htm. It is a set for doing large battles, usually full historic battles. There are 2 scenario books so far - 1 with 10 WSS and the earlier League of Augberg war and the other with 10 GNW and Ottoman battles. A 3rd scenario book with 15 more WSS and eralier battles should be out over the Summer.

You can buy them here - https://www.pikeandshotsociety.org/

 

Maurice is my go to game for 18th C wargaming. We tend to use 60x40mm bases rather than 30x30mm ones, so 2 bases make up a unit rather than 4. If in column then we have one base facing one way, the other facing the other way in a column, with the one with the flag (or in the case of my Austrians, the one with the fancy flag) at the top to show which way they're heading.

Might and Reason (same basing, by same author) is also recommended, but Maurice is my favourite (one of my all tme favourites, in fact).

Thank you both!

Nick, how many figures do you put on a base? I'm very much torn between 30x30 with 6 10mm figures, or the Baccus standard 60x30 with 24 figures. I'd love something convincing inbetween. Having them walk sideways in column... dunno about that. But is that the only problem you get from a lower number of bases in a unit? 4 bases of 60 seems a bit wide for 1 unit. I've even been looking at 40x30 (or 20). Has anyone tried that?

I would forget about columns, if the rules are any good you won't use them often.

For our armies and the rules we mentioned the basing is flexible. All measurements are based on half the frontage of the units you use. So most of our figures are on 60 by 30 bases and we use 2 of these as a unit - so the basic movement distance, etc, are multiples 60mm. But if we are doing large battles we use just 1 base as a unit and the move distance is 30mm. Similarly for small battle, or just when we want to do impressive battles (see https://baccus6mm.com/forum/PaintingandModelling/Gallery/967-1-Horka1708atJoyofSix/), we use 3 or 4 bases as a unit and a larger basic movement value.

But within this idea some of our guys have instead done their units as 1 large base - see links from here for an earlier battle - https://baccus6mm.com/forum/PaintingandModelling/Gallery/1104-1-Lutzen1632refought/. Other players have their figures on 40mm, 30mm or 20mm bases and combined multiple bases to make a unit.

I have 24 infantry or (usually) 9 cavalry per 60x30 base, though I think I have fewer for light cavalry / irregulars.

I did a review of Maurice on my blog, and quite a few AARs if you're interested - https://nickthelemming.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/review-maurice-war-in-an-age-of-gentlemen-and-philosophes-1690-1790/ will get you to the review, if you click on the Maurice category link, you'll see th eothres too, including some that are just show and tells of my Austrians / Marlenedietrichsteiners (Imagi-Nation, which is really easily done with Maurice).

The reason we went with 60x30 bases (and which if I re-did them in 10mm I'd still use in place of 30x30 bases) is that it's less fiddly and you spend far less time moving bases about. If you wanted to use 30mm bases, I'd recommend using sabots of some sort because of that. We like to use a lot of units in our games for that proper big battle feel.

Excellent, thnx, I'll have a look!

The idea of using Maurice and 60x30 bases has piqued my interest as I have been gifted a very large number of WSS 6mm figures. I already play SYW using Maurice, so this could prove a great deal of fun. Many thanks for that.

you're welcome!

As a sometime opponent of Nick's, I'd echo his recommendation of Maurice and the 60x30 bases.  We've had little trouble adapting the basing to other systems as well.  If you'd prefer an unbiased account of our games, I'd recommend you to have a look here:  http://themonkeythatwalks.blogspot.com/search/label/Maurice.  Nick means well, but has a distressing predeliction for Austrians ;)