Hi,

I have recently been looking into using the 'Aurelian' rules by Sam Mustafa, and was considering 6mm.  Have any other forum members any thoughts on basing, or figure selection, for fighting later Roman Empire armies and their enemies?  

Ta, 

C

Hello C!

I've not seen Aurelian but pretty much all of Sams rules are playable using any basing system. If so then I would base your figures to best match the scale, which I would recommend you do anyway. In the past a lot of the ancient players used 40mm x 20mm which is a little fiddly and small looking for 6mm figures. Recently the 60mm x 30mm base has caught on, looks better and is pretty much main stream in most other 6mm periods. So my recommendation would be to use the 60mm x 30mm base as much as possible.

Hope this helps you in some way.

Best regards,

Glenn

All my Aurelian stuff is 15mm, on 80mm bases, but if I were to do it in 6mm, I'd use 60mmx30mm bases for it.

Thanks Glenn and Nick. I think this fits in with a lot of other stuff I've seen, so I'll be going for 60x30 bases. 

I've seen people do ancients in three ranks for Infantry, and it does indeed produce a fearsome look - very dense and substantial. Do people have any thoughts on what suits for cavalry? I imagine on the base sizes you mention, an infantry block would be three strips wide and three deep, while formed cavalry was perhaps two lines deep and maybe six to nine figures across? 

Hello C!

Your welcome.

Baccus sells their formed infantry in packs of 96 figures or 24 per base, cavalry 45 figures or 9 per base. Every base has a command stand so if you want to have 36 infantry per base and 18 cavalry per base, you can. Make sure you tell them when you order your figures (ie you want less command stands because your infantry will be 36 figures per unit and cavalry 18 per unit).

So yes 36 infantry will fit on a base with three strips wide and three deep. Cavalry can be nine figures wide and two rows deep.

Your pretty much free to put as many or as few figures as you want on a base. It all boils down to what looks good to you. Most ancient players like to cram figures onto their formed units so 36 & 18 will look normal.

Best regards,

Glenn

Thanks, Glenn.

I know you can technically pick what you want, but it is nice to hear that it fits in with common practice.  :-)  

One extra question: what is typical for 'rregular' infantry, such as barbarian warbands?  I know the figures don't always come in close-formed strips, so is is possible to have an equivalent number on the base, i.e. 36 figures in a mob, without it looking too cramped and chaotic?

Ta,

C

Hello C!

Your welcome!

Most of Romes enemies also come in close order strips so you can pretty much mount them the same way. Some archers, javelin throwers etc. come as skirmish infantry which you can mount as you please. Generally these come in packs of 48 figures. So those you can simply pick a number that you like and go with that, ie two bases of 24 or four bases 12. Whatever looks good to you. If there is a pack of warriors that are not formed on strips of four in a row facing forward then I would simply dry place them on a base and look at it for a few days before glueing them down. Your own eye will tell you or not if they look too cramped and chaotic. Also surf this site and the web in general. You should be able to find some examples of what others have done.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Glenn