Cross-shaped bases?

[Daeothar]

That's what I thought, and meant when I mentioned the software I'm already familiar with.

Also, and this just came to mind; I suppose Adobe Illustrator would be just the program to use, wouldn't it? And I also already know my way around that one... 

[Chris Abbey]

We (Sally 4th) are quiet happy to give this a go for you.
I'll put it on my list for next week and post a picture when we have a pack of clear cross bases available!

[nic-e]

Deathor, It just occoured to me that you could have a look at the miniatures for blood and plunder to see how they managed base sizes.
Each figure is cast with a round, pre textured base, smaller than 20mm, so they can fit on and move around ships.
seems to me that they are small enough to not intrude on the realism but big enough to hold the figure up.

[Daeothar]

We (Sally 4th) are quiet happy to give this a go for you.
I'll put it on my list for next week and post a picture when we have a pack of clear cross bases available!

Cheers; that is so awesome! Thanks

When they're ready, I'll be sure to order the first batch!

Deathor, It just occoured to me that you could have a look at the miniatures for blood and plunder to see how they managed base sizes.
Each figure is cast with a round, pre textured base, smaller than 20mm, so they can fit on and move around ships.
seems to me that they are small enough to not intrude on the realism but big enough to hold the figure up.

Thanks; I'll be sure to check them out...

[Patrice]

I (nearly always) play 28mm skirmish adventures, on large tables and with buildings intended for fighting inside, with 20mm round or square bases (although some creatures may have 25mm bases when playing fantasy) and I don't really see a problem there – but it may depends on some details in the rules?

the terrain I'm thinking of, is intereactive; doors open and close, different floors provide different fields of fire, etc. In those cases, terrain needs to be large enough to make the interaction possible.

And skirmish games in particular lend themselves really well for gaming on accurately proportioned terrain. I had an interesting discussion on this topic at Crisis last year with one of the Warmill guys. It turns out that, for use with (for instance) Spectre: Operations, they are expanding a whole range of realistically scaled buildings with functional interiors (although they readily admit that they compromised on the door proportions; they make them wide enough to move 20mm bases through). So certainly, there is a market for this kind of terrain.

Yes, halls and passages need to be slightly wider than 20mm. For doors I consider that a door (even if open) is difficult terrain and people must end their move just before or after the door frame - which is also easier for combat purpose, you need to know on which side they stand - so noone actually stays just in the middle.

True Line of sight. Unless you can model each character in standing, kneeling and prone poses you end up saying "well he is kneeling behind the sofa" and abstracting the relationship between the figure and the scenics, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid doing.

That's another debate about rules. "True line of sight" is not always a good thing for RPG-like skirmish. IMHO if a character is not doing anything that needs him standing, he could always be considered hidden behind the sofa, there's no reason he would stay in full view. If all players agree on that and understand that the whole scene is dynamic and not static, there is no much abstraction.

Um, yes I know the question was not about the rules it was about new base shapes... I'm just saying that some accomodations of rules may help too.

[Daeothar]

Hi Patrice,

I totally agree with your point. This is also the reason why I did not mention any specific rule sets. My idea is primarilly intended for arbitrated and/or rpg-ish games, where things like posing can be resolved easily.

Obviously, the situations you describe would cause no end of headaches in competitive play, but that's not what I'm after here.

One other idea, when keeping to the line of sight principle might be the use of silhouette templates, much like as used in Infinity (current edition).

In that game, templates are used to decide a miniature's presence on the table, so the actual to hit or spot surface of miniatures is the same for all miniatures based on a similar base.

So 25mm bases get a silhouette of a standing human, regardless of whether the actual mini is standing, crouching, or doing some aerial cartwheels supported by a flowing sash that touches the base. Which prevents everyone converting their miniatures into prone and kneeling poses of course.

In the same vein, you could use a prone, crouching, sitting or standing silhouette template which you hold next to the mini (in place of, when things get really nitpicky) for the purpose of determining line of sight. And the very same miniature can then be used for all poses covered by the rules.

But as you correctly remarked; at this point, I'm simply after a good, workable solution for using miniatures in closed areas such as buildings, where a round base might be an issue, but a cross-shaped one might well still fit, making it possible to game in really confined spaces, such as houses etc...

[Chris Abbey]

This is my first go.



Circles are 12.5mm wide.
What do you think?

[Daeothar]

Very nice, but my idea has much thinner legs. When I get home tonight, I will draw one up myself and post it, as pictures say more than a thousand words (or 2000, in my case... ).

[Chris Abbey]

... or this which has 10mm legs

[Chris Abbey]

.... if you want a thiner leg, just let me know thickness and I can adjust

[Daeothar]

Getting there...

Sorry I was not able to post my drawing last night; real life interference. I'll try again tonight.

What my idea comes down to is basically a cross with arms that reach out combined to 25mm across, and about 5mm wide, if that.

A realisticaly proportioned 28mm miniature should be able to fit its feet on two of the arms of the cross, so it needs to accomodate for the posing of the feet, and needs to be wide enough to fit them on in their entirety. But thin enough to make sure that there is as much free space as possible between the arms of the cross...

[Mason]

Some interesting concepts here.
I look forward to seeing where people take this.




But I am looking forward to this even more:

In fact, the whole concept originated from the idea that I wanted to (correctly) model my own house, with miniatures representing myself and my gaming buddies inside, as the zombicalypse erupted outside.

Although I fear that fitting a properly scaled version of Daeothar Hall on your gaming table may be difficult!
 

[Chris Abbey]

Cross bases, 25mm across, 5mm wide, made from 2mm acrylic available to order now.

Really interested to see how these go, as started a discussion on Facebook yesterday and got a lot of negative comments! How ever we like to provide a great, responsive service so have made them for any one that wants to give them a go!



http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/25mm-Cross-Clear-Base-Set

[Daeothar]

@ Chris: that's exactly what I was thinking of!

Too bad about the negative comments, but without someone trying them, how can anybody say they're no good eh? It may turn out that the entire idea is indeed rubbish, but without testing, we just can't be sure.

I will of course give them a go, to see if the concept is viable. Many thanks for going through the trouble of doing these! Of course I will chronicle the use of them, with pictures and thoughts, for anyone interested

And @ Paul; I wish I had to do this in 15mm to fit on a standard table, but as it is, such a table can fit Daeothar Hall, including garden, some street and part of the neighbour's house in 1/50 on it...

+++EDIT+++ I just bought a first batch, to try them out. More news at eleven...