Rules-agnostic army?

[racm32]

Hello lads,

I want to branch out into Ancients and I have started collecting and painting 15mm Carthaginians, Syracuse Greeks, and Republican Romans. Initially I was going to base them for DBA but as I have done more research I have found there are considerably more rules for this period then I thought. So I want to base my armies in a way that makes them useable for the greatest variety of rules. I don't play competitively, friendly games only, so a mm or two off I general base size is not a huge concern. What base dimensions and troop numbers/base would you all recommend to fit the greatest number of rules?

[williamb]

Most rules use the DBX(DBA, DBM, DBMM) basing system while some use larger bases.  Basing your figures for DBX will still allow you to combine them for rules that use larger bases.  This post by Madaxeman covers the rules in use for tournaments, but they are also popular in non-tournament play.   http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=527327  Of the rules listed only TTS uses larger bases all others use DBX.  There are too many rules that use the DBX basing system to list.

[Dr. Zombie]

I find that as long as the opposing armies have the same base sizes it does not matter what size they actually are. So If you are not going to play tournaments or something like that. Just pick a base size you like and think looks good and go with that.

[SteveBurt]

My 28mm ancients armies are all based for DBA/DBM, but that basing also works well for Field of Glory, Armati, Warhammer Ancients, Warmaster Ancients, Sword & Spear, Neil Thomas rules, To the Strongest, Impetus. Probably the most flexible basing scheme. It's easier to mark casualties on multi-based figures than to put all your single based guys on sabots.

[Polkovnik]

I'd echo what has been said above, in that DBX basing is best for 15mm ancients and will give you the flexibility to play most games. That is, 40mm frontages with depths ranging from 15mm to 40mm depending on troop type. Most games commonly played in 15mm will use these frontages, or where bigger units are typically used such as in Sword & Spear or Impetus, you can use 80mm frontage units (with four DBX based foot elements or two cavalry elements making one 80mm frontage unit).

[Polkovnik]

For most mass battle games played in 15mm, the number of figures per base is not that important, but it can help to identify the troop type so again, sticking to the DBX convention makes sense: 4 heavy foot per base (15mm depth), 3 medium foot per base (20mm depth), 2 light foot per base (20mm depth), 3 cavalry per base (30mm depth), 2 light horse per base (30mm depth).

[zippyfusenet]

I'll support what others have posted. There are so many 15mm ancient wargame armies based to the WRG/DBx standard, that most designers who write a new set of rules for ancients use that basing system. It works, and most wargamers who own armies won't want to rebase.

As a matter of fact, tonight I intend to GM a club game for nine players in Smethurst's Basement using the Sword & Spear rules (Hey, is  that  you, Polkovnik? Great rules!), with 15mm Israelite and Philistine armies, mounted to WRG/DBx standard. "The Battle of Mt. Gilboa -  The Deaths of Saul and Jonathan". Let me know if  you want a command. S&S is officially basing-and-scale agnostic, but the wargame figure photos in the rule book all show WRG/DBx mounting.

[Fremitus Borealis]

As a newer entrant to the hobby, I've often thought it would be helpful to have a handy spreadsheet or something that lays out the basing requirements/suggestions for the various rule sets and scales. I confess that I started mostly for the "craft" aspect (painting, kitbashing, presentation, etc.), but early on began basing my 25/28mm figs individually, since I figured it would give greater flexibility later on. I've only recently started using bigger bases with some units because I think in some ways it looks better, but I'm hoping I don't end up regretting it 

[Altius]

I realize this won’t be everyone’s choice but I’ve defaulted to basing all of my ancient units on a single base with a 120mm frontage but varying depths. I’ve used that system for Hail Caesar, Impetus, and a number of other rule sets. I find it convenient to use and I think it looks good.

[TheDaR]

I went through the same process myself not too long ago, with the added constraints that I also like to play a lot of skirmish and smaller warband style games with individual figures and that I wanted a system that was magnetic or could have magnets installed, so that I could store figures on magnetic or steel sheets, rather than in some sort of foam tray system.

Ultimately what I decided on is a variation of the "3-2-1" basing on steel washers and using sabot bases and/or unit trays for mass battle games.  Single man-sized figures on a 5/8th inch (~16mm) outer-diameter washer, or two on a 3/4th inch (~20mm) outer diameter washer, and very rarely 3 on a 1 inch (25mm) washer.  Heavy infantry are thus two 2-man bases on on 40mm frontage.  Medium infantry one base of 2 and one single.  Skirmishers 2 single bases.  Cavalry goes on 5/8th, 3/4th, or 1 inch washers, depending on the mount size and pose, or sometimes I'll make pill-shaped bases out of a pair of of 1/2 inch (~12.5mm) washers glued to some styrene sheet or card.   Small war machines like bolt throwers and catapults, chariots, plus large animals like elephants and mythical monsters like minotaur, trolls, etc, go on a 1 1/2 inch (37.5mm) washer.

I've found it most useful do troops in batches of 12 (or 24 since some manufactures sell in units of 8 ), since many games use some multiple of 3, 4, or 6 figures for units or bases.  Depending on the troop type, I'll split those 12 figures into a ratio of singles and doubles.  For heavy troops that almost always fight in formed line or in horde-type masses, I'll do as many as five 2-man bases with only two singles.  For troops that are almost always skirmishers, I might do only two or even only one 2-man base, leaving 8 to 10 singles.  For warband-y sort of troops,  a 3/6 or 4/4 split. Once I have "enough" for either skirmishes or mass battles (which is usually around 20-ish single or double bases for me), I'll pad out ratios of further batches in the other direction, until I have "enough" for both, then start considering some 3 man bases, and otherwise stick primarily to 2-man bases (since by that point, if I'm fielding 50+ models of one unit type, it's almost by definition some sort of mass battle).

For games like DBx or similar games that want fixed frontage rectangles, I originally built sabots trays out of styrene sheets and some milliput.  Now I've got a 3d printer I use to make custom unit trays of any particular shape and counts I need for whatever rule set I'm playing around with at the moment.  I've also got some "cloud" shaped skirmish trays designed, though I haven't had need to actually print any of those yet.

The only downside I've run into with this scheme is that my cavalry figures counts may be off for a DBx purist.  It's already hard to fit 3 mounted "modern" 15mm figures on a 40x30mm base, and all but impossible to fit 4 for cataphract types.   Pill shaped bases will let you get 3 on, if you're very careful, but bases in that size/shape aren't very stable for skirmish play.   I've gone back and forth with simply using one less mount for each DBx type (1 for Light Horse, 2 for Cavalry and Knights, and 3 only for Cataphracts) on larger round bases in mass battles and trying to make round sabot bases for pill-shaped bases in skirmish.   I'm not entirely satisfied with either.

[racm32]

Thank you all for the information. Seems like the best option is to stick with 40mm wide bases and possibly some movement trays to put multiples together.