Basing of Fuzzy Wuzzies

[Joe 90]

I have just bought some Perry Fuzzy Wuzzies for my new Sudan Project. I have always been a fan of Peter Gilder's Sudan Campaign. He based 10 warriors on the one base. Is this practical?

I guess it all depends which rules I use. I would prefer to use multiple basing, do any Sudan Rules allow for this?

Joe

[Keith]

Well - TSATF assumes that you will use single basing but I'm sure that you would be fine as long as you keep markers for casualties.
I think that POW supports multiple basing?

For what its worth I base the British and Egyptians on square bases (so that I can rank them up) and the Dervish on round bases (singly) so that they look more chaotic 'en masse'.

You could always write your own set of rules or track down Gilder's?

[Driscoles]

Hi,

ten on one base seems a lot to me. Why not basing 4 or 5 soldiers per base.

Björn

[Prof.Witchheimer]

ten on a base is a sort of diorama and too static for my taste, what the Driscoles said, 4 or 5 would be enough.

[fastolfrus]

I've seen natives mounted on multiple bases in a few rules, including at least one set where you use a base that could hold 6 (or was it 8 ?) figures but only base 5 (or was it 7 ?) figures on it. The base is still counted as the full number, but the extra (blank) space allows you to space the figures out more and also makes it fractionally cheaper. For more variety I suppose you could mix the two systems, have three six figure multibases and six single figures for a 24 strong unit but only using 21 figures.

[Gluteus Maximus]

I'd say base them individually, but make 10-man [or whatever] movement trays. You then have the best of both worlds - multple-figure "elements" for Guilder, etc and individual figures for TSATF, T&T, Afriboria, GASLIGHT etc.

I use this system, so I can play all the rules I like. When I play Afriboria, which has 8 man units for tribal troops, I use movement trays to speed things up, as you usually have so many Mahdists to move. This would also work for TSATF, where you could have two 10-man trays for each 20-man unit 

[Paul E]

The 10 figures to a base was a Peter Gilder rules linked convention to both speed the time needed to move the figures on the table and also to pad out the number of natives that he had available. Therefore a percentage of the bases had less figures on them but he counted as a marker for 10 figures. Some were little dioramas.

Personally it seems way too many to me. I base all mine singularly at the moment but am just about to embark on using 4 figure bases to ease movement. As I currently use TSATF that should actually work well with only the one on one melee system perhaps being a small issue.

Then again if my redcaots do their job their should not be any melee    

[Gluteus Maximus]

Then again if my redcaots do their job their should not be any melee    

Good luck with that one! 

[Keith]

Its your Bashi-Bazouks that you'll want to watch then 

[Paul E]

Every European army should have a weak link - Bashi - Bazouks, Natal Native Contingent, etc to make the game more interesting 

It's as if the Gods of wargaming had a hand in designing history so that we could have more challenging Colonial games. 

[Joe 90]

Thanks guys.

The way to go seems to be single bases. I think I will base them on 25mm circular bases. Gale Force 9 sell movement trays with 25mm holes cut into them, I think I will use these with the addition of some magnetic trickery to hold the single bases in place.

Joe

[Lowtardog]

TW Terrain make some nice bases too in 5.10 and 15 25mm circular multiples (2p coins if you like)

[Sendak]

On Basing "Irregulars" and "Regulars"

I sometimes play 'skirmish' rules and at other times I may scratch up a game in the magna-cum-epic grand scale of mangled mayhem.

I base most all my 25mm-28mm troops on individual bases. This works well for skirmish

On Movement Trays

For large sized games I craft a 'movement tray' for my convenience in moving masses of 'irregulars' (viz. Fuzzy-Wuzzys,  Mahditst, Zulu).

Same for disciplined troops, if I need to move a gun team, a squadron of cavalry/camelry, form ranks, i.e. form square, then a movement tray is the ideal. Skirmishers work well on the movement tray, in my estimation.

To form firing lines I simply pop the lads off the tray (not to compromise their movement), form line, and if I have survivors they go back onto the tray.

I usually do not use a movement tray in the dense or difficult terrain. Common sense there, I think.

Some troop types just do not work well on movement trays--Boer, Pathan, Tribal troops.

For simply my convenience, a movement tray for troops is a nice option.