Solution to ranking 20mm frontage basing but with washers? Multi-system usage?

[ShortscaleDave]

OCD hell!  I would like to know if any of you wise chaps and chappesses have fought this particular logistical battle and found an elegant solution for fantasy battles:

As yet no firm battle system chosen, the plan is to get mine and a friends armies sorted and then playtest several different systems, but I have an issue.  I really don't want to use square bases and want to use washers in mdf trays HOWEVER, the really annoying thing is that at least two systems use 20mm width basing for Humans and similar size races.

The problem is that most minis have a hard time looking convincing on 20mm square in the first place, and simply will not fit a 20mm round washer (My preference) without huge foot over-hang. This looks horrible, bothers me and I dislike either option to be honest. I don't want to do single bases containing multiple minis because it limits using them in different systems and individually in other game types.

I considered just saying damnit and basing on 25mm washers but again that is going to limit systems.  

So are their any amazing leftfield solutions you guys have come up with?  What approach have you taken to this issue?  Do I have to suck it up and go square? Or base on 25s and sort of fudge the rules of a given system? Use mathematical magic?

Or can we all just agree from now on that human sized things go on 25 as standard!!!  

[robh]

If you really must stick with single based figures then increase both base sizes.  20mm becomes 25mm and 25mm becomes 30mm.
No need to mess with sabots or change the rules as the relative sizes still work.

20mm is much too small for any sensible basing system with modern fantasy figures anyway.

[mdauben]

Changing the base size will really have no significant impact, as long as it's consistent and both opponents use the same sizes.

For example, if a system  used 20mm for humans and 40mm for monsters, changing them to 25 mm and 50mm respectively would not change things much.

[Cory]

I recently saw some figs mounted on 20x25mm pill bases that the fellow had cut at a local makerspace. he had a custom sabot for both units but because some needed the extra space laterally while others foot forward so there the sabot required the figs to be in a specific order.

[Silent Invader]

I base all my human minis (mostly Perry sized) onto 20mm dia washers : sometimes I need to snip off a bit of excess integral base but I haven't had problems with them fitting. 

[Vermis]

OCD hell!

I know that place.

So are their any amazing leftfield solutions you guys have come up with?

I wanted to switch minis between skirmish and mass combat multibasing myself. I thought of using the magnetisation thing that people do for monster/tank weapons and taking it to a ridiculous degree - magnetising minis for different bases. Gluing smaller ones to a piece from a printable magnet sheet, and sticking rare earths in the feet of bigger ones.

I still have to try it to see if it'd actually work. There are a couple of reasons not to, though: Dragon Rampant works with multibases anyway; things like ogres could stay on the same base; I could just keep over a few minis for small skirmishes; and I increasingly think 28mm shouldn't go much bigger than skirmish anyway. (Just a pity Warhammer convinced too many people otherwise. )

[PigmentedMini]

I've had the same problem for years and am now trying two things since I have enough figures. 1 is to  use 25mm washers for single basing then put the figures on magnetic sabot bases cut to the 20mm foot print of the entire unit, downside is I use less figures than what some games calls for. I'm playing Kings of War so that method works fine since there is no figure removal not so great for Warhammer. The other army I'm making are all going to be based on unit sized sabots as I don't plan on using them for anything else, so far I like this way more. Storage, transport, and setup are way more easier.

[tyrionhalfman]

I've seen someone's wip sabot bases with a few minis glued onto the company base with slots for individual minis on 25mm round bases to be slotted in between. so that the individually based minis can be removed as casualties and also used for skirmish games

[jthomlin]

If the figures need more than 20mm because they are 'stepping forwards' like archers or spearmen then pill shaped bases will work. You reckon you have OCD! I cast my bases in moulds based on 3D printed masters and have I think 7 different sizes of pill shaped bases to accommodate long thin figures like lizardmen and reptiliads etc as well as the aforementioned archers etc. 

If the figures are doing the 'splits' (note 1) you have to get bases that are wider, but there are tricks you can use in the movement tray.

1. 'Counts as' If your base is supposed to be 5x20mm frontage (100mm) have 4x25mm and count it as 5 figures.
2. If you have to have the correct number of figures, stagger the ranks so that as for the above example you use 5x25mm like so:

.x x x
. x x

(The ASCII art above is meant to show one line of figures, with every second one pushed back a half base depth and the whole lot compressed laterally to fit in the 100mm frontage.)

So two ranks of 5 would look like this:

.x x x
. x x
.x x x
. x x

Hope that helps.

Note 1: Why figure sculptors, why so many Elvis impersonators? It's not like the splits is a common fighting stance ... Not to mention that your toes are typically still pointing forwards, whereas a significant number of models have East and West pointing pinkies ... (ouch!)

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson