Thursday, July 31, 2008

Almost universal agreement

I went through my rules, "Piquet," "Warfare in the Age of Reason," "Flint and Steel," "GaPa," and I checked online the recommendations for "Might and Reason." Either basing is nearly irrelevant (GaPa and M&R) as long as it is consistent, or there seems to be a universal consensus that infantry figure should be mounted on a 3/8" x 1/2" area each.
This makes me think that a solution 1 1/8" x 1/2" - 3 figures per base - will be the most flexible and easily adaptable to any set I'll eventually decide to play.
Which was my original idea, before I got into debating this temptation to adopt the "Koenig Krieg/Napoleon's Battles" basing scheme, over the past two days... sometimes, should just stick with my first, intuitive solution...

On a related issue. I added a few other interesting links to blogs that fully deserve attention... and by what I can see, anarchy rules when we come to basing systems! (I cannot miss the irony of it: this is oh-so-not-Age-of-Reason!)

Once again, I think the bottom line is: I can go wherever my heart will take me. I think I will end up with 24-figure battalions made of 8 bases each with 3 figures. As I originally intended.

In the meanwhile, I had the excuse for spending a good amount of time looking at the wonderful pictures of several like-minded gamers... I loved any single moment of it! Thanks guys for all what you share online!

8 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

What I did when developing my rules was to take a bunch of unpainted figures and tack them down with white glue to differing sizes of cardstock . . . to see which I liked and which I didn't like.

As I've mentioned, a depth of more than one rank was a necessity for me -- so singly ranked figures weren't for me.

I very much liked the six-man stands (two ranks of three across) very much. I would have used it except that I wanted to be able to use grenadiers either with their battalions OR in converged units . . . and six grenadiers in a 24-man unit was too many.

But I still like the look of those six-man stands . . . both in line and in column.

But what I like doesn't have to be what you like . . . I will however ask that you consider what you plan to do with your grenadiers.


-- Jeff

DestoFante said...

Jeff,

what am I planning to do with my grenadiers? Probably nothing. I do not think I will mix. I know it is not "historical accurate" to exclude them, and I might be talked into adding one or two stands with them. That would make either 3 or 6 grenadiers out of 24 figures. Good enough for me.

I think I was taught a lesson by my wife a while ago. I was, as usual, scratching my head about something on my gaming table, and she asked: "why don't you do that?"
"It is not realistic and historically accurate" I answered.
She looked at me as if I had just walked down from the moon, she started laughing out loud shaking her head, and concluded: "yeah, right, realistic... historical accurate... but look at what you are doing!!!"

I think I am done arguing along the historical accuracy line...

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Hi Adolfo,

Thanks for the link. The figures shown actually belong to Charles S. Grant in the U.K., and were used in the refight of Mollwitz at Partizan 2007. But my own collection is based individually too. Have a look at various photographs from the last couple of years.

Best Regards,

Stokes

Anonymous said...

Hi Adolfo,

Just to introduce myself. I've just seen a link to your blog from Jeff on the Old School Wargaming group. I must say that I like the look of your little corner of our multiverse!

In return, I invite you to have a look at http://www,obernordwestfalen.blogdpot.com. My own unworthy attempt!

Are you linking to EvE?

Best wishes and good luck for the future,

Trevor

Major Wittering said...

Hi Adolfo

Just to introduce myself and welcome you - I'm pretty much a newbie to the OSW group myself, and only just started two blogs (which you might like to check out:
http://adderphue.blogspot.com/ is my general wargaming one, and
http://majorwittering.blogspot.com/
my Imagi-nation.)

As for bases: I'm planning to mount figures individually (24 man battalions, in 28mm) so that I can (a) use occasional figures for skirmishes. I plan to have some pirate games and naval boarding as well as full scale battles.
(b) I can divide or combine my 24-man structure so I can occasionally build 48 man "brigades" for true OSW big battles,
(c) also be able to divide them into 12 man, single rank battalions, each with their own colour, for games where I want a lot of units (e.g. for simulation of a historical set-up)
(d) I don't plan to have grenadier companies, only grenadier battalions, but with single figure basing, I can always change my mind later, if I want.
(e) make casualty removal easy. I don't like casualty markers on bases, and I want an OSW approach, which means being able to take individual casualties away.

However, what I think I will do is use magnetic basing, so that I don't have to move every individual figure.

Keep up the good work. I've enjoyed reading your blog.

Noel

Bluebear Jeff said...

Adolfo,

Since you are in the Chicago area, you might want to see about playing in Jim Purky's annual OSW "Big Battalions" game.

Check out the information on his blog:

http://altefritz.blogspot.com/

It will take place on October 11 and I'm sure that you would enjoy it.


-- Jeff

DestoFante said...

Thanks Jeff! I really appreciated your recommendation! I will definitely be in touch with Mr. Jim Purky, who until now I only knew as Alte Fritz. Unfortunately, it seems likely that in those days I will be in Europe offering my insights about the U.S. economy to our friends on the other side of the Pond... too bad! I'd have loved to join for an "old school" battle. Oh well, hopefully there wll be another opportunity soon...

CWT said...

Hi Adolfo,

Although my bases are 4x1 figures, this was really an old inheritance from DBA. I'm not hugely keen on it, and have been pondering buying in some extra figures to adopt a 3x2 system similar to Beerstein.

The only headache is how to keep the same basewidth without needing to redo the cavalry, or get the infantry looking unreasonably 'spread out'