Honours of War basing

Started by Malbork, 21 June 2017, 01:03:18 PM

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Malbork

This harks back somewhat to Rupert of Hentzau's recent post about how many squeezed on a base, so sorry if I'm rehashing some points here.

I like the Honours of War rule set and am considering a move from 15mm to 10mm. I know, why didn't I think of this before?

So, I'd like to know if anyone else uses HoW in 10mm and what basing sizes you use.  The recommended sizes in HoW for 10mm (which of course I don't have near me at the mo) seem a little tight to me, especially given my sausage finger approach to basing, although I appreciate that the massed effect is one of the attractions of this scale for this period, hence my rpoposed downscaling.

Orcs

Sunjester, Last Hussar and I use 20 x 20mm bases. or 20 x 40 for artillery

Sunjester and I put 4 infantry or 2 cavalry on each one.  Last Hussar puts 6 infantry in two ranks of three.

Both look fine and indeed often both styles are on the table together.  Personally I would go with 4 infantry as 50% less painting per unit.

Mark
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Leman

21 June 2017, 02:04:20 PM #2 Last Edit: 21 June 2017, 02:08:11 PM by Leman
Ideally one should have five bases to a normal infantry unit. There should also be an equality between unit frontage and musket range (without battalion gun). The rules as written are for 28mm figures with a frontage of 200mm. I already gamed SYW in 10mm using 1" square bases. Either I could have units of 125mm frontage, or go with four base units of 100mm frontage. This equates with the 15mm scale play sheet and gives half size battlefields using the scenarios at the back of the book. I then have five bases for a large unit, four for a standard unit and three for a small unit. Here is a SYW battlefield using this system for the scenario, Take The High Ground, from the downloadabnle scenarios on the website.




And a closeup of a unit:



Nowadays I prefer 8 figures to a base.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Westmarcher

As you will have read, the author likes 5 bases for infantry and 4 bases for cavalry with both on the same frontage. He also says says you can do what you want.

Like Leman, I use 1 inch square bases with 4 bases per standard size unit. This works fine. For small units, I've used 2 (sometimes 3) bases and for large units, 5 (sometimes 6) bases depending on how many units the scenario requires and how many miniatures I have in my collection(!). On each base, I place 8 figures in 2 ranks for Close Order Infantry giving 32 figures per standard unit (I order extra standard bearers and officers - Leon is very accommodating) - with less figures for Light Infantry - usually 5 to 6 figures per base. For cavalry regiments, I place 3 figures on a base giving 12 cavalry figures on 4 bases per standard cavalry unit (however, because I hate painting Hussars, I have 10 figure Hussar units - 2 bases with 3 figs. and 2 bases with 2 figs.!).

You should look at the Honours of War forum. Here are links illustrating how the above basing system looks in practice.

http://honoursofwar.com/thread/362/close-run-thing-spittelwitz

http://honoursofwar.com/thread/339/syw-10mm     
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Malbork

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

The photos are very useful. 6 on a base looks doable.  Think I should order some samples and then see if I'm capable of basing 6 or 4 :)

Thanks for the forum link. I'd completely forgotten about it :o

ronan

Hello

I use 25x20mm bases with 6 minis ( 8 minis  bases should be better, but I'm a bit lazy  ;) )
I use  4 to 5 figs on each base for the irregulars.
3 horses for cavalry.


more pics : http://2d6.fr/?p=3953

We play with 15mm ranges ( I can't remember why (1) but it's Ok)


(1) I had a very cool world music day this night... my brain stayed over there !   :D

Leman

Because 4x25=100 and 100mm is the range for muskets on the 15mm QRS, so range=frontage.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

ronan