Honours of War by Osprey

[Steve J]

I'm planning on using three bases per unit at 40mm x 20mm or 30mm x 20mm. I haven't made up my mind yet. IIRC in the pdf rules from the Yahoo site Keith does give guidlines for basing at various different sizes of figure. Broadly speaking a unit should have a frontage of around 10cm in 10mm. As long as both sides have the same frontage, it won't matter a great deal.

As an example Dave Fielder and I had a couple of games earlier this week and as his 10mm units are made up of 4 bases at 40mm x 20mm each, we used the 20mm conversion table as that was the closest fit in terms of unit frontage.  Post game we talked about gaming much bigger battles with a unit frontage of only 8cm, but using the 10mm conversion table. On a 4'x4' table this would equate to around 8'x8' with 28mm figures.

In terms of the number of figures per base, on a 40mm x 20mm I would have thought 6-8 figures would look fine. Personally the number of figures is often influenced by the cost difference and I don't mind a less populated base, but close rank figures do look best for this period.

Hope this helps?

[Leman]

Well my units are on 25mm frontage bases, generally operating in groups of four and I ain't rebasing for anyone. I'll sneak a look at the rules when they appear in Waterstones and make a decision then whether to buy or not. Otherwise I'll stick with BP and Maurice.

[Aksu]

Hullo,
I am sort of torn between square and shallow bases, as I might want to run a Maurice campaign at the club. And I suppose Maurice works best with squares.
If I do square 30 x 30 mm bases I'd probably do 10 figs on the base (5 figs per rank). I am quite happy with the ACW basing I use, where i have 5 in a single rank on a 30x20 base. Looks quite linear with units of 6-8 bases.
Eight figs might also work on a 30x30 square base, otherwise I think it might look a bit too sparse.
Then again 40 x 20 would be quite nice with 6 or 7 in single rank and would mean fewer figs needed.
I am trying to stick to 30 or 40 mm wide bases as I am trying to make my terrain fit those widths, otherwise 25 mm squares would be a good option.
Anyway, since I will probably end up painting all the figs, I can go with whatever has been proven to look and work the best in the past. Whatever that may be 
Cheers,
Aksu

[Steve J]

Well my units are on 25mm frontage bases, generally operating in groups of four and I ain't rebasing for anyone.

Well you won't need to rebase Leman given the above. Personally I like my 'command' base to sit centrally, rather than split over two bases, hence going down the rectangular route as it were.

[Leman]

And to be honest Steve that is what much of wargaming is about; does it look a bit like a battle in that period. If the number of figures used is the main criteria then board game it. For me the C18th needs tightly packed ranks to look anything like the contemporary paintings of battles.

[FierceKitty]

And to be honest Steve that is what much of wargaming is about; does it look a bit like a battle in that period. If the number of figures used is the main criteria then board game it. For me the C18th needs tightly packed ranks to look anything like the contemporary paintings of battles.

That's why it's the one era I game in 6mm.

[Keith57]

Hi Aksu, I use 20 figure units in 2 ranks for infantry. In 10mm, my suggestion is 5 bases, each with 4 figures, each base 15mm square. For cavalry, I suggest 8 figures 2 to a base on 4 bases, each 20mm square. The game distances for these units are all shown in the rulebook for you.

If you prefer bigger units this is no problem. As a rule of thumb I recommend unit frontage in line to be roughly the same as musket range, so you might end up using the game distances for 15mm or 20mm models.

Cheers, Keith.

[Keith57]

Leman, with 4 bases each 25mm wide you have a unit with a 10cm frontage (i got an 'A' in maths at GCSE you know). With HoW this would mean using the game distances for 15mm figures, which are all laid out at the back of the rules.

Cheers, Keith.

[Leman]

Thanks for that info Keith. Will give them a look as it would be good to have a set specifically for the SYW that isn't Maurice. I never took to Might and Reason as it just didn't look right.