1879 Pacific War

[mmcv]

Some of the South American wars are excellent subjects. The armies look great and they are manageable in size, compared to European and North American conflicts.

Yeah some of the bigger conflicts I'm considering dabbling with some skirmish or small action rules in first before going too deep on a big battle project.

What would be a typical number of bases needed for a small-medium action? Looking at your pictures there looks to be around 30-40 bases a side all in? Or is number of bases per unit just an aesthetic convention rather than a rule requirement?

[Trebian]

Yeah some of the bigger conflicts I'm considering dabbling with some skirmish or small action rules in first before going too deep on a big battle project.

What would be a typical number of bases needed for a small-medium action? Looking at your pictures there looks to be around 30-40 bases a side all in? Or is number of bases per unit just an aesthetic convention rather than a rule requirement?

My designs are usually for brigade/divisional battles minimum, with the battalion/cavalry regiment as the smallest unit of manoeuvre. For these rules a battalion is 4 bases, and 3 battalions to a brigade. A Division is 2-3 brigades. This game was two large brigades, with 8 battalions aside, which is a small game, but worked fine. I don't tend to think in terms of bases, but your estimate of 30-40 for a game is about right. The 4 bases are used to show the formation a unit is in, which is important. You'll notice in the pictures that the "DISORDER" markers are tucked under the bases. Depending on the formation a battalion can ignore Disorder, and such markers are hidden. If you change formation they may appear and become a problem. e.g. A unit in Open Order can take 2 Disorder markers before it starts to suffer. If it changes into an Attack Column, without rallying off the Disorder those markers can no longer be ignored. Of course, this is just my way of managing the mechanism on the table top. You could do the same with a roster, or formation markers, inverting the Disorder markers, for example.

BTW If you hadn't noticed the game is normally played on a grid (you can see the corners of the squares are marked, if you look closely) so basing conventions aren't so  important as in a tape-measure game. If you don't like squares, the rules have a section on how to play without them.

[mmcv]

Thanks, yeah I'd read a few reviews in the past and saw the grids. I'm happy enough using them, I've a few rulesets I play with grids so no issues there. I'll pick up a copy in the near future and try out a test game with some counters to see how things go!

[Trebian]

Thanks, yeah I'd read a few reviews in the past and saw the grids. I'm happy enough using them, I've a few rulesets I play with grids so no issues there. I'll pick up a copy in the near future and try out a test game with some counters to see how things go!

Thought I'd better mention it, as they set some people off! The rules have my email address in them. You can always ask if you have any questions.