Inspiration (courtesy of the Fantastic Battles game) and a deadline
has got me working on some of my fantasy figures. We had recently played
a game of Warhammer 6th (WH) edition which was very fun, but,
ultimately, very slow to play. So we decided that we would try another
game system. Now Fantastic Battles (FB) makes use of preset movement
bases, each company is 60mm by 60mm. One to four companies can be
grouped together as a unit. The challenge was to take my existing
Warhammer figures and set them up onto these universal bases.
Now
most of my infantry are based two to a base that is 25mm deep and either
20mm or 25mm wide, depending on WH basing conventions. My cavalry are
either 25mm by 50mm or 50mm by 50mm. The depth of the infantry stand
comes from the fact that I use 1" wide balsa wood strips as bases. So,
most gamers use individually based troops so the spreading out of these
figures on a base may not be so bad, a little dispersed but not too bad.
My troops do not spread out so much.
So I decided to do a bit of
texturing to the FB bases to try and have my existing figures blend in
better with the base. Initially I just took some thick cardboard cut it
into squares and applied some filler. I used some scrap balsa to provide
a guide for the filler. It worked but maybe there was a better
solution.
So back to the drawing board. I went looking through my
pile of wood products to see if anything might help. I found some stir
strips that I bought back before 1999. So I cut and glued these strips
onto the 60mm by 60mm bases carefully measured to the troops that would
be used on them. This gave a much firmer frame for the troops to fit
into.
I then also came up with another thought, a way to bulk out
my units. As it stands the companies, especially when formed into multi
company units, look kind of sparse.
Now the FB rules allow units to
assume three different formations, line, column and square. For the most
part, judging by various AAR troops tend to stay in line formation,
only occasionally going into column, and almost never going into square.
So I started to rethink things a bit. As mentioned units can be
anything from 1-4 companies which in line would be
60mm/120mm/180mm/240mm wide. So as an experiment I have cut out bases
that equal those widths. This allows me to have more figures on the base
and less gaps. On the multi company bases the gaps appear on the ends
of the units not in between companies.
Only a play through of the
rules will show us if this will work out. I do have arrow markers that
can be used, should troops assume a column, to indicate the direction of
movement. I have also focused on 2 company and 3 company bases over 4
company bases. I can always double up a 2 company base for troops
deployed as 4 companies. Having unit bases, somehow, really drives home
just how unwieldy large units van be. But it also will speed up the
movement of troops. I will, of course, need to mark the bases every 60mm to delineate where each base 'ends'.
Of note I have not affixed my troop stands to
these bases. While I have added some thin double sided tape to the
bases, lifting these troops by the figures is not a good idea!
So far
the bases have proven to be resilient, they do not flex, but time will
tell...
