Basing - some more ruminations

No painting nor hobby-related activities tonight, as professional duties keep me busy until late in the evening. But I have been ruminating a few thoughts about how will base my WSS miniatures that, as you read yesterday, are quickly moving along the painting production-chain.

I already posted once about my general philosophy on basing miniatures. It is really based on the KISS principle: same Litko bases through the different periods, with only one modification for WWI in the number of figures for base.

When I started working on the 18th century miniatures, I was thinking to stick to my convention, opting for a 3 figures per rectangular base, 0.75" x 1.5". As I do for my Napoleonic or 19th century. This system has a few advantages:

• it is the basic system for my favourite rules, "Piquet-Cartouche" and "Warfare in the Age of Reason";


• if I want to scale up to larger battalions, in the above rule-sets I can double the number of stands from four to eight, with no inconvenience as far as the mechanisms of play are concerned, thus enjoying 24-miniature battalions (I know this really resounds with the "old school" gamers among you!)


• this system can easily accommodate other rules, i.e. GaPa and Grant's "War Game" which is based on individually mounted figures, but can be easily adjusted to 3-figure bases.

Then, so far so good?
Well, not really. For starter, there is a very minor, aesthetic inconvenience in the 3-figure per stand, 4- or 8-stand per battalion: I do not like how these units look in march column. More substantially, I am not thrilled by the way these units look in line, either. Let's face it: pretending that a line of 12 miniatures is a battalion is lame. I can put up with it for the Napoleonic period, where the sheer size of most battles is such that I need to economize on space and on the number of miniatures. But for smaller scale affairs, as my 18th century imagi-nation battles will likely be, it is something I do not need to endure.
Therefore, I am considering something different: for the first time in my gaming life, I am pondering to adopt the old basing scheme for "Napoleon's Battles," which indeed was, according to Coggins' original intention, a rule-set for the 18th century. That means slightly more "square-ish" stands with 4 miniatures. Here's some advantages:

• fantastic look in any formation: line, column, march column;


• no need to double up stands to "beef up" the look in "Piquet-Cartouche" or "Warfare in the Age of Reason": standard game mechanisms will remain the same, with a basic battalion now made by 16 miniatures on 4 stands; actually, I would gain a few spare miniatures from each Minifigs bag;


• no changes need for GaPa, either, although I need to recheck the recommendations in the booklet;

But here a few disadvantages:

• if I ever want to play Grant's rule, I need to do some statistical work to transition from a 6-figure to a 4-figure firing group;


• since I am not going to move up to 32-miniature battalions ever, it means that I will only game with a 16-miniature per unit max; somehow I like the flexibility to play 12-miniature units in larger battles and 24-miniature units in smaller scale affairs.


• If I am moving to the "Napoleon's Battles" system, I need to completely rethink the size of cavalry units: a perspective I am less than thrilled about.

Bottom line: this is probably too much thinking for a no-brainer issue. I should just stick with my standard, go for 12- and/or 24- figures per unit, forget about NB, and live happy.
But hey: I didn't get my painting fix, and I need something to keep my mind busy tonight!
Needless to say, I would very welcome your opinions and thoughts.