Basing asthetics (medieval)

[levied troop]

Been dabbling a little with Never Mind the Billhooks, WI's freebie WotR rules. The unit sizes started tickling my thought processes re basing approach, mostly because I prefer a more random basing look to medievals and earlier periods.

So, what looks best? Option 1 - 1 stand per unit 1x10:




or Option 2 - 2 standsper unit 2x3 :




Figure numbers don't actually matter. All views welcome.

[MarshalNey]

Very nice

[Essex Boy]

Have you considered rounding the corners?

I too prefer a more random basing, but the ten figure bases look just a little too deep......and cornery.

[goat major]

For some reason I liked the deep base for the men at arms but less so for the archers. No basis in fact for this opinion but it just looked appealing to have a deep base for the thuggish types.

Of course since you are a sabot man you could do both....

[Neanderthal]

Why not use the zombie style bases either one large or two smaller per unit. Pikes or spears might be better on rectangles?

[grizzlymc]

Do the Women's Institute do free wargames rules?

[levied troop]

My local branch does - they usually give +2 at all times to Zulu mothers-in-law.

The zombie/rounded corners idea, this sort of thing:
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category ... bie-trays/
but it strikes me that they would work better for truly ‘barbarian’ style ancients (or Irish. Or Welsh). It also presents a problem as I use steel paper on the bottom of the MDF base (top layer only to get a thinner base) and getting a tidy cut is a little..........troublesome.

For some reason I liked the deep base for the men at arms but less so for the archers. No basis in fact for this opinion but it just looked appealing to have a deep base for the thuggish types.

Funny, I thought the archers would deploy deeper than MAA to get the depth of fire. There’s also the Billhooks’ idea of arrow supply (archers only get to fire 6 times) and I could use the rear rank for figures carrying up arrows or maybe a D6 marker. The deep base is this one from Warbases:
https://warbases.co.uk/product/infamy-infamy-mob-tray/
and I quite like the idea of reversing it for the more cautious/raw MAA units so that the rear rank is more packed than the front rank. Alternatively that might be the way they fought, swinging double-handed poleaxes required a bit of space and energy, I can see the various ranks swapping around as individuals opt in to a bit of H2H and then pull back for a breather.

Pikes or spears might be better on rectangles?

Yes, certainly pikes. I did commission a 3x3 rectangular base from Warbases which I use for crossbow/pavise formations - pikes and better organised spears would benefit visually from that.

Hmmm, I’m starting to think a reorganisation of my WotR is on the cards

[Essex Boy]

ERM made me some MDF oval 'holes'.

I can't send a photo at the moment, but imagine an individual MDF figure base. Cut a one mil border round the base so that you have the base and the hole into which it will fit. You can set these 'holes' out anywhichway you like - on a tablet base (not a square or rectangular base - because they are cornery) or something less regular.

Iain

[goat major]

ERM made me some MDF oval 'holes'.

I can't send a photo at the moment, but imagine an individual MDF figure base. Cut a one mil border round the base so that you have the base and the hole into which it will fit. You can set these 'holes' out anywhichway you like - on a tablet base (not a square or rectangular base - because they are cornery) or something less regular.

[grizzlymc]

That advice is written in faultless English, but I have no idea what it means.