The Look of It

The basing scheme I have decided upon for my Napoleonics venture is a product of a variety of constraints. First off I want to use 28mm/30mm figures from a couple of different ranges (see below). This has an immediate effect on groundscale issues and practicality. I am not particularly interested in skirmish games, which are the obvious way to use 28mm and larger figures, when a gaming table the size of a tennis court is not available, so some sort of compromise in the way massed units of troops will be deployed must be adopted.

I was inspired by the memory of an article many moons ago in Miniature Wargames, about a project to game Waterloo representing every unit on the table each as one dioramic base. Each base would show a small portion of the soldiers making up that regiment in action, instead of trying to represent a shrunk down version of the entire line/column. One base is a little too restricting for my needs but 2 bases still allows some flexibility in showing different unit formations.This is the basic infantry battalionI am decided on, with 2 bases of six figures. Side by side they show the infantry in line and one behind the other one of the variety of columns used on the battlefield (companies or divisions for example.)The cavalry are based just the same (but with just six figures,) representing a regiment. I am fairly happy with this as a compromise between playability and complexity that will allow me to do divisional sized games or larger with a realistic prospect of painting the figures and completing games in a reasonable time.