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So as I continue to dream up an IG army, I've been wondering, how does one use the large round heavy weapon bases with anything but craters or open ground? It seems like it would make it very difficult to put weapon crews in exactly the places they should be: buildings, bunkers, and trenches. It seems like the old style of two guys on separate bases would make it significantly easier to actually fit men in terrain. Any tips on how you do this? (My only IG-playing buddy runs vet chimera spam or old school catachans so I haven't seen big bases in action).

I usually go with something along the lines of "wobbly model syndrome" from the rule book, page 13. As long as it is reasonable for them to fit there you can have the models act as being in places where the bases may be to large to actually fit; an example being three heavies on top of a planetstrike bastion. You need to overlap the bases slightly but it is not unreasonable to imagine three teams on those buildings. House rules make the game flow easier.

What is much easier is mount all three on seperate 25mm bases, and then put them onto a 40mm. You can then move them for balance much more easily, and simply remove them from the large base.

The weapon teams that I do have mounted on 40mm bases (all two of them) in my guard army are set up behing a rubble barricade with the additional crew member on a seperate 25mm base that slots into an indentation made from greenstuff (ie the ground). I've seen some people modeling their 40mm bases to look like their team is in a bunker or the like too, though never tried it myself (though it would get rid of the issue of trying to cram everything in. I usually use 30mm-ish bases with a single model on them to represent my teams-they've got enough carapace armour on them to represent the extra wound-, as with the new rules they only count as one model anyway and distinguishes them from the footsloggers a bit.=P

I'm guessing that both of you mean 60mm? (which is what they're based on).

I agree that they're too big. 40mm would have been a much more reasonable size.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they are the same size as a dreadnought base? That just seems absurdly large, especially for something like a missile launcher (which marines get on a single 25mm base). For the giant lascannon or autocannon, it looks a little more proportional at least.

My dilemma is that I've seen really fantastic models using the 60mm base from an art/modeling standpoint. But they seem like they would be impossible to use in actual game terrain.

I may just go for separate bases (since I am not a tournament player).

winnertakesall wrote:What is much easier is mount all three on seperate 25mm bases, and then put them onto a 40mm. You can then move them for balance much more easily, and simply remove them from the large base.

Yeah, this is what I do.

I pleadingly notify that I can't fit a base where I want it, and so I'm going to not place them on the base until they move somewhere where I can put the base down. I haven't had any problems with this, especially since it happens so rarely.

Iiiinteresting. Ailaros d you have any pics of this? Do you have an painted 60mm base, or do you just set them on top of a plain unpainted 60mm?

Kolath wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but they are the same size as a dreadnought base? That just seems absurdly large

Yep, two guardsmen and a gun on a dreadnaught base. It is absurdly large.

Kolath wrote:Iiiinteresting. Ailaros d you have any pics of this? Do you have an painted 60mm base, or do you just set them on top of a plain unpainted 60mm?

Yeah, here ya go:







I have a bunch of generic loaders on their own 20mm bases. I also have a bunch of various gunners on their own bases. Missile launcher guys carry missile launchers, mortar guys carry mortars with a mortar on a separate base, other gunners are dudes holding onto triggers with the gun on a gun chassis. All of this is mix-n-matched onto large, pre-based 60mm bases.

Typically I will keep the lascannons, heavy bolters, and autocannons on the base and I have my missile launcher teams as two different guardsmen(one holds the missile launcher and the other carries the missiles).

As far as placing them into terrain I try to work it so the barrels of my weapons stick out of the window or I place them so something besides the base also supports the model. This works pretty good and looks a bit better as HW teams would most likely set the barrel out of the cover in real life.

I modified my terrain collection to accommodate. I normally play CoD, so the addition of some strategically placed girders allows them to balance on higher floors.