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So how much does base size really matter in FoW? Did a test fit of my gun teams and they are pretty crammed on a medium base. It seems like I have seen plenty of Pak 40s mounted on large bases despite only being 4 man teams. Basing has been a lot of fun and I want to try to keep the basing consistent between all the teams. The crowded bases make it hard to add any scenery.

Seems like my options are:

1) Suck it up and mount them on a medium base.
2) Mount them on a medium base facing the long edge.
3) Mount them on a large base.
4) Mount the gun and 2 guys on a medium base and the other 2 crew on a small base behind the medium base.

Aren't most gun teams, except for manpacked, on a large base?

 ObliviousBlueCaboose wrote:
Aren't most gun teams, except for manpacked, on a large base?

Per the rulebook:

Man-packed gun teams = medium base; long edge
Heavey Mortar Teams: large base; short edge
Small gun teams (4 crew) = medium base; short edge
Large gun teams (5 guys or more) = large base; short edge

But under "Teams that don't fit" it states:

If a team cannot easily fit on the normal base you might need to rotate the base so they face the short edge or use a larger base. Some gun teams have particularly large crews, making it easier to mount some of the crow on an additional medium base. Any extra bases like this are ignored during play.

It seems like Pak 40's are one of those teems that I see mounted on a large base pretty often even though medium would be a legal size for them. From the rules it seems like going larger is allowed. Not looking for any gaming advantage (and it seems that bigger might be worse), just think it would look better to be able to add more stuff to the bases.

I just got into flames of war with the open fire starter set. It contains two Pak 40 guns with large bases. The large base looks good with the gun and crew. I could not imagine trying to fit it on a med base.

Base size isn't really all that important. Obvioulsy small base sizes have an advantage of due to line of sight and (some) protection from templates while larger bases have a slight 'presence' advantage (greater range, objective contention range etc). These are all fairly minor though and they won't make a huge difference on the tabletop.

Anti tank guns don't fit on medium bases very well, certainly once you go above medium guns like the PaK 38 or 6 pounder, so large bases are the norm for them.

There are also a few oddball exceptions like the towed quad 2cm which has five crew but is based on a medium base.

I'd say just mount them on the base that they come with, or that they are shown on on the website (if using 3rd party models for example). IIRC the Pak 40 should be on a large base.

It does make a difference when you base them, as placement of models with respect to terrain, and positioning is key. So you get a tactical advantage from a MED base as your PAK40, will now be able to setup in a smaller gap in terrain or between buildings where say a Larger one wouldn't (depending on the orientation obviously).

Sounds pedantic? Well it's okay at friendly games, but at the Tournament / competitive level, I don't think they would accept it.

So do you think changing the size up would be acceptable?

Seems like the rules allow it since it mentions that you can upgrade the size if you have trouble fitting the models. Which would explain the PAK 40's on large bases instead of the medium (4 crew).

Right now I am leaning towards either using the larger base or just modeling the gun and 2 crew on a medium and then modeling the other 2 crew on a small base to put behind them.

 mwnciboo wrote:

Sounds pedantic? Well it's okay at friendly games, but at the Tournament / competitive level, I don't think they would accept it.

I used to take my Finns to tournaments and my AT rifle teams are on different sizes of base (1 is small and 1 is med as I ran out of small bases) and no one even noticed

It doesn't matter if individual bases can't physically fit in area terrain as area terrain is only representative. I have always played using markers or some other method of proxying a units position in such situations, I'm sure that there are local conventions that have a different interpretation though

If you follow the rules to the letter if the PaK 40 has 4 crew shown in its army list entry (as most, if not all of them do) then it is on a medium base. In reality though it requires a large base to properly fit the gun and the crew on so thats how it tends to be fielded. Basing sizes in FoW are not precisely defined so there is a lot of leeway.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 d-usa wrote:

Right now I am leaning towards either using the larger base or just modeling the gun and 2 crew on a medium and then modeling the other 2 crew on a small base to put behind them.

Use what ever method you think looks better.

All my Pak40s came with large bases so thats what I put them on.