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Hey everyone. So I've recently decided to dive headfirst into some good, old-fashioned historical gaming. As much as I'd prefer Ancients or Medieval, my LGS has a sizeable collection of ACW in 1/72, so that's where I'm going to start. I picked up the Glory Days rules for free from freewargamesrules.co.uk just so I'll have a place to start once everything is painted up.

On to my question: How do youbase your 20mm ACW minis? The rules don't specify the unit frontage, as it's a multi-scale ruleset, but they do say units should be 4 men wide and 1 deep. I've considered doing each mini individually on 20x20 squares for versatility, or perhaps 60x20 or even 80x20. What size(s) do you guys prefer? I'll be buying both sides of the battle, so matching forces will be simple.

Thanks in advance everyone.

I don't do ACW in that scale but do Peninsular War (Napoleonic)

My armies are based the same way, using a 40mm frontage and a 15mm depth. This fits four men in an aestheticly pleasing pose and suits well for gameplay. Cannon are based on 40mm x 30mm base's, including the crew and cavalry on the same but 2 figures to a base.

A lot of rules sets also seem to use 40mm as a standard frontage from what i remember.

I wouldn't fancy playing ACW with single bases unless they were on a movement tray. Although some singles are useful if you're playing a game with casualty removal, not so much if it's marker based.

I would go for a 20x20 per model, but certainly go for multiple bases to make the movement easier, you do not want to be moving hundred or more individuals a turn. I would suggest a mix of bases but 100x20 should probably be the largest.

I would stiill have a fair number of individual bases to iuse for skirmishers, casuties etc.

Fire & Fury is 1 inch wide for 3-5 15mm figures but actually it's hard to cram more than 3 figures on that size of base.

I would go for 40mm x 30mm with 3-5 figures on a base for 20mm scale figures.

Even if the game uses casualty removal you want as few individually based figures as possible, as it slows down movement to have to move more bases.

My advice would be to check out a forum like TMP and see what other people are using - generally there is a consensus across various rules these day - that way if you do find other people in your area to game with, the perennial discussion of historical gamers about base sizes is not something you need worry about too much.

I would also suggest that you try to avoid individual bases if possible. Whilst at the same time giving you maxim flexibility for formations - column, line, square, skirmish etc.

Another approach you might consider is to do some historical research and find out - possibly by tactical manuals - the recommended frontages, depths etc, and then apply them to you chosen ground scale.

The Nafziger collection at the Combined Arms Research Center might provide useful information on this... http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/nafziger.asp but if not it will certainly offer excellent insight into orders of battle and formations.

Thanks for insight everybody. I meant to say it last night and forgot, but if I based them individually, I would build some movement trays as well. Come Monday I'll be heading to my LGS to check out their selection of loose bases and what I can come up with. Frankly, I'm leaning towards 40x40 at the moment, but availability will definitely play a part in that. Thanks again everyone.

 Sin_Un_Nombre wrote:
Thanks for insight everybody. I meant to say it last night and forgot, but if I based them individually, I would build some movement trays as well. Come Monday I'll be heading to my LGS to check out their selection of loose bases and what I can come up with. Frankly, I'm leaning towards 40x40 at the moment, but availability will definitely play a part in that. Thanks again everyone.

You could always use magnets. I have gone that route on my 10mm WWI project...



That way you can play massed battle games or skirmish games. Plus if you branch out into other periods you can re-use the bases.

In my opinion, 1/72 scale single figures on 40mm square bases will be spaced too far apart to look realistically like ACW line formations. They still fought shoulder to shoulder in the drill of the time, though formations probably were looser and ragged than Napoleonic considering the terrain was more difficult.

Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I favor basing ACW figures in two ranks. I originally based my 25mm Fire And Fury figures in a single rank; the figures had more detail but lost some of the visual appeal. My 15mm Hold The Line figures lose some of their individual character but, when based in two ranks, the aesthetic affect is pretty pleasing.

Just makes your bases a bit longer to accommodate the extra rank. If you're using a certain numerical scale, say four figures per base, there would be no real change. And isn't two ranks more historically accurate anyways?

Here's a shot of my 15mm Irish Brigade with movement trays

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/576658-USA%20BDE%205.html

Yes, the standard formation was two ranks.

It's an age old problem of wargaming that the figure ratio, ground scale, and figure scale don't match. One figure 15mm tall represents 50 men and occupies a space 20 yards deep although the men are in only two ranks.

Your preferred solution just depends on aesthetic choices.

I have been trying work out a system using a large group of 3mm figures to represent one 25mm figure which itself represents 40-60 actual men.

Or it could be done with 6mm figures as shown by Baccus here...

https://www.baccus6mm.com/includes/projects/andyrob.php

However we are getting badly off topic!