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I just picked up the Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King starter sets and a few others and I'm thinking of giving it a go.

I'd like to hear other's opinions of how important it is to have the minis on round bases. My initial preference is to go with square bases so I can rank them up and also use them in Kings of War, my favorite company level fantasy wargame.

Of course if Round bases are essential, I could buy some custom movement trays.

Thanks for your advice!

Round bases are kind of important as you need to measure 2cm/1" as a 'control zone' around a model (the area where no enemies may pass through without charging, and you can also get 6 guys into contact with a round as opposed to 4 on a square, which can be kind of important for horde armies.

So I'd say it's pretty essential, otherwise you end up with having to measure/imagine these things.

KoW is done on base size, not number of models, though, so you could just use rounds spread on an appropriately sized movement tray.

Good points. the Zone of control is good to consider. As for contact, you can contact 6 squares around one square with two sides matched to enemies and two sides split between two enemies.

True about the KoW thing. It's really more of a concern for cavalry than infantry.

With the way LOTR plays its pretty essential that the bases be the correct ones. I could see square bases in 40k as it is a squad based game but with every model being an individual its pretty important. Expecially when it comes to trapping models. As the rules say you should be able to slide the base cleanly through a gap without hitting other models bases otherwise that model cannot pass through that gap. It would gum things up and leave gaps in the rules that were not previously there.

I have two sets of LotR models.

One is mounted on the round bases.

And another is based for Mass Combat.

Although I lucked out on getting about 600 - 700 Models from the original range at a convention when this guy sold a garbage bag full of them for $50.

So most people might not be able to afford to do this.

But for the SBG the round bases are important.

MB