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I have been out of 40K for a while now. I bought the boxsets but never played so only doing it for collecting. Sadly life took over and I stopped modelling. Now I want to come back and model again and start playing once I got my minis painted.

Thing is, I know "use the bases that they come supplied in". I am wondering if this will stop and then "proper" bases will be needed. Right now, I am putting together a Genestealer Cult minis. Then Orks. I have a GSC Acolyte that comes on a 25mm base. Thing is, I am wondering if 32 will be the new "norm"? I am sure if minis on 25mm base will still be legal, but if new minis come out they will be on 32mm. So since I am starting over again, should I just base what is normally on a 25mm base put them on 32mm base?

Would that cause issues in todays game? I can't see why if an Acolyte is on a 32mm base since Space Marines are on 32mm bases. Or should I stick Acolytes to 25mm bases because 32mm just seems to big for them? What about Orks? Should they be on 32mm bases? How about my old Space Marine Dark Angels? Should they go on 32mm bases now instead of the 25mm bases that came with them?

I just don't know what to do and it has put my modelling on hold. Just want to make sure I get it currently legal now but hoping to future proof in the future just in case people herd of future rumours or what not that I don't know about.

Davor

If you look up the unit on the GW webstore it usually lists the size of the base in the current box.

Marines really do look a lot better on 32mm instead of the old 25mm bases.

my over all gut feeling is we're going to see "normal humies" on 25mm, and "power armor" on 32mm. Sisters of silence are on 32mm, so I'd be betting on sisters of battle being on 32mms when their plastics release

Models are always legal to use the base size they were initially supplied with, even if newer releases of the same model use a larger base size.

In addition, going up in base size is never an issue (unless it's particularly egregious (say, a half your deployment zone base size for a single model)), whereas making your bases SMALLER is always an issue - as long as the base size is equal to the smallest the model had been supplied with over its entire lifetime, it's all good.

I would say conscripts or cultist on 32mm bases would feel a bit gaming the system to me personally.
Marines, sisters etc on 25 or 32 wouldn't matter so much, but this is just personal preference.

Ice_can wrote:
I would say conscripts or cultist on 32mm bases would feel a bit gaming the system to me personally.

How is it gaming the system? I can't see how. I thought bigger minis would be easier to hit since they are bigger and you can't fit as many minis in a small area. I don't know the rules for 8th edition so I don't know, hence why I am asking. I don't want to be accused of cheating.

Just so you know, GSC Acolytes have been on 32mm bases since they were released. There isn't a modern version of them that comes on 25mm.

Neophytes are the smaller guardsman sized ones that come on 25mm bases.

While there are no official rules about base sizes in the game currently, there have been in the past so it could come back. Most tournaments do have rules on base sizes though, so if you ever want to have the option to take part in an organised event you'll need to be wary of that. Or even for random pickup games, some players won't be too pleased if you are significantly different from normal.

The general rule of thumb, that many events use and used to be an official GW rule, is that a base size is legal if it has ever been sold with that model.

Also, larger bases very much can be an advantage. Guardsmen or Cultists on 32mm would be much easier to use as bubble wrap.

Davor wrote:

Ice_can wrote:
I would say conscripts or cultist on 32mm bases would feel a bit gaming the system to me personally.

How is it gaming the system? I can't see how. I thought bigger minis would be easier to hit since they are bigger and you can't fit as many minis in a small area. I don't know the rules for 8th edition so I don't know, hence why I am asking. I don't want to be accused of cheating.

Most deepstrike rules etc require you to be 9 inches from an enemy model, 4 point models on 32mm bases can cover a lot of board space. Also using cheap units to screen tanks etc is a thing in 8th edition 32mm bases on 40 man units makes that unit screen a lot more units.

If it's well modeled and not just WAAC most people will let it go, rule of cool, I'd rather play nice mini's on wrong bases over grey tide any day.

BrianDavion wrote:
my over all gut feeling is we're going to see "normal humies" on 25mm, and "power armor" on 32mm. Sisters of silence are on 32mm, so I'd be betting on sisters of battle being on 32mms when their plastics release

This, these days light infantry = 25 mm, medium = 33 mm, heavy = 40 mm. Simple and logical system, and most 'medium' models looks better on 33 mm sized bases anyways.

All we can say for sure is that SOME figures (mostly space marines) have gone to a 32mm standard. That doesn't prove an overall trend.

We can't even say that newer figures are all on 32mm bases. Death Guard Poxwalkers, for example, are 25mm. Over on the AoS side, the Chainrasp Horde is 25mm.

GW is clearly making some new figures on 25mm, I think they might just be uncommon since a lot of new releases focus on bigger and fancier figures. That doesn't mean anything is going to necessarily be changed about the smaller stuff.

 Irbis wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
my over all gut feeling is we're going to see "normal humies" on 25mm, and "power armor" on 32mm. Sisters of silence are on 32mm, so I'd be betting on sisters of battle being on 32mms when their plastics release

This, these days light infantry = 25 mm, medium = 33 mm, heavy = 40 mm. Simple and logical system, and most 'medium' models looks better on 33 mm sized bases anyways.

one thing that I noticed that Dark Imperium did differantly was the HQs bases where upsized a bit, wonder if thats gonna be a new thing.

I would suggest using 32mm as standard, considering you enjoy the modeling aspect. The extra base size adds a lot to a model and an army theme when it's done well.

Bases are not that expensive, and you can even buy some amazing 3rd party 32mm with stuff on them. Such as fallen soldiers, skulls etc.

GW likewise sells a few bases with stuff on them.

I use 30mm on pretty much everything myself.
So it don't bother me really.

Ok I didn't realise just how big a difference 25mm to 32mm made for cheap screening units

Conscripts and cultists come in unit of 30 models on 25mm bases. If you up them to 32mm thats an additional 7mm per base. Multiplied by the 30 dudes is 220mm or over 8 additional 25mm bases, In reality it works out to the equivalent of an extra 3 models due to spacing but thats a lot of extra distance covered in screening or deepsrike denial.

I think the new sisters will come on 32mm bases, and I'll be a little disappointed. They're almost certainly going to upscale them a little. The current SoB look fine on 25mm.

I think there's a danger of over-thinking it. Don't let yourself be paralysed over what GW may or may not do in future. Hell, they might just AOS the whole damn thing, there's more precedent for them doing that than there is for them ruling supplied bases un-playable...

Probably the most relevant thing for you is that the rogue trader era terminators are still legal on their 25mm bases and have been legal on that base size since the 90s. I'm in a similar boat of just getting back into the hobby and I've decided that personally I'm going to be putting my new chaos marines and similar sized models on 32mm bases and keep things like cultists to the 25mm base. I'm not currently planning on rebasing my old loyalist marines from when I played in 5th edition. For me the most important thing is that the army looks cohesive. So when I get a sorcerer he'll be going on a 32mm base even though they're still sold with 25mm bases. Unless someone is TFG or it really bothers their aesthetic then I don't foresee any problems outside of a tournament environment and it should be fine if you do want to go to a tournament and you're worried about it just ask the organiser.

Crispy78 wrote:
I think there's a danger of over-thinking it.

Most definitely. It's just a base. Don't sweat it so much.