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I notice that all Elven and Empire horses (whether light or heavy cav) are on 30x60 bases, whilst Bretonnian horses are split between 25x50 for light cav and 30x60 for heavy cav. It's really annoying because of the awkwardness of ranking up, but it's also confusing that Bretonnia has two different base sizes for horses when other armies don't.

I suppose the argument is that the Knights are riding big, barded warhorses, and the peasants are riding comparatively puny runts. But it's still frustrating. For example in the Bretonnian army list, a Handmaiden/Prophetess can ride either a 25x50 warhorse or a 30x60 Bretonnian warhorse. One base size for all horses would be so much easier.

there is no argument in the fluff, GW said they chose the base sizes for models to fit in ranks, no other reason

base sizes linked to "heavy" keyword would have been nice but we have heavy cavalry and infantry on 25mm wide bases and standard/light cavalry/infantry on 30mm bases

it is for pure aesthetic reasons and the big question will be if we see the base size updated with new models released who don't rank up with the current bases (like Khemri heavy cavalry on 25x50)

Yeah it's annoying, Beastmen characters have a similar issue depending on what unit they want to join.

The problem is that they forgot to include that "fit in ranks" in the handmaiden of the Lady horse. If you put it on the middle of the lance is going to look awful and I don't even know if it's legal that one miniature on the center of not touching the others.

Darkial wrote:
The problem is that they forgot to include that "fit in ranks" in the handmaiden of the Lady horse. If you put it on the middle of the lance is going to look awful and I don't even know if it's legal that one miniature on the center of not touching the others.

Damsels and Prophetesses should always go on a Bretonnian Warhorse (the one on 30mm x 60mm base). The normal Warhorse does not have Counter Charge, and a Damsel on one will mess up the rule for the entire unit.

You have knights errants and questing knights without countercharge so not mandatory there.
What is not clear to me is if first charge and finest horses requires everyone in the unit to have it as it doesn't specify it as other rules.

Honestly I think the base size change was as much about making models exclusive to their game as anything else. I say model the mount to fit the unit and call it what you want. I would have no issue with it.

I have purchased some base converters but Iitd been kind of a pain and I ain't doing that for every army I own. That would be over 1500 magnetized models easy.

Yeah, more than anything else, the base size change has really killed my enthusiasm for embracing TOW. I still have my 6,7, and 8E books, I still have my 6.7. and 8E compatible minis; anyone locally wants to play oldhammer I'm down for it.

"Updating" to TOW standards would take me YEARS, and I'm simply not that interested in it anymore.

I've actually don't it pretty fast with adapters. And as much as I don't like to spend money on them, it works really well having that extra space between minis.
But yeah, you can play as you want.

Ironically, using adapter movement trays has allowed unit footprints to be more accurate than normal movement trays that add size because of the lip of the tray.

The new base sizes do with help ranking up but hard to see who benefits from the confusion over the two different base sizes for horses.

If I was a conspiracy theorist, I might point out that GW seems to have a large surplus stock of 25x50mm horse bases - pretty much the only TOW stuff that is not "Temporarily Out of Stock".

Do the new 30x60 bases have the same size slots as the old 25x50s?

no, all the new bases are without slots as far as I know

 kodos wrote:
no, all the new bases are without slots as far as I know

That's probably the answer to why there are two sizes then - making 30x60s with slots would be marginally more expensive for GW than just reusing the old 25x50 ones which fit the horses with tabs.

the bretonnian starter boxes I bought came with slotted 30x60 bases.

That's yet another annoyance. You can only buy packs of unslotted bases to rebase your old miniatures, but slotta bases are included when you buy new miniatures. So GW are clearly making the slotta bases.