Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello,
this might be an incredibly stupid question...
I have many, many old models and will not be rebasing any. Having bought some adapter trays for those, it suddenly occured to me:
if all the bases just got a bit bigger for aesthetic reasons - why not just let everything as is and play with the old base sizes?
Is there any real reason, ruleswise, to rebase?
Not interrested in tournaments and all my buddies are old school gamers too with no desire to rebase.
I am sure it is possible to use the old base sizes, but am not deep enough in the rules to see if there would be any noticeable effect?
Sorry if this has been discussed already, it is so simple and somehow flew over my radar...

In general, if everyone's using the same base sizes it's not a problem. If there's a mix it's often still fine. One interesting problem we've discovered with sticking to old base sizes is that the "official" base sizes make units quite a bit wider, which can affect how some armies interact with terrain and deployment zones. Infantry heavy armies deployed in 6-wide formations, for example, can get quite a lot wider when using the official base sizes compared to the old ones.

If nobody wants to rebase you should be absolutely fine. A side-benefit of using movement tray convertors is now all my units actually rank up properly, instead of squeezing in next to one another.

Blast templates are pretty bad against the new bases (although I think this is a rules design error, maybe the old bases work more as intended). Prepare to get more damage done with blast templates against the classic bases.

You could argue it's fair anyways since it affects both sides. But it might be different of only one side uses template weapons/spells.

I don't think the game is balanced enough for such things to matter, but that is subjective.

Converter trays have been really handy, and you can get them without an extra 'lip' (which will always be there for proper size bases on a tray), so can actually be slightly more 'accurate', though it might be worth marking down with lines where the base divisions are meant to be.

Yea just get converter trays

The problem with converter trays is you can't reform your ranks, so base converters would a better option if you needed to use official base sizes.

But as others have said, if you're all using old sizes it won't be a problem.

The older, smaller bases will be slightly more maneuverable but also more vulnerable to templates.

Given that everyone in the engaged rank fights, even if they aren't themselves in base contact, you won't get more attacks by having more models in base contact, but your forces will be a bit more concentrated (you might be able to fit, say, three units into a battleline where larger bases would only fit two).

I feel the pain. I have a HUUUUGE orc & goblin army and am just not energized to rebase it (even though I do think the models will look better not being so jammed in together). I am doing a new O&G army of the Nomadic Waaagh just so I can do new models on new bases, and figure out that if I like the game enough, then maybe I will think about rebasing.

You also loose all backward compatability. Say your club wants to try 6th ed or 8th. Well then you messed up by rebasing

Good point on the templates, totally forgot about them...
From what I've seen from the army stats, the damage and rules stayed pretty much the same for template weapons, breath attacks, etc.? So they effectively got nerfed.
We all play WHF for 20+ years and have dozends of armies. Rebasing is a no-no and the converter bases get expensive quickly, as you need lots of them.
As it seems, we'd just give it a go with regular bases and see if it feels odd.
ToW seems like a great way to show newer players the beatuty of rank and file fantasy wargaming, but I really like 6th edition and don't know if ToW will overtake this.
Thanks y'all!

It'd be much easier to scale templates down if it bothered you than rebasing all your miniatures.

 Garfield666 wrote:
Good point on the templates, totally forgot about them...
From what I've seen from the army stats, the damage and rules stayed pretty much the same for template weapons, breath attacks, etc.? So they effectively got nerfed.

Really? have you checked the points costs of all those units?

If everyone is using the old base sizes, especially if you just want to try out the game, I dont really see an issue. You'll be experiencing the same negative effect across the board. I'm still working on getting movement trays for my armies as I do not want to rebase, but I'll play with my old bases just to help learn the new rules.

Da Butcha wrote:


Given that everyone in the engaged rank fights, even if they aren't themselves in base contact, you won't get more attacks by having more models in base contact,

Until you run into unit with A2, extra handweapon, frenzy etc

Going from 3 attack per model to 1 hurts.