Each unit in the biblical section of A&MW, and, indeed, nearly all units in the other three sections (classical, dark age and medieval), consists of four bases, with each base having a 40mm frontage and a 20mm depth, arranged in two rows of two.
He recommends that close-order foot, which he labels as heavy infantry, biblical infantry or heavy archers, should be represented by four figures per base.
Auxiliary infantry, who are a looser form of close-order foot, and can be thought of as warband, have three figures per base, as do close-order cavalry, which Thomas, a little confusingly, calls heavy cavalry (whether they have armour or not).
Open-order foot and cavalry have two figures per base, and a chariot squadron consists of four chariots, which have to be fitted on bases with a 20mm frontage and 40mm depth, although diagrams in the book show them having the same frontage and depth as other units.
I am using the same-size bases, but with 10mm-scale figures.
Accordingly, I increased the number of close-order foot per base from four to six, the auxiliaries/warband from three to four, and open-order foot from two to three, while keeping close-order cavalry at three and open-order cavalry at two (and chariots at one).
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| Here is how they look, with (left to right): open-order foot (slingers, in this case). open-order cavalry with, behind them, open-order camelry, close-order foot with, behind them close-order archers, auxiliaries/warband (Sherden), a chariot and close-order cavalry |
However, loath as I am to get involved in rebasing figures, I have decided to reduce the open-order units by one figure a base.
This means open-order foot will have two figures, rather than three, and open-order mounted troops one figure, instead of two.
A bonus of doing this is that I will create extra units, without having to paint more figures. However, that is very much a bonus, rather than a reason.
Just starting out in 10mm with the nineteenth century rules, Schleswig Holstein war, and I also found that the figures looked very spaced out for close order troops. My solution five figures per base for close order foot, four figures for open order foot, four figures for cavalry. Any dragoons in future armies will have three figures and light horse 2 figures. All infantry on 40 by 20 bases. I am still undecided about cavalry bases as the above size is a bit tight so I may go 40 by 25.
ReplyDeleteThere is probably no perfect solution, especially as ground-scale and height-scale have to be so different, but having different depths for infantry and cavalry may even be more realistic as, for example, two ranks of cavalry would generally have a greater depth than three ranks of infantry.
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