Art De La Guerre

[Armchairgeneral]

My ancients armies, Hoplite, Rus and Byzantine armies are all based on standard 40mm x 40mm bases (4 close order foot) and 25mm x 50mm for each cavalry.

The rules state 28 - 32mm figures are based on a 80mm frontage with is fine as that is two 40mm x 40mm bases together. Three cavalry on an 80mm frontage - also fine. I don't have that much cavalry and I can either re-base or use sabot bases.

However the convention seems to be for the 20 - 25mm figures 60mm frontage which means I have to re-base all my foot and squeeze, for example 3 greek medium cavalry onto a 60mm which just won't look right as by definition they adopted a looser formation than heavy cavalry.

I don't understand where this 60mm frontage convention has come from? I am keen to give these rules a try but the re-basing is putting me off.

[kevinj]

It's probably because DBM & FOG used 60mm frontages for all larger figure scales and didn't differentiate between 25 and 28mm. I find it's easier to fit cavalry on 60mm square bases, and most people are quite accommodating as long as it's clear what each base represents. So you could use a sabot base for your cavalry and put 2 MC on a base for example.

[Hazelbark]

So 60mm is very common as the other basing system to the one you use.

People will totally be fine with you using sabots.

Now if you want to play a game on your you can easily use the 80mm width although that creates good size table. Everything is measure in UD a unit distance which is a width of a base.

[Armchairgeneral]

Thanks for the replies chaps. I may re base anyway. Much to think about

[Ramses II]

As Hazelbark says, in AdlG the critical thing is base width (followed by unit representation).
Where base depth is exceeded for some reason, simply replace the unit with a correctly sized marker to resolve any in-game issues.