Basing 15mm British

[Chriscain]

I've hit a little snag basing my 15(18)mm Peninsular British and would like some input on how to proceed.

I'm planning on going with the standard 40x30mm bases with 8 miniatures to a base (Blue Moon/CGM/AB). Now, the issue I have is thus; we know that the British fought as Battalions rather than regiments. This means that for each British 'unit' in game, each base roughly corresponds to one Battalion. I can't make my mind up whether to:

• 1: Have every base with three command figures, three centre company marching and two flank company marching.

• 2: Have one base per unit as a "Brigade command" base, with three bases consisting of six centre company marching figures and two flank company marching.

• 3: Have one base per unit as a "Brigade command" base, with two bases of eight centre company marching figures and one base of eight flank company marching for use in other rule sets at the Battalion scale level (eg - Lasalle).

• 4: Some other combination I haven't yet thought about.

• Option 1: Seems most accurate, but would mean most of my army would be command figures rather than line figures, with lots and lots of flags. Bases would be unusable in Battalion scale games.

• Option 2: Was my initial gut feeling for "looks right". However, the bases still wouldn't be able to be used for Battalion scale games as the flank company would be scattered throughout the formation.

• Option 3: Would let me play Battalion scaled games easily, however in FoG-N it would look strange with 3 Battalions of normal foot and one Battalion of grouped flank/grenadier companies, which I believe the British did not do (whereas the Prussians etc. did, at least in the early war).

This issue only really comes up with the British I feel, as every other army would group Battalions together in large 'regimental' formations, If I'm not correct.

Any input on this issue? How did you base your British forces?

Cheers!

[vsolfronk]

I (would) use option "2" except I would only have two grenadier figures on the far right, and two skirmishing on the far left, or maybe have the skirmishers in front of (if you can squeeze them in) the main body of the two "center" bases.

Option "1" screams out doing it in 10mm or 6mm.

I will probably be bringing my Northern Italians to Historicon where I have the voltigiers out in front of the main.center/command unit. I would like to see how everyone else does it.

For my USA troops, I used your option "2" but luckily the USA pretty much didn't have different uniforms for their grenadier a/o light companies.

[Chriscain]

I (would) use option "2" except I would only have two grenadier figures on the far right, and two skirmishing on the far left, or maybe have the skirmishers in front of (if you can squeeze them in) the main body of the two "center" bases.

Option "1" screams out doing it in 10mm or 6mm.

I will probably be bringing my Northern Italians to Historicon where I have the voltigiers out in front of the main.center/command unit. I would like to see how everyone else does it.

For my USA troops, I used your option "2" but luckily the USA pretty much didn't have different uniforms for their grenadier a/o light companies.

I don't think I'd do two flank co each side, as that would roughly correspond to four companies of centre to two of grenadiers to two of light. I was thinking one flank company each side, the six centre companies, we imagine officers and the command included in the figure representing each company, and conveniently ignore the fact that a Battalion should have ten companies (or base ten miniatures to a 40x30 base, though that would look cramped).

Basically I was thinking a battalion would look like this;

C = Centre Company
F = Flank company (light and grenadiers)
O = Officer/Musician (command)

CCCC
FCCF

So a full unit would look like this.

CCCC | CCCC | CCCC |CCCC
FCCF | FCCF | OOOO |FCCF

[KendallB]

I have a division of Brits from AB on the waiting list to be painted. I went for 6 to a base as 8 looks too squeezed in for my liking (and AB ain't cheap!). I have each battalion made up of 2 bases, one command with 2 flags, mounted officer, drummer and sergeant with halbard. The other base is 6 centre company marching. Two of these battalions make up a small unit. I was tossing up whether to put flank companies in but it will mainly be used for my 1805 Anglo-Russians which is based on Stuart's force that fought at Maida where all the flank companies were separated out, I went with all centre company figures. I still like the look though, mainly due to lots of flags! When it's on the table nobody notices anyway.

[vsolfronk]

It would be nice if people would post pic of their basing just to get an idea.

For my French I did: (2x2 bases in battle column)

.. FF | FF .. F=Fusilier, G=Grenadier, 1=Flagbearer, 2= Drummer,
FFFF | FFFF 3=Officer, V=Voltigeur (one in front on first two bases), ..just empty space

GFFF|FFFF
GFFF|123F
V .......V

Trying to get the look of one battalion, rather than a regiment...

[dvorkin]

For my French I did
F=Fusilier, G=Grenadier, 1=Flagbearer, 2= Drummer,3=Officer, V=Voltigeur

GGFF / FFVV
GGFF / FFVV

FFFF / FFFF
FFFF / F132

[Sarmaticus]

[quote="KendallB"]I have a division of Brits from AB on the waiting list to be painted. I went for 6 to a base as 8 looks too squeezed in for my liking (and AB ain't cheap!). /quote]

Fully understand point re cost and beauty is in the eye of the beholder but four files in 4cm isn't nearly as tight as they were meant to be: depending on how tall the man represented by an 18mm figure is taken to be, 6 to 7mm per file of figures would be historically appropriate.

[Ambiorix]

Hi,

I am basing my 15mm British battalions in 2 bases (8 figures each), so a brigade of 2 bat (4 bases)constitute a small FOGN unit, 3 bat a large unit.
As default I base this brigade (32 fig) of 2 bat, 1 bat with 3 grenadier figs and Kings Colours, 1 bat with 3 light figs with Regimental colours). Together they are deployed as if 1 large bat. (2 flags in the middle and flank cie to the sides. See photo of greatcoats (I included 2 half bases for more flexibility and use for other rules).
For Light infantry I only use half of the bases with 6 figs and the other half with 2 skirmishes to give a more 'open' impression' (see my Belgian jagers). With 4 more figs I can put this unit completely in skirmish formation.

Hope this is clear and inspires you to this my system.