Agesilaus wrote:What sized bases would you use for 25/28mm artillery limbers. Some of them are quite large....
I have my 25mm guns on 60mm x 60mm square bases (the 28mm ones will hardly fit on anything smaller). I'd say a limber model will need a base 60mm wide and at least 90mm long. Any comment?
So just to be clear, do you need one limber model for each battery, or for each gun that is moving? How many gun models do you need for a battery?
With the caveat that I have not seen the final rules, only the last beta version ...
25/28mm troops are on 60mm frontage bases.
'Standard' base depth for all troops (other than generals, limbers, heavy artillery and line of communication bases) is recommended for 25/28mm figures to be 45mm - although it us stated that for depth 'whatever fits' is fine for artillery guns. For limbers, the beta version did not have a recommended depth. Again, whatever fits.
Heavy artillery are on 60x60mm bases. Other artillery is 60x45mm, however as you say this is too tight for most 25mm artillery models so 60x60mm would be fine.
Batteries have either 2 gun models (small battery) or 3 models (large battery). There are swings and roundabouts about whether small or large artillery formations are preferable. You would also want a few extra guns models to use as attachments (my 800 point French army usually doesn't usually field any artillery attachments, however I tend to use 2-4 attached artillery models in my Austrian army).
For artillery attachment bases, 60x45mm bases would look better in 25mm as then they wouldn't 'stick out' in front of the unit they are attached too. So I would try and fit a couple of your smaller gun models on 45mm bases if possible. No biggie though.
You need
a single limber model to represent a whole battery (or 2 or 3 gun models) when limbered. When the guns are deployed you take the limber model off the table and replace it with 2 (small) or 3 (large) gun models. If you want to limber up again, the gun models come off and the limber goes back on table.
Artillery attachments do not need limbers.
The maximum number of limber models you would need depends on how many batteries you field - assuming you have them all limbered and moving at the same time.
Most 800 point armies used in our playtesting group contain 1 or 2 batteries. Occaisionally you might see 3 batteries, I doubt if anyone - other than possibly the Russians - would ever field 4 batteries in 800 points - although I am aware that other playtesting groups have perhaps tended to max out on artillery more than we have.
So 2 limber models would be fine for most games. Occaisionally you might use 3, (or if Russian, or an artillery-phile, 4) .
Cheers
Brett