Base Sizes

[ColCampbell]

As I seriously contemplate buying and using "Triumph!" for my early medieval gaming, I'm wondering how "rigid" the rules are concerning base sizes.

My 15mm medievals are based on 80mm x 40mm bases (originally for "Vis Bellica"). I have so many based this way that I really, really do not want to have to re-base.

My heavy cavalry/knights/cataphracts are based 5 to 6 figures per base. My medium and light cavalry are based 4 figures to a base.

For infantry, the basing is 12 figures for heavy and medium and 8 figures for light.

What, if any, problems will I have with this basing, especially since I will provide both sides with the same basing?

By the way, I concentrate on the eastern Mediterranean area about 1000-1100 AD. My forces are Normanno-Italian, Papal, Byzantine (with Russ and Slav allies), and various Moslem contingents.

Some examples of my basing:
[http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.co ... alry.html]
[http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.co ... back.html]

Thanks,

Jim

[David Kuijt]

If you are supplying all the armies for your friends, the game will work mostly fine. Mounted and certain other stands (Rabble, Horde, Elephants) will not be killed if they are hit in the flank and turned while part of a big line in your basing system. You won't be able to tell the difference between Open Order and Close Order stands at a glance; while that isn't a deal breaker, it is a small ongoing awkwardness. The game won't behave quite the same with troops that follow up after victory. Some other minor issues.

Mostly it'll be the same game, though.

If you never play with other parts of the Triumph community at conventions or traveling, there isn't much need for rebasing.
If you still play lots of Vis Bellica, by all means don't bother rebasing.
If you are just getting started with Triumph, and you haven't yet realized that it is going to be a part of your life for a long time, I wouldn't recommend a lot of rebasing.

Otherwise, you might eventually want to rebase. But no rush. I've got more armies than almost anyone, and I've been rebasing and retooling for four years or more, and I'm still not done. For me the question is easy, though -- I play Triumph with many disperse parts of the Triumph community, and I play exclusively Triumph (no other weenie games), and I know for sure that I'm going to be playing Triumph for a very long time. So even though I've got more armies than anyone, I'm working through them, bringing them all into synchronization with proper Triumph modern standards.

[Rod]

I played DBA, DBM, Warhammer and a few other systems. I am slowly rebasing all my stuff because I now play almost exclusively Triumph for Ancients, Medieval, and Fantasy.

As David said above the most important thing is that you have a common width, the second most important thing is probably being able to classify the troop types, the third is the depth matters for fallback and pursuit distance.

I would suggest maybe some Sabot bases that adjust the depth and maybe have a label for troop type, play the game and see what you think.

[coopman]

Jim,

You could use a certain color of ring/marker on one of the front rank figures of a unit to note that it is in open order (if it isn't otherwise obvious). No marker could denote that the unit is in close order.

Clay

[ColCampbell]

Clay -- That's probably what I'll do as we use colored rings in many of our games to denote morale status and casualties.

Jim

[Bill Hupp]

I would think it would work fine as others have said.

BTW I couldn't get your link to work.

Bill

[ColCampbell]

Bill,

Evidently I didn't know as much about posting links as I thought I did. Here are the basic URLs:

http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.com ... valry.html

http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.com ... -back.html

Hope these work better.

Jim