Basing for pre 1808 French

[Blucher's Elephant]

A French battalion pre the 1808 reforms had nine companies often of about 80 men each, which at a scale of 1:20 would give four figures. At the scale the favourite rule sets recommend company strength basing in two ranks which for these companies gives a two by two figure base.

This gives a rather long and narrow column of divisions.

Instead, would it be permissible to base the companies at two to a base, one behind the other (ie eight figures in two ranks of four)? This would then both broaden and shorten our column of divisions and perhaps be a better representation.

Ideas and advice sought.

[Duke of Plaza-Toro]

As I touched on in the “Basing” thread, I don’t bother representing companies by individual base in 28mm.

In multi company battalions, like 1792-1808 French and ten company British battalions, columns end up looking ridiculously too deep and therefore appear too narrow (even though the column frontage may be accurate to the ground scale). This, of course, is mainly due to the fashion of basing 28mm figures in two ranks because they look good (of which I heartily approve and practice) when in truth we should really be basing them in single ranks to keep base depths more proportional (although even then still too deep).

Personally (and I stress this is just my preference when playing Republic to Empire) I concentrate on representing the appearance of the battalion as a whole and forget all about companies. I don’t take too much notice of the whole 1:20 thing as it is! Most of my battalions, irrespective of nationality and internal company divisions, are 32 figures, based in fours on eight bases.

On the table top all these battalions adopt the same base configuration to represent the appropriate formation –

Line = all bases are lined up in a single… errrr… line (obviously…sorry! )

Column of attack = frontage of four bases, two bases deep

Column of companies = frontage of two bases, four bases deep

Column of march / road column = frontage of a single base, eight deep (snaking around roads, buildings, cluttered terrain etc)

Now I acknowledge this might muck around with Barry’s original concepts of figure ratio and ground scale a little too much for the Republic to Empire purist but it works for me on the all important aesthetic level. My eight figure wide (four base) and four rank deep (two base) ‘column of attack’ formation for example now LOOKS like a proper column of attack to my eye in that it is wider than it is deep. If using strict company basing, with figures based in two ranks, for a pre 1808 French battalion (as Mr Elephant suggests) you end up with a table top formation just four figures wide and eight ranks deep – and no French battalion column of attack ever looked like that.

So yes, I’ve played a bit ‘fast and loose’ with things here to get the visual effect I want, but on a general point I sometimes think gamers get too obsessive about recreating all the micro-tactical elements at the expense of game aesthetics. Having tried and failed to write my own battalion / brigade level wargames rules (more than once!) back in the 1980’s and early 90’s I came to the conclusion a long time ago that strict ground scales and the authentic representation of formation dimensions (the proper ‘look’ of units, if you like) were not mutually compatible with large scale figures. So I gave up on them altogether, forgot about company divisions, and made my only criteria “Does the battalion actually look like it’s in a column of attack or a column of companies” and arrange my bases accordingly. It doesn’t seem to affect the way the rest of RtE plays for me.

Salutations
DPT

[Rob Herrick]

I don't have my copy of Republic to Empire with me, but IIRC an "attack column" is formed with half the bases in the first line and half in the second. So your basing is probably correct.

[Blucher's Elephant]

Actually, looking again at the RtoE rulebook, page 52, it's fairly clear that you should aim for a greater width than depth for an attack column (column of divisions) so I think my basing will be fine.

Thank you to those that looked at and replied to this thread.

[barr7430]

Guys,

sensible debate and I think you've worked it out anyway. I too don't bother so much about actual company depiction as 10 company British regiments create a bit of a nightmare sometimes.
I think what has been said here.. says it all!