Basing for RtE

[Yermolov]

After re-reading Barry's extract about basing for RtE I'm in a bit of a quandry. Barry mentions that he's basing his French on 8 figure bases for a nominal 32 figure average battalion size. At 1:20 this represents a somewhat understrength battalion, which would be expected for any unit on campaign.

I'm looking to build Russians... at full strength they would be 32 figure units, but that was never the case in the 1812-14 period I'm looking to build them for. Would it make sense to make them units of 24? I'm thinking so, for otherwise I'd have the Russian and French units at the same size, which seems odd to me.

Part of my issue is that the other locals that are working on 25mm Napoleonics are working against a 1:30 ratio, giving them 24 figure units. Having my Russians at a somewhat understrength size for 1:20 would work out well for these other games...

I'm trying to stay in a base-4 setup for number of bases per unit since that means I could hit 24/28/32/36 without issue for both French and Russians.

I suspect I'm overthinking things, but that's not unusual...

Thanks,

Bart

[quindia]

Bart, you might be giving yourself a headache without cause, but I do the same thing.

I just started a new division for my Peninsular British. There are six battalions that range from 360 to over 800... between 18 and 40 models at 1:20. I think 18 models is a little weak for R2E, and while I could combine the two smallest battalions into one large one, that makes my second brigade fell like a two unit formation. My basing plan calls for six figures per stand, so I have opted to reinforce the weak units so they are 24 models strong and reduce the big battalions to 36 models. Here's what I end up with:

1st Brigade
1 battalion (36), 2 battalions (30), and a detachment of 12 riflemen*

2nd brigade
1 battalion (36) and 2 battalions (24)

*rules for such detachments can be found in the Skirmish chapter!!!

In the end, what matters the most is that you are happy with the appearance of your units.