Basing WWII Infantry

[Ragnar65]

Hi,

today I received my sample pack of German WWII troops. Wow, the details of that 88 and Panther tank are breathtaking!

Included are also 9 grenadiers. How will they be based? All together on one base for MA:TG and single for Micro Squad? Or will infantry in MS be based also in Squads on one base? Because I haven´t got the rulebooks yet, any hint will be appreciated.

Ragnar65

[dougeagle]

GHQ WWII the game mentions basing is to be on 1" x 1" square basing. I have both my infantry and armour based this way as I got into the GHQ rules before others. Some players prefer not to base their vehicles at all, while some do, such as myself.
With mine, I've got steel bases, then glues plastic construction card, from a local hobby shop, the transport tray is lined with magnetic sheeting and that way my troops to move during transport.
I've seen some pics of other players basing their infantry on round bases.

Some other systems require different sized basing, such as MSH- 1.25" x 1.25", or Command Decision with 3/4x3/4. It's really up to you as its a personal choice.

[Ragnar65]

Hmm, well, but how many figures do you put on one base? What do the rules say? I´d suggest to play with squads, represented with maybe 4 - 5 figures on a 2 or 5 €-cent coin. Would that fit to the rules? I think I´ll prefer the Micro Squad rules...

[dougeagle]

I base them with 4 figures each.
1 LMG
1 Grenade throwing
2 rifles...combo of advancing and shooting

http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/uk59.html

http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/uk60.html

In the GHQ rules, there are 'Infantry Support' stands, which are basically supporting weapons such as machineguns and/ or mortars. How I base these is with an MMG and the 2 man mortar from UK60. Same idea applies to the Germans as well.

I will use several officers together from UK60 to represent the battalion command stand.

[RedLeif]

I began basing my 1/285th scale infantry on 1"(w)x3/4"(d) stands with 4 figures per base. Now, I also use 1"x1" steel bases, still with 4 figures per stand. I also base 2 MG's or an MG and lt. Mortar per 'support' stand.

This is for MATG.

[wolfman]

If you like, you could base 1 figure representing 1 rifle team. This would require a little extra research on the TOE but would usually yield 3-5 figures per base. The MATG rules have you base infantry on the 1X1 square without much help on hown many soldier figures to put on it. For me, I thought about 1 fig per team but the 3 on a 1X1 looked sparse to me so I have settled on 4 per 1X1 for infantry. 3-5 for the support stands.

I have been trying to base figures that correspond to actual TOE. If each squad had a light MG I try to base it hat ratio if possible. The MATG rules will force you out of that for the support stands though.

Recently I have been thinking about 2 figure recon/spotter teams based on 1/4X1/4 wich seems to make more sense to me than the standard everything on 1X1.

[Cav Dog]

I play WRG rules which requires individual vehicle and support weapon bases as well as fire teams for the infantry. I used to base four figures to a fire team stand but now I've gone to three. I think it looks better.





Individual support weapon

[Brigade Commander]

Vehicles aren't based and mech infantry dismount squads have six soldiers, based as a regular mech squad: M-60, M-203's and M-16's. The platoon command stand has three figures, company command stand has four figures and five figures on the stand for the mech battalion command stand.

For both the ACR troop scout platoons and the scout platoons for the heavy battalions two scouts per base are used. All stands are 1" x 1".

[Mk 1]

Included are also 9 grenadiers. How will they be based? All together on one base for MA:TG and single for Micro Squad? Or will infantry in MS be based also in Squads on one base? Because I haven´t got the rulebooks yet, any hint will be appreciated.

Ragnar:

I can't speak from particular experience with MATG or MS rules. But in general, the approach you see reflected in the advice given by others in the thread above can be characterized thus:

1 ) Base your figures so that YOU are pleased with the look
2 ) Base them so that YOU can observe and know what the bases represent
3 ) Consider basing them in a manner which is flexible for use with multiple rulesets

In most games at this scale the rules will focus on a stand of figures. Different rulesets may state that the stand represents a platoon, or a squad, or a fire-team, but it is still a stand of figures. How many figures on the stand, and what poses they are in, is purely a matter of aesthetics. It won't affect how the game plays. So do what looks good to your eye.

I have played using my infantry at all three unit scale levels. I used to play mostly fire-team based infantry rules, but over time I have come to prefer squad-based pretty firmly.

Over the years I had to re-base my infantry on a couple of occasions. Then I started basing (re-basing?) my infantry for both fire-team and squad-based rules. More recently (about 2004) I stopped worrying about fire-team basing and focussed exclusively on squad-basing. But if you approach it carefully, setting for yourself "standard" infantry, "standard" weapons, and "special" troops bases, it makes little difference in how the figures are based. It only makes a difference in how many stands of each type you paint and base.

I put 4 figures on a stand for a standard infantry base. Usually those four will be an LMG and gunner's #2, and 2 riflemen (2 selected from the 3 common poses ... advancing, standing and firing, or kneeling and firing). Depending on the figures, though, it might be an LMG and 3 riflemen. If I don't put any LMG it generally demotes that it is a rifles-only (or SMGs-only) stand, as would appear in Italian or Soviet platoon TOEs. I usually save the grenade-tossers as special purpose figures (Officer's companions, engineers, whatever).

Call the 4 man stand a fire-team, or a squad, or a platoon. It matters not. It is a stand, with 4 figures. I know a 4 figure stand is a "standard" infantry stand.

Support infantry stands usually get 2 figures. Bazooka teams, HMGs, seperate LMGs, light mortars, commo teams, platoon HQs, arty observers, or whatever. For platoon-basing (as in MATG) you might want to put two special weapons teams on each stand (ex: an HMG and a light mortar) so that it is not visibly smaller than a "standard" stand, to represent a full weapons platoon.

Special-purpose troop stands usually get 3 figures. These might be crews, or engineers, or larger HQs (company or battalion).

For my bases I use pennies. Cheap, plentiful, and rugged. I've used thin balsa sheets, card stock or sheet plastic over the years for some of my armies, but am now settled on pennies. Maybe nickels for larger stands for cavalry or large gun crews (like those 88's ).

Here are some examples:


My French colonials. One infantry squad (4 men), and a platoon CO (2 men).


A French colonial support weapon -- in this case a 37mm trench gun (kit-bashed from an SG-43 HMG in the Romanian infantry pack).


My Romanian AT gun battery. The 3-figure gun crews are based, the guns are loose. So here you see them with 47mm Bohler guns (same as the Italian Breda 47mm gun).


Here you see the same crew stands equipped with 37mm Bofors AT guns. In both cases the AT gun battery also has a rifle squad to represent the battery's non-gun troops, and a seperate LMG for close-in defence.


Here you see a Romanian company HQ, with a 3-man command stand, a 2-man commo stand, and a 2-man medical section.

Hope that helps.

[opsctr]

You might find this link interesting...

http://commandoperationscenter.com/products111.htm

It contains several interesting options and suggestions, Will

[ferret701]

I mostly base my guys for platoon-scale use, but pretty regularly mount up extras to flesh out 1 stand-1 squad TO&Es. I use 1/2 x 3/4 inch stands for full platoons and mortars, and 1/2x1/2 for teams (MG, ATGM, Scout, FO, etc). I use wargame accessories metal bases because I store units in magnetic-lined acryllic containers.

I typically go three infantry to full-sized base, and one or two to a team-sized base. I try to have a unique figure in the "command" stand, so that it can be told apart from the others, although I mark my units on the base also.

Here's an example from my web site (GHQ Vietnam infantry, use them as 1980s National Guard troops)





These are modern US infantry in desert uniforms