Writing a Wargame – Base Sizes

Factors Decided

Factor	Value	Post
Scale	1:5300	Writing a Wargame – Part II
Base Representation	Battalion/Squadron	Writing a Wargame – Part I
Base Width	40mm	Under Review
Single Turn Time Length	10 Minutes	Writing a Wargame – Part III
Actions Per Unit	5	Writing a Wargame – Part III
Troop Movement Speeds	See Below	Writing a Wargame – Part IV

Unit Type	Terrain	March	Quick Step	Charge
Foot	Open	2 cm	3 cm*	–
Mounted	Open	4 cm	8 cm	28 cm**
Foot	Rough	2 cm	–	–
Mounted	Rough	4 cm	6 cm	–
Foot	Difficult	1 cm	–	–
Mounted	Difficult	–	–	–

Comments from John on Part II have caused me to revisit the base sizes for our battalions, for those who haven’t read his comment John made a very good point:

“I was thinking that a standard base size should imply a standard battalion size? Otherwise your large unit/small unit mechanics have to do quite difficult things to be fair to both Russian and Hungarian battalions.“

So let’s look at how we reached the 40mm base width. We had the following table that was taken from Rod’s Wargaming website:

Looking at the table above if we take the largest unit (Hungarian Line) at 1,308 and the smallest unit (Russian Line) at 621 we have large differences between the battalion strengths and therefore also a large difference in their footprint on the ground.

So our original table showing what footprint each nation would take up width wise is as follows (bear in mind this is based on line formation of 3 ranks apart from the British which is in 2 ranks):

Nation	Established Soldier Strength	Line Formation Width	No. of 6mm Miniatures Per Rank
British	1,076	5.67 cm	11
French Old Guard (Pre 1809)	945	3.32 cm	6
French Old Guard (Post 1809)	801	2.82 cm	5
French Line (Pre 1809)	1,049	3.69 cm	7
French Line (Post 1809)	825	2.90 cm	5
Prussian Line	661	2.32 cm	4
Russian Line	621	2.18 cm	4
Austrian Grenadier	948	3.33 cm	6
Austrian Line (German)	1,188	4.17 cm	8
Austrian Line (Hungarian)	1,308	4.60 cm	9

We have a number of options that I can think of presently to get around this issue.

OPTION 1

Our first and most fiddly for the actual gamer would be to have accurate base widths for each nations units:

Nation/Unit	Men	Width (rounded to nearest 0.5mm)
British	1,076	55 mm
French Old Guard (Pre 1809)	945	35 mm
French Old Guard (Post 1809)	801	30 mm
French Line (Pre 1809)	1,049	35 mm
French Line (Post 1809)	825	30 mm
Prussian Line	661	25 mm
Russian Line	621	20 mm
Austrian Grenadier	948	35 mm
Austrian Line (German)	1,188	40 mm
Austrian Line (Hungarian)	1,308	45 mm

Some of these base sizes are pretty small, with the Russian units measuring only 20mm in width at 1:5300. This scale would mean only 4 6mm miniatures per rank.

OPTION 2

The second option is along the same lines as option 1, but adjusting our scale so that an the smaller infantry units take up 40mm in width, this would mean adjusting our scale to something almost double, but would mean a 6 foot length which is our aim would represent 3 miles instead of 6. Which would not make large scale battles feasible.

OPTION 3

Build in a mechanic to represent unit strengths on 40mm base. At the moment this is completely open, it could be anything from the number of men in a battalion divided by 100 to represent HP:

Nation/Unit	Men	HP
British	1,076	11
French Old Guard (Pre 1809)	945	9
French Old Guard (Post 1809)	801	8
French Line (Pre 1809)	1,049	10
French Line (Post 1809)	825	8
Prussian Line	661	7
Russian Line	621	6
Austrian Grenadier	948	9
Austrian Line (German)	1,188	12
Austrian Line (Hungarian)	1,308	13

If HP is used how would this be tracked for 100+ battalions per side? In all likelihood, HP would have to come into affect even if Battalion width was adjusted to suit their relative footprint as well.

Also does this need to be divided by 100, if tracked easily can it be divided by 10? Thus when a HP is lost, 10 men from the unit are presumed dead or wounded?

OPTION 4

We use both realistic unit width and Health Points for each nation to more actually represent their strengths of the battalion:

Nation	Established Soldier Strength	Base Width	Health
British	1,076	55 mm	11 or 108
French Old Guard (Pre 1809)	945	35 mm	9 or 95
French Old Guard (Post 1809)	801	30 mm	8 or 80
French Line (Pre 1809)	1,049	35 mm	11 or 105
French Line (Post 1809)	825	30 mm	8 or 83
Prussian Line	661	25 mm	7 or 66
Russian Line	621	20 mm	6 or 62
Austrian Grenadier	948	35 mm	9 or 95
Austrian Line (German)	1,188	40 mm	12 or 119
Austrian Line (Hungarian)	1,308	45 mm	13 or 131

The idea of being able to say for example “the British suffered 11,000 losses and the French 5,000” does appeal to me on a statistical level post game. If you were trying to recreate some of the engagements at the time and wanted to see how you stacked up against your real life counterpart this would be something to consider.

But this would require either two or three D10 markers per base, and if you multiply that by the number of battalions that will be in game this would result in 200-300 dice per side……

Or

A number of counters on each unit to represent HP lost. Again, would result in a lot of counters….

OPTION 5

We revert to a brigade system like many other game systems, but then that would mean going through what size base is best for a brigade.

OPTION 6

Instead of Battalion HP, could we use Brigade HP which is marked with the commander of that Brigade. A brigade may be made up of 4 Prussian units each roughly 660 men in strength, meaning a total combat strength for that Brigade of 2,640. Could this then be divided by a factor of 10 and represented on three D10’s? With each hit on a unit in that brigade reducing the value by 1?

There’s a lot to think about here, and I really would like some further opinions from people on what of the above options they think may be best? Or even if there’s an option I haven’t considered. At present, I’m leaning towards having accurate base widths, but using the Command stands to represent Brigade strength as a whole on 3 D10’s.

OPTION 7

The same as above but with all units base widths represented as 40mm.

EDIT

OPTION 8

Have battalions of all nations standardised at a certain strength according to the campaign they take part in and keep 40mm bases.

OPTION 9

Have battalion strength incorporated into the combat ability of the unit and keep the units on 40mm bases.