Monday, June 18, 2012

Basing Romans for Hail Caesar

When I started with ancients in 28mm I wasn't sure which rules system I'd be using: DBA, Impetus or Hail Caesar.  To maintain flexibility I based my Romans in a combination of two 60mm and one 40mm wide bases. With that combination I thought I'd be able to flip between the different rules system easily.

DBA: one 60mm base = 1 DBA element.
Impetus: four 60mm bases = 1 Impetus unit
Hail Caesar: two 60mm bases + one 40mm base = 1 HC unit, with the option of adding a third 60mm base in the future.

Basing for Hail Caesar

After playing a few games of Hail Caesar though, I was sold and I decided to move ahead with HC as my rules of choice. I had been working on a Punic Wars era Roman army (despite starting with late republican figures), but hadn't anticipated the basing suggested in the Punic Wars army list that was released in the Biblical and Classical book. I know that the underlying ethos of HC is "do whatever you'd like", but as this is my first foray into the period I've decided to stick with their suggestions for the time being. The basing system for republican Romans is many small bases to model the checkerboard formations of the Romans during the Punic Wars. My 60+40+60 system didn't map very well to the 80mm wide small units I'd need to field, so I decided to switch to a mixture of 80mm and 40mm bases to more easily switch between normal and small sized units.


Until I can get some proper Polybian Romans painted these late Republican units will be subbing in as proxies, but with my revised basing they should fit in seamlessly with my hastati, princeps and triarii once I get them ready.

Checkerboard pattern of small units (80mm and 40mm+40mm bases)

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