Basing versatility

It has been a pretty quiet holiday period for me in terms of hobby activity. There has been a lot of other stuff going on and it's seen me either too busy or too tired to sit down and try to do anything productive. However next weekend is Cancon, and having committed a long time ago to going, I finally need to start paying attention and work out what needs to be done.

I've made the trip up to Canberra for Cancon maybe 15 times in the past, and every single time I have played Warhammer Fantasy. That is not really an option this time, with the choice coming down to either 9th Age or Kings of War for those who were looking for a game of that type. I chose Kings of War, put in my registration, and then gave it no further thought. It's only now that I've really started considering what army to take. I couldn't really pick something requiring a lot of preparation, so I've settled for something different that still uses what I have already available - League of Rhordia.

Unfortunately I am decidedly weak on the Halfling front, so my army will really just be making use of the human choices in the list so I can use some of my Empire stuff that doesn't get a run in the Kingdoms of Men. Exciting stuff like Wolfygryphs and Volley Guns and Steam Tanks...

Anyway, with this in mind I managed to get myself to sit down and finish my unit of Republican Guard, so I now have the 40 models I need to field a horde of Dogs of War in the Rhordia list. They're funny - pikemen so heavily armoured they waddle along at the speed of Dwarves. I also needed to do some work on my Wolfygryphs, because they're on 50x75mm Warhammer Monstrous Cavalry bases, which is not right for use in Kings of War (they should be on 50x50mm). So some re-basing was required.

Bases! As usual I cheated as much as possible and asked Pete to 3D print me what I needed. But wait, you can't fit Demigryphs on those...

I am firmly of the opinion that any work I do must ultimately be compatible with Warhammer. There is no point burning my bridges when I don't have to. This means I have not been jumping on the mass-basing bandwagon and sticking all models in the unit onto a single large base. I like what can be done with this approach in terms of a dynamic arrangement and I can see why it would appeal to people that don't actually want to stuff 40 models into a horde of infantry. But multi-basing everything would make it unusable in Warhammer. Any multi-basing I do will be restricted to the point where it can be used like a unit filler in the centre of a Warhammer regiment.

In the same way as I am not embracing multi-basing, I am very hesitant about changing the base sizes of my individual models. I want to keep things Warhammer-compatible. Of course, the answer is obvious. Magnets!

What I have effectively done is leave the front rank of Demigryphs/Wolfygryphs/Honour Guard untouched, and just adjusted the back rank to correct the footprint of the unit as a whole. This approach will only work when they are used as a horde, but that is fine by me. More Wolfy Guard for me! The back rank goes onto a slim base only 25mm deep, which compensates for the front rank being 25mm over-sized. Of course these models are not really designed to fit on a 25mm deep base...

The power of magnets compels me. Or repels me. Or attracts me. Magnets are very confusing like that. They all have a pair of smaller magnets underneath to hold them to steel trays. This is important for some of these models.

What they look like when painted. Yes, one of them has a rock with convenient doggy paw-shaped dents in it. So sue me.

And here they are in action. The standard bearer is on a wolf that has only a single paw on the ground. That paw now has a stonking great magnet in the bottom. The models' balance is good enough that it will stay upright on the shallow base even when it's not on a steel tray.

And then the other model. The one on the rock. He is... not so well balanced. He definitely needs the magnets holding the base to the tray.

Also he is very impatient and doesn't like sitting in the back ranks.

There was always going to be some overlap, but the guy on the right really does infringe upon the personal space of those in front.

So basically the same process was followed for 2 units. The rock was only added for one of the leaping wolves when it became apparent that he really didn't fit between his friends in front. The other unit had enough space that the leaping wolf could be pushing forward at the same height. The units can be arranged the other way around, with the shallow base in front. But then good luck getting an enemy unit within 2" with the jumpy dog leaning way out of the unit.

You may have noticed the added benefit of this whole approach - I am now squeezing 2 hordes out of 10 models, when it should theoretically be 12. I've mainly done it this way just because they need to fit between the models in front, but it's nice to get a little extra mileage out of the models anyway.

I still have the 50x75mm bases, although one of them broke in half as I struggled to get the model off it and will need to be re-glued. I'll put magnets where the Wolfygryphs came from so that they can be swapped back whenever I need them for Warhammer.

The final bit of re-basing I did was to make a magnetised attachment for my old general figure. The League of Rhordia list lets you take a Baron on an Aralez (the same Demigryph equivalent used by the Honour Guard above). So finally the original doggy gets to be something other than a lame warhorse. He is very excited, but needs a 50x50mm base to seal the deal. This is how he looks when he is slotted in...

The doggy finally gets to be more than a warhorse. It is a momentous occasion for him.

I wouldn't say I am completely ready for Cancon yet, but at least I am well on the way now.