Neil's Project Page: The Holy Land - part 2

The Holy land - part 2

This week I thought I would talk more about my basing decision and what effect it has on the gaming value of this army.

When looking in a rule book one of the first things it will tell you is the basing conventions for the rules. This depends a lot on what the rules are trying to represent. Is the set a skirmish set with 10 to 40 figures a side, or is it a battle set with many hundreds a side? This can lead to different basing requirements, but with a little thought and planning figures can be based for both systems.

Let's take the figures of my first unit as an example. The first set of rules I'm going to use will be Lion Rampant. This is a skirmish style set of rules and I will have a force of about 40 figures when I'm finished. The rules recommend that your figures are based individually and formed into a clump around the command figure. Notice that I said recommend. Most modern sets of rules are normally very flexible with basing requirements, and as long as you and your opponent agree most figure basing can be accommodated. I decided to base my figures on 20mm square bases. This allows my to move as a clump for more skirmish style games, but also allows me to rank up for bigger games. Also by using a movement tray when ranked up it aids in movement.

Now back to the project. The first unit is painted and based. I decided to go with a simple colour scheme for 2 reasons. The first is it would allow me to get the unit finished quickly. Second I wanted the cavalry units to really stand out as richer troops. My second unit is well on the way to being finished and then I will start a unit of cavalry. This is a treat as it will allow me to paint a much fancier unit. This s a good strategy to use in your projects. Paint a couple of core units then paint a fancy unit or command team. This way you are more likely to get a useful army rather than just a collection of a few elite units.

At this stage the unit is painted just waiting final base work and shields.

A close up of a painted figure.

 

Base work finished just shield to add.

 The finished figure. Painting the shield separately is the way to go.

2nd unit has been started  and should be done before the weekend.

Next week we will see if I've managed to keep motivated and if so what strategy did I use.
Cheers for now.

Neil.