In case you were wondering, some of the parts to make my groovy Rough Riders were sculpted by Rob at Curious Constructs.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Cavember -first move- What bases to use; Bike bases, terminator bases or fantasy cavalry bases?

Welcome to CAVEMBER!!

We had the Melbourne Cup (horse race) today in Oz, so it was a very fitting day to launch Cavember. While Victorians got a public holiday I went to work like the rest of Australia, but gambled, drank beer and knocked off early like a good Aussie.
On to the cavalry (tee the bugle call)! Let's start with the basics- bases!

A decision that needs to be made pretty early is whether to use bike bases, terminator (40mm) bases, or the original 2” rectangle fantasy cavalry base.
There are many discussions on dakkadakka, librarium, miniwargaming and other warhammer chat sights. They all seem to conclude with 'it's a personal choice'.
This is because of three truths:
-To be 100% technical, the current range (Attilan RR) use the 2” rectangle bases.

- To be the most current, Forge world use the 40mm round bases for their Death Korps of Krieg  riders.
- In terms of the future, 'New' cavalry units from GW -such as the Daemonette Seekers of Slaanesh- use the bike bases. So if you don't want to rebase models in the future this is probably the best bet.


For me I think I will go 40mm. Here is why:
Tactical- To use cavalry successfully sometimes you will want to bunch them to hide, and other times spread them to avoid ordnance.  The argument is made regularly is that cavalry bases/ bike bases 'stack up' to save space. This is true, but if I want to push the point to the limit I can actually bunch six 40mm bases in the space of five bike bases. If I want the spread them out I can use the same staggered format typical to 40k troops and spread them easier then bike bases.





Looks- The infantry are on small round bases, the sentinels and heavy weapons are on large round bases, so for me 40mm bases looks right.

Accessibility: 40mm round bases are more common then bike bases so they are easier to get and are cheaper.

Of course, as I said it's going to be a personal choice on this one so please comment with your opinions and thoughts.
As for me I'm gonna glue some horses to bases.  Until next post here is some inspiration while you're working on your cavalry...







5 comments:

  1. Interesting article. I've gone both ways with my mechanized rough riders - the first batch I'd put on 40mm bases and they looked pretty decent. That base size allows space for some mini dioramas. My current unit is based on bike bases however, as the models I'm using for them are a little too long to fit on a 40mm base convincingly. Looking forward to seeing how yours come out - keep up the great work!

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  2. My lances make the model pretty long but I think I can pull it off. Choosing the base size was easily the hardest choice in this project!

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  3. I'll using the 40mm. I think they look better with a mounted figure and provide stability against the most clumsy of opponents.

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  4. Going through the archives lol, this is a cracking post

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  5. Cheers! I actually thought I was just ranting for a bit, no where near as thought out as your blog posts :)

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