Rebasing My 15mm Medieval Troops

Many years ago, I rebased my 15mm Medieval troops from their old DBA-style basing to the basing used by the "Vis Bellica" rules since I was starting to use that set.  That basing called for all units to be on 80mm x 40mm bases (for 15mm figures).  We used the rules for a year or so, but the mathematical calculations necessary to compute combat (both ranged and close) taxed our wee minds too much.

My Norman commanders and cavalry using the "Vis Bellica" basing.

I've used this basing standard with the "To the Strongest!" rules with good success.  Then our group started playing games using Ricard Borg's "Commands and Colors" mechanisms.  We quickly transitioned from the board game with the blocks to a larger hex gridded battle mat using our metal figures.  We've played ancients in 15mm, Napoleonic in 25mm, and Samurai in 28mm.  Although the card driven mechanism can result in some very unrealistic (in my mind) situations, the games were enjoyable.

Now Borg has released "Commands and Colors - Medieval" which I will be getting for Christmas.  The box has already been received and is sitting in the closet with other presents awaiting the big day.  Now I could have kept this basing standard and just used strength markers but that seemed a little awkward to me.  So I began what I had though about doing for years --  the major project of rebasing my Medievals back to the DBA standard of 40mm wide bases.  Each unit will be of 4 stands so losses can be shown.  So far I've rebased about 50% of my forces - the Byzantines and almost all of the Moslems.  Then I ran out of bases, but new ones are on the way.  Here's what they look like now:

Byzantine commanders and infantry

Byzantine cavalry

Moslem commanders and infantry (the three archer bases at the bottom are awaiting new bases)

Moslem commanders and cavalry

I have a large number of figures to paint still in order to have enough for the various scenarios in the "Command and Colors" rule set.  My challenge of course has been that "C&C-M" is set in the very early Medieval period with scenarios dating from the 500s and 600s and pitting the late Romans and early Byzantines against such enemies as the Huns, Sassanid Persians, and Ostro- & Visigoths.  Many of my figures are from the 900-1100 timeframe but will work.  I'm hoping that, as with the ancient sets, Borg expands to cover other Medieval periods.  Then I can use my Normans and other western European troops.

I also obtained two Cigar Box battle mats with 4" hexes to use for my gaming.

Here's part of one of them with two 4-stand units of Byzantine heavy cavalry with bows and a commander.

But part of the project also involves what to do with the old 80mm x 40mm bases that I no longer need.

Old 80mm x 40mm bases

After some consideration, I decided to scrape as much of the adhesive off the bases and use them as infantry unit movement stands.

"New" movement base with a magnetic piece stuck to it

Four stands of auxilia infantry

Same unit showing the loss of one stand

But the old bases would not hold the 30mm deep cavalry stands so I had to come up with something else.  Luckily I had some old skirmish movement bases made from matt board and magnetic sheeting.  I just cut them down and, voila, cavalry movement bases!

 

4-stand unit of generic bow-armed medium cavalry

Same unit showing a loss of 1 stand

Now it is on to paint more figures and make more cavalry movement bases!  More later as the project progresses.