OK. So I have the beginnings of a Northern Alliance army. I have a whole bunch of clansmen painted up. I like the clansmen sculpts a lot, but I noticed they are really big - if I put them side-by-side with my old GW Empire State Troops (circa 2002), the clansmen tower over the GW figures. So I decided to order some 3-D printed Empire-substitute figures off of Etsy, and I asked for them in 32mm. Turns out the 32mm Empire figures match up size-wise to the clansmen so I thought “problem solved!”.
The issue is that I have some 32mm heroes on both foot and horseback, and they don’t really fit a 20mm square and 25m x 50mm base respectively - they really need 25mm for foot and 30mm x 60mm for mounted. Now for rank and file that’s easy - I will multi-base them on the correct-sized base as per the rules. But for the individual heroes I really can’t do that. Page 11 of v3 rulebook under Exceptional Base Sizes I can use the bigger bases. My concern is that if I bring these to an “official” KoW tournament, will they allow it? Technically it gains me about 2.5mm to any Aura range but they take up more space on the battlefield (which could be good or bad, depending on the situation).
Related - I have a model of an Orc hero riding a dragon I was thinking of using as a Krudger on Winged Slasher. The rules say that would be on a Titan (75mm square) base - but the model is longer than it is wide and really needs to be on a 100mm long by 75mm wide (or less - maybe 60mm) base. Again this shouldn’t be an issue in friendly games but what about official tournaments?
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When I did a 10mm KoW set I put the heroes on bigger bases which allowed the kings to have a few retainers to make a mini-diorama which looks nice.
So yeah, if I could go back in time I’d tell Ronnie not to pay so much attention to GW base sizes. Let infantry be either 5x4 20mm bases or 4x3 25mm bases, etc. And then make the heros 40mm bases or something like that.
As for the official tournaments I’ll the the many tourney players give you some advice.
Welcome to the forum!
I am no tournament player so my assumption may prove incorrect.
The rules say, you can use bigger bases, so you are allowed to do so. I think it would be good sportsmenship to inform your opponent before the game and decide how to handle it. Maybe paint markings on the base, which show the ‘original’ base size and measure from there.
In general the KoW community is very friendly and fair, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
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There really is no issue with having slightly bigger heroes than the specified base size (although not the units themselves), since it is both covered in the rules and often more of a hindrance than a benefit.
Similar issue with the dragon/winged krusher - rules allow bigger base so go for it.
Plenty of my Trident Realm and Northern Alliance/Varangur heroes are 25mm rather than 20mm and it’s barely noticed.
For competitive play, I’d use a 20mm proxy base for the hero and 75mm for the long monster and just set the models on top of them in contact with the front edge when not actively moving the models around. I have an earth elemental who is like 100mm wide, so has a dedicated 75mm base for actual game play. This also gets around having to subtract Xmm from your hero’s aura (which I would otherwise assume you’d be doing / we’d both inevitably forget about and just use 6" because that’s how auras work
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To be honest I wouldn’t even bother doing this.
Larger heroes, monsters/titans and war machines are completely tournament legal - the only thing you need to mark/measure on the bigger bases is that WEs keep a 50mm arc of fire. Everything else just uses the physical size of the bigger base.
I personally really dislike up-basing, even when it’s virtually always at a disadvantage (except for auras, as noted). I’d probably wave the hero proxy and just discuss how we want to handle the aura, since a little 20mm square can be tough to maneuver around, but the titan base is extremely easy to use, IMO.
I’ve never seen anyone have a problem with a player using larger bases, as long as there is an obvious need for it, and no obvious advantage is being gained. Upscaling aura users might be perceived as trying to gain an advantage, but that doesnt change the fact that it’s allowed. It does come with some drawbacks after all; easier to get multi charged, harder to move around.
My personal motto is to not change the shape of the base. If the model came on a square base, keep it square. This is because a “chariot base” has a superior pivot in some situations which the unit was not supposed to have access to.
In your particular situation I would go 100x100 for the winged krudger. For the cavalry hero the size becomes really weird so I would really try to use a 25x50 in the bottom and build it higher with cork like a plinth to stand on, if possible. If not possible, expand the dimentions so you retain the same 1:2 relationship between the width and depth (like you already have with your 30:60 suggestion)
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