Low Profile Sabot Bases for Wargames - Practicality and Aesthetics.

This post was prompted by several requests wanting to know more about the sabot bases I am using for my current AWI project, 'The World Turned Upside Down', and so I thought it might be useful to take a look at my journey through the wonderful world of sabot bases and movement trays, that has inevitably influenced my thinking.

That said this is obviously a very subjective post about how I go about doing the hobby, very aware that all such choices are personal to the individual and that given all the compromises we wargamers take for granted to enable us to recreate the battles and actions on our tabletops, and are happy to make will differ from one to another, so if you like these ideas great, if not, that's fine to.

'For my own gaming, as illustrated here on the blog, I am very much into big-battle over skirmish'.
One of the Talavera games, using Carnage & Glory II, underway with loads of narrative and drama with every turn of play. The basing is designed to compliment the terrain, whilst facilitating the different formations likely to be needed representing in the game, such as guns and limbers, and infantry columns able to deploy into line. We had hundreds of 18mm figures on the table, representing battalions, batteries and squadrons of cavalry and not a sabot or movement tray in sight, as these groupings were easily repositioned on the table.

For my own gaming, as illustrated here on the blog, I am very much into big-battle over skirmish gaming, and I like my games to have as much simulation and narrative as I can squeeze out of them, seeing my hobby very much about historical story telling, using the figures to act out the play on an appropriate stage.

Thus when it comes to my choice in rules, as I have mentioned in previous posts, I am looking at the parameters of 'simulation - game' versus 'fun - not fun' to play with that 'Goldilocks' formula erring towards simulation and fun to play, with for me Carnage & Glory rules right at the top of that Goldilocks list.

For me, aesthetics are an important part of my hobby, and I am aiming for
'full emersion into the game and its story'.
Here for my Age of Sail games, the clear acrylic bases worked perfectly on a nice sea cloth, with a minimum of markers to facilitate play, whilst keeping the focus of the eye on the models. The pill shape base likewise, for me, seemed to work much better on the eye than the rectangular option.

Similarly when it comes to the aesthetics of the games I like to play, I want my tabletop to be very much like a stage set populated with the actors, be that figures or models, with as little distraction to the eye as possible, and thus allowing that full emersion into the game and its story.

Thus my key goals are, nicely turned out figures and models, nicely turned out terrain, and basing to compliment the figures and terrain, that enables figures or models to be moved about as required, but with as little distraction to the eye as possible, and better still, very complimentary to the models and the type of game, skirmish or big-battle being played.

The Dark Age collection in action using Dux Bellorum, where figure removal was a requirement, and that saw me turning to the sabot tray offerings from Warbases. In view is one of my filler bases next to the missing manhole cover indicating a couple of casualties nearest to camera, and that I'd run out of manhole covers. These bases work well for the shield wall battles DB produces, and allow easy positioning, with figures in various alignment seemingly capturing the irregular look of these battles.

With a move into the larger scale of gaming, a few years ago, with the commencement of my Dark Ages collection and then my Romano-Dacian collection of 28mm figures, I needed to think more carefully about movement trays and sabot bases to better enable the rules I was using for those collections, where a large skirmish type of game needed to be enabled as well as facilitating the big-battle look.

My Viking and Saxon warbands on traditional 2mm on 2mm sabots from Warbases, arranged for use with my favourite Dark Age rules, Dux Bellorum.

For my Viking and Saxon armies I was using Dux Bellorum, a very clever set of rules from Dan Mersey which nicely illustrate the degrading of the opposing shield walls by figure removal, alongside a clever command and control mechanism, and I turned to Warbases for a traditional 2mm mdf base and sabot topping to mount my figures as well as a few three figure skirmish base offerings to complete my forces.

To minimise the effect of the sabot bases on the eye, I textured them in the same arrangement as my figure bases, and even produced some mdf fillers (manhole cover) to be dropped into place when a figure casualty was suffered to avoid the empty circular space you might otherwise notice in the close up picture of the opposing shield walls. In general, I prefer rules that don't require figure removal, but it's not always possible, especially when you find a great set of rules that works well that way.

Two large 36-figure Dacian warbands together with their fierce warrior markers out front. The figures are plastic and weapons need protecting from 'heavy-hands' and so 2mm movement trays, again from Warbases, seemed the way to go, instead of the loose arrangement with my metal 18mm Napoleonics.

For the Romano-Dacian collection where big-battle was very much front and centre using Augustus to Aurelian rules by Phil Hendry, my Roman cohorts and particularly my 36-figure Dacian warbands needed movement trays to enable the players to be able to easily move several large groups in short order and thus movement trays, again from Warbases were very much 'De rigueur'.

Four Roman Legionary cohorts of 18 figures similarly in trays for ease of moving, using Augustus to Aurelian rules.

As with the sabot bases, I was keen to soften the effect of movement trays on the eye and added terrain effects to them as well, to compliment the unit bases. In this case figure removal was not an issue and so I opted for the six figure basing seen.

Command sabots, were the first offering I came across from Supreme Littleness Designs (SLD), these using the more traditional 2mm mdf top with a 2mm bottom, that matches the movement trays

It was during the building of my Romano-Dacians that I first came across the rather unique offerings from Michael Scott at Supreme Littleness Designs (SLD).

Wavy-Edge Sabot Bases – SLD Shop

These SLD command sabots are really handy for marking up commanders, whether it is a skirmish game or, as here, for a big-battle set of rules.

I really like these command sabots, these being a more traditional 2mm over 2mm arrangement, and the similar low-profile, wavy-edge ones will come in very useful for my C&G games where marking up specific commanders is an important game aid to make it much easier to identify a specific commander and hence the units they directly influence.

I have to say, that if I could get away without using sabots or movement trays I would, but the fact is that when it comes to figure casualty type rulesets, using multiple bases to be able to illustrate formations or have the flexibility to arrange figures for skirmish or big-battle set ups, these arrangements make those aspects possible and convenient, but for me they must be as aesthetically pleasing as I can get them.

Which leads me neatly on to my current project, The World Turned Upside Down, in time for the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence.

The World Turned Upside Down project with a range of variously sized units built up to the beginning of May this year, showing off the low profile sabot bases from SLD for my big battle plan.

This project proper is just over a year into its progress, although it does pick up from previous work to focus on units involved in the Mohawk River frontier war commenced four years previously before things got very naval and busy firing carronades here on JJ's.

The first part of the AWI collection focussed on units for the Mohawk River frontier war, here illustrating SLD sabots for a more skirmish level of game being envisioned. Note the low profile command sabots all designed to match the other units.

When I first started to contemplate recommencing work on my AWI collection I was keen to build a collection of figures that would compliment both a big-battle set of rules, as well as a large skirmish arrangement, the theme covering a wide selection of battles and small actions that I was interested in recreating, and thus requiring a flexibility in figure basing that could accommodate both in as an aesthetically pleasing way as possible.

Some of my thinking included being able to have the figures easily rebased into a more irregular look if required for say a smaller action fought in very broken or wooded terrain, where the big battalion look of Colours front and centre would look very odd, to facilitating a completely different look to recreate part of a larger historical action such as Brandywine or Monmouth where a big-battle unit arrangement would be very much the order of the day.

Units of  New York State, Tryon County Militia ready to oppose Sir John Johnson's King's Royal Regiment of New York, Butler's Rangers and Mohawk Indians, here displayed on the larger six figure irregular low profile bases from SLD. No colour parties are required at this skirmish level, so just a drummer and officer will suffice.

With that thinking came ideas on the sizes of big-battle units, ranging from 12 to 24 figures to represent units as small as 240 men to those closing in on 500 men, with battalion/regimental groups of infantry carrying Colours and in units of three to six stands of four figures each.

The big-battle, approximately 1:20, unit is simply a footprint in size to cover the very different strengths in between, 12 figs (240 men), 16 figs (320 men), 20 figs (400 men) and 24 figs (480 men). For some of the more unusual and really large units, I can break them down into two groups or wings using my basic strengths, so for example, my 42nd Black Watch Highlanders illustrated below, regularly turned out with some 600 men, and I will eventually add a further eight figures to my current unit, to produce two 16 figure battalion groups.

The six base unit of 42nd Highlanders represents a large unit of 24 figures seen here on the regular four figure SLD sabots.

The other aspect of the basing for my AWI units was to capture a more loser-formation look characteristic of the extended order two deep lines used by both sides infantry formations, and I was thus eager to avoid the more usual straight edged sabots that for me was too unnatural, what with nature abhorring straight lines, a softer-edge seemed much more appropriate.

The 33rd Foot deployed in line at the Battle of Camden - Adam Hook (Osprey, British Tactics of the American Revolution).
This illustration depicts a typical British infantry battalion deployed in the open order two deep line, showing the eight 'hatmen' companies, less the grenadier and light companies detached to the amalgamated grenadier and light battalions, with their Colour party in the centre, and with the officer commanding, mounted, to its rear. These 'Loose File and American Scramble' formations, to my eye are better represented by the wavy edge sabots.

Interestingly Michael shared with me in an email his own design concepts for these sabots that mirrored perfectly my own thinking;

'The brief I gave myself was a natural outline (with enough variants to disguise repetition) with a profile that would not look visibly higher than any figure bases standing alongside.'

SLD produce sabots for all unit types, artillery, infantry and cavalry

If I could marry these aspects in with a sabot that had a profile similar to the figure base itself then that for me was the way to go.

Suitably covered with matching groundwork and foliage, these bases really easy on the eye.

To test my thinking about how I wanted my units to look on the gaming table, I put together a test game with my pal Jack at the Devon Wargames Group last June and the resulting look of the game we produced confirmed my thinking, and the collection has moved on at full speed ahead.

The Battle of Telegraph Hill fought at the DWG last June, gave me a chance to see how my units produced back then would look on the table, amid the gun smoke.
Devon Wargames Group: Battle of Telegraph Hill October 1776 - Rise & Fight Again

So if the aesthetics of your collection and the look of the games you want to produce is important to you and you are planning to use sabots for that collection, then not surprisingly I'm going to highly recommend taking a closer look at these wavy-edge sabot bases from SLD, and there is a link above under the company icon.

A range of options are available to base units, with the regular four slot option I tend to use the most of, together with sheets of magnetic discs to help keep the figures in place during handling.

Above is a picture of the types of bases I've used so far, with principally the cavalry option to include once I get around to adding some light dragoons to both factions. The other things you will need will be some suitably sized magnetic discs for either UK 2 penny/25mm or 1penny/20mm size which mine are, with these sheets of 88 magnetic discs readily available from Amazon, if you want to have the figures more securely placed in the sabots.

Here are some examples of the artillery (centre) and cavalry sabots (top and to the sides), plus the cavalry pill bases pre-cut to take a rare earth magnet, with my idea to apply a piece on steel paper in each sabot slot to secure my figures to the sabot base.

With the cavalry mounted on a pill base I plan to use the pre drilled bases suitable for taking a rare-earth magnet, and applying some steel paper in the sabot slot to achieve a firm grip, mounting my light cavalry on bases of two figures each representing a typical troop sized unit.

Each pack of sabots includes a 2mm upper and a light card lower to fit to the corresponding top as indicated by the letters A, B, C or D for the regular four slot offering. The fact that they come separate is really useful when it comes to adding texture to the uppers which I do before fixing them, allowing me to clear away any overhangs by running a cocktail stick around the inside circumference.

A close-up of a mounted command and irregular four man sabot. Here the lighter discreet card lower to the 2mm mdf upper is well illustrated.

Alongside the regular style bases, I have illustrated the 'irregular' look seen above with a group of four Iroquois Indians, which look great clustered together as a warband, and next to them is one of my command sabots with in this case an ID number applied.

The artillery sabots come available with four or five, crew slots, and I also have a good supply of two slot skirmish bases for my units such as the Hessian jaegers that have the option to break down into skirmish order, fully or partially.

The picture below shows how well the sabots height profile matches a figure base alongside it making their use so less jarring on the eye if requiring to have individual figures alongside a sabot base, and the magnetic discs are about 1mm thick, so leaving plenty of depth for the figure base to sit neatly on top.

So there we are, my thoughts on bases and game aesthetics. As the saying goes, 'you pays your money and you take your choice'.

As always, more anon.

JJ