Better Basing

Frequent games with the 10mm armies over the last couple of weeks have made me more conscious of problems with the system being used for basing units and displaying unit information.  Blocks of figures are grouped on sabots with magnetic material holding them in place and a strip is left clear at the back for information markers to be placed.  Most markers remain throughout the game but the morale count marker has to be changed every time a unit suffers a morale loss.

There are several drawbacks.  First, the bare strip doesn't look good and the aesthetic effect is made worse by the design of the markers themselves.   The state flags are OK but the rest don't harmonise and are quite fiddly to deal with.  Second, having to have enough morale markers to be able to cater for all the changes that may occur during the course of a battle creates clutter on or next to the table and the act of changing them slows down play.  Third, and most significant, it is easy for players not to manage to grip the sabot itself, which is rather thin, catching the figure blocks or markers instead, causing blocks to fall off, markers to slide under blocks and pikes, muskets or swords to be bent.  This again slows down play and causes frustration.  What is to be done?

A reply by Nick Dorell on the Twilight of Divine Right/Sun King Facebook page to someone else's query about how best to track unit status drew my attention to the idea of using different coloured tufts on a unit base to code information.  After thinking about this for a while I have come up with a prototype for a new style of sabot and marker system.

The prototype - a 120mm by 40mm sabot has two fixed pieces of 40mm by 10mm on either side at the back, flocked to blend in with the figure bases.  The 40mm space between the fixed pieces contains two removable markers.  On the right is a 10 by 10mm morale marker, the face level with the back of the sabot indicating the current morale state.  This 1-4 marker is sufficient for most units under the Twilight Rules but a small number of extra markers with higher numbers can be made for such units as require them.  The remaining space is taken by a 30 by 10mm block.  One end of this holds the appropriate state marker.  The rear face can have markings to indicate the type of cavalry or infantry unit - not yet done on the one in the photograph - and on top is a holder for a tuft to show whether the unit is trained, raw or elite.  

Assuming the standard green tuft on the picture above indicates a trained unit, this pale tuft can mark a raw one.  I'm looking for some reddish tufts that would be suitable for elite units.

I will try a few of these out in the next game to see how they stand up to playing conditions.  I hope the fixed blocks at the back will mitigate the problem of displacement of figures and markers.  It seems to do so on tests so far.  The key question is whether the marking system is clear enough for a variety of players with different levels of familiarity with the rules.