About Base Sizes and Frontages in Hail Caesar

Hello everyone!

I've decided to make a little blog post to better visualise and explain how our group does unit Frontages for the game Hail Caesar! . We follow these standard frontages for all our games and all units should adhere to these.  However, depending on what we have in our collection and how we base them, there may be times we want to adjust and change the size of the unit's frontages to play if people have less in their collection.  I like to stick to our basing rules of small units made of 80 mm frontages, Standard units of 160 mm, and Large units of 320 MM because this seems to be the standard across the majority of Hail Caesars! across the globe!  But if some people want to start playing faster we can adjust the sizes of each unit's frontage between different games until they fully build up their full army potential.  I hope all our games can keep this standard. 

I think basing on 40x40 or 20x20 mm bases makes the most sense for adjustments and think any front should be divisible by 40mm .. obviously, some people have built their units on one whole massive base, so we'd have to account for that and continue with our regular, rulebook standards.

Of course, anyone else not in our group and wondering about base sizes and frontages can use this visual here for reference, too.  Frontages can be whatever you and your friends set - and can change as you wish. Same with bases. Make sure you have a standard to follow among friends, or at least have something adjustable among friends. 

 

The Above picture is basically how most of our units look if they are standard.  Our depth is typically 2 ranks deep, with a 160 mm frontage.  It's fine if one wants to put a third rank in there for visual effects - it will not affect the rules so much I think.   REMEMBER that Pike Phalanx units and Warband units are always 4 ranks deep, and in our games would be something like a total area of 160x80 mm all the way around!

Small units are basically halved of the standard for our group. 

Here's an example of what a unit will look like on the field if it was standard. The full 160 mm.

Here you can see how the standard unit is bigger than the small.. in fighting and gameplay, two small units could gang up on the front of the standard unit if they've placed their charges correctly! 

Imagine there's all models on all of these bases here.. 320 mm is a big unit! With pikemen or warbands, they'd be something like 320 x 80 mm around all edges.  

Here's a thing to note - You can fill each base with as many or as few models as you want. I personally think 4 guys a base for rank and file type troops looks best, while 3 or 4 guys a base on warband units looks chaotic and wild, the important thing is the bases frontages (and depth of the bases for PIKES and WARBANDS only) , not so much how many models are on the base. 

For skirmish units we base them individually... we put ours on 20x20 mm bases, or something similar size. Round bases, 25x25mm bases.. honestly, they dont have a battle line so don't need any specific rules.. as long as they're not too massive. Some people put two guys on 20x40 mm bases ...

Commanders can be on whatever base you want. As long as you clearly designate a commander you can measure a head from! Commanders measurements for orders are done from the head, not the base. 

I mixed up the bases here, so I can reform them if I ever want to make them into standard units instead of small. 

Cavalry and Chariots in a small unit would try to match a 75-80 mm front.  There really are not going to be "small chariot units" I think, but a formed Small cavalry unit is going to look like this.  They're typically on 50x25 m bases as seen.   6 guys for a small unit of cav in this way will do.

Size comparison.  It's front is a tad smaller than the infantry unit, but a whole 5 mm is not going to change much! 

Here's the front of a standard unit of cavalry, covering 150 mm front.. they should have a second rank behind, but I dont have enough cavalry models done up yet.  They're going to have at least 12 models as shown above.  Remember - the important thing is frontages, so if you can modify a unit's bases to match the 75-80 mm for small, or 150-160 mm for standard cavarly, then go for it!  

and an elephant, just because they're epic.





The last thing I'll say is this - for formation changing in Hail Caesar, honestly putting guys on  20x20mm bases is probably best for adopting formations like Square, column, open order, etc.  It's hard to form squares if all your guys are on 40x40mm bases... but the frequency in which some of these other formations occur is quite rare, so many of us have just opted to not individually base as we have been. It's a bit easier to carry a single model on a 40x40 mm base anyways!

That's how our game runs it for basing and frontages. Here are some examples of our units from Graham's and Tim S'  collections from our battle reports. You'll see the Romans match up well to the standard unit fronts as described above!

Here you can see Graham's Medium Auxilary cavalry Unit on a hill.  His base is roughly 160mm front and matches well with regular infantry.  See the lone commander there? 

Here Graham had chased off all my Britons.... The cavalry are in their 150-160 mm front. To their right you see a mixed up bunch of skirmishers, they're usually all over the place but have to be within an inch between each other when moving around.  You'll see all the rest of the Roman units are on 40x40 or 20x20 mm bases - but their fronts are all equal for the standard amounts.
Hard to see - but you'll notice at the time that Graham was limited on command groups. His middle unit has a standard and musician, but the guys on the right of them has no command ! It's fine if you do not add them ! 

See the skirmishers by the river? 8 guys, spaced about an inch apart.  Below them a massive, one base Warband. It's measurements are 160mm x 80 mm.. so 160 mm frontage to match all the other standard units, but requires the depth of 4!
The chariots here are deep enough to have just one model - they are also 160 mm on the front (or maybe 150! that 10 mm is not a problem!)   There's also a unit of standard medium celtic cavalry in there!

See how the warbands here are matching up against the Romans on the dry part of the River? The fronts are the same. Skirmishers are in the water supporting the Warbands.

Here's our first battle where Tim S joined up with his Imperial Romans. This was a fine battle - a great EIR civil war!  His Roman auxiliary are exactly 160 mm in the front, and two deep.  You can see his commander rallying his unit there at the side!
His archer unit behind the auxiliary - Medium archers in a standard unit... they're basically rank and file, battle line troops with bows, and follow the exact frontages as any other unit would since he made them a standard unit!
In front of him stand some of Graham's Elite Praetorian Guard.. they have some legionnaires closely behind them, and off camera all equal 160 mm ..

Finally, you can see here with both Graham's and Tim's models a number of unit types here, which are all standard with frontages... see how their fronts are all 160 mm?  You can spot the commanders amongst them, as well as skirmishers. Also notice how the warband on the hill has a much deeper unit.. his front still matches, but since he is a warband they simply have way more ranks! 
 There's even a lone artillery piece in there.. though I think the artillery is typically also at least an 80 mm front.. (will have to double check that)


Great games! Great memories! Hope that helps anyone whose wondering about frontages and bases in hail Caesar and how they'd look like if they followed the way we set up our frontages and units!