Basing pet peeve

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treide

New member
This will likely fall mostly on deaf ears, but I was wondering if anyone else finds the widely accepted technique of sticking minis on top of a piece of cork and then painting it to look like a big boulder a bit weird? I know it is silly to complain about realism in a hobby that caters to fantasy and fiction, but every time I see one of those minis, I think to myself - \"Why did that character climb all the way up that rock?\"

Don\'t get me wrong, they can look very nice. It just seems to me that most of the time, we stand on the ground, not on big rocks.
 
Amazon warrior

Amazon warrior

New member
I don\'t know if I necessarily find it weird, as such, and I know I\'m guilty of cork rockage, but I don\'t think it\'s the answer to every basing problem. If I ever break open and paint my Daikinee, I want to perch them on logs and tree trunks because they\'re wood elves, but that means I\'m going to have to sculpt most of that myself. The short answer is that cork rocks probably get used a lot because it\'s easy, and makes it look like you put some effort into the base.

Edit: Also, maybe the character wanted a better vantage point? :p
 
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Queenoftheunifrogs

New member
try walking around in Scotland after heavy rain...its better to walk on the rocks because if you walk on softer ground the chances are its a bog and you\'ll sink :p maybe they are painting characters who dont want to get their feet wet
 
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miniDrake

New member
Easy to explain if you have the high ground you have a advantage in a battle, so any good hero would go for high ground :).
 
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treide

New member
High ground being a good vantage point in battle is one thing, but standing on top of an exposed boulder in the midst of a battle is quite another. The latter to me seems like an invitation to be target practice for every enemy archer on the battlefield!
 
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skeeve

Member
Originally posted by treide
This will likely fall mostly on deaf ears, but I was wondering if anyone else finds the widely accepted technique of sticking minis on top of a piece of cork and then painting it to look like a big boulder a bit weird?
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Realism be damn. If we go by what is realistic then your characters should be 80% of time in trenches, 15% - crawling, 4%- running like mad and 1% for the rest - sentry duty, kitchen duty, drunken brawls, flirting with women (scratch this for sex-deprived space marines) and so on and so forth.

Considering all this you can as well stick him on the top of the rock.
 
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Thunderhawker

New member
Bah skeeve! :bouncy:- More like 50% on the other menial duties and tasks. Combat makes up the bare minimum of any military operation.
 
Sand Rat

Sand Rat

New member
From my experience its about 80% pure boredom and 10% WTF and 10% Stark Raving Combat.

But I figure the figures are in that last 10%
 
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skeeve

Member
Originally posted by Thunderhawker
Bah skeeve! :bouncy:- More like 50% on the other menial duties and tasks. Combat makes up the bare minimum of any military operation.
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menial yes, but in trenches :) If you look at most of GW fluff it seems that mostly what they are doing is your typical WWI style trench warfare, but you probably right, that 1% of mine should be part of 80% :)
 
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treide

New member
Speaking of trench warfare, I am reading a fascinating book about the history of war (War: The Lethal Custom, by Gwynne Dyer), and basically trench warfare became obsolete after WWI with the development of effective tanks that could roll over the trenches and withstand the artillery fire. With the advent of reliable planes, air bombardment also rendered the trenches meaningless.

I have never been a buff of military history, but this book gives a great overview. If what I outlined above is an oversimplification, I encourage the military history aficionados to set me straight:).
 
Sand Rat

Sand Rat

New member
Nope, its pretty spot on.

Course the winning powers in WWI thought that warfare would be the same as it had been, while the losing powers (esp the Germans) started reading works by B.H. Lidell Hart, Romel and others that integrated the combat arms and pushed for new ideas.
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Originally posted by treide
Speaking of trench warfare, I am reading a fascinating book about the history of war (War: The Lethal Custom, by Gwynne Dyer), and basically trench warfare became obsolete after WWI with the development of effective tanks that could roll over the trenches and withstand the artillery fire. With the advent of reliable planes, air bombardment also rendered the trenches meaningless.
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For open country I\'d have to agree and say yes but consider Stalingrad to be the most complex trench warfare.
In fact I would suggest that any Urban Warzone has more in common with Trench warfare than open ground.

Oh and Triede I take it you\'ve never been hiking. Everyone stands on a rock at some point, even if we do look like a right dick. :D
 
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War Griffon

New member
Originally posted by Dragonsreach
For open country I\'d have to agree and say yes but consider Stalingrad to be the most complex trench warfare.
In fact I would suggest that any Urban Warzone has more in common with Trench warfare than open ground.

Oh and Triede I take it you\'ve never been hiking. Everyone stands on a rock at some point, even if we do look like a right dick. :D
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Agreed :D :D lol :D

Also look at it from a ground prospective, your mini is on a base that is 20mm x 20mm or whatever so that bit of rock is just a picture if you like of what the character is standing on, who is to say that the rest of ground in that area is just as rocky???

You only have to look at some of the pictures from the Falklands War in 1982 to see how rocky at times the terrain could be especially the likes of Mt Harriet, Tumbledown and Longdon to name but a few. http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Falklands/ATB/index.htm

The battlefields that armies fight over do not always resemble that of the green on a golf course :D

Edited: In memory of friends and aquaintences that never made it back.
 
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War Griffon

New member
Originally posted by Amazon warrior
Originally posted by War Griffon
...the Flaklands War...
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Completely OT: this struck me as a very appropriate typo! I imagine there was quite a bit of flak.
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Damn I hate it when that happens :( I must try and use preview more carefully, that or kick the goblins out of the keyboard :(
I have gone back and edited it, if you read it now at the end you will see why.
 
MPJ

MPJ

New member
Must say that I agree with the initial rock assessment. :drunk:

As for the trench warfare, I\'ve been reading a history book of military vehicles to my 7yr old son as a bedtime story the past few weeks (OK, he\'s not \'normal\' in the choice of bedtime stories, the last book we went through was a history of siege warfare) and they went on at great length as to how the primary reason for the invention of the tank was to get over trenches (thus the tracks and such) and how the successes of early tanks were based almost entirely on their trench crossing abilities.

Oh, by the way, maybe they are standing on rocks to get a better vantage for looking over the side of the trench as it was dug a bit on the deep side where they are?
 
Amazon warrior

Amazon warrior

New member
Originally posted by War Griffon
Originally posted by Amazon warrior
Originally posted by War Griffon
...the Flaklands War...
Click to expand...
Completely OT: this struck me as a very appropriate typo! I imagine there was quite a bit of flak.
Click to expand...
Damn I hate it when that happens :( I must try and use preview more carefully, that or kick the goblins out of the keyboard :(
I have gone back and edited it, if you read it now at the end you will see why.
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Sorry. :(
 
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