Basing Black Powder Models

[Primarch]

This thread is mainly for Badruck and Job as they have just picked up some Napoleonic models, but hopefully any players who join in the future can get some use out of it as well.

In Black Powder, the exact number of models doesn't matter as much as the space it takes up on the tabletop. To help with moving, manoeuvring and using your models it is strongly recommended that you base them in groups rather than as individual figures. To allow you to form most of the formations in the book, an even number of bases is best, though you can put some models on individual bases to give you more freedom.

The exact number of bases you use is up to you, but units of the same size should have the same number of bases in your army. Unit sizes are tiny, small, medium and large. Tiny units will always be skirmishers and so need to be based individually.
To give you some examples, here are the unit sizes that Ashmie and myself are using.

SIZE ASH PRIM
tiny 10 6
small 20 12
med 30 24
large 40 36

Medium sized units are the standard for the game. Cavalry units should contain about 50% of the models of an infantry unit.
Bases can be of any size, but 4 models on 40mm square bases (2 models on 50mm for cavalry), seem to be about right and give you a lot of freedom for formations. There is nothing stopping you from using different sized bases, but mounting all your models on one long base would be very inflexible for moving around the tabletop.

Skirmishers can be mounted individually or two to a larger base, so long as they look spread out, its fine.

Officers should have their own base, but this can be of any size, distances are measured from the officers head. Feel free to decorate the base with spare models and scenery.

Unit commanders, drummers and standard bearers should be grouped together on one stand if possible as this makes it easy to determine the center of the unit and thus line of sight.

@Badruck and Job.
To get the most out of your French infantry boxes you will need to form units of 24 men including a command group, rather than the 36 shown on the instruction sheets. This is mainly down to the base sizes the Perrys supply with their models. You can make large units of 36 if you want to though.
Assuming you are going for units of 24, you first need to identify the grenadier models in the unit. Normal line infantry have a ball at the top of their hats (shako), grenadiers have a little tuft on top of the ball. In a unit of 24models, 16 should have just the ball on the top, whilst 8 should have the grenadier's tuft. The grenadiers should be mounted on separate bases to the line infantry, as you may want to use them in special mixed formations when you get a feel for the game.
You should also have 12 models without built in bases, these are your dedicated skirmishers and should be based in ones or twos as you see fit.

If you have any questions or thoughts, please feel free to discuss them below.

[Admiral-Badruck]

is there any reason we cannot but them on War hammer bases and put them on movement trays?

[job]

It will make making formations much harder. Youve got to form columns, lines, squares and such. You'd need to build several new movement trays and I think would find it very messy in the end.

Anyway what would be the advantage? In BP you never remove individual models. The whole unit stays on the table until it is entirely defeated.

[Primarch]

is there any reason we cannot but them on War hammer bases and put them on movement trays?

No reason, but I did give you enough bases for the models you bought. As Job says you will need new movement trays due to the long/narrow nature of BP formations and basing them all individually isn't necessary. You can do it if you want to though. (20mm square bases would be best).