I've recently managed to hornswaggle a Warhammer-centric friend into trying historicals—AWI Sharp Practice, to be precise—and to my immense gratification he's decided to go all in on collecting a force of his own.

I've been doing my best to pass on my accumulated knowledge vis a vis manufacturers, historical details, units, etc., and (having settled on a collection of Queen's Rangers) we are now at the "oh, sorry, forgot to mention that you have to buy your own bases" phase of the indoctrination process.

Accordingly, I put together a little buying guide, based on my own aesthetic preferences. He suggested I post it to this very blog, as he felt others might find it as useful as he, and so here we are!

Without further ado...

Sharp Practice Bases: A Buying Guide

Regular infantry are 8 figures, ranked 4x2

Militia are 10 figures, ranked 5x2

Skirmishers are 6 figures, clustered

Tribal bands are 12 figures, clustered

Cavalry are 8 figures, ranked 4x2

Artillery are a single gun with 4-5 crew

For most bases and trays, I recommend Warbases.

Pick up 20mm circular bases for all infantry figures—your choice of 2mm or 3mm thickness (depends on how thicc you like it):

https://warbases.co.uk/product/circular-bases/

For infantry leaders, you could put them on square bases, or 25mm bases, or pick up these custom sabots from Lasercast in Oz:

https://lasercast.bigcartel.com/product/command-trays

For cavalry of all types, go with 50x25mm bases:

https://warbases.co.uk/product/25mm-premier-bases/

For artillery, I found these guys in the US:

https://www.greenstuffindustries.com/store/p120/Sharp_Practice_Artillery_Crew_Tray.html

Or just a nice slap o’ plastic or basswood would do too. :P

For movement trays, we return once again to Warbases…

You’ll need to make sure the “thickness” of the recess on the tray matches the thickness of the base you’ve chosen. Once you’ve done that, just select the appropriate dimensions (4x2 or 5x2 for infantry units, 100mmx100mm for cavalry) and you’re good to go!

Formed infantry (2mm depth): https://warbases.co.uk/product/regiment-tray-20mm-slots-2mm-top-layer/ 

Formed infantry (3mm depth): https://warbases.co.uk/product/regiment-tray-20mm-slots-3mm-top-layer/ 

Skirmishers: https://warbases.co.uk/product/dux-britzombie-tray-20mm-slots/ 

Cavalry: https://warbases.co.uk/product/close-order-tray-20mm-2/