during a tournie it was argued against me that my Taurus could not be on a 40 mm base. I answered GW sold me with a 40 mm base so I supposed it was its legal base. One of them complained I should use a DRAGON base! Maybe because I was flanking his BSb and Vampire lord unit with my Taurus lord and was ready for a front charge from a full tooled up unit of 23 chaos dwarf warriors with warbanner…
We asked the judges and twice stated I was correct and prefectly legal.
Dice gods may be punished me because the warriors refused to pass their fear test and in subsequent turn they run from a charge from a regiment of ghouls… damn it!
So the question is:
I’m pretty sure to be legal with my small 40mm base but if not, what’s the correct size for a Taurus? Just because I’m in the middle of a conversion and I want to be sure… thank you guys. :hat
P.S. it is funny to notice that when GW sold me my taurus my opponent was not born yet… ehehhehe
According to the base size chart it’s supposed to be on a 50x50 base. Of course that chart came out in 2003. The smaller base benefits you against models on 25mm bases since there are less possible models to attack you.
Bassman: Hate to say this, but the judges at the tourney aren’t up to speed on the rules of Warhammer.
Base size regulations were introduced in 6th ed, and all Monsters that have the “Large Target” rule are to be on 50mmx50mm bases. No exceptions, not even for models that haven’t been released since 4th ed.
It’s not that big a deal. I maintain, as I always have, that the obsession with base size in the playing community isn’t backed up by anything in the rules. If base size was that important, it would be in unit profiles. It doesn’t have enough of an effect on game balance to affect points costs (do you really think the points difference between a Marauder and a normal human takes into account the 225 square mm difference in base size?) so it doesn’t matter.
Well, the rule of thumb used by the judges is “What you get from GW is what you should use”. For this reason they told me 40 mm was ok. I can see you more or less agree with a 50mm base. Is it clearly official? If so, it’s not a real problem to go with a 50 mm base instead of a 40mm. There is not a huge difference. I felt as unfair to field the Taurus with a Dragon base… this would be too much.
Thommy H: you’re right, I play for fun and I completely agree with you. But sometimes you play with some people that speculate even with millimeters… that’s why I asked. I do not want to ague anymore with the next kid complaining with my Taurus base.
I find it hilarious that there are people playing Warhammer who believe it’s that finely balanced. This is a game where the costs of magic items and characters are always rounded to the nearest 5 points and where musicians always cost exactly half what standard bearers cost, regardless of how useful either upgrade is to a unit.
Warhammer is ‘fair’ at equal points values, in that the winner will usually be determined by luck and skill as opposed to army slection (assuming non-extreme builds), but it’s not so finely honed that you should quibble over what size base a model is on.
I put mine on a chariot base, but more out of a modeler’s point of view and less because of tactical thinking (we are not so strict about these things in my gaming group and we appreciate having a cool and impressive looking model on the tabletop a lot more than counting one or two kills more or less in a game).
Besides, Chaos Dwarfs are not known for being shy anyways.
I didn’t know it had changed to 50mm squared, in honesty.However, tourny rules state a base is allowed to be larger than the one on the base chart (as it confers an advantage to the enemy, but not you), but not smaller (as that is an advantage to you). As Thommy H has said, it’s not a huge deal anyway. It’s the difference between one model in this case. If it was a dragon somehow mounted on a 20mm squared base, then it’s more of a point…
All monsters are on 50mm wide bases now, some are on chariot bases.
Its the difference between fighting against 3 opponents in base to base and 4.
Base sizes are kinda specified on page 71 of the rulebook, though its irritatingly vague concerning monsters. Generally if you’re classed as a Monster (‘bigger than an ogre’ according to the rulebook :~ nice and specific) and big enough to use your own starting wounds as unit strength then you should be on a 50x50mm base or larger. Even things like Varghulfs and Daemonic Mounts are on 50x50s so it makes sense that something larger and rank-breaking should also be on a 50x50mm.
