Back to 'Base-ics' - Where the Grass is always Greener............

It has been a busy few days over the Easter break and no mistake! Firstly,on April 1st (the irony was not lost...) yours truly was presented with his first grandchild - a strapping baby boy called Ryley (I know it is an odd spelling but at least it has the virtue of being unique!). Many congratulations to my son and his good lady on this happy event with all good wishes for the future. Baby, Mum and Dad and all are well - as are the new grandparents.

After the frenzy of hurried dashes to and from the hospital - not to mention contending with an FSA inspection at work it was with great relief that we headed up to Norfolk for a very enjoyable weekend with family. On Saturday we managed to get a couple of hours in Norwich city itself and I made a couple of useful discoveries. Firstly, a very good toy shop called Langleys - good because upstairs has an excellent models and plastic figure section. I did not buy anything but it is always nice to have a chance to see products up close and personal. Secondly, I popped into Past Times to find out about the wooden model village in a bag (Bob Cordery has used this in many of his 15mm Morschauser games) and I am happy to report that whilst they did not have any in stock they are featuring in the 2010 catalogue and were in fact on order as it is a very popular item. the bag retails for £5 and whilst the buildings are a little on the cartoonish side they are ideal to use for gaming.

We returned home on Sunday and had a quick run around to our local branch of Lidl for some bits and pieces. It was there that I came across a really useful and unexpected piece of scenery. The object in question is a grass mat that is more like an outdoor carpet than anything else It is designed for outdoors and is very durable with a very realistic grass colour. It folds flat and the 'pile' is pretty short and so is ideal for a tabletop surface. It measures 1 metre by 2 metres and so can easily be chopped up into bespoke playing areas - I am thing of a 3ft by 2ft, a 2ft square and a Morschauser grid of some size. The price for this was a mere £5.99 so it is cheaper than buying felt!

The Easter break has given me ample opportunity to think about my basing question and I have decided that should I go for the full on Volley and Bayonet approach I will will be using base sizes of two thirds the original i.e. a brigade base will be a 2" square. Trying to place six 15mm foot figures on a 40mm square is a little on the cramped side. I am still thinking long and hard about this whole subject as the lure of the 40mm frontage is a compelling one and should not be dismissed lightly.