Basing Miniatures for Noble Armada
I wrote this article a while ago independently and I think it is time to visit again. After running a lot of games of Noble Armada, I find that round bases make turning and moving much simpler to track. If you have the Core Rules you see that we tried square bases. If you already based with square bases, all is OK, they still work just fine.
When I first switched to round bases, I tried using very thin material, but it was too light and the ships would tip over. Plastic bases that are 3mm thick have enough weight to them to keep the ships from tipping over with an accidental bump to the table. I am not associated with Litko Game Accessories, but they have been able to provide all of the bases that I need at a reasonable price.
Base Sizes
The best sizes are ones that are fairly close to the size of the model. For frigates and many of the smaller ships, 30mm diameter bases work well. I have also used some 25mm bases for scouts and explorers.
For destroyers, galliots, cruisers and light carriers, 1.5-inch diameter bases are the ideal size. With the larger ships 2-inch or even larger bases might be necessary, but they can get unwieldy. The biggest challenge is making sure that the flight stand has enough strength to support the model.
Flight pegs and flight stands make it easy to attach nearly every ship in the Noble Armada line to a base without doing any miniature modification. For some of the ships it may be necessary to drill out the hole for the flight peg to get it to fit, which I did for many of my own models as it adds some good stability while making it easier to glue.
There are no “official” rules for basing your miniatures in Noble Armada, but using bases with flight stands makes measurement easier since the post can be used as the center of the ship for measuring ranges.
Finishing Touches
Priming the bases black and painting on the firing and turning arcs make it even easier to track movement and turning on the board. Using a compass and protractor I made a template to guide painting on some hash marks for firing arcs and 45-degree turns. For you though, we have a template available to download to make things easier.
Hopefully this little bit helps when building your own fleets. If you want to discuss your ideas for basing the ships, find us in Discord or in the official FASA Games forums.
