Will base rings ever be official again?

[Darkson]

Colour base rings should never come back,..........except for Amazons

[Snew]

I prefer to call those base-areolas.

[Ghost of Pariah]

Phil, I can remember the color codes from 2nd edition (if I stop and pick at my scalp for a minute) but I am not going to memorize, purple, orange, beige, black and whatever other colors it would take to list all the players we have now.

It just doesn't work with the 3rd edition teams. Like I said what is a troll slayer? I'd call him a blitzer but they alreay have those. Does that mean dwarfs get 4 red bases? And won't that just confuse the hell out of a noob?

Sorry, it's much easier for me and everyone else I know to just look at a player and see his number.

Also, we get sassy when other people handle our figs. people who don't paint or model have a way dropping and breaking minis while they handle them. Or worse, smearing pizza grease all over them!

[phil]

the truth of the matter is that i can happily and completely handle all 3e teams without new colors (well, until you add those damn kickers, but i don't, so there)... i can (and have) made trollslayers blcokers, witch elves catchers, etc... they didn't get "proper" names when gw f--cked up the nomenclature in 3e, and maybe a trollslayer doesn't fit your concept of blocker, but you have to admit, he's not far off... in the end, the thing about base rings is that it doesn't ahve to be some sort of draconian, iron-clad system... so long as you don't scramble the existing colors ("in my team, blitzers are white, linemen are yellow, and catchers are red"), then then an opponent will have little difficulty picking up the flow of your team in a turn or two, which is much faster than the uptake on a team of conversions with uniform bases, which often cannot be sussed out even after three or four games...

specific colors matter very little to me (Aside from teh caveat about not mixing up the "stanbard" ones).... if aesthetics are your beef, do something a little different... make your wood elf team's rings 4 different autumn colors... just make sure that the one that is most red in the wardancer and the one that's most yellow is the catcher... make your undead bases dark and subdued versions of the stock colors...

the fact is that it is not specific colors, but differentiation at a glance that is important... just don't intentionally try to confuse your opponent in teh process...

[Norse]

For me, the colours really work...

I took 11 converted players to the BB and the colour coding really helped me and my opponent to work out what was going on....

Big thanks to Phil for helping me out with the colours in advance...

And MASSIVE kudos to him for the Ramtutt III model...

You know Phil, you might make a decent sculptor one day...

Seriously though, just colour code your models now and stop asking stupid questions!

[phil]

You know Phil, you might make a decent sculptor one day...

i hope so! somebodylet me know when i get there, eh...

the fact is that i just cannot appreciate any argument against base rings that is not based on a simple aesthetic desire to keep all the bases the same (which i understand, but don't think is as valuable as the functional improvement with colored rings).... i'm just not following any argument against it from a functional perspective...

yes, it's something to remember, but honestly, is it harder to remember 4 colors or 16 number:position pairs? most leagues have "suggested colors" based on the originals and a handful of optionals, odds are that other than a handful of teams that, say, do different things with trollslayers or use a different set of thematic colors, you'll not even have to rememebr something new every game... and even then, it's just easier... and it makes the game so much easier to play and follow... i am baffled by the non-painter resistance to this concept...

[phil]

perhaps what i need to remember is that pariah is a compulsive contrarian

[sean newboy]

Well here is my attempt at a functional argument. On a set of rookie or young teams the color coding would help (be ugly imo, but helpful) except on some teams for which it would be relatively pointless. Pointless teams include Ogre, Goblin, Halfling, Lizardmen, Chaos, Chaos Dwarves. As for the other point, does it really help another coach when u have properly coded dark elf lineman with 7 3 4 8 Block Dodge Frenzy Jump Up, yes its gonna take a while for 5 advances, but i can happen. It takes only 3 for a delf blitzer. Not to mention any league that brings back or recreates Personal Trainers. How hard is it to turn a Dwarf Blitzer into Dwarf Slayer? On experianced teams these simple codes mite actually cause more problems than they would solve, and your back to square one. As for the Slayer as a blocker, i would just add one color for frenzy types, and give it to Slayers, Norse Blitzers, and Witch Elves.

[phil]

so then your argument is that a player who has enough advances could potentially have a profile that bleeds funtionally into another postion...

he's still a lineman... if he gets injured down to 5236, do you change him to a halfling? no, just as when he improves, you don't change him to a blitzer, whatever roll he might occupy in your tactical flow. these uncommon players, at any level of TR, are teh exception and are teh players that both coaches need to mentally account for on the board at all times... yet, base rings make these players _easier_ to keep track of because now you might need to remember that #12 is a demon on redbull, but the rest of the anonymous trivially-skilled linemen are just a swarm of grey bases who you can save braincells on by not concerning yourself with... instead of trying to rememmber the specifics of 16 numbers, you only need a handful of colors and 3 or 4 numbered starplayers to remember... base rings make stars easier to keep track of...

[Methusalah]

Well here's what I plan on doing with my converted minis...while I will flock/model the flat top of the base, I'll color code the edge of the bases as well as place a letter (i.e L, B, T, C) on the front of the base. I'm hoping this will cover all the angles

[Snew]

Sean,

I had a lot of the same thoughts too but the baserings still make it easier to spot the guy. Instead of being one of the 11 players on the pitch, they narrow it down to one of the 5 with grey baserings, and one of the two with his hand up... ect.

[Mestari]

and maybe a trollslayer doesn't fit your concept of blocker, but you have to admit, he's not far off...

And above all, we must ask what is the dwarven concept of a blocker. My dwarven alter-ego tells it is a player capable of taking on the big guys with ease (dauntless) and a furious attitude to blocking(frenzy).

[Ghost of Pariah]

yes, it's something to remember, but honestly, is it harder to remember 4 colors or 16 number:position pairs?

Yes it's harder! That's why I use a roster!

Why is it so hard for you ppl to look at the board and then look at your piece of paper? Why go through all the trouble of painting colors on your base rings, creating abbreviations and trying to squeeze them on there too, then still needing to inform the the other coach what colors and symbols mean what! That's is ridiculous.

Thanks, I'll just stick to looking a roster. Much easier IMO.

[phil]

because with rings i typically don't have to look at a roster every stinking turn... that's why....

[Snew]

Yeah, take that.

As I hide behind the snotling taking a crap in a helmet....