Locally one of our golf courses sponsored an attempt on the Guinness world record for speedy golf play. Super charged golf cart engines and greased lightning golf balls. This is the same speed golf that President Bush used to play, faster than a speeding bullet kryptonitc golf. One of the biggest complaints of many garners is the time it takes to move small troop stands which are part of a larger regiment or brigade. During large horse and musket battles we found that this was one of the biggest drags on the quick progress of a battle. In ten years of buying and selling previously owned wargaming armies I have probably seen every type of basing that has been thought of. However none of the basing ever addressed the problem of speeding up movement of multi standed units.

This has all changed thanks to the innovation of a new magnetic basing system that was proposed by J. Ashley Brown III of Philadelphia. First off you need to have already based your troops on some type of metal stand, which is how Mr. Brown had his troops based. He convinced Jeff Lista, owner of Wargame Accessories in Florida, to develop a line of sturdy bases that would carry the multiple stands on one base.

The original problem with rubberized magnetic sheeting was that in larger sheets it was too flexible to handle many stands of troops without bending. Jeff solved the problem by laminating rigid sheet plastic to the underside of the magnetic sheeting, allowing for rigid sheets large enough to carry multiple stands. He them sprays the stands in a mass green so that become almost invisible on the gaming table.

After basing both my 1812 Napoleonics and SYW armies on these bases I have noted that we are playing games with about a one third reduction in time. The speed of the game is enhanced by being able to move brigades or regiments that were made up of four to eight stands quickly now on one larger stand. For rule sets such as Fire & Fury where casualties are taken by stand, the lost stands are removed from the back ranks of the magrietic movement base. If you figure your stand sizes correctly they can even be used to represent more than one formation, turning troop stands sideways to form into line with some overlaps clothe ends of the movement stand. An added bonus to using these magnetic unit bases is ey keep the figures in order by correct regiment and work well for safely transporting the figures for away games. Wargames Accessories advertises these stands at $9.99 for a pack of ten bases, and Jeff Lista will do custom order sizes to fit your needs. WARGAMES ACCESSORIES, 7566 20th Street, N. St. Petersburg, FL. 33702.(813) 522-6204 Evenings. Highly recommended!