28mm infantry, with varying depths to accommodate cavalry  and artillery, and this is what I assume you will be using.   There are also recommended numbers of figures per base, but  these are by no means written in stone, and in my own armies I  have happily bent these particular “rules” to suit myself. There  are several reasons why you might want to do this. One is  purely practical; a tribal army consisting of a lot of bases which  are individually cheap in points is quicker and cheaper to  produce if you are prepared to reduce the number of figures  needed. This is especially useful if you are using plastics, which tend to come in boxes of 30 to 40 – annoying if you have to buy  an extra box because you are short of a couple of figures. To be  honest, in a period where fighting was generally done in very  loose formations, bases with fewer figures than normal also  often look more realistic. This is especially true for tribal types  who fought in no particular order at all, taking advantage of  cover and often remaining completely hidden until the last  moment. You can assume that the missing figures are “really”  there, but are just temporarily concealed behind a bush or  something! Another advantage of varying the numbers on a base is to  provide room for landscaping, or for features which help to  identify a particular unit in armies which did not have uniforms.  The men in my Ila army, for instance, have no shields and so  

When I decided to write “Death in the Dark Continent”, one  of the biggest changes from my previous African set, “In the  Heart of Africa”, was the switch from singly based figures to  larger multi-figure bases, There were several reasons for this:  large armies were now easier to move about, and of course  differences in troop types and fighting styles could now be  incorporated, distinguished by varying numbers of figures of  each base. Just as important, though, was the opportunity to  produce some diorama type bases decorated with suitable  vegetation etc. and to evoke the exotic and rather threatening  terrain of tropical Africa.   Having gone for multiple bases, though I decided to go all the  way and make the base, rather than the individual figure, the  basis of the rule mechanisms. So, for example, all shooting  and hand-to-hand fighting is between one base and another,  and it is bases – not figures – that are counted in combat and  removed as casualties. So the figures attached to a base are  only there for aesthetic reasons and to indicate the type of  troops it represents, and it does not matter in practice how  many figures there are, or in what formation, as long as you  explain to your opponent what you are doing. Neither are the  exact dimensions of the bases terribly important, as long as  both sides use the same – or approximately the same –  frontages. However the rules recommend 60mm x 30mm for