But really it comes down to the number of bases not the number of figures. With that in mind, I mused about my 15mm Zulu collection and, having LOTS of Zulus but not all that many British, whether I could have 12 elements on each side but discount the actual number of figures that represents. Let’s be honest, few of us would not envisage hundreds of natives descending upon the thin red line. However with 12 figures for each opponent....well 12 vs 16 for the native but not that disparaging all the same.....it gives not that dramatic effect.
However if one looks upon each stand equivalent to a figure, then 12 stands is a unit. For the colonial types these can be of a single figure; but for the natives one can place 3, 4 or many more on each. These multiple figure stands still equate to but one “figure” for the sake of the rules, but now we are talking about 4X as many on the table and giving more illusion to the masses of natives opposing the few colonials.
Having my samurai at hand, I laid out all my multiple figure stands to oppose the singles. Looks like a massive outnumbering but each unit has only 12 elements.
If I were to make the multiple stands a bit smaller, both units would have the same frontage/width and thus equal in the eyes of the rules.
Just musings at this point but something I will look into for the future.