Taking it to the next level

 

Peninsula terrain boards and the Monastery of Santiago for my 40mm skirmish games.

I have been busy as a beaver working on the Spanish terrain boards and terrain ground clutter pieces and I am nearing the end of the construction phase of the project (or at least as far as I can foresee). Recent terrain additions include some vineyards, an olive grove and a mount to place the monastery in the Sharpe games.

I decided that the Monastery of Santiago, the center piece of my terrain, needed to be elevated a bit more to make it truly stand out, so I cut off a chunk of 2-inch thick pink foam insulation board and carved out some steps and  ramps to provide access to the monastery.

Front view of the monastery and the dual entrance ramps.

The church has a back door so I had to have an access point at the rear of the building.
When I elevated the buildings on a 2-inch thick slab of foam board, I was able to carve
some steps into the raised base. Rocks were scored into the foam with a ball point BIC pen
and then painted various shades of grey to simulate stonework.

A view of the raised monastery cited on the far side of the Coa River crossing.
The sides of the raised base will have bark nuggets glued on and painted to match
the stone inside of the river gorge. The driveway still needs some dry brushing and highlights.

This picture depicts the Coa River, but it also shows the monastery layout before I 
decided to raise the buildings two inches higher. On the far back table on the right a 
new board is a work in progress- the pink insulation foam has been painted a dark
brown undercoat color.

A close up view of the vineyards.

NEXT:

Now I have to turn my attention to the construction of some river sections to place inside the river gorge. I have cut up some cork placemats and given them a coating of tan primer. Then the water will be painted onto the boards using black paint and dark green paint; then the ground gets covered with wallboard paste and all other dry brushing work gets done. Finally, a gloss coating of either gloss spray on primer or Mod Podge will cover the water to give it a shiny shimmering water effect. This step must be done last, otherwise bits of sand and dust will get on the gloss surface and stick - this doesn't look good.

THE BOTS ARE GONE?

The bots disappeared at the beginning of October and now my viewer count is deemed more accurate with respect to the number of visitors and page views that each blog entry is getting. The previous entry currently has around 350 views compared to 15,000 views for several of the September postings. I hope that this is the last of the bots for awhile.

In closing, here are two pictures of the Perry 40mm British light infantry company of the South Essex Regiment.

How Much Is Too Much Tabletop Terrain?

 

Napoleonic Peninsula War terrain on my table top

Click on all pictures to enlarge

Recently I stumbled across an interesting topic about terrain on the You Tube video blog:

Big Lee's Miniature Adventures Vpblog

Click this link to Big Lee's You Tube page (and click the subscribe button on his page) and have a listen. It only takes about 12 minutes and is worth the listen to this thoughtful presentation. Big Lee addresses the question "How Much Terrain Is Enough Terrain?" and it is something that I do not always think about because some of the elements of building a movie set on my game table are intuitive because I have been doing them for so long that set design becomes second nature to me.

Here are some of the topics that Big Lee covers. The comments are my own, not Lee's:

(1) How much terrain is enough on a war games table?

--- club game versus a big demo game: the big games tend to have more detailed terrain for the simple matter that we have more tabletop space to work with at a convention game. At the home/club level we are happy to get away with a little bit less which improves the playability of the game.

---- more always looks better: this is my philosophy for the most part. You can never have too many trees on a wargame table.

--- terrain as set dressing: Thanks to Big Lee, I have now started to think of myself as a movie producer and director rather than a host of a wargame at a convention. I like to view my table as the set of a big budget movie. I have to write a script (the game scenario), create game objectives (the story plot), be a casting director (collect, paint and provide the figures used in my game), and design the movie set (the game table).

--- game play/playability this is probably the most important thing to consider before you set up your table top terrain. A Hollywood quality (railroad setup) terrain looks good, but it can lead to a bad game if the terrain hinders the players from actually playing the game.  Do you really need to have that large woods in the center of the table, or can it serve its purpose better if the woods is set up along the edge of the table? Is that river down the middle of the table going to impede the play of the game or can you tilt your tabletop 45-degrees and move the river out of the center? If you are going to use a large mass of buildings, perhaps it would be better to set up the game as a skirmish game that takes place in the city. Can you shift some of your terrain pieces to the left or right that will create larger avenues for troop movement?

(2) Aesthetics

--- we all want to put on a good show: very true. I tend to go overboard on the vignettes and the little details as a way to display my sense of humor and convey to the players that this is not life or death, but simply a game.

--- pride of your collection and artistry: I admit that I like to 'show off' when it comes to setting the tabletop for a convention game. Conventions usually give me more tabletop acreage to display my figures and terrain pieces in a larger way than I can in the smaller confines of my Man Cave tabletop. A convention game always nags at me to add a little something more.

One of my favorite terrain set ups for the Seven Years War. A Cigar Box game mat with

lots of individual terrain pieces placed on top of the mat. Note how the road moves diagonally 

the table rather than in a simple horizontal and vertical axis.

(3) Balance too little versus too much

This is always the overarching decision to make when you are bringing your scenario to life as a three dimensional tabletop game. I find that if I have enough open avenues for troop movement then the game will flow much better and my gamers will enjoy a better playing experience. Then they will come back next year and seek out my game and play in it. 

The picture below, of my Hannibal game at home, shows the need for plenty of wide open space to move these large 54mm toy soldiers. A lot of terrain pieces in the middle of the table between the battle lines would hinder the play of the game.

(4) Realism balanced with playability

The longer that I have been in the hobby the more I want to do to make my terrain better. Many of my readers would say that I am already doing a pretty good job of it. But I feel that there is always room for improvement. The picture below shows one of my Seven Years War 28mm game set ups. There is plenty of realism when viewed from afar, and even more if one stoops down to table top level and views the terrain from the ground level. However, you will note that the center of the table provides plenty of room for game players to move their troops without running into difficult terrain. The left side of the picture has more terrain obstacles than the center, but even then, there are definite avenues of approach in those areas. I think that this picture illustrates a nice balance of realism with playability.

A photo of the SYW table shown in some of the previous pictures provides a nice
overview of the entire table. You can see that there is plenty of space in the center of the 
table for battle action whereas the ends and corners of the table have a greater clutter of more terrain.
Cigar Box Game Mats are topped with various terrain pieces: buildings, road sections, cornfields,
wooded areas, open fields and lichen scattered strategically around the table.

(5) Size of the table and scale determine what you need

This is not a big consideration for me because I have the good fortune to having a basement that can accommodate two parallel tables measuring 6ft by 12ft. For even larger games, I have a friend who has three gigantic 6ft by 32ft tables, parallel to each other, that we can use when we want to really go crazy on epic level wargames.

(6) Decorative versus Functional terrain

--- little items that have no in game effect but look good. As Big Lee says, we have to make our own judgement of what terrain is merely for decorative purposes and what we really must have (at a minimum) in the terrain to match up with the game. The picture of the Roman ship in port was something that I messed around with at home for the fun of it, but it did not become a part of my Hannibal game terrain for the simple reason that there was no need for it and I'd rather spend my tabletop space on open areas for the playing of the game. Looks great, but not very functional.

Not very useful terrain. It looks good, but is not really functional for my game.

(7) Does too much terrain slow down the game?

---- filling up the table with terrain without regard to movement. Yes this can be a problem, but once you have had the experience of playing in a game where the amount of terrain ruined a good time, then you likely won't allow it to happen again. Sure, I could set up a railroad display that would look fantastic, but the logistics of transporting such a game to a convention would stop me from attempting such a thing.

(8) One Third Rule? (only one third of table should be covered with terrain)

---- treat this as a starting point and then modify to fit your scenario. I had not heard of the One Third Rule prior to listening to Big Lee's pod cast. It does make intuitive sense and I have probably been setting up my game tables this way without even knowing it. Going forward I will be more cognizant of the amount of terrain that I place on my table.

---- think like a photographer or set designer; what tells the story of the battle : this is really a good piece of advice and this is probably my number one take away from Big Lee. The game needs to tell a story. I can improve my convention games by giving more thought to the story that I am trying to tell in my game. Below, here is someone who is one of the convention greats at telling a story with his games.

Jeff Wasileski is a master story teller who's games are always filled up at Historicon 
conventions. He is a great story teller and showman and his games always win awards
for good reason. One day I hope to play in one of his games or sit on the sidelines observing 
how he manages and runs his game. He is one of the best.

---- terrain that looks good and is functional: this goes back to our previous comments about the functionality of terrain. You have hit the jackpot if you can achieve both good and functional.

"Good terrain placed thoughtfully makes a big difference with your participating players" - Big Lee

A few of my own observations and opinions:

1) Trees - you can never have enough trees on your tabletop game. Trees look better in clumps of 3 to 6 (or more) rather than placing a single tree here or there around your tabletop.

2) Lichen - invest in several bags of lichen. Lichen is your friend and it will look any game table look better. You can use it to cover up the edges of table mats or terrain pieces. You can randomly scatter lichen around the table to break up the monotony of flatness that many game tables have. You can layer it in different colors to create a good looking effect.

3) Roads/Rivers - always have your roads and rivers running in diagonal directions instead of rectangularly on the table top. If you must have a cross roads in the center of your table, have the roads running at angles from the four corners of the table to where they meet in the center. Rivers should always curve somewhere on the table.

4) Buildings - Put your buildings in a cluster of three or more buildings to create a town. Place the buildings diagonally to one another rather than in a neat rectangle pattern. Put some large trees next to the buildings. I picked up on this idea at a military museum diorama in Dresden, Germany.

5) Table Corners - put your non-functional terrain (AKA "eye candy") in the four corners of your table. This keeps them out of the way of the main action where they would hinder, rather than help, your game. For example, put a little cottage and a sheep herder in the corner. Place a field hospital in another corner. Put a military headquarters or camp site in the corner and then fill the camp scene with all manner of camp followers and soldier vignettes.

6) Game Mats - invest in a good tabletop game mat. Green felt was ok in the Old School Days, but now you can purchase realistic looking ground mats for a manageable price and dramatically improve the look of your table. If you must stick with green felt, then purchase some cans of spray paint and mottle the felt with random patterns of lighter colors that hide some of the green and create a look of depth to your table.

7) Sand/gravel/railroad ballast - Several cans of Woodland Scenics fine railroad ballast can be sprinkled on top of your table mat to create roads. Take a pencil and score some wagon ruts into the ballast. When your game is over then it is a simple matter of scooping up the material and putting it back in the canister.

********************************************************************************

That pretty much covers the pod cast. Click the link above and hear it for yourself. You will be glad that you did.

Here are some more pictures that I pulled out of my photo library of wargame photos that illustrate some of the points made in this blog entry.

54mm French & Indian War stockade fort at the Gettysburg Toy Soldier store.

Cityscape for a small skirmish game. This fits on a 6ft by 5ft table.

A recent AWI game in my Man Cave.
Lots of open area for maneuvering, but sufficient terrain pieces to tell the story.

AWI terrain depicts a small farm on the edge of civilization. The pair of farmers working 
in the field tell their own story, yet their placement on the table does not interfere with the game.

The same AWI terrain as shown in the previous picture. I think that lots and lots of
trees can never look wrong on a game table. If you think that you have enough trees then get even more of them.

Here is a nice ACW vignette of a Union Army field hospital. The vignette was
set up in one of the corners of the game table so as not to interfere with troop movement.
We have a surgeon doing an amputation in most likelihood and a pair of stretcher
bearers are bringing another customer to the doctor. In the corner, some weary
orderlies are taking a short coffee break from the grisly task of caring for the wounded.

ACW terrain for 54mm figures from my Antietam war game.
Snake rail fences and lots of trees are essential to ACW games.

Another view of one of my SYW table tops. Note how I have placed the built up areas
in the corners of the table. The towns aren't entirely critical to the play of the game, 
but they provide some nice background and, dare I say, eye candy for the players.

I like to take "ground level" photos of my table top sets. They add a degree of realism to the photo.
This is one of my favorite pictures.

Same scene as the previous picture, but not quite as effective when the photo
is snapped from a higher level than ground level.

Individual vignettes are usually placed in the four corners of my table set ups.
This is where you can have some fun with your creativity.

Again, another built up area is placed in one of the corners of the table.
There could be some fighting here, but it won't determine the outcome of the game.

ccc

Small Roman Temple - A Brief Tutorial

 

The interior of the temple in the dark. I later placed a 
wood bead under the altar so that the gap was filled up.
A 60mm King & Country senator is shown for size comparison.

I wanted to add a small round Roman temple to my city, one that is small enough to not overwhelm all of the other buildings that I have made so far; yet I also wanted it to be large enough to make a statement.

I think that I may have achieved this with my new round Roman temple.

The nearly completed temple with a battery operated flame on the altar.

I have limited carpentry tools and talents so I needed some already-made round components to build the temple. A trip to Hobby Lobby secured a 7-inch diameter round wood base. I then found two different sizes of round bases that would comprise the roof of the temple. I also found a round ring that looks like it might be made from hard compressed card board. 

I used chalk paint French Linen for the base coat and Antique White
dry brushed over the surface of the wood. The plastic columns were first primed 
with grey primer and then painted with the same chalk paints that I used on the
base and roof of the temple. Finally, I painted the columns red with Reaper Blood Red paint.

This picture shows the various wood components that I found at Hobby Lobby.
The wedding cake plastic columns were found on eBay.

The interior of the temple needed a mosaic floor and an altar. I did an internet search for Roman mosaics and found this image of a round mosaic. I cut out the round part from the paper and discarded the rectangular components. For the altar, I used a kitchen cabinet door knob and a wood round bead.

A Roman floor mosaic image from the internet serves as the temple floor.

Finally, a visit to the cloth section produced some rolls of different gold bricbrac to use for gold trim around the roof. I got the latter idea from a 28mm round temple that Herb Gundt made for me many years ago.

The various parts of the floor were glued together with wood glue, and then clamped together with "C" Clamps over night. I did the same for the roof structure. I cut out the mosaic pattern and glued it to the floor using spray adhesive.

I had previously drilled a hole through the center of the round base and screwed in the door knob that would become the temple's altar. The base wasn't thick/deep enough for me to screw the entire threaded piece into the wood. There was a gap between the knob and the floor. I filled this with a wooden bead, painted with the Antique White chalk paint.

Now I am at the most difficult step in the assembly project: gluing the columns to the floor and the roof to the columns so that every piece is lined up true. Fortunately the mosaic floor has some rectangular patterns on the edge of the round and these served as perfect location guides for the placement of the columns.

I will use two-part epoxy glue to attached the columns to the temple floor. Allowing for some time for the glue to set, say, a couple of hours. I will then glue the roof to the columns. This latter step makes me a little uneasy because once the glue is spread over the top of the column, I have to lower the roof section from above so that it sits "just right" and even on all sides of the temple.

The final touch is the battery powered flickering light bulb that I will place atop the altar when it is being used in a game. I don't want to run down the battery, of course, so the flickering flame is not turned on when it is stored away.

I am rather pleased with the results of this build. Nearly all of its components were sourced from Hobby Lobby and so I didn't need to cut out round pieces of wood with a jig saw. This model will truly stand out on the table top and catch the attention of passers by at the Historicon convention in July.

Seven Years War Assn Convention This Weekend

 

I couldn't make it to this year's Seven Years War Association convention this year. I thought that I would therefore post several pictures of my SYW collection of Minden Miniatures instead.

Camp Life

Here are some pictures of the Prussian camp that I set up last Autumn. They show some scenes in and around the camp.

Prussian dragoon on scouting assignment, Minden figure converted from a Minden lager.

Blacksmith or farrier. The wagon is from Berliner Zinnfiguren

Picket duty outpost with Prussian dragoons

Prussian pioneers marching off to work

"Your papers please"

Some of the towns and villages in Silesia

Ian Weekley buildings from the 1980s still look good by today's standards.
I like that the cut and fit of the models are not "perfect", giving them a 
more realistic appearance.

Another view of the Ian Weekley village. I have found that using a mass of buildings
positioned in various angles make for a good look. I learned this trick from seeing
some of the dioramas in the German Army Museum in Dresden.

Here is the larger town in the area. Buildings were made by Herb Gundt.
I made the roads and the figures are Minden Miniatures, of course.

Yet another table in my Silesian villages set up on two 6 x 12 feet tables in my basement.
The church was the first building that I ever made, circa 1988. Not bad for a first effort.
Materials are plywood, a ping pong ball, and individual roof tiles cut out of cardboard.
That was a grueling task (gluing the roof tiles onto the church).

As Phil Olley would say, "every war game table should have a windmill on it."

The fourth village on the game table. I like to put my villages in the corners
of my game table so that they are out of the way where the battle occurs.
This particular village is long and narrow, much like one would see in Silesia.
The town buildings were often erected along the main road rather than grouped
together. These are mostly Herb Gundt buildings with one Ian Weekley model.

My game table philosophy is to put my villages in the corners of the game table so that they do not interfere with the war game battle. Most of the time my scenarios do not involve fighting inside towns as SYW battles tended to be fought on open ground, rather in the villages. Of course there are exceptions to this, however, I have found that buildings can ruin a good war game because they bog down the action and generally do not produce a good game.

Roads should be laid out in diagonal patterns to avoid the same old same old table top look. I don't like to see every road in straight parallels to each other. Diagonally placed roads have a more realistic look to them. I learned this little trick from my friend Keith Leidy.

Trees look good on the table top and undoubtedly some of the action in real battles were fought in wooded areas, but they interfere with the flow of a good war game. In the SYW, fighting in wooded areas tended to be done by light troops such as Croats, Frei-korps and specially recruited light infantry regiments.

c

A Peaceful Village In Silesia, Circa 1758

 

The Prussian Red Hussars (H7) come marching into Frobeldorf.
Is the captain's name Ned and is he the pride of the regiment?
 Minden Prussian hussars and some Blue Moon and Minden civilians

Another view of the March of the Red Hussars.
Buildings by HG Walls.

Click on all pictures to enlarge

I have been working on my terrain for the SYW era group of German villages located somewhere in Silesia. The pictures in this post depict the little hamlet of Frobeldorf, which has suffered from the depredations of marauding Russian light cavalry and Cossacks. They have made an appeal to King Frederick II of Prussia to protect them and save them from the bad guys: the Russians. Boo, hiss!

When I set up the four villages on my game table, I realized that I needed to have more civilians on the table, so I painted 20 Minden civilians and converted the pioneers into civilians by painting the latter in civilian clothing colors. I am also working on some of the Ratnik civilians, but I find these to be more difficult to paint due to all of the extra nic-nacs and accouterments that they have. I also found a box of Venture/Suren Miniatures civilians that I forgot that I had and I will be placing an order for some more Old Glory 18th Century civilians to add into the mix. The more the merrier I say.

Minden agricultural workers cutting down the grain.

The grain fields were made for my Pickett's Charge project, but I had 28mm vignettes in mind when I made them. I used a coir material door mat for the grain and sprinkled it with coir cuttings that I clipped off of the door mat.

I find that if I stoop over and crank my aged knees into the down position, then I can view the various villages and vignettes from "the ground level". This point of view almost makes the little men come alive and if you squint your eyes just a little bit then a sense of realism is seen. Good stuff. Good idea.

Here are some ground level pictures that I recently snapped:

Minden Bosniaks and Black Hussars on the march.

Looking down the main street of Gross Kammin. Buildings by HG Walls. Roads by Der Alte Fritz
and some Foundry, Perry and Minden civilians.

The Heroic Zeiten personality from the Minden Miniatures figure range.
This is one of the best figure sculpts every made by Richard Ansell.

Prussian camp scene. John Ray made the officer and servant vignette and 
the two camp followers are Foundry figures.

Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick vignette from the Minden Miniatures figure range.

My next terrain project will be to make some green agricultural fields for my 18th Century villages. I also want to make some "backyard" terrain pieces, such as the ones that Troop of Shew (Alan Steward) made for his Normandy WW2 terrain. He includes things like flower and vegetable gardens, an out house and general yard clutter. Each small terrain vignette tells its own story.

This picture shows some of Alan's work. This is THE ULTIMATE in war game terrain modeling.

Normandy terrain vignettes by Alan Sheward.

Very inspirational to say the least.

Next up on my painting table are another 8 Prussian Yellow Hussars that I need to finish in order to complete a squadron of 12 such figures. These figures are the newer hussars with shouldered swords pose that can be used for hussars at rest or trotting into position or prior to a charge. While I like the Minden charging hussar poses, I prefer the shouldered sword pose for its durability.

I am starting to get adjusted to painting smaller 28mm figures as compared to the large 54mm figures that I had been painting over the past twelve months. Once you get the hang of it, Minden Miniatures are a joy to paint.

I hope you agree.

And finally, Bella the Golden Retriever asks that you leave some comments in the comment section of this blog post. Bella says, "My favorite human is much happier when people leave comments, so please do so. He will give me some liver treats if you do."