O Tannenbaum - Sort Of

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!

Well while these are not Chrstmas trees, my European forests have received an additional 28 trees waiting to be built. These are on the larger side so will cover more area of the forest than their smaller cousins that I currently have.

I will also be using an Amazon gift card for additional trees and glue so the village project appears to have received a jump start in 2016.

Building Me a Village

Your average wargamer will have many projects that he or she is working on. Some will be at the front of the queue such as a new army for a new period, while others are further back such as researching a new period or front. Not normally number one on most lists, this year I will be moving terrain to the top of my project lists after an interesting conversation that went something like this...

An English Village or one in Normandy

"Nice farm"

          'Thank you'

"Do you play a lot in Normandy?"

               'Why yes, Normandy and England'

"So you can do an entire village"

                    (After a pregnant pause)
                                            ...'Well I don't know'

So lets find out.

A Better View of the Church.

Most of my battles are conducted in 15mm on a 6 by 4 table. Here we see the layout of a possible English village with cobble stone roads (no dirt paths here); with all the houses on display. There are few trees or fields as I wanted to give the best possible view of what I need to add to my collection.

I did leave room for the church yard as it is important for my paras to have a place to fight/play over. I see I am lacking in additional commercial businesses and residential housing. Have to keep my people happy.

I see my needs include:

• Trees - Lots of Them
• Bridge
• Town Center/Memorial
• One or Two Businesses, maybe more
• Three or Four Houses, also maybe more
• Rail Road Station - I have the Track
• Manor Hall

I expect to work through the list  during 2017 based mainly on any upcoming sales. This will give me a village suitable for an Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers adventure. Will even have a Lord's estate with the necessary out buildings. An estate to be used as a defensive structure to hold back German invaders for Sealion or ruffians and the lower orders for a Very British Civil War.

I am  certain this village will be growing. Population spurt I guess caused by all those boys in there spiffy uniforms turning a lady's head. :-)

Roads Under Construction

Round About - Figures to show scale.

There are some things that gamers can never get enough of. Rules, history books and terrain come to mind immediately. For me I have been looking for better roads than the ones I have been using for the past 15 years (oh my). The roads I bought back than were latex roads from JR Miniatures. These worked great for Poland and farm country as well as Arabia and East Africa, but not so well for towns and cities in Europe.

Recently I found I was not the only one looking for roads as fellow bloggers were on the path to find a better solution. I think I may have found a solution from Gaming Models. Craig has recently released 15mm and 20mm cobblestone roads and they are just what the doctor ordered. I received the 20mm roads and they look perfect with my 15mm forces. My vehicles can even pass on them. More updates on the full set once I get every thing together.

Wargames Illustrated Issue 278

Here is something for those looking to add more terrain to our Middle Eastern campaigns. In the new Wargames Illustrated issue Bob Murch scratch builds a North African village. I look forward to seeing this in my mail box soon.