After my friend James came by last week and we fought the battle of St. Mikhail's, I had a look at the table afterwards at the table we used and was dismayed at how flat it was. I even got a carpenter's level and the bubble was dead in the middle. So flat! St. Mikhail's must have been located somewhere in Saskatchewan!
Recently there was a thread on the Too Fat Lardies' Yahoo group about a chap who used a bunch of heavy blankets to add texture and contours to his wargaming table. This was a somewhat more substantial procedure than just draping a thin sheet of green cloth across some books. So I started with some books.
I then took several old quilts and blankets and spread them over the table, trying not to smooth and straighten them too much - this image isn't super helpful but it conveys the general idea.
Once I had the quilt and blanket scrunched into some contours, I overlaid them with the sheet of fabric I usually start with and then started adding terrain features. These led to some actual contours, such as folds in the ground and dips in this road leading to a village church.
Or, on the other side of the church, a field of wheat that actually follows the side of a hill, rather than looking as flat as the Canadian prairie (which is actually not as flat as one would think).
A small side road with sufficiently high banks and hedges to conceal a section of infantry moving tactically.
The table in its final form. I am pleased that the final look isn't so deadly flat. While the church in the centre still dominates, there is enough dead ground around it to make approaches possible for both attackers and reinforcements sent to its relief.
So apologies to those of you for whom this is not especially novel or profound. I am rather like the Irish novelist George Moore, of whom Oscar Wilde once quipped that he conducted his education in public. To me at least this is a bit of a breakthrough in table design. I have just started using this layout for a solitaire run through of the new Too Fat Lardies rules, Chain of Command, and I hope to have some results and thoughts to share with you by this weekend.
Mark Luther uses styrofoam to model the hills then puts his ground cloth across it. Very similar outcomes.
ReplyDeleteLooking sharp Padre. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI must keep this in mind. Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteLooks good to me! Proper posh!
ReplyDeleteQuite effective, Padre
ReplyDeleteA very interesting idea... one I'll have to steal.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I found at my daughter's school fair a pair of double-bed blankets of a light brown/mid-tan colour. Going for a song, I snapped them up. I haven't used them often, but I find them excellent value on the wargames table. I still use 'applique' hills on top of them, but the 'sub-terrain-ean' books idea certainly appeals.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ion
I once spent a weekend gaming at a club that had sand box's your simply shaped the sand as you wanted then sprayed it with a water sprayer and played away. Was a effective method but not very good for your figures all the sand stripped the paint off figures quickly
ReplyDeletePeace James
It may be old fashioned but it is still an attractive and effective solution. (As long as your figures are based to climb hills but that's another story.)
ReplyDeletegood work Mike. Looking forward to trying out CoC!
ReplyDeleteSimple solutions are generally the best Mike, and the proof is in this pudding.
ReplyDelete