WarGame Replay

[Avon_Ulysses]

The sequence of pics below shows the method to build a large hill. This is the hill in the centre of the map I posted earlier.
In the final pic we have positioned a large castle ruin that will be on the map, this was done to check that it would fit on one level of the hill.

[TRDG]

Looks good, I'll have to try that out and see what I end up with.

Cheers, very interesting, thanks again AU!!

Tom

[Whiterook]

Now that's pretty cool, indeed! Carpet underlayment...that's brilliant! Much easier to cut and store than styrene foam, and cleaner, too! I was thinking of using hard insulation for my diorama, but this warrants some serious consideation! Thanks for that tip!

What do you lay over the underlayment build up? For ground cover, that is. DO you then use something like flocking to add color/texture?

The "steps" created by layering the carpet underlayment in sections like that...do they add to ease of standing up your Infantry stands??

And the map looks real cool! Did you make it yourself, and how?

[Avon_Ulysses]

I’ll be posting the next step in the process soon.
After the Ground sheet is laid over the top infantry stands don’t have a problem standing up.

The map took a few attempts to get right, the main features were the 2 access roads on the larger map section which the US would need to take control of & the large town & river for the para-assault. I wanted there to be good defensive terrain, but still open enough to give the attacker some options & places to use their armour.

After I thought I had it right I just drew over the pencil with some coloured pens. Later on it was scanned. The players in the game were each given a copy as part of their scenario instructions. I added the terrain key for this post.

Other times I have drawn the final map up fully on the PC, but I was a little rushed so the coloured in version worked fine. One enterprising player printed his out in expanded form & laminated the result. This gave him & his partner a useful tool for planning out their strategy using white board markers.

After the Terrain map is finished you will see it looks quite nice. Perhaps not as good as ‘sculptured’ terrain like in the FOW battle in the Games Den but it has several advantages. It can be changed to give any look you want, The contours are useful in determining just how high the hills are & work in well with the LOS (line of sight) systems built into many rule sets, ease of storage & expandability.

[Avon_Ulysses]

These pics show the completed layout of the hills. Compare them with the contours on the map I posted earlier, we managed to get a pretty close match-up.

[Avon_Ulysses]

Next we put the ground sheet over the contours. This is made of stretchable ‘T shirt’ material. Its about 8’x20’ my mum sewed it together many years ago (when I was still at school) thanks mum. Originally we dyed it green, the mottled effect was achieved by spray painting on fabric paint, three colours were used, bright(ish) green, brown & a yellowy green. It’s a bit hard to see the hills underneath in these photos but they are clear enough ‘live’.

The stretchability of thr T-shirt material makes it all smooth out quite nicely although a thicker material would be my preference nowadays. We have another sheet that we use for desert, or Russian summer, battles it is made of a light brown colour & is a thicker stretchable material.

[Avon_Ulysses]

Now we position the rest of the terrain on top of the ground sheet.
Roads & rivers first, these are made up of straights & curves of varying length.

These are quite easy to make by cutting the shapes out with thick card or thin plywood. Then use al-foil to create the shape of the banks. Next undercoat black & coat with suitable sand for riverbanks or roads. A river requires painting in appropriate shades of brown or green (not blue!) with the odd bit of white for highlights or froth, then giving several coats of clear varnish or simular. A bit of work with a rough brush on a partially dried coat can create ripples or u could go for more of a millpond look.

After these are positioned the rest of the terrain is much easier to arrange around them.

Buildings next, these represent the farms, villages & larger towns. Most of ours were bought from model railway shops, the best of them are moulded in plastic or resin, but we have quite a few cardboard buildings. These look almost as good but a few of ours look a little tied after many years of service. A few have been ‘hand made’ by club members, including a very nice Inn Magna made long ago (I’ve been waiting for some more masterpieces but it looks like it was a one off).

The photos below show the board after these have been added.

[Hagen]

Bravo Avon!! Thats really sharp. Like the looks of your game room also.

[Avon_Ulysses]

Hagen,
I’m glad you like it. When we had our house built about 5 years ago I made sure there was a suitable room for wargames.
I, after negotiations with SWMBO & the architect, made it 8m x 5m (26’ x 16’) This allows for a 6’ wide table with plenty of space to walk around the outside.
The table we use is usually 12’ long but has been cunningly designed to extend out & allow for another 3’ or 4’ wide board to be added. This game will be the first to use a 15’x6’ set-up. Most of our games are played on a 6’x8’ area, the remaining 4’ being normally covered with various half finished wargaming projects/junk.

Under the table I have several sets of draws that are used to store our terrain features.
I have also been able to acquire 4 large ‘Plan Presses’ over the years, these are large rollout draws originally designed to store paper plans or maps. These make ideal storage for figures & tanks, each draw being 4” or so high there are a lot of draws in each set, I doubt I will ever be able to fill them all up. All this sits under the table, the plan press draws are designed to be slide forward to nearly their full depth so its easy to view & find stuff in them.
The rest of the room has a couple of smallish tables, where I do painting etc., some shelves with more junk & unbuilt models, book shelves, a small fridge & coffee making facilities.

The room has worked well, although I would like to improve the lighting. Our wargaming club plays most of it’s games there.


Avon_Ulysses

[Whiterook]

WOW....that's a spectacular setup you have there mate! I love it!!! I was going to ask where this is all housed, but you just answered that. Brilliant!

Man, that must have been a lot of T-shirts, LOL! I'm sure it was some sort of bolt of the material???

And I love your suggestion for the rivers...I hadn't thought about using tin foil that way. I like the fact that you can tear everything down and re-stage for other scenarios. I've been into model railroading for a many years, though I haven't had a layout set up in a few, and I used a similar system; many model railroaders build elaborate modules in more of a permanent vein, and I can see the benefits in terms of more realism...but a little more "low tech" has great advantages, as well. Thanks for posting these pictures and explainations.....it's turning into a nice tutorial in how you attack things, no pun intended!