Wargames Terrain Boards for BBB.

[Steve J]

Some info on a trail board I made for use with BBB and other BP era games. Details can be found below:

http://wwiiwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/wargames-terrain.html

[Subedai]

Interesting. Like to see the rest.

[Nosher]

Nice idea Steve. Like you I'm not blessed with space and even though simple this is probably beyond my modelling skills, patience levels and temperance of my significant other.....

[Bodvoc]

I like that, nice and clean and very effective.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Looks great, maybe some flock?

[Steve J]

In my experience of architectural models, flock wears off too quickly for wargames boards. OK for static models though and naturally does look better. I can achieve a similar look by speckling different colours so that the board is not so uniform in colour.

[Roy]

Ooh, I like that! 

[Techno]

Looks very effective, Steve. 
Cheers - Phil

[Steve J]

Glad you liked it Roy and Phil. Chatting with other gamers at an Honours of War game last weekend, we all agreed that as we get older, we are more happy to abstract terrain etc and no longer feel the need for uber detailed wargames terrain. Naturally it helps for this period, but for my BKCII games, I will still go down the 'traditional' route.

[fred.]

There is an article in this months MInature Wargames about painted 2D terrain boards.

The author has gone for a much more detailed artistic approach, with fields, fences and trees painted on the board. They look good - they remind me of the computer game close combat in style, even though these were for ACW.

On your boards, do you think sticking the hills in place will be limiting? Or do you have loads of storage for lots of bespoke boards.

[fsn]

It's a conundrum as old as wargaming, isn't it?

If you have lovely terrain boards, they're very pretty and can be very detailed ... but once you've played them, well, you've played them. OK, so you can be clever and have terrain boards that will intersect, but the permutations aren't endless. Then there's the storage!

on the other hand, if you chuck a cloth on a table, you have an empty canvas that you can turn to just about anything - except sunken roads and trenches - and the cloth never looks quite as good as the board, does it? However, you can roll up a cloth quite easily. 

I admire the man who can make, use and store boards.

[Steve J]

On your boards, do you think sticking the hills in place will be limiting? Or do you have loads of storage for lots of bespoke boards.

Stuck on hills would certainly make storage more of an issue, especially as I have no dedicated space for this sort of terrain. One option is to have the hills removable, which makes storage more easy as well as giving a bit more flexibility in terms of terrain layout. So where the hill woud normally be, I could simply extend the road to the edge of the board and still have woods apinted on or left off, depending which I thought best.

There is an article in this months MInature Wargames about painted 2D terrain boards.

Thanks for the heads up and I will check this out.

The author has gone for a much more detailed artistic approach, with fields, fences and trees painted on the board.

Frankly pretty easy to do but somewhat more time consuming. Again I may give this a go to see if I like it or not.

[Leman]

Glad you liked it Roy and Phil. Chatting with other gamers at an Honours of War game last weekend, we all agreed that as we get older, we are more happy to abstract terrain etc and no longer feel the need for uber detailed wargames terrain. Naturally it helps for this period, but for my BKCII games, I will still go down the 'traditional' route.

Strange that as I have got older the modelling of the battlefield has become more important to me. Maybe I'm just a frustrated model railway man. In some respects playing the actual game has become less important and I really only want to play shortish games with very straightforward rules these days, hence BBB, HOW, FOB2, Impetus (without all the bolt-ons of the last few years). I'm even considering replacing Impetus with Warfare in the Age of Discovery for the Italian Wars.

[Steve J]

Strange that as I have got older the modelling of the battlefield has become more important to me.

Interesting. I think for me it is a mix of the time I have to set up a game, what the rules require in terms of terrain etc that dictate how detailed I will go. For a solo BKCII game I will take plenty of time getting everything just so, as I know that a poorly placed piece of terrain can have an adverse effect on the gae. In contrast BBB only requires, hills, rivers and roads, with hedges etc not a factor due to the nature of the game.

[Womble67]

Very nice indeed Steve

Take care

Andy