Yesterday I acquired the final element of my new 10cm x 10cm terrain square system, a 50cm x 50cm picture frame! I bought this to use as a frame for my battle board when I am using my terrain squares. It makes the whole thing look a lot neater and stops the squares from moving about during a game.
As I am currently writing a section for the next PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM about how I made my terrain squares (Yes, I have begun work on it!), I decided to design a 5 x 5 battlefield to se what it will look like.
I designed it on my computer ...
... and then set it out on my wargame table.
I must admit that I am rather pleased with the end result and can see myself making further one-off terrain squares to add to this system in due course.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteWell done there- your Terrain Board- looks terrific- very functional and you are sure to get a lot out of this system for your Terrain Squares. Well- today I built a model Flatiron Gunboat from your suggestion- it is shown on my Blog- many thanks Bob. Cheers. KEV.
Kev Robertson (Kev),
DeleteI must admit that I am rather pleased with how they looked when set out in their frame.
I'm going to have a look at your flatiron gunboat ASAP as I'm sure that it will look great!
All the best,
Bob
Very neat!
ReplyDeleteNeil
Neil Patterson,
DeleteCheers! I’m very pleased with the way they turned out.
All the best,
Bob
This looks great, Bob. I have considered making a frame for my hex tiles but it would be too big for my printer bed. Did you buy the frame as-is or did you have it made?
ReplyDeleteMr. Pavone,
DeleteCheers! I bought the frame from Amazon. It was sold as a 50cm x 50cm picture frame. All I did was remove the plexiglass and glue the backboard into place.
All the best,
Bob
I thin the set up very effectively and attractively accomplished your goals!
ReplyDeleteGonsalvo,
DeleteCheers! It does the job even better than I hope it would.
All the best,
Bob
Bob, frame works well, and your varied squares give you a quick and colourful battlefield! The work on the squares is paying off. You should be able to conduct lots of fast play battles on your framed squares. The temptation might be to get an identical frame for a second set of squares for linked games (a la Quatre Bras and Ligny in Waterloo campaign?) Or just for bigger games!! Carl
ReplyDeleteCarl,
DeleteI’m very pleased with the results of my efforts, and I’m already looking for a larger frame so that I can have a 5 x 6 or 6 x 6 grid … or even larger.
All the best,
Bob
The board looks great, the picture frame really works well and finishes it off very nicely.
ReplyDeleteDonnie McGibbon,
DeleteI found the picture frame on Amazon. It wasn’t cheap but it was worth what it cost because it made the whole thing look and feel better.
All the best,
Bob
It has a very nice clean look. Looking forward to seeing a battle fought on them.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteCheers! I have a game planned for next Wednesday, but using my felt 15cm x 15cm squared terrain.
All the best,
Bob
Oddly enough, so do I, its the anniversary of the battle of Eylau.
DeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteWhat a coincidence! It’ll be interesting to see how well the Prussians do on the day.
All the best,
Bob
Congratulations, you made the thing Featherstone made in the 60s. Wargame Campaigns or Advanced Wargames-I forget which.
ReplyDeleteIt's in Advanced War Games, Chapter 28 pp 205-209, Map-making Made Easy, and is really a method for creating simple campaign maps, rather than playing surfaces for wargames - although DF does say the map could be "used in its entirety as a single war-games table, with all the features depicted on the hardboard squares reproduced on the table-top." He obviously failed to realise that the squares themselves could be the battlefield - perhaps because he was not interested in rules which used grids to control movement and shooting.
DeleteDF's terrain squares did not have roads or rivers marked on them; these were marked on a sheet of transparent plastic fixed over the squares with chinograph pencils so that they could be erased and redrawn for other scenarios. One could adopt this idea for battlefields in PW games, but introduce three-dimensional representations of hills, built up areas and forests fixed on top of the plastic with blu-tak or double-sided tape.
Arthur1815 (Arthur),
DeleteCheers!
I think that Donald Featherstone never saw the potential of gridded wargames, even though he featured stuff in his books and WARGAMERS NEWSLETTER from American wargamers who did (e.g. Joseph Morschauser and Gerard de Gre).
All the best,
Bob
I was thinking there's got to be a way to use a FP3x3 board as a campaign map. Each side has to push its way through to the other's reserve area for a campaign victory or a win by attrition.
DeleteMr. Pavone,
DeleteIt an interesting idea, but I think that it needs quite a bit of thinking time to get it to work properly.
All the best,
Bob
StuRat,
DeleteFor some inexplicable reason my reply to you comment has disappeared into the ether!
Arthur Harman has replied in much greater detail than I could have, but he has made some very interesting suggestions in his comments that I wish I had time to develop.
All the best,
Bob
A very neat, self-contained terrain system, Bob. I have a feeling the 5x5 square arrangement will add a little more flexibility over the 3x3, which, though eminently accessible and fun for quick campaigns, felt just a trifle claustrophobic, for mine.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteCheers! I am hoping that the 5 x 5 grid will combine the benefits of more space to manoeuvre with the simplicity of the 3 x 3 PW rules. I am hoping to use them in my next campaign … which will probably be set during the Belle Époque.
All the best,
Bob