Wargame Campaign

Sprinkling Roads On Felt Terrain

2010-12-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

After a great absence from the blogosphere, I wanted to show how I made roads for tiny terrain. I came up with sprinkling hobby store railroad ballast onto the felt. The key to making this work is having a custom-made template. The template is 2 u-shaped channels separated by 2 plastic beads (one each glued at both ends of the paired channels). The channels capture "oversprinkle" which can be reused and also keep the roads straight. This is not an exact precision approach though. There will still be oversprinkle or wide spots here and there but that's just what roads look like from the air! (I rationalize.)

The key issues is that they look good, it's cheap and fast to make lots of roads. At the end of the game you just suck'em with a Dustbuster or similar small vacuum to be re-used.

You can see the whole terrain-building approach here ...note that the camera washes out some of the blue glitter rivers and over-exposes on road scatter--the effect is better when viewing with "Mark One" eyeballs. The step-by-step terrain-building pictures run as a slide show but it's probably better to click the "Next" button so you can see a larger edition of each picture and underneath it text detailing the process.

ID's and Orders

2009-07-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Thought that some people would like to see the the Command Caps (placed over the orders) and how they identify company ID # and type/level of command. So I will post some pictures of these. For my 3mm game, I made the command caps unique to actual unit ID's. Normally for 6mm games, I have used generic ID command caps (each level/type numbered 1-30).

You can get this chart (and others) in PDF format at
http://www.g-design.us/3mm

This just in

2009-06-23T21:29:00.001-07:00

Photos of my first game with 3mm troops are a bit poor but as good as can do right now. Click the pic for a bigger version.

#1 is an overview of the British reinforcements arriving at lower right. The British holding the central 'high point' and Italian armor stuck at the left and forward of the British position.

#2 is a closer view of the 'high point' shows the multi-colored smoke for eliminated stands (a yellow pushpin with doublestick tape and dyed cotton blended on it).

You can also see the the company 'master' stands made of steel on which are placed usually 3 magnet-based tanks each representing a platoon.

#3 is the forward position where the Italian armor has fled and left a few gunners to hold the line against the British armored cars and light tanks.

#4 is a rather blurry picture but perhaps it was bad because the British reinforcements took the photo while traveling through rough terrain!

Order Caps

2009-05-09T15:04:00.001-07:00

< One one side of the Order Cap is the commander's Unit ID and the other side says Pinned. When a commander is pinned, then he loses his order capability.

The cap is a sandwich where the bread is Full Sheet Avery Label imprinted with the ID's or word Pinned. The meat is "steel paper" from the UK from

www.magneticdisplays.co.uk/magdisp4.asp for about 5 pounds for 2 sheets, 180x240mm; also known as flex steel from Litko in the USA $7 for a letter-sized sheet: www.litkoaero.com/page/LAI/CTGY/FMS. Or get large quantities from: new.custom-magnets.com/product_info.php?products_id=341&cPath=2_36. This causes the Order Cap to adhere lightly to magnetic Order Indicator... which is made up of 2 adhesive backed magnetics with full sheet label stuck on either side of the Indicator also.

The pale yellow box underneath the ID is symbolic. The circles are regimental commanders, squares are battalion commanders, rectangles are company company commanders. The word "Self" instead of an ID indicates that it is single stand that can order itself. The level & type of command has implications in the Command Decision: Test of Battle ruleset.

The Order Indicator adheres to the steel company stand so it does not fall off when picked up.

My first game with 3mm scale minatures

2009-05-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

I played the desert scenario 1 with a gamer who has never done miniatures before but lots of boardgames. He picked up on it very quickly and played very well considering that he had the Italians and I won the 1st turn initiative! His name is Rick and lives near Decatur.

He seemed to like it and said that he probably would have preferred larger miniatures for his first game. My tiny order system was a bit fiddly but not terrible.

We got 5 turns done in 3 hours* and called it because the Italians were pretty beat up. I told him that it SEEMED worse than it was because he could regroup quite a bit. And I made some errors in reading the charts, forgot to place wrecks etc. These could have made a big difference so I was impressed at both his grasp of the system and playing ability.

The 32x48” (80x120 centimeter) playing area in centimeters was scale equivalent to a 6.67x10’ table rather than the scenario usual size of 6x6’. So I used the extra depth to allow reinforcements to deploy rather than having all appear on the edge & feed on laboriously… which CD suggests them to havespent a BMA and required to be moved on ‘hasty’. This probably saved time too compared to the usual approach.

One HUGE thing that made the game go faster and more comfortably was that we were both seated at a relatively small table (36x54”) and didn’t need to do the usual stretching, hopping and running that a ping pong table requires. And since you’re seated, you’re closer to the play surface than when standing. We sat at either perpendicular to the no-man’s land which is atypical but seemed to work well… and charts were hung at one end. One could squeeze 2 more players in or without much crowding a 3rd player at the end of the table for the side that needed 2 players.

If you played a campaign, then it would probably be better to have several small tables like this than a giant ping pong table with several major actions. And that would match the box-to-box approach of Battle Axe as currently in the CD3 edition books (see picture at the beginning of this post).

On balance, 3mm is so affordable, easy to paint well enough and comfortable to play on a small table, seated that I feel it makes up for the tiny size and fiddly orders. I have thought of another orders concept that is radically different but needs testing.

I possibly have another guy showing up Saturday that I haven’t seen for but made it to Springfield several years ago—Vic, so I may get another view to report.

I will continue my pace like a true Italian leg-infantry commander!

*I played pretty loosely, forgetting about forced back portee and to order companies and we kept the game going at a good pace!

Teaching your grandmother?

2009-04-27T20:14:00.001-07:00

Experienced gamers may see these bits of advice the way the British say "teaching your grandmother to suck eggs". Still they may get a few new ideas and new gamers will have a holistic view. While I'm at it, here are some of the terrain approaches with their pros and cons.

Some gamers make geomorphic terrain out of one or two foot square sections. Each section can be made very realistically. In my opinion, there's a lot of work involved and yet you end up with rather stiff looking terrain.

Some make hill contours to place on the sectipons or over the felt but how many do you have to make to be 'ready' for various needs? One workaround is to place fields over the joints of two contours!

Actually, I like to put the rises & contours under the felt. It's more subtle but clear cut as to where the feature begins and ends (that's the problem with sand tables etc.--where does the contour edge begin and end?) The only thing that can go wrong here is that modern felt is quite thin so it's best to spray on comparable color (i.e. green for continental Europe or tan for North Africa) on the styrofoam & rise/contour material. I did not do this and had pink styrofoam and tan rises... when I put the felt over it, you could still see the color differences through the felt! The felt with contours underneath is not a lot of work but the terrain can look custom-made.

Representing roads and rivers can be very simple (masking tape for roads and blue sheet protectors for rivers). At the other end of the spectrum, they can be expensive to buy or time-consuming to scratch build. I've come to believe that the least expensive, simplest to lay out and best looking is fine railroad ballast for roads and very fine blue glitter for rivers. The only drawback is that you cannot readily reuse the material. But you need not pour it on; a heavy dusting is almost better. Your rivers and roads can curve and wander just like the real thing (or the map you are following for historical scenarios). Pre-made roads and rivers can end up looking "stiff".

Terrain Frame

2009-04-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Underneath the felt I put a .75x32x48" piece of styrofoam from a hardware store. The foam is used for insulation. I suggest getting the smooth blue or pink variety that doesn't break easily into beads the way the bumpy white variety does. The foam provides several features: you can pin down "rises" (I use 6mm tall Foamie material from kids' crafts section) or hill contours (two Foamies stacked together), you can readily cut into the foam to made wadis (gullys) with a sharp knife and a putty knife (put something under the foam so you don't gouge the table) and foam is inexpensive. One 4x8' piece of foam cut be cut into three battlegrounds. These can be recycled by "filling in" the wadis by covering them over with duct tape!

Each 32x48" battleground or 81.3x121.92 cms is equivalent to a big 6.77x10.16' table for 20mm scaled miniatures using ruler units of inches. Plenty big for most scenarios.

Since my tan felt was so large, I doubled it over and that kept the blue foam underneath from showing through. If you have only one layer of felt, the foam color shows through too much. In retrospect, I think it would be better to paint a tannish color onto the foam and use just one layer next time. One layer of felt will conform to rises and wadis more readily. Next time I redo the board, I will try this.

To keep the felt tucked neatly and keep wargamer elbows off the battleboard, I made a wooden frame from scrap wood about .75x1.5". Just like an open picture frame, I found wood with rounded edges and cut the inner dimensions of the mitred wood about 32.625x48.625" to allow for the felt thickness.

I attached an L-shaped bracket to one end so that a foamcore posterboard could be installed for the game charts. Then all the game supplies are stuck on that end of the frame (that piece of wood being wider.

How I "Felt" about Terrain

2009-04-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Most gamers use felt for their 'ground cloth'. You have several options, in UK terrainmat.com the or in North America http://www.hotzmats.com/ and cheapest being going to your local fabric store. For the Europe several different shades of green might work. But for the desert there is usually only one acceptable color of tan. I bought a 5x6' piece and verified the color by looking a Google Earth--pretty close. Of course, if it was wrong it would be too late to return a custom cut piece.

Then I went to the paint store and picked a color chip that was nearly the same color. Their little scanner cannot just scan a piece of felt. I had them make part of the quart of semi-gloss enamel into several cans of spray paint. They cannot make spray cans out latex or flat enamel. Spraying the steel stands allows the paint to be more even and thin. First I prime the company stands white. One could spray the opposite side green for Europe.

Okay, now that the company stands match the felt's color, the remaining chore is to match the platoon stands' color. I chose to make these stands out of the imprintable full-sheet magnetic material. After scanning a piece of felt, I found that it printed out a drastically different color. So, I tried changing the hue in photoshop in various ways. After printing these samples, I finally found two hues that bracketed the desired color and arrived at a tolerable version.

Then choosing two fonts/colors for both sides, grey Helvetica Condensed for Italian and brown Trebuchet for British, I printed the names of the platoons very small (4 point) on centimeter square text boxes. Why identify the vehicles (M13 or A9) and personnel (Inf) this way? Because the 3mm troops are so small that you can't always tell what they are! Admittedly this is a drawback of such a tiny scale. The print is small and of a medium contrast so that it is only legible when you get quite close.

After painting all the stands, I also used the spray paint to paint the terrain frame (described in a future post), play aids and containers.

Logistics of Wargame Campaigns

2009-04-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Wargame rulesets allow you to refight historic or hypothetical battles with miniature vehicles, troops and terrain. My favorite for World War II battalion and regiment level games is Command Decision: Test of Battle. There is an excellent forum to answer questions about the ruleset at www.testofbattle.com.

But before you "have a battle" in minature, there's some infrastructure and logistics to consider. Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics!

I am writing this blog to document the process I have gone through to start:

1. New scale of miniatures (3mm tall figures @ 1:600 scale) than my norm (to date either 6mm or 20mm troops which are mostly in continental Europe: France 1944 or the Russian Front)... and theatre, North Africa 1940-1942.

Because they are incredibly tiny, the new scale is less expensive and available from www.picoarmor.com. The other reason to start a new scale fresh is that most of my other troops are mounted on green bases (or stands) and the desert is tan. So one can't just re-use from other theatres to this one.

2. New process of "company stands". What I mean is that the miniature troops or vehicles are individually mounted on "platoon stands" (each 1 centimeter square magnetic material colored the same as the tan felt terrain). Then 2-3 of these are then assigned to 1x1.5" company stands. There are also smaller stands, 2 cm. square, that can hold 1 or 2 platoons.

The theory is that these company stands will help make handling the tiny 3mm troops easier, make the unit composition more apparent and possibly speed up the game by moving 3 stands at once. Generally a company moves together so there is no disadvantage to this. However, if a stand or two is being left behind on "Overwatch" then they can be readily slid off the back of the company stand and thus readily identifiable as having not moved.

As I make post to this blog, you will see if all this works!

Maybe these considerations will help other prospective gamers organize themselves and start new collections tackling theatres of operations that would be too expensive or time-consuming otherwise!

Our first training game for Command Decision will be the first scenario from the campaign book, Benghazi Handicap. This was the first tank battle between the Brits and Italians in 1940. I will host several games early in May for this purpose and hope to expose the rule system to new gamers or polish up some "rusty" ones.

Eventually, my buddy Steve and I want to refight the campaign of Battleaxe which will be larger than the average game. So building the play aids to streamline the game will be helpful.

Using centimeter scale in CD you can play a typical CD scenario on a small, 36x54" table. I have 2 such tables from my boardgaming days where you could reconfigure for 'monster' sized games 44x68" or 34x88".

Actually, gamers with 6mm microarmor (like www.ghqmodels.com or www.pfc-cinc.com) could accomplish similar basing with company stands approximately 1.25x2" to 1.5x2.5" (depending on their platoon stands' sizes). My micro armor is based in reverse: steel platoon stands so I will making magnetic company stands. Because 6mm microarmor is an intermediate scale, I use special rulers with 2/3" units instead of the usual centimeters or full inches for the other scales.

Another goal of this is to incorporate features of Great Battles of WWII (www.sabersedge.com/cwp.asp) which is an innovative but under-developed ruleset. You can find my play aids for that system at: www.g-design.us/gb and for Command Decision at www.g-design.us/cd ...and I will be blogging on the progress in development for this hybrid system. It is my opinion that CD in its 4th edition, is an excellent, mature game system that needs little or no modification per se but has no 'campaign' guidelines at present (as it did in versions 2 & 3). For Battleaxe, GBoWWII has more inherant 'campaign' aspects but is a system little supported by the author and few play it.

Do the company stands speed play or make it simpler for newbies to understand? We shall see! Watch for news and updates on the progress of this.