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Wednesday 19 January 2011

The portable wargame: Terrain ideas?

Arthur Harman recently contacted me, and reminded me that Donald Featherstone had described and illustrated a map-making method in his book, ADVANCED WAR GAMES, that used a similar-looking board to the chessboard I am using for my portable wargame.

Arthur suggested that similar terrain squares could easily be created for my portable wargame ... and having looked at the diagram in Donald Featherstone's book, I can see the possibilities of Arthur's suggestion.

More food for thought!

4 comments:

  1. My wargaming in the last couple of years has been limited due to space. I recently set up a small area (a desk top) that I can now use for wargaming. The terrain ideas and your portable gameboard seem like an ideal answer to my space problem. I have dug out my 2mm figures to use until I figure which scale will replace my 1/72 plastics.

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  2. Jhnptrqn,

    The time/space problem is a very common one, I am afraid to say!

    In theory, my normal wargames 'table' (in truth, it is two folding tables pushed together that can be set up as either 4ft x 6ft or 3ft x 8ft) is 4ft x 3ft, but by the time I have used some of the space to lay out both sides troops, and provided space for all the bits and pieces one needs, it is usually pared down to 3ft x 2ft.

    My portable wargame is currently 1ft x 1ft, but if I was double the size of the board to 2ft x 2ft – something that is quite feasible – I could use 20mm-scale figures instead of the 15mm-scale ones I am currently using. Alternately, I could continue to use my 15mm-scale figures and have more grid squares on the board.

    Good luck with solving your time/space problems,

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. I've been mulling this exact idea over for some time. Ultimately, all I'm really waiting for, is to stumble over the exact, cheap, precisely cut tiles to use for this project. I know if I try to manufacture them, there will be irregularities that will drive me nuts. I should probably just place an order with Litko.

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  4. Gratuitous Saxon Violence,

    I must admit that the idea of trying to cut the right-sized terrain squares for the job was of concern to me as well ... but I had not thought of trying someone like Litko as a source of ready-cut ones.

    What a great idea!

    All the best,

    Bob

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