Terrain Two Point More.

Yup. More woodsy-looking things. It took me a long time to take the gaming plunge into the French and Indian War because I was concerned I wouldn't be happy with the "look" of the game. Forests are hard to model. Harder still is to combine a forest with a practical game surface that permits one's model soldiers to stand and deliver. The evolution continues : )

One design goal that is eluding me is quick "set-up and tear-down." My choice of scale and genre makes this goal doubly challenging. I found that using individual trees and shrubberies (Ni!) to denote the edge of forested areas required multiple storage solutions and took a lot of time to set up and put away. How to speed set-up and simplify storage? Forest Edge Strips! 

Here is the first one I made to test the concept.

Forest Edge Strips are 12" x 2" styrofoam bases covered in a mixture of latex house paint and papier mache featuring birch sticks and "ferns" from Michaels', some trees and bushes from JG Miniatures and some more trees I made form the Woodland Scenics "tree canopy" kits. The 12" format works seamlessly with my 12" terrain squares and the "2-sticks per strip handles" make the pieces easy to position without having to handle the shrubberies (Ni!).

I've only completed one Strip so far, but I like the look. Here are views from both outside the "forest" and from within.

And of course it only matters if it looks right with the toys!

Question for you. . . Here are some shots of my 28mm Lonely Roman in the same terrain, perhaps in the wilds of Gaul. Does it work for 28mm scale too?

Whaddyathink?

Hear no evil, see no. . . whatever.

Outside of a little terrain building, which I'll post when more finished, I don't have much to show for the last few weeks. I did base a few of the new John Jenkins Indians, along with Captain Joseph Waite, who completes my 10-man Ranger unit.

I also picked up Osprey's new rules for Samurai skirmish gaming, Ronin. Of course I haven't played them, but the book is beautifully presented and the rules are a straight-forward read. Lots of good Sengoku Jidai period flavor, with some nods to other eras, ranging from the 12th Century Mongol Invasions of the Kamakura period up to 19th Century Late Edo (as in the movie The Last Samurai). Might even tempt me to paint some of those Perry Samurai languishing in the Great Lead Hoard.

See ya!