I’m a sucker for a good Kickstarter and I got this game some years ago now (Raganarok has just landed also). I have completed the base game miniatures and a good few of the Kickstarter exclusives.
I remain stumped with how best to approach multi-basing 15mm for Hordes of the Things (HotT) and DBA whilst still retaining individually based miniatures. A future, and no doubt longer and inconclusive, post will follow at some point on that specific subject.
However, not all game systems are quite so tight on the basing criteria. A recent foray in to Of Gods and Mortals (OGAM) by Ganesha Games is pretty flexible on both size and shape of unit bases. So a few experiments based on magnetic bases with regards to HotT led me to try something similar.
The brief:
Flexible for various base sizes (infantry on washers, pennies and steel-paper based squares, cavalry on steel-paper based rectangles and tuppences or washers – i.e. all with magnetic properties).
Flexible enough that casualty removal is an option and unit sizes can vary yet still ‘look’ okay.
Strong enough magnetically that miniatures can be transported on the unit bases (which is also based with steel-paper for transporting in file boxes lined with magnetic sheets).
In the end I made two sizes. The one pictured is the larger and can accommodate around 8 cavalry or 12 or so infantry. The smaller is about half the size. Note – these are for “Open Order” troops in OGAM. I have the rectangular 60mm x 40mm (and other depths) for “Close Order” units (see Future Post regards HotT/DBA basing…).
Some of you may recall from an earlier post an early ‘test’ at creating a backdrop for one of my fantasy city terrain boards. Link to post.
Here is a pic.
Started playing around with making a scenic backdrop. Getting there…
The effort composed simply of Photoshopping some matching Dave Graffam art with some perspective artwork found online in order to achieve a sense of continuation from the ‘playable’ board. As you can see from the photo this works quite well and deserved further exploration.
However, it did have one draw back – backdrop or not aside, when placing terrain against a ‘dead table end’ like this does create a lot of dead space around that set terrain (i.e. you have a full depth building jutting against a wall where only the frontage is going to be useful in game terms).
Model Railway enthusiasts conquered this issues aeons ago for the same reasons with ‘low relief’ terrain/models. In effect, cut the terrain in half.
So with that in mind, combining the previous efforts with Photoshop and slicing a number of pre-built Graffam models in half, I made a panel that both compliments the terrain on the board and still plays an active, yet less intrusive, part in the game space. Pretty pleased with the result.
I was struck again more recently with a similar wave of all things ‘Northern’ that struck me when I painted for and penned this earlier post. I can’t fully explain where the notion comes from exactly but on this occasion is was prompted by joining in a new SAGA campaign at the local club.
I didn’t ‘need’ any more troops per sae but is was an excuse to paint up some LotR minis I’d bought off eBay (dirt cheap), a random Wargames Foundry Viking (£1 at Claymore 2016) and a re-paint of one of my oldest miniatures from Citadel.
First up, mounted Theoden from Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings range.
I can attribute my more recent return (in earnest) to painting miniatures to these two models. Along with a few others (cough!) they languished for quite some time with a bare undercoat. A few years ago I picked them up and decided to give them a go.
Whilst I did not ‘finish’ them at the time, they did spark off a proper return to miniature painting for me. New paints and brushes were purchased and a renewed interest in the hobby followed.
It was only a couple of months ago that I picked them up again with the intention of completing them. Done.
Terrain Mat (Flag Material) Following the success of some Vinyl Terrain Mat printing via PixartPrinting, a subsequent sale came along for printed Flag Fabric. This made me think of what I’d read about Cigar Box cloth mats and some others that manufacturers were starting to produce.
Well, I had various art files floating around and thought I’d take a punt as it was only a few pounds to get these printed and shipped from Italy. The desert terrain mat in the pictures below are one of the ‘mats’.
I’ll maybe do a longer post about this in due course should I take pics of the other two “Flags” (one was Heroic Maps Frost Ruins and the other a larger town layout based of Dave Graffam art) but in brief, here are the conclusions;
cheap
light-weight, perhaps too light, but light enough that hills etc can be placed with some effect underneath
slightly transparent, which also means a loss in vibrancy of colour and saturation
as you can see from some of the closer images, there is a pattern to the fabric but to be honest, this is not really visible in situ and not really a deal breaker for me
Over all – a bit mixed. Not as overwhelming successful as the vinyl mats but certainly usable.
The Prang make an appearance
I had promised photos of these guys to Gavin at 15mm.co.uk/Ion Age sometime ago. They’ve been done for a while but not photographed. These are not the ‘mini’ photos – they were handy while messing with the table – but they featured quite effectively I think in this desert environment. Proper pics to follow GBS, and Eli, promise. I think they turned out quite well. Continue reading More Terrain Mat experiments, Prang and Desert Felt…eh?→
Miniature figure collector and painter (in that order) and solo wargamer whose opponent has lost his gaming mojo
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