Thursday, September 4, 2014

Unified Field Theory

Once again the mighty blog viewing masses are asking, "Has the CinC (Curmudgeon-in-chief) slipped a major intellectual disk?"  Or maybe you're just wondering what the heck physics has to do with wargaming?  Well, everything, of course.  But let's not get into that.

What we're talking about here is Unified Field of Battle Terrain - or terrain all designed to work together.  I continue to push forward on my trees, 78 bases and 210 trees - the higher count comes from moving along with the conifers, 90 of those on 30 bases.  As of this evening I have 48 of those bases "sanded" which means I've slopped on the wood glue and poured on the sand which will give the 'teeth' or texture for painting on the eight colors of paint to match the grand scheme I have in mind.  And with a little luck, I hope to get started on the great terrain mat - a 6' by about 24' piece of artist's canvas that will be given the eight color treatment.  Once the trees and mat are done I can put on some pretty nice looking terrain set ups since I already have a supply of hills in the color scheme - though there are more awaiting completion.  Then it is on to the 'mountain ranges' I plan to build to match.  And then all that will be left will be some savannah pieces I have in mind, especially some acacia trees I want to create.  Well, that's all that is currently planned.  Must keep the formulas handy for the grand scheme to be able to add more in the future if the need strikes.

And to help put some incentive behind all this, I've registered a French and Indian War game for a local November convention plus an October play test at the local club.  Nothing like a dead line to motivate progress!

Oh, and I've added a bunch of rivers and streams from Rick's Scenics - and will add some more.  Those also need to have there banks modified to match the terrain scheme.  Roads I'm creating on my own but don't know that I will need any of those for the above game.  And a good thing, too, because time is short and I have other responsibilities outside of gaming.