Warhammer Forests

Forests, all games need them but they've got to be adapted for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. With some games coming up I decided to grab my styrene cut out a base and get started. I have a few factors to consider when making these forests. Number one is that I have to store them at the club and space is limited. I want mine to both look like difficult terrain but to also be practical for gameplay. Finally I want them to look good. The aesthetics  of the game are very important to me, I would be playing boardgames or chess if not. I also want these to be useable for a few different systems so I can't go too wild and just fill the bases with skulls or other very specific Warhammer items, though I snuck a few in here and there!

The most important thing is playability and to that end I bases the trees individually on old flight stands so that they can be removed during the game if units need to access the interior of the forest. The area of the forest is defined by the base of the whole terrain piece so the placement of individual trees doesn't matter as much. The trees are made from the Woodland Scenics kits. I used the small armatures and the olive green foliage. It is really easy system. I use PVA to make sure that the foliage remains on during the rigours of gaming. The benefit of the smaller trees is that they really look like they block line of sight but they are also a lot easier to store at the club. I actually have quite a hodgepodge of trees here. Some were done in the early 2000's while others were done recently. I redid the basing where possible to match but there are some discrepancies.

As forests are so ubiquitous on gaming tables I made two. I will make a few larger ones next. For the bases themselves I added some airdrying clay to the main base to give it some weight and to help balance out the bases as I tend to add a lot of details. I try and get as much texture on these as possible, so rocks, fallen branches and even a few mushrooms. The air drying clay helps embed these in the terrain and also helps even things out so that movement trays aren't sliding around when in the terrain. It also protects some of the little details by offering them some sheltered beside bulkier things.

Fields for Warhammer and other Wargames

It's been a while, a long while. I decided to post here again to document the process of me making some fields for tabletop wargaming simply because there weren't many posts out there that really covered what I wanted in a tutorial. Oh don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good examples I'm sure. Its just that I couldn't find one easily and I can't be bothered looking on YouTube as its just filled with advertisements and clickbait.

The Project:

I want to create a few small to medium sized fields using the Warhammer Walls and Fences kits I've had for over a decade. I want these to really look good on the table but I also want to have removable crops in them so that regiments can be placed inside.

It might not sound too difficult but my friend Steve set the challenge to have the crops removable and that's thrown quite a spanner in the works. Do I have the entire crop lift out at once? Seems the easiest to do but it'll look poor once units are in there and suddenly the field is bare. Maybe it is better to divide the inside into irregular shapes that will fill it and can be lifted out as required though it shouldn't be either too regular or a jigsaw puzzle. I'll need to get a field put together and work with some scraps of paper to decide on what might work. I guess one large irregular piece and then some smaller irregular ones to go around it will probably be the most adaptable.

Then I have to think about what crop. I was going to go with the ubiquitous wheat crop but I'll need to see what the closest DIY shop has on offer, judge its quality and work from there. I could just do something a little different like cabbages but I am really unsure about how to approach that.

My first task therefore is to build the fields by getting a base adding the walls and painting all that up. Then I can look at what'll fit in and how it might look once it is finished. Also if you are reading this: thanks. Let me know in a comment just so I don't get the feeling I am shouting into the void.