Sunday, November 25, 2012

Exciting Holiday Find

 I don't normally love the holiday season because here in the states it can get a bit crazy. But one thing I always look forward to is the holiday decorations that can be turned to good use for wargaming. Today I found a Christmas tree rug 30" in diameter with a nice green grass surface on one side and a smooth black rubber surface on the back. it was under 10 dollars and I bought one and headed home with my gaming wheels turning!

I got home and gave the rubber backside a coat of blue acrylic loosely applied letting some of the black show through...making a nice ocean texture. Then I got out a hex "template" that I had saved after punching out a Battle Cry boardgame a few years ago...(my wife calls me a hoarder but it's for just such a moment that I save things.

I got a hole punch and punched the vertices of the leftover hex sheet giving a good sized template to use for laying out some ocean "terrain" for my predreadnoughts. I just used a white gel pen to mark dots at the vertices and then freehanded the sides of the hexes...(a little drawing ability helps here...) The result is loose but effective. And the board is 12+ hexes across ...and at the game scale I think works with my ships, (1 hex to 1000 yards)which would be extreme engagement distance for ships of that era. Ships are allowed to use movement points to turn more than one hexface since the scale of the hex allows even the largest ship to turn within the hex. This is a variation of Bob Cordery's Naval version of his Memoir 44 based rules.
 I enjoy the way the circular board gives a sense of there being a horizon. It also reminds me of the "battle board" in the old Avalon Hill Bismark game...which I think I still have somewhere in my garage.



Now what to do with the grassy side....

PS, I found this mat at Lowes.

11 comments:

DeanM said...

Cool! Great job on the hexes! Best, Dean

MiniatureWargaming Editor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
GrumbleJones said...

Love it! Wargame terrain innovation at its finest!

Fitz-Badger said...

I agree with the others - creative use of a good find, well-done on the hexes, too.

tradgardmastare said...

Seasonal creativity at it's best! A great idea, well executed.

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

Excellent &imaginative!

btw Its not hoarding if you eventually use things :)

Peter Douglas said...

What a great idea!

The end result is wonderful - the ships look great.

Cheers
D

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

ALso, there is a wave of sharing favorite blogs going around under the guise of Liebster Blog nominations and I have nominated you. Please see my post for more.

cheers, Ross

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

What a simple but very effective method for marking hexes.

One of the most innovative ideas I have seen in a long time ... and cheap as well!

All the best,

Bob

littlejohn said...

Thanks everyone for the encouragement...to more gaming madness :)!!

@Ross-- I can't seem to get blogger to recognize me enough to leave a comment...not sure why but it's an ongoing problem...

James said...

I always like what you have to say, so I've nominated your blog for a Liebster Award. http://rabbitsinmybasement.blogspot.ca/2012/11/id-like-to-thank-members-of-academy.html