Western Town Layout and Board

[Vagabond]

Hi Guys

Just canvassing opinions and thoughts on town layouts to get the best tactical games out of a semi fixed town.

Having bought and painted a number of Black Scorpion figures that neither fit with my existing figures or buildings, - all about 30 years old I have decided to refurbish and rebuild the town.

Most folks go with buildings either based or unbased or occasionally multiple buildings on a single base, and then place them on a cloth, or textured base board. I have done all 3 in my time.

Buildings on bases, have a nice look to them because of the ability to create a small vignette, but the bases almost never tie up with the cloth or textured base board and look un-real in the context we see them because of this.

Ones without bases always appear disconected from the ground, I am not sure why, probably because you get a stark line between the 2, where as in reality there are plants weeds grass that blurr this line.

Similarly on a cloth a building sits flush but on a textured ground there are always gaps due to the texturing.

I have aquired a piece of 10mm MDF 1m x .8m and am going to go down the textured route and basing it in the arid SW USA.
My plan was to create an area of hard packed earth, i.e. the road and building area, this would have fine sand/gloop and then the outer areas of the board would be coarse sand/gloop, with vegetation. I would like to create a defined road by impressing waggon tracks, footprints etc.
The major downside with this is it means reducing the scope for varying the layout. As I am only using a small board I will have a 1 horse 1 street town or maybe a T junction such as this.

[Vagabond]

I know that most small western towns were originally 1 street lined by buildings but it seems a restrictive layout to game on.
I know that most of you don't incorporate a road and wondered why.

Regarding the buildings I want to try and tie them into the base board, having stuff growing around the buildings without attaching them to the board or putting them on their own individual bases, to try and get the sort of effect Mason manages but without the basing.

I wondered if I used a common sized footprint if I could lay down sidewalks fixed to the board with the small growing things also attached and then place the building on top of the sidewalks, although that means having sidewalks on all 4 sides of a building, and I don't really want them all the same size.

So the 1st question is what sort of a layout gives the best games, almost all my games will be objective driven i.e. bank raid, bust someone out of jail, very rarely a straight fight between 2 gangs.

2nd question, can I put a fixed road on the board without giving up too much flexibility.

3rd question how can I ground my buildings into the ground so they look as if they are built there without fixing them in place.

I know that there is no perfect solution but any thoughts would be gratefully received. Pictures can be attached directly to this thread by clicking Additional Options and browsing for a picture on your computer and attaching it. no need for photo hosting.

[dinohunterpoa]

Vagabond, I don't think a "fixed" town is the very best idea... Have you ever considered that a modular surface would give you more flexibility in your adventures? This way in a bank robbery scenario you can zoom your attention to the bank and its "neighbourhood"; in another game the action moves to the saloon and hotel across the street... next week those mexican banditos are raiding an isolated ranch, and so on... Even with all your buildings on the table, you can only consider you're representing only part of a bigger town... Do your players prefer to sit around a smaller table or stand and move around a very big one for the duration of a series of games during the whole afternoon or evening?  

Anyway, I wish you all the best on this project, please keep us posted!  

[Elbows]

Yeah I definitely would not advise a fixed town.  I think you lose far too much versatility that way. 

[FifteensAway]

My personal plan - and I think it may get you where you want to go - is to build my town in 'modules' all with a common basing (or at least for each town, I have three in the works: southwest, out on the plains, and river side metropolis and jumping off point).  By this, I mean a block of buildings that will always be together.  And then another block.  And another and so forth.  Then there is the road (or roads) through town as separate pieces but with the buildings designed to work with the road.  Working in 15 mm, I have a bit of 'luxury room' in being able to create proper western roads that need to be wide enough for a wagon to turn around in.

This achieves a middle ground of easier and quicker setup but not always having the same arrangement because the blocks can be rearranged.  I can also include solo buildings as well based to match.  Personally, I'd work hard to avoid the sidewalks attached to the road though I think I understand your giving it consideration.

Love that you're giving it this kind of thought.  Lots of nice buildings appear and, for me, often in disappointing settings because they're just 'plopped' in place.  While my western goal isn't a skirmish level game, setting really matters a lot to me so I look forward to seeing what you accomplish.

Now, when I say 'in the works' I might mean I'm waiting for the encasing glacier to finish melting. 

[Vagabond]

Hi guys - thanks for your thoughts so far. Please keep them coming.

FifteensAway I was planning on having 200mm / 8" wide streets, partly for the look and partly because in my rules a figure could dash across without risking certain death.
How wide is the turning circle of a waggon in real life?

I like the modular idea, some while ago bunker monkey posted pics of his town with tiles of about 3 buildings to a base.

To fit with my storage boxes the bases would have to be 250mm x 400mm. If you look at the 2nd picture it is the size of the 3 buildings and fencing on the right.

It does create the issue of tile edges i.e. the chequer board effect which I was hoping to get away from by having this 1 piece board.
Maybe taking buildings, sidewalks and fencing right to the edge of the base would do that, in the same way not having a base on a building does.

Still left with the issue of the road. If I use pieces of road I will have join lines, if I sculpt it on the base board I will have a relativity static town layout or I could ignore it altogether which is the usual thing.

Dino - i was thinking that my town would be very small, 6 or 8 buildings, saloon, livery, Marshall, dry goods store, Wells Fargo/Post Office, land registry/assay office, gunsmith, bordello, and a bank.
Basically a large way station for the stagecoach and base for miners, general layabouts and vagabonds.
So I was hoping to have it surrounded by scrub land to give it a sense of isolation, rather than it be part of a larger town.

[has.been]

If I was starting a town now I would definitely go down the 'modular' route. Maximum flexibility along with speed of set up & ease of storage.
Various MDF firms will do customised work, so your templates don't have to be rectangles. Could be the same irregular shape.
If you have the modules drop into insets built into the base you reduce the edges showing problem. Remember you can have 'blank' modules, they don't all have to have buildings on.
I would include the walkways on the modules. Just to the front (occasionally also a side) does not have to be more than that)
There are some nice 'modular' western towns on the LAF I especially remember a nice 'China Town' module which had signage and Chinese lanterns. 

[dinohunterpoa]

Dino - i was thinking that my town would be very small, 6 or 8 buildings, saloon, livery, Marshall, dry goods store, Wells Fargo/Post Office, land registry/assay office, gunsmith, bordello, and a bank.
Basically a large way station for the stagecoach and base for miners, general layabouts and vagabonds.
So I was hoping to have it surrounded by scrub land to give it a sense of isolation, rather than it be part of a larger town.

Vagabond, good luck in trying to make it small, because in my experience game towns have the magic of starting small and growing beyond our expectations almost overnight! 

[Vagabond]

Has Been - how does it go - better to have been a has been than never been at all

Thanks for the input, I hadn't considered inserts at all, presumably you mean something like multiple figure bases that take figures on penny bases. It certainly gets rid of the edges but would still leave gap lines, although I have been thinking of spreading sand and grit onto the table to help disguise this sort of thing. Takes me back to being a teenager using a sand table in the shed and unpainted airfix figures. Uncomplicated days

By the way I like the stuff you have been doing for Harry

Dino I have run out of space in my small wargaming world, the town will have to be small, I will be strong.

[has.been]

Thanks for the nice comment, and yes just like the sabot bases that hold penny (two penny for the rich wargamers) bases.
 I meant to say a sprinkling of sand would make (most) of the joint lines disappear, also useful is some lichen.

[dinohunterpoa]

Dino I have run out of space in my small wargaming world, the town will have to be small, I will be strong.

Vagabond, when I was a kid my father had a Wild West town (for 40mm plastic figures) in a literal sandbox 6X4ft. The day come when we had to move to a bigger house, because the town was always increasing both in population and number of buildings!  


I suggest you to start with a small trading post: just kinda stagecoach overnight stop on the trail, with a general store, stables and simple hotel (for the passengers) with a bar (for the thirsty coachmen) and a blacksmith (for changing horseshoes). And some hookers, just for fun!  

[FifteensAway]

Re: turning circle.  Generally, the turning radius is pretty wide but I haven't been able to pin it down to a number and I'd guess it varies with number of animals pulling it (mules, horses, oxen, camels!, etc.).

However!  I've watched live competitions of wagon drivers handling four horse teams who managed some amazing feats that would be very familiar to modern truck drivers.  Of course, most of this involved backing into a rail to demonstrate how to prep a wagon for loading/unloading rather than making an actual turn around movement.

So, I'd say give a wagon double the length of the wagon AND its team as a minimum.  Yes, they can turn tighter than that but it involves more difficult maneuvers which the horses might not appreciate.

That should be pretty easy to translate in game modeling terms.  Hope that answers your question.

[Vagabond]

Cheers - thanks for this, I need to measure my waggons and team but I guess my 8" road width is a bit on the small side but I think I will stick with it.

Still can't make my mind up re the board so I've been refurbishing existing buildings without bases so still have the option to go modular.

[rebelyell2006]

I've been in some ghost towns in New Mexico, that started before the railroad.  Most of the Anglo towns and some of the Hispano towns were laid out on one "street", with structures arranged on both sides of that.  The street was just a dirt expanse along a trail or pathway from one town to another, and the structures were mostly associated with business or administration in the center (with houses on the end or in a separate row behind the first, or living areas inside those merchant shops in the back).  Some Hispano towns were set up as fortified plazas, with the houses and businesses together in the plaza, with an opening on two sides for the road.  Other houses and businesses would be arranged either in streets or in a haphazard manner outside of the plaza.  The streets in Las Vegas outside of the plaza were set up after the railroad arrived but before automobiles arrived, so they were still laid out with wagons and horses in mind.  Most of those streets in the older districts are wide enough for cars traveling in both directions, along with enough space for parallel parking on both sides and some sidewalk space.  In the abandoned ghost towns, there is barely enough space for two modern vehicles to pass through, without any sidewalks or parking.  In Loma Parda, there is only enough space for one modern vehicle, with foot traffic on either side; someone driving a modern car through that town would have to back up and pull over to allow oncoming traffic in that town.

You have to decide how a town started in order to determine arrangement.  Some towns started because a trail passed through, and someone decided that there were enough small farmers and ranchers in a five-mile radius to set up a merchant shop.  Some towns started because they had a land grant, and a town plaza was required to keep the grant.  Some towns started around a wealthy landowner's house.  One unifying feature of almost every town is that wagons and travelers will enter one side and exit on the opposite side, with minimal turns.  In most occupied towns, that primary street is typically called "Main Street" and is usually a state or federal highway.  As for ghost towns, I have seen a few references to those primary streets also being called "Main Street", and the roads that still exist to those towns are usually unpaved county or private roads leading from one town to another.

You should definitely go with modular.  What if you decide a plaza arrangement would be more interesting for a game instead of a simple one-road town?

[Vagabond]

Rebelyell - thanks for your comprehensive post.

Roads seem to be 4 lanes plus sidewalks max so 4 x 8' apx 32' plus say 6' = 36' for ease = 6 x 6' man = 6 x 30mm = 180mm apx 7 to 8" very roughly, which is close enough to 15saway thoughts on a waggon length as a sort of max.

The difference you describe between an Anglo and Hispano town development is interesting, do you think a small town would comprise different building structures, eg wood planking as well as Adobe or would they tend to be predominantly one material.
Also for Adobe would it all be mud coloured, a sort of dun/ochre or were they White washed?

In theory I don't think I am in favour of a single street because of the tactical limitations for a game and I like the plaza idea but do you think it will give a dead area in the center of the table due to its size and the fact I am only using a small board.

The general consensus seems to be modular, but I have only seen bunker monkey use what I would describe as a modular set up, if I go that way I will not need a textured board just a table

Regarding town development I am very taken with developing on a game I posted a little while ago based on a stage coach change over station and building the town as an enlargement of the way station. It sort of gives a reason for the next building, rather than have a list of buildings to produce. A bit of a fancy I know.

Plenty of food for thought.

Thanks for your input
Cheers