How to depict forests?

[racm32]

Hello all. For some of my games I want to depict portions of the table as part of a forest. To do this I have taken a strip of brown felt and added a little bit of paint to it then placed my trees on it. While it works mechanically I am not satisfied with it aesthetically. I'd love to see some of the solutions you bright chaps have come up with.

[NickNascati]

That is pretty much what I do.  A piece of brown or green felt with a few tress scattered around.  You have to compromise,  too many trees and it becomes difficult to move figures through the area.  I’m pretty sure that is the route most gamers take.

[N.C.S.E]

I fear that's the best you can do really without losing all flexibility. Probably could add more trees, but pretty soon you'd run into the problems Nick describes. Possibly include more logs and other randomness rather than just trees?

[Roo]

How about a more solid lines of trees and scrub at the edge of your brown felt on the non forest side (just for clarity).  Movement in the wood is simpler and from both table edges you get the feeling of a mass of trees.

[Dr. Zombie]

I think that what you have done is the most practical. If you want to improve on it add som bushes and all manner of scatter as well. Also your trees are a bit on the small side for 28mm miniatures.

[v_lazy_dragon]

We usually mark forest out with a border of lichen, then lob lots of singly based trees in the area. Just shimmy the trees around to allow access to the figures/movement.
There are some fairly decent model railway trees available cheaply from China if you want to bulk out the woods a bit.

[carlos marighela]

I vaguely remember seeing the use of 2D printed cardboard trees some years back. It lacks the aesthetics of decent, well made, terrain but it does have the utility of clearly marking out a forest or wooded area whilst not taking up as much room. It’s the canopy that takes up the space and gets in the way with troop placement. Not so much if the trees are a couple of millimetres wide.

Personally I’m more inclined to stick with lichen borders and scattered trees. You’ll need something to mark boundaries for line of sight purposes anyway.

[has.been]

One possible that would look nicer:-
Have two outlines for your woods, one in 5mm MDF & one in cloth etc.
The MDF one will be on table & will look like a proper wood. The cloth one
is kept off table. If/when a unit moves into the wood it is removed from the
table & placed on the cloth. You can include local rules about when/if they
can emerge from the wood.

Warning note. It has been known for a commander to completely forget
that the unit is hiding in the wood. On one notable game there was a
heartfelt cry from a WW2 British commander who only remembered his
PIAT team when packing away. For nearly half the game a Tiger tank
had been backed up to that particular wood.

[racm32]

Generally it sounds like I'm on the right path. Any suggestions for improving the forest ground look? I think that might help the atheistic a lot more then what I am currently using.

How about a more solid lines of trees and scrub at the edge of your brown felt on the non forest side (just for clarity).  Movement in the wood is simpler and from both table edges you get the feeling of a mass of trees.

We usually mark forest out with a border of lichen, then lob lots of singly based trees in the area. Just shimmy the trees around to allow access to the figures/movement.
There are some fairly decent model railway trees available cheaply from China if you want to bulk out the woods a bit.

I like this idea and have several bags of lichen I can try it with.

One possible that would look nicer:-
Have two outlines for your woods, one in 5mm MDF & one in cloth etc.
The MDF one will be on table & will look like a proper wood. The cloth one
is kept off table. If/when a unit moves into the wood it is removed from the
table & placed on the cloth. You can include local rules about when/if they
can emerge from the wood.

Warning note. It has been known for a commander to completely forget
that the unit is hiding in the wood. On one notable game there was a
heartfelt cry from a WW2 British commander who only remembered his
PIAT team when packing away. For nearly half the game a Tiger tank
had been backed up to that particular wood.

An interesting idea that might work on smaller playing areas but could be problematic when your table is 6x4 and the forest takes up 1/3-1/2 of it.

[Rick F]

Like this but it's expensive, time consuming and takes up all the space in your deployment bag. Stuck for trees, on a budget or stuck in the middle of nowhere on deployment, I'll generally use a dark green piece of felt and randomly put trees on like you already have.

[racm32]

Like this but it's expensive, time consuming and takes up all the space in your deployment bag. Stuck for trees, on a budget or stuck in the middle of nowhere on deployment, I'll generally use a dark green piece of felt and randomly put trees on like you already have.

I love that. I wont be playing much if any on this deployment, just painting. I'm more asking because if Feb, after I get back, I'll be running a Muskets & Tomahawks 2 demo game and really want a knock out board. So looks like I need more and bigger individual trees and some based together in line, as well as a bag or two of lichen.

[Digits]

Buy a railway backscene depicting forest.  That way, you can get away with few trees on the table looking like a glade in a larger forest.  Very atmospheric.

[racm32]

Buy a railway backscene depicting forest.  That way, you can get away with few trees on the table looking like a glade in a larger forest.  Very atmospheric.

Interesting idea but could limit table accessibility.

[has.been]

An interesting idea that might work on smaller playing areas but could be problematic when your table is 6x4 and the forest takes up 1/3-1/2 of it.

Even better. Divide your 'forest' into smaller 'woods' . These woods can be deployed:  separately, together or
with a gap between (represents tracks/ roads etc.). When you have a 'forest' (several 'woods' together) and
a unit moves into the wood, simply randomize (dice etc.) which is the next bit of wood they move into. They could
end up going round in circles, completely lost in the forest.

[Billchuck]

Another option is to make forest floor pieces, each with several tree trunks attached.  Then make forest canopy pieces to match the floor pieces, with clump foliage to show the treetops.  When a unit is under a piece of canopy, remove it so you can see the unit and move it around.  When it moves on, put the canopy piece back.