Thoughts on medieval terrain (UPDATE 1st January)

[OSHIROmodels]

That looks good 

I think a few bits of low scrub here and there would work quite well.

cheers

James

[Globlin]

Regarding Tewkesbury, there was Tewkesbury park on the Yorkist left where the "Yorkist spears" hid. Possibly a deer park, so could the hedges have been there to stop the game from wandering? There were also fish ponds between the abbey and the back of the Lancastrian lines - apparently fish ponds were quite common in medieval times?

[Hu Rhu]

Nice start to your terrain boards, especially the sunken road.  Are you using straight blue foam without a base board? If so how does it stay un-warped?

[Charlie_]

Nice start to your terrain boards, especially the sunken road.  Are you using straight blue foam without a base board? If so how does it stay un-warped?

Thanks!
No, I've gone for 20mm thick blue foam on a 9mm MDF baseboard, with battens around the edges of the foam to keep it getting chipped.
And for the flat boards with no sunken features, I just use the 9mm MDF with the battens underneath, no foam, but giving the same height.

[Charlie_]

I think a few bits of low scrub here and there would work quite well.

Actually after taking those pics, I tried out just throwing some loose clumps of lichen around the edges of the tree / hedge bases. Works really well to hide the base edges, thicken everything up, and tie everything together. I think I'll keep a box of loose lichen handy for every game, and hope that it doesn't get everywhere!

[Captain Blood]

Really nice Charlie. Agree that a little scatter material really helps knit everything together. Looking forward to seeing more 

[Unlucky General]

I suppose the broad question is what sort of base terrain are you thinking of building on.

I am using several types depending upon what battlefield type I want to represent. Depth is a real issue and I think if you need to go down in depth you can't go past terrain boards. I find the best water systems are depicted in depth. But if you have any specific battlefield you want to replicate, then cloth draped over foam hills can be spectacularly effective for rolling hills. You can plonk on whatever features you want either way.

I have built one battlefield using synthetic fur and foam boards for a specific medieval battlefield but it is rigid in that it is what it is - and transportable it is not.

A great piece of advice I have always remembered - nature generally abhors a straight line.

I think forests can be fought in but the forest limits are best defined by a base on which tree and brush stands can be moved about on allowing figures to be moved through it.

[3 fingers]

Would evil lanes be foot paths through dense undergrowth,maybe they had to backtrack or got ambushed a lot??

[Gracchus Armisurplus]

You can get tablets for that! 

!

[Arlequín]

Would evil lanes be foot paths through dense undergrowth,maybe they had to backtrack or got ambushed a lot??

Maybe. I'm guessing 'rough', 'poor going', or 'uneven' was meant, or even 'evil-looking'. A series of tracks connecting various copses, closes, water meadows and whatever, would certainly be confusing to outsiders and would also provide the concealment needed. Gaps in the landscape known as 'rides' are relatively recent (within 300 years or so), but they often replace previous networks of tracks.

[Arlequín]

That's pretty evil-looking to me and certainly pretty much what I was picturing in my head, although somewhat less dense; like this one.



Which is pretty much what Charlie is pulling off with his rather splendid board.

But yes, sunken lanes, hollow ways or holloways, works for me. Certainly until something like that opened out into a meadow, nobody would see you coming.

'Evil lanes' comes from a description of the Battle of Tewkesbury;

"In the front of their field were so evil lanes, and deep dykes, so many hedges, trees and bushes, that it was right hard to approach them near..."  

I've never come across it otherwise either.

[Captain Blood]

I've always thought Graham Turner's gorgeous painting of Edward IV descending the hedgerow bank into a sunken ditch or lane, summed up the higgledy-piggledy nature of the battlefield rather well.

I have this print in all its glory hanging on my wall 

Possibly a bit sanitised... But bearing in mind the artist is a renowned medieval re-enactor as well as a top illustrator, and with a long connection to the annual Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, he ought to know his stuff...

[OSHIROmodels]

Possibly a bit sanitised...

Yeah, the look on that fellas face bottom left certainly doesn't say "I'm gonna get stabbed!" 

Lovely painting though 

cheers

James

[jamesmanto]

I think your boards are off to a GRAND start.
I like your tree bases too. Those will line a lane or field quite splendidly!

[Charlie_]

Yeah, the look on that fellas face bottom left certainly doesn't say "I'm gonna get stabbed!" 

Yes I've noticed the same chap as well and found him quite funny!

I think your boards are off to a GRAND start.
I like your tree bases too. Those will line a lane or field quite splendidly!

Thanks!

Currently I have 4 foot square of open land (one 2x4 and two 2x2s), one 2x4 with a plain boring straight road, and the two I posted above (the one with the ditch is being flocked and finished tonight, I'll post a pic).

So enough for a battlefield for sure!
I have a river planned, complete with ford, and several 2x3 boards with a narrow winding stream (perhaps with wetland) that can branch off from the larger river of just come from the table edge. But I've yet to experiment with water effects, so that can wait til some time in the future. For now I'm enjoying the roads and lanes... I think I'll do another sunken section with some sunken paths leading off from the main track.