"Hoth ice planet terrain mat / board?" Topic

I'm trying to decide on which terrain mat or board to buy (along with some hills) that would best simulate the surface of Hoth (Star Wars), and I'm hoping to get some advice here.

The main contenders so far are a winter mat from the Terrain Guy:

link

Or an Icelands tabletop from War-Zone:

link

I really like the look of the Terrain Guy's mats in general and am encouraged by the positive reviews I've seen, so I already plan to buy a green mat and possibly a desert mat from him. However, his winter mats seem to have dirt showing through the snow – which makes sense for Earth, but not for Hoth.

Because of this, I'm leaning towards an Icelands tabletop from War-Zone instead, but I'm open to suggestions or recommendations, including other companies I might not have considered.

Please don't suggest just using a white sheet or similar though – I intend to buy a purpose-made wargaming surface for this project.

Thanks!

Since you want pre-made a combination of the above would work. I would go with the winter mat from Terrain Guy and items like this: link from the War-Zone:

Take a look at the pictures here:

perso.freelug.org/jlb/Hoth

I think you could come up with a reasonable approximation by doing as I suggest above.

t.w.

I suspect the Terrain Guy will do a custom dirt-free winter map for you if you ask.

Thanks for the link to those pictures Thomas. And yes, I really like the look of those hills from War-Zone, moreso than the Terrain Guy's hills for this particular purpose.

rorrim – I hadn't thought of that, what a dope I am! Thanks for the tip.

Take a look at this picture:

link

To simulate that, take the Terrain guy mat and lay it out. Leave wrinkles and all. Then take a small amount of gravel and sprinkle it over the mat. Follow this by taking baking soda and sprink it over the gravel and dirt areas.

Mind you, that may seem messy but it does clean up easy. And over time as you do this, stuff ends up sticking to the matt and gives it depth.

t.w.

The mats from theTerrainguy are great. If you need something custom just ask Allen about it and he is normally very very helpful.

Jeff

I use the Icelands terrain from War-Zone on a white sheet (would prefer a flocked sheet). Here is a picture from my Hoth game: link

Lost Pict

Nice looking game LostPict.

Cheers
Mark

Thanks for the link to your photos Lost Pict, that's exactly the sort of gaming I want to be doing! What size table is that? It looks pretty huge. Just earlier today I was trying to figure out what the minimum table size ought to be to make effective use of an AT-AT.

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice.

Hello.

I may have missed it--and I am admittedly no Star Wars player--but what scale are we talking here?

Parmenion,

The table is 4 of those fold up banquest tables arranged to make a 12 x 6 playing surface. Anything shorter and the AT-AT moves to fast to make the game balanced.

The scale of my Star Wars minis is roughly 28mm with various things from WOTC, Kenner, Galoob, and anything else Star Wars that looks about right.

I decided that one AT-AT would be plenty for the kind of game I wanted to play. The scenario pitted two infantry platoons (one in the AT-AT), a scout platoon (with AT-ST, Speederbikes, and Probe Droids) and an AT-AT against four infantry platoons, 6 Snowspeeders, a scout platoon on Taun-Tauns, and the emplaced artillery. The Imperials had to maneuver through unexpected crevasses, land mines, and a abominable snowman or two. We used the Rolling Hot rules from the London Warlords modified for Star Wars. Lots of fun!

I am glad the Ice Lands are back, mine were the last set before he reintroduced them. At some point, I will go back for more, plus make some more scenic placements for the artillery.

If anyone is interested, I can send them more details off-line.

Lost Pict

Sounds great, Lost Pict. My armies are made up from the old WEG miniatures, though unfortunately as far as Hoth-specific forces go I only have about 30 snowtroopers and half that many Echo Base troopers. I've got plenty of vehicle support though, in the form of WEG speeder bikes and snowspeeders, Action Fleet AT-STs and a WOTC AT-AT (which I actually think scales better to WEG infantry than WOTC). I might also base some of my other rebels and imperials on snow bases to bolster my Hoth armies.

The rebel base scenery models you used are from the old Micro Collection range, aren't they? I need to get some of that stuff. It's also a good sources for Wampas, as these were sadly omitted from the WEG range.

Parmenion,

Send me an email jimmyclone AT yahoo DOT com and I will send you the scenario stuff we use.

The Base is indeed the Kenner Micro stuff. It took me a fair bit of time to get the sets I wanted from E-bay for a reasonable price. From those sets, the old lead minis are a perfect match with the 30mm WOTC. I use them as the artillery crews. I have several metal Taun Tauns plus various characters that I used from those sets. Matter of fact at Cold Wars this year, someone sold me about 50 of the rebel blokes for $20. USD He was pleased to unload them and I was pleased to find them.

Since I ran this game, WOTC has come out with even more Hoth usable stuff which I need to work into the mix.

All lots of fun recreating a "historic" battle from Star Wars.

Lost Pict