"Basing for Crusader era terrain" Topic

I have never created bases reflecting Crusaders in Turkey or the Middle East. I have read that most of the battles took place in rich, alluvial valleys but arid terrain. So are we talking dark soil with grass or what? I am considering using some sort of wall plaster as the initial ground layer.

So any suggestions for creaing nice bases reflecting terrain in Turkey and Middle East? PS, I am basing 10mm miniatures.

Have a look at some satellite photos e.g.
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of the area around Hattin.
Antioch looks a bit darker in places but pale in others.
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Even dark soil can often appear much lighter once it dries out so the top layer may be much paler than the stuff underneath.
There is also the 'what looks right' effect.

I only know about the geography of Israel, so this only pertains to Israel.
One thing to remember is the further north one goes the better watered, and the higher up one goes the better watered. Hattin is in Galilee and it is north, and high so the area will have more plant life.
It also depends on the time of the year. There is no rain from May through October. Any rain in May and October will be very light. Green begins to appear in November, and December in the south.
There are also several types of soil. Depending upon what makes up the soil. If you have a specific area that you are interested in I can look up what type of rock, and soil is present.
For around Jerusalem the soil is light brown.
The Golan heights is darker brown.

God Bless you

I'd go with cork mats and wild tan grasses here and there. Stones aplenty. Maybe some green fields every so often. I'd wager the areas we are looking at now are far better supplied with water than they truly would have been.

Following on to Swampster's suggestion, this looks like an interesting exercise:

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You don't think you might possibly have gotten carried away with the cross-posting, do you?

Allen

Discussing how to model Middle East DIRT, using satellite photos! Is there ANYWHERE in the world that you could find a weirder collection of geeks than on this forum? Perhaps only another wargamer forum….

Thanks all for the ideas and suggestions. I will digest everything and take the plunge.

This chap has some very nice looking Crusades stuff on his blog- No idea how accurate it is, but it looks great, and in the end, who cares?
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Wow,those are some beautiful armies. I do like the basing as well. The patches of bare ground with some rocks mixed with patches of grass seems the best generic approach.

Having been to israel a few years back the one thing that absolutely stuck as an image in my mind is rocks… The entire country is just flooded with rocks! Imagine someone building piles of stone across the entire country and then an earthquake spreading them all over the place.

So I guess putting plenty of rocks around with tufts of grass will be a good way to go. Athough you have to remind yourself that the israelies irrigated the whole country in the past 80 years, so my guess is that it would have looked a bit more arid back then (if you check WW1 photo's of the region you will notice it was a bit more dusty there than today).

Déjà vu and thread necromancy in the same place at the same time. Weird. TMP is a weird, silly place.

I still feel the same way: this kind of geeky discussion is only found amongst war gamers.

As for the topic: if one must "decorate" bases with tufts of "ground" (as compared to simply painting them a nice, neutral tertiary color), "rocks" certainly evoke the Middle East generally.

What are you going to do when your army enters a lush, heavily cultivated valley, in the spring time? Repaint all your minis' bases before you continue the campaign?…

Yes sorry, I got carried away scrolling through the posts :)

I think the basing is more for diorama and glass cabinet effect than for 'simulating' the actual current ground they walk on.

Indeed a base with grass and mud will look silly when the model is on the top of the tower defending his little tuft of grass on an otherwise stone floor.

But then again, any way you do or do not paint a base will look silly depending on the gaming table or the location of the mini. Even a neutral color like brown or grey or green will look silly when contrasted with a stone, sand or cobblestone floor.

Basing is just to make the mini a mini-diorama, and I myself find that very satisfying :) My minis will look good even when the gaming table is horrible (or absent) :P

Nonetheless, I do feel a bit guilty, if an OCD gamer reads this thread and now no longer can play with satisfaction, simply because "we" put the idea into his head that his bases look silly in every situation but the singular setting that his "mini diorama" bases are created for: and now, he must repaint them before each game; or worse yet, have on hand a set of otherwise identical figures that get swapped for the "correct" basing, as they enter the various types of "ground"….

Can I offer an example – As a 10mm user I typoically use sand and grit for base (plus cat litter for big rocks)

Liberally paint in Snakebite Leather. then dry brush with bleached bone. Add static grass. Seems to workd for most arid zones.

Example is Colinial General but it does work

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Eric

Apologies

Must sort out spelling….

Hey Just visiting, excuse me for the maybe silly question, but what is a OCD gamer?

For the basing problem, just mount your figures on rare earth magnets and switch bases when entering different terrain ^.^

Problem solved!