"Making a river - step by step" Topic

I've started making river sections for my wargames table because frankly bits of chopped up blue felt simply weren't cutting it anymore. The difficulty lies in the fact that I play hex games and each piece needs to fit that, which means that the measurements and such need to be quite precise.

I've posted about this before, but after getting some questions about the process I decided that a step by step tutorial would be better.

I've posted the first half of a tutorial here.

link

And you can see a few pictures of my first experiment here.

link

Part two, which will cover water effects and making bends will be up shortly.

I have had my best results by using the technique mentioned in response to your first effort. I quote:

jmilesr said…
Another option to consider is clear plastic sheet (polycarbonate or polystyrene). It's relatively inexpensive when bought in large sheet (2'x4' or larger) and has lots of hobby uses. We use for prototyping on my son's robotics team so I've got lots of scraps to use.

For river sections, I use essentially your method for the banks, but just paint the underside of the plastice the river color I want and then I'm done. Just remember to lightly sand the surface to be painted so the paint can adhere better,

good luck

I used it for a very large river (13" wide) and the effect was quite pleasing.
link

Hey 79,
where can I see more pictures o f that table? It looks awesome.
sky

Thanks! That's from my photobucket page: link

Pictures are from various sources/cameras, so the quality varies. I think the worst ones are the ones I took myself!

A friend and I have run that game at multiple HMGS East conventions the past couple years.

FirstVarty, was that the table at Historicon? If so, it looked amazing! I was impressed enough to take pictures (though I saw it only in passing).

Looks very impressive. I'm committed to the method I'm using at the moment, but I think your approach will be my first port of call when making larger pieces.

Yep, ran it and our Gettysburg game side by side 3 times each (once Friday, twice Saturday), plus my friend ran Burnside's Bridge an extra time Saturday night – he's a glutton for punishment!

We spent a lot of time researching the terrain, building it, and putting together special scenario rules. It's gone extremely well each time, though I think that it does favor the Union side.

There are a couple of key decisions that players make early in the game that tend to throw the game one way or the other, but we don't tell them what they are. I feel that it's better to have them figure it out themselves.

Great looking river, FirstVarty, but just a question about the groundscale? That could be one VERY wide river!

The width of the river is as much as it is because we actually ran it as a skirmish game, albeit, a large one, so all of the terrain is built to the scale of the figures, rather than in most games where it is condensed down. The Confederates got 105 figures to represent the roughly 250 defenders, and the Union got around 250 figures to represent the 1000+ on their side.

Truth be told, the entire game board's size was based upon the length of the (heavily modified) Hudson & Allen Bridge we used, which can span around a 13-14 inch gap.

Movement in the game system we use, Brother Against Brother, is 2d10 (3d10 on a road), so a wide river works okay, even at half speed for moving through water.