"Charasiab terrain preview" Topic

Made some progress on my Kabul River terrain-board, couldn't help myself from laying out a scratch version of the whole shebang to see how it looked and just put up a blog post about it.

Here's a pic of the table with notable terrain features annotated:

If you'd like to know more, please click here:

link

Thanks!

Where and when will the game be? :-)

Matthew

Well the waters of the Kabul River are also the wrong color, since they haven't been painted yet -- but thanks for the kind words, Terrement!

45thdiv: I hope to begin play-testing the scenario very soon. I still have a lot of work left to do on the terrain, but if forced to make a prediction I'd say it will be ready to roll in the Spring. I'll play it a couple of times at home with my kids and gaming buddies, then I may take it to a local con here in LA and/or one up in Northern California, where my good friend and partner-in-colonial-wargaming-madness Nick Stern lives and games. Finally -- if work, my wife, and life in general allow -- I hope to pack all the mountains and rivers up and drive Charasiab about 2000 miles East down the I-10 Freeway from Los Angeles "LA" to New Orleans "LA", for Colonial Barracks V in November 2015.

I did that with my "Maiwand Day" game back in 2011 for the first Colonial Barracks and it was one of the best convention experiences of my entire life, so I'm hoping to make a repeat performance. I know some of the good friends I made at that first-ever "The Sword And The Flame" con also plan to attend in 2015, so I really hope I can make it. The Broms have announced it will take place but haven't posted any dates yet, but it's still a year away.

Mad Guru – Looking Good! On your blog I noticed that you had mentioned purchasing a unit of the new Artizan 92nd Highlanders. Have you asked Artizan if they are going to produce a command unit to go with the two advancing Highlander sets? Also, I was going to construct a large mountain to span the 6 foot side of a table similar to what you are attempting. I had decided that it would be about 15 or 16 inches tall and would be used to refight Peiwar Kotal. I was going to make it about 24 inches in width with a plateau at the top for the Afghan defenders. Was able to get several pieces of large cork bark that I was going to cut up and use as rocky cliffs.This was two years ago and I think I may as well show you a pictures of my progress to date:

As you can see, raw cork bark still in the same spot on the bottom shelf where they were placed 2 years ago after getting them. Good Luck with your 6 foot mountain!

Thanks for your kind words, and holy-mackeral, Bob, that pic of yours looks JUST LIKE my garage!!!

No, I haven't actually bought the Artizan 92nd Highlanders yet, but I plan to do so very soon. I've also heard -- I think right here on TMP and from Nick, the boss at North Star -- that the Command pack for the Highlanders is already somewhere in the pipeline and is supposed to be available before Christmas. Once they release that Highland Command pack -- which hopefully will include a piper -- I will place my order.

The dilemma I'm having now with my 2 giant pieces of cork bark (I cut it down into two matching 14" high x 15" or 16" wide pieces) is whether to turn them into a single "bespoke" terrain piece that perfectly fits my Charasiab lay-out or -- as I had originally planned -- to make a pair of matching steep cliff-faces which I can then fit together side-by-side for the Charasiab lay-out BUT which could also be rearranged and fit seamlessly back-to-back in order to create a similar -- though smaller -- version of your Peiwar Kotal mountaintop. Mine will total out at only 30" or 32" wide with the two pieces laid end-to-end, or just 15" or 16" back-to-back.

Problem is I can only fit an absolute maximum 8" deep terrain piece between the edge of the table and the bank of the Logar River, so I originally planned to make these pieces only 6" deep -- but the pieces turned out to be even bigger, which could be great for other games where they'd play a more important role. Anyhow, I will figure it out sooner or later, as I'm sure you will too! I would really love to see the mountain range you could build using all those pieces of cork bark you have stacked on that bottom shelf…

BTW, have you been following Eric The Shed's Desert Boards with the Rocky Escarpments? The escarpments use cork bark in a way very similar to what you and I are planning. They're not quite so high but they're still amazing. If you haven't seen them I encourage you to check them out, here:

link

Well, Bob, your last comment and pic inspired me to retrieve my own oversized cork bark pieces from my garage and see how they look in place…

Not too shabby -- but I still face a bit of a challenge getting them to fit in the space available between the river and the table edge, especially as I plan to use a styrofoam base contour on top of a Masonite baseboard like on all my rocky wood-chip hills, to help them blend into the ground-cover and the rest of my terrain.

Turns out the shorter piece is 14" tall but the taller one is more like 16", which needless to say makes both of them taller than anything else on my tabletop.

They might be just too unstable with the height to base depth ratio. You might have to use some C clamps or something similar placed on the table edge. You could oversize the masonite base on the table edge slightly and clamp it down to the tabletop. Somewhat unsightly, but not visible to the troops on the table, only their giant, big-handed masters.It will be a challenge but they fit very nicely with your wood chip mountains.