"Portable Terrain" Topic

So, I just finished my first table. 8x4 table set in France 44'…bocage and trees a plentiful. I quickly realized that if I wanted to pack up and bring my game to a shop that this wasn't going to work. Nothing about my table is portable.

So, I ask you TMP'ers who have made portable terrain….what sort of things have you made/bought that are portable. Were talking packing up and loading into your car in 10-15 minutes, tops.

I have a "map" already set. At my local Lowes I found a nice indoor/outdoor grass mat for $20. USD That will be my start.

Lots of ways. For really portable, paint your mat to include all roads and waterways. Hedges can be made in sections with a sturdy base and tossed into a bag. Usually I'd recommend scrubbing pads and craft sticks, suitably flocked and painted. Outline your woods on your mat, and make really sturdy individual trees. Depending on scale, golf tees and pom-poms our of craft shops--again, suitably painted and flocked with a card base--are light, portable and relatively sturdy. The best bridges for this sort of thing are resin or plastic. Well, the BEST bridges are vac-formed plastic, but they can be hard to find. Buildings depend on the rules used, but I'd say as a general rule, foamcore walls and a card roof. (Glued-on shingles strengthen the roof.) If you don't need interior floors, glue two walls together so they can be stacked more easily. When you unroll the mat, the house locations should be painted on. Just butt two L-shapes together and add a roof. Probably a good idea to number the pieces of each building. Ruins are a variation on the same principle. If you need hills, buy green foam in 1" sheets, cut to shape, paint and flock, and mark the outline on the board.

So roads and rivers are painted on the mat. Hedges and trees can be tossed into a large freezer bag. Buildings come in three pieces and can be stacked. Vac-formed bridges is possible. I'd recommend a cardboard box--or a gym bag with trees, hedges and mat on the outside and buildings and bridges in the center. Haven't done an 8X4, but I've set a 6x4 that way in well under 15 minutes. Takedown--except for troops--was less than that. When you finish the practice game--you WILL have a practice game, won't you?--time yourself, but pack everything from the practice game so you won't be short anything on the day.

Did I miss anything?

Ah. Good luck!

To do it in 15 minutes, you probably need preconfigured terrain boards.

I can do it in 30-45 minutes. All of my terrain areas are defined by decorated cloth pieces and rubber roads/streams, similar to what Mark Luther achieves, but without glue (and so far without chalk roads/towns, but I like that idea a lot). I lay out all the flexible pieces on the terrain cloth at home, then roll it up for transport. At the destination, I unroll the cloth onto the table, reposition the roads, rivers, fields, town areas, forest floors, etc. that shifted (unnecessary if you glue it down like Mark Luther does), place the hills underneath, and decorate with 3D items (trees, lichen, buildings, bridges, fences, hedges, fortifications, etc.). I try to mount 3D pieces in multiples when possible (clumps of multiple trees, pre-configured orchards, lengths of fence and hedge, etc.).

- Ix

I cover the table with a cloth cover. That's very portable. I just stuff it into a bag so that while it may have natural fold and wrinkles, it won't have artificial even creases.

Rivers are blue cloth strips.

Hills are usually flat soft foam. They're unbreakable and crushable.

Buildings are made from boxes and they nest, if not perfectly.

Trees and the like go into shoe-box sized plastic bins and they get dinged up a little, and I repair then when I can. I have old mouse pads and some pieces of cloth (including a brown cotton shirt that I had when I was a student) that I use to delineate forests, swamps, etc.

Ruins, rock formations, and other plaster things go into another shoe-box sized plastic bin, and get some foam wrap to protect them.

All of the above goes into a larger plastic bin (about 18 x 18 x 30 inches).

Vehicles get put in the bin where they're cushioned by the ground cloth and forest/swamp/etc. clothes.

Troops go into small plastic boxes, each holding on 25mm squad. They all fit into a larger plastic bin. That goes on top of the 18x18x30 bin.

Rules, play aids, counters, etc. go into a banker's box. That goes on top of the troops.

I put all of those things on a folding two-wheel cart designed for banker's boxes and roll to my car, from car to convention, etc.

I can set up a table for La Haye Sainte/Waterloo in 15 minutes. The table is expandable. I use Citadel battle mats x 2 for the first layer, teddybear fur for an overlay to provide fields and texture. The La Haye model is arranged on an mdf terrained board and finished off with the orchard trees/hedge and kitchen garden hedge. Quick to set up/take down. The following is a photo of a little board for a small game of Sharpe's Practice. Sorry for the poor lighting that causes the reflection on the road.

I can't resist :-). It is ours. Move in 30 seconds, goes fome complely flat up in a very short time and weighs very little and not too costly AND modular hills. You print it out on coloured card and spray if required.. Ideal for 20 to 32mm figures.

link

link

I know this is the Arab stuff but you get the idea. This lot came in a box not much bigger than an A4 sheet including the hills. Its a shot of a convention game we did this year. I can find a European shot perhaps if its of interest.

Ps. our recomendation is always 10 houses or more to get the right visual effect and make a better game. It starts to look like a village then. You can even stand 32mm figures on the first floor.