Editor in Chief Bill | 06 May 2017 9:50 p.m. PST |
In general, what is the best color for a wargaming battlefield to be used with Ancients? * verdant green * tan * sandy brown * dead grass yellow etc. |
Nexusstevie | 07 May 2017 1:05 a.m. PST |
Surely that would depend on the theatre of battle, e.g. Northern Italy, Greece, Africa, Britain, etc. Do you mean one specific region? |
Jcfrog | 07 May 2017 1:57 a.m. PST |
South med was less arid than today. remember many of those places were the major grain producers. Way less populated, not yet misused. Not so many desertic places to fight as most gamers think. Then how would they feed the tens of thousands in each army? |
BigRedBat | 07 May 2017 2:43 a.m. PST |
In the past I played all my battles on the old GW green flocked mats- now I use terrain cloths and have five or six different options (With more coming up as new mats come out). I usually make the bases of troops from more arid regions a bit less heavily flocked, and pile the green flock onto bases of Northern European types. |
Editor in Chief Bill | 07 May 2017 3:28 a.m. PST |
Do you mean one specific region? I mean if you could only have one color, what would it be? |
BigRedBat | 07 May 2017 3:58 a.m. PST |
That would depend on one's armies- if one had Romans and Britons, one would want green. If Romans and Sassanids you'd want a much more arid surface. |
alien BLOODY HELL surfer | 07 May 2017 4:26 a.m. PST |
A bright fluorescent pink. |
etotheipi | 07 May 2017 4:36 a.m. PST |
Red with the blood of my enemies! :) But if I only had one color, a slightly muted basic green. Like the green in the box of crayons that has eight flavors, but with slightly less saturation. Most of my ancients armies have Folk Art Canela flesh and white, various greys, or muted browns as clothing on solid black bases. Muted green provides a reasonable contrast to the figures, allowing them to be visible, but still easy on the eyes to see. |
Axebreaker | 07 May 2017 5:31 a.m. PST |
Using a cloth material I would go with tan with with a few layers of greens and browns sprayed over the top. Simply add more rocks and dried vegetation when fighting arid and more trees, fields and full vegetation when fighting in less arid ground. Christopher |
williamb | 07 May 2017 8:45 a.m. PST |
Since most battles were fought near water or cultivated areas it would be green with some dirt patches. By being near water I don't necessarily mean there would be a waterway on the battle field just that the army needs water. Some of the successor battles were dusty or sandy. |
TKindred | 07 May 2017 9:34 a.m. PST |
I prefer a tan/arid base color, then add fields, grassy areas, etc, from there. I like the look of it overall, as I think that it tends to highlight the colors of the minis better than the greens and browns I have used in the past. |
Marshal Mark | 07 May 2017 12:05 p.m. PST |
Using a cloth material I would go with tan with with a few layers of greens and browns sprayed over the top That's what I have for my ancients games. |
Rich Bliss | 07 May 2017 12:30 p.m. PST |
I have a cloth which is what I consider a nice dry grass green. I over spray wit a variety of different greens and browns. It doesn't grab the eye like some green cloths do and it matches my basic base turf well. |
Piquet Rules | 07 May 2017 4:06 p.m. PST |
From some of the competition games I saw at past conventions, I'd say a likely candidate is folding table top brown. |
Khusrau | 07 May 2017 4:06 p.m. PST |
Relatively few battles were fought outside fertile areas. In period much of the area now the Middle East was known as the fertile crescent, with major sophisticated irrigation works across the Persian empire. I would be inclined to use a slightly dried grass colour, suitable for campaigning season on the med. The only locations not suitable would be parts of the British Isles and Northern Europe in damp summers, which could be brilliant green. |
piper909 | 07 May 2017 11:08 p.m. PST |
Tricky! I have wrangled with this question myself, since I want my quasi-generic early imperial Roman army able to fight opponents from Asia Minor to the Atlas Mtns, from the Rhine to the Tyne, from Alexandria to Argentoratum. I will probably default to a sort of earthern green as an uneasy compromise with reality. |
goragrad | 07 May 2017 11:24 p.m. PST |
And then there is India. Or the Steppes. Or China. In those irrigated areas though I am guessing that it would not be dissimilar to the field/pasture I was in Saturday in SW Colorado – step over the ditch and the little hill next to it was sage brush, rocks, and random patches of bunch grass. So even there the transition can be a knife edge. Carrhae definitely gets tan/brown though… |
Benvartok | 09 May 2017 1:08 a.m. PST |
I like the deep dark green of the club cloths. There is an amazing contrast with the particle board that shows through the moth holes and tears. In addition the stains from spilt coca cola and KFC fat add flavour to the experience….. |
MichaelCollinsHimself | 09 May 2017 1:47 a.m. PST |
By far the best serious answers to date: Jcfrog & Khusrau. …although I do warm to the thought KFC fat and the more colourful responses.
actually just a test game played on the dining table cover :) |
Jcfrog | 10 May 2017 4:19 a.m. PST |
You can claim lateritic soil, maybe;) |
x42brown | 10 May 2017 4:45 a.m. PST |
" if just one the foreground right hand tiles x42 |
Battle Cry Bill | 11 May 2017 6:43 a.m. PST |
When doing some terrain boards for an ancients tournament (trying to go against the impression that Piquet Rules mentions) I posed this question a couple of places and it does seem to run to taste and to very specific locations as well as to how one has based their figures. One response even referenced dirt gathered from a number of ancient battlefields and blended to come up with a color. I know from my ACW battlefield tromping, dirt can be very different in color. It is pretty easy to spend a bit of time on line to get a sense of the color of the dirt and foliage. looking at, for example, area walking tours of the Holy Land or google maps (try Guadalcanal). As to a standad cloth, our group seemed to like a color called Reets Relish, a lighter green, after about a year of trying out a bunch of things we all had bought separately. I'm on a kick to dress up ancients and medieval battlefeilds with decorative terrain such as grass tufts, rocks, and scatter. I don't think it has to be boring, but they did tend to fight on flat ground. Bill |
JJartist | 12 May 2017 2:28 p.m. PST |
I have the plains version of this: link I like it, but I think I should have gone with the Russian Steppes…. it seems like a good base tone that one can then build up from. Seems like it would work from Raphia to Cannae with the right dressings… |
BigRedBat | 13 May 2017 1:12 a.m. PST |
Well if I had to force myself to pick one, I'd go with this one which I designed for Raphia- it's called Sagebrush steppe. It does for most wargaming places that aren't a verdant green.
link |