Arteis02 | 30 Jun 2017 3:16 p.m. PST |
Have you noticed how often our wargames tables are set out so all the terrain is in straight lines or at perfect right angles? Buildings are often placed geometrically at the same angle, no matter where hey are on the table. If there are fenced fields, they too are at the same exact angle. Most of our roads run straight as a die. Our miniature villages are often laid out in a carefully geometric crossroads, with buildings and walls at exact right angles to each other. Yet in real life, buildings and fences face randomly, roads often are winding, and villages (especially in Europe) are all sorts of higgledy-piggledy layouts. Note: Our miniature forests often break this 'straight lines' pattern, however. They are more often round or irregular, whereas you hardly ever see them with the straight edges they would likely have if the forest was located alongside a cultivated field. |
Arteis02 | 30 Jun 2017 3:20 p.m. PST |
Rats, I do so hate posting messages on TMP They take AGES to load, and then you end up accidentally reposting the same message three times. Must be a really creaky system holding this altogether … |
robert piepenbrink | 30 Jun 2017 3:51 p.m. PST |
Never had any trouble myself. Just hit "post" and wait. As for the terrain --winding roads are mostly hill country. Otherwise, usually straight point to point, and a wargame board is seldom a vast chunk of real estate. Woods are usually rounded on top hills and with straight lines in farm country. in my experience wargame boards tend to match. And unless you're doing a skirmish game, terrain is mostly a simplification and abstraction. The stray bits of fence or half-filled ditches are factored into terrain penalties, and four buildings in a fixed relationship to the crossroad and a 10 casting capacity are a lot less fuss than a 15, a 12, an 8 and a 7 at slightly different distances and angles. Put the buildings down at random and see how long it takes for someone to complain that it favors the other side. Use a stopwatch. There is a tendency toward symmetry in tournament play. Perhaps you've been playing too many tournament games? |
Extra Crispy | 30 Jun 2017 4:01 p.m. PST |
In part because terrain makers rately make fence corners or intersections in anything ither than 90 degrees! |
Cacique Caribe | 30 Jun 2017 5:23 p.m. PST |
It must be a form of communication. :) Dan
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Swampster | 30 Jun 2017 5:44 p.m. PST |
"As for the terrain --winding roads are mostly hill country. Otherwise, usually straight point to point, and a wargame board is seldom a vast chunk of real estate." That depends a great deal on the history of an area. See for example the area around Colchester in England. link I chose it because the land is pretty flat and it has been cultivated for a long time. Roads here generally follow the routes which have been established for many centuries, In some parts of the UK, roads which were once pretty much straight Roman roads meandered as Medieval settlements grew close to but not on always the road. |
ordinarybass | 30 Jun 2017 6:47 p.m. PST |
I live in Chicago. Everything is on a grid. Isn't it that way everywhere?…. ;-) |
Cerdic | 01 Jul 2017 12:07 a.m. PST |
Depends where in the world you are! Most roads in Britain, except for modern Motorways (freeways), are definitely NOT straight point to point! They meander about all over the place. I suspect that a lot of Europe is similar once you leave the modern main roads…. |
Frederick | 02 Jul 2017 5:55 a.m. PST |
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Herkybird | 02 Jul 2017 12:32 p.m. PST |
It is a great challenge to us to make asymmetric terrain. I think the problem stems from the fact we tend to play on rectangular tables, and our brains instinctively like symmetry! |
Jcfrog | 03 Jul 2017 1:31 a.m. PST |
As said, we have little curves in our storage. Many wargamers also use a flat earth battlefield. It is quicker to set one 30 cm fence piece than three 10cm ones. But yes you are right. i try not to have all straight and certainly do not put buildings in a US town way….unless it is a Us(cs) town. |
etotheipi | 03 Jul 2017 6:46 a.m. PST |
-t depends on the environment. One way I got past the "corner angle dilemma" for castles is to use round towers for the corner. For fence bases, I tend to bevel the ends into 45 degree slants. That way I don't need corner pieces, and I can do any >90 degree angle. Most of my Cthulu and alien stuff is based so you can't lay it out in grids. I guess the big thing is think about how you base (or more generally, footprint) your terrain bits. Roads are the most difficult, I think. Non-planned city roads go from point to point along easy travel routes, then get filled in with other buildings. Making terrain, once you cut such a road, it probably only works (or works well) for one specific layout. Gridded, straight roads are by their nature more modular. |
UshCha | 03 Jul 2017 11:35 a.m. PST |
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Bashytubits | 03 Jul 2017 1:48 p.m. PST |
Because straight lines are sexy and cut down on line of sight arguments. |
Swampster | 04 Jul 2017 12:07 p.m. PST |
I'm glad the Cthulhu stuff can't be laid out on grids. That'd be so wrong. 'All about me there are angles – strange angles that have no counterparts on the earth' |