"Northern Italian Rivers- What have you" Topic

done to make broader rivers? Width, effects, combinations?

I've had and used a number of small commercial ones, I'd call 'streams' that are suitable sometimes. I also still use several metres of the time honoured felt in 100mm wide strips of all contortions to make rivers go somewhere.

But much of our Napoleonic gaming is also heading back toward the Republican era (1796-1800) and consequently, dashing back and forth conquering and reconquering poor old Piemont, Genoa etc.

Recent prototyping has been 480mm x 150mm card fibreboard segments with 10-15mm banks each side assumed for contours. While the edges are straight, the river courses are not. So they vary between 130mm and 100mm width in places.

The 480mm length is for storage and transport in containers with other terrain. I'm making 30-60º bends as well in same format. Also have two commercial polyurethan bends (only 120mm outside dims. tho) that I will blend in.

This is about twice the width of most rivers you see on gaming tables here (in nz). As we know some of their rivers (like our alluvial plains in the South Island) can be very wide. Just look at some of the battle paintings, plus I've driven there.

However, I'm contemplating a broader still segment that will separate into two forks and create a tangible island between them.

Anyone tried this?
thanks, love to get some ideas/ feedback,
dave
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Yes, I've already made/ have several brdges, 6 in fact. Four of the commercial ones fall into the 'stream' width category as well.
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I've thought about a really wide river, mainly to play portaging games on one side, so I wouldn't actually need a far side to the river.
What would be the role of the island? I think islands in the Danube played a role in one of Napoleon's campaigns a few years after the Italian campaigns, helping him to get his army across the Danube. Beecher Island (60 years later) was actually defended against attack, though truth to tell it was more of a sand bar, and the Arikaree isn't much of a river.
In any case, I'd like to see photos or read about the details when you get your river done.
Grelber

The closest I've seen to this was a series of 10mm ACW convention games that included a broad river that was included to enable 600 scale gunboats to be a factor. They did a Shiloh and a Vicksburg. IIRC all the terrain was on boards with land built up from the board, leaving the board river surface painted.

It may be of little value to your problem, but I've seen very creative innovations using spaced game tables. I saw a wild west game where they kept a 6-8" space between 2 tables. They spread the game cloth so that it draped. They put bridges between the tables and various litter in the drape to represent a dry gulch.

I've seen other games that had special built wooden "drops" that were clamped between tables to represent trenches or highway underpasses and the like.

The island is great for things like a land battle to control a battery at the tip that heavily influences one side or the other's ability to blockade or transit the river with warships. Of course, the warships are needed to cover transit of troops to the island.

One thing I have done is a put total table water texture cloth down first. Then take a ground cloth and cut a wavy line through the middle. Now, depending on how far apart you put the two sides, you get a variable width river (just fold the excess underneath the water cloth). This even gives you a little slope (three thicknesses, two, then one for the water) down to the river, just like real life.

If you cut a "Y" instead of a line, you can either separate all three parts to have an island in the middle. Put the wedge on either side to have a bend that goes either way, or remove it to widen the river. You can also cut a Φ to have the island in the middle of the board, with the options to place the island bit as above.

If your ground cloths are two-sided, you can flip either one over to keep the opposing banks from being symmetric.

A couple of interesting actions in this period that involved river islands spring to mind:

Bassano, 6 November 1796 (see p175 of Murray & Pringle, "Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign")
link

Bassignana, 11-12 May 1799 (see pp204-205 of Murray & Pringle, "Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland")
link

Chris

My terrain is made up of square tiles of dense blue polystyrene with appropriate features 'dug into them'. For narrow streams and rivers they are part of a tile. For really wide rivers I make 'river banks' of the same material which fit in with the standard tiles. I then lay a textured sheet of thin plastic of the appropriate colour directly on the table then define the river with the 'bank' tiles placing the 'standard' tiles to match and fill in the rest of the terrain. This way I can have rivers, lakes and even sea of varying widths and sizes.

Thanks all.
>>What would be the role of the island?

ok perhaps i misstated the concept a bit- I actually meant the low sand banks that evolve in these river systems, not a la Danube '1809' type full land masses.

The role is an 'independant' land mass, mid stream that may be utilised by one side or other to create a bridge pathway; form a 'flank threat' or be used with difficulty to put up a skirmish screen to harrass enemy. Such events occurred in many places and are well documented.

Thanks Grelber for highlighting that~ my stream of conscienceness sometimes flows badly ;-)

Other variations all valid for circumstances I can see.
I prefer well formed and somewhat 'realistic' terrain so that's why I'm modelling one-off pieces.
My old Hinchliffe bridge deserves a decent size river to be thrown across, the engineers and pontoniers are ready etc.

cheers dave