"Buildings or Infrastructure needed for Wargaming?" Topic

Gentlemen: I went through and inventoried and organized my terrain and did some planning on making some buildings. I've made a list of what I think is useful buildings/infrastructure to serve as objectives and/or eye candy. I generally travel to games, and try to make my stuff as "generic" as possible to allow it to be used in various times/theaters… Most of my buildings are a mix of scratch built (foam core) and or HO scale railroad buildings. I play a variety of games in both 1:1/skirmish and Command Decision/Combined Arms where a model represents a Platoon of inf or 4-6 tanks) I thought this might be of interest to some on here and start some discussion. I've put magnets on some buildings to allow me to attach ‘period/regional correct signs: I've got one rather large nice model building that has been a hospital, college, and Congress building depending on what I needed. I also have small boxes of additives that allow me to ‘flavor' the buildings: satellite dishes, rooftop AC units, dumpsters (skips for the UK, iI think) telephone booths, and porta johns.
What am I missing?
What clever and useful tips do you'll have to share?
-Large impressive building: This can be a hospital, college or the National Congress depending on what sign is mounted.
- Generic "High Rise" interchangeable magnets allow it to be hotel or a company HQ.
- Bridges: I have two short 3" (one is ‘older' with steel trusses and one is modern concrete) and one 6" one (modern concrete).
-Bank
-Impressive house: It can be an embassy or a mansion
- Castle: This has been used as a Army HQ, a Prison and the "Supreme Court Building" could also be a mansion or museum.
-Housing units (I intentionally have a mix or Modern/Rich, Modern/middle class and Dated/Poor/Rundown).
- Church and Mosque
- Palace (Has also been a "Presidential Residence" and a Museum)
- Market, diner, and shops
- Powerplant (can also be Factory)
- Airport (Tower, Terminal, Fuel Farm, Hangar)
- Seaport (Pier, Warehouse, crane, fuel pumping/receiving equipment)
- Hydroelectric dam with generator house (:Planned)
- "communications infrastructure": this is satellite receivers and Radio/TV antennas that can be used with other buildings to represent a Radio/TV Station
- Oil Well
- Mine mostly the "entrance" and signs.
- Gas Station

You need a brewery and some Moon Shine stills.

Wolfhag

Some stone and wooden bridges.

Jim

If playing in a rural setting you need barn(s), fences, a well, outhouse, chicken coop/pig pen, hay bales/rakes, etc., etc.

Trees, trees, and more trees.

Most of these don't figure on my lists as I don't do much after WW1 & most is well before that.

Elevation – inlgames.com/canyon.htm
Statues – inlgames.com/tiki.htm – inlgames.com/colossus.htm
Huts – inlgames.com/huts.htm
Junkyard – inlgames.com/junkyard.htm – inlgames.com/junky.htm
Domes – inlgames.com/egg1.htm
Walls – inlgames.com/sandc.htm
Crashed Ship – inlgames.com/crash.htm – inlgames.com/saucer.htm – inlgames.com/3ships.htm
Outbuildings – inlgames.com/ibuilding.htm
Landing Pad – inlgames.com/station.htm
Bio Terrain – inlgames.com/sporz.htm
Absurdities – inlgames.com/turnip.htm – inlgames.com/shoe.htm
Foutains – inlgames.com/fount.htm
Ruins – inlgames.com/darkfoam.htm
Conex – inlgames.com/contain.htm

Y'know … stuff.

Well, if you need quick proxies for skirmish gaming, paperback books are great for setting up a ground plan, with each book representing a 'room'… ;-)

Depends upon the period and setting.

Don't forget roads, streams, and rivers too, as well as hills and ridges, if you care for those, in order to avoid the ping-pong table effect for your battlefield.

Walls and fences too, as well as the aforementioned, large quantity of trees.

Large brick factory with lift off roof and 4-5 interior rooms. Enough room to place stands or individual miniatures. You get the feel of fighting in an urban setting setting with lots of close assaults. Parts of the factory could be under control of either side.

You might also consider a rail station – Standard, monorail or maglev. Could be attached to the factory and/or port, and maybe a passenger stop as well.

lots of hedges ditches and small bridges to cross them. Most wargamers have far to few for the area they represent.

Sea defences from Martelo towers onwards.

Lighthouse, no self repecting fishing village is without one.

As an avid hiker in my youth, I have come across many things in my treks through the wilderness. All of these can figure into WW2 games. Random shacks, cabins, small footbridges, duck boards, derelict vehicles, drystone walls, power pylons, chain-link fences, chicken wire fences, barbed wire fences, fallen logs. You will also require a decent number of roads, both dirt and paved. In my particular region where much of the FIW and AWI were fought, there are frequent large rocky outcrops, I hear that the rocky conditions are much the same in Italy, the Balkans, and Tunisia, but I don't know firsthand.

Thanks:

I've added a brewery, lighthouse, stone and wooden bridges, hedges, stone walls and chain link fences, power pylons. Trees, rivers and hills are of course required.

On bridges, we find games are much more interesting if you pick bridges that have weight limits and even better if its obvious by looking at them. A farmer's bridge will not take the weight of a tank (big problem in parts of the Normandy campaign). So bridges of various weight limits and widths is a wothwhile effort. Similarly roads, 2 vehicles wide and 1 vehicle wide plus tracks.