"What to do with minimal use terrain" Topic

For a show I have produced a half hex ramp down to a quarry. Let's face it that is not a piece I am going to use at all if ever again. In this case I think I will throw it away at the end of the show. The design is a 3D print so the basic shape is captured so throwing it away only realy means re flocking a new piece and an hour or two on the printer, FDM material coSt's are minimal.
I have been keeping some old "terrain" features a couple of patrol boats which were bath toys made waterline and painted and Similarly some hovercraft from the same source. Seemsl pointless keeping them. The club had a member make a huge hill for a game. It took up huge space and never got used again. Seems to me I should be more ruthless in throwing away limited use stuff to make way for usefull stuff.

How do you manage this issue?

You're right, you have to be ruthless in throwing overly-large pieces out. I do try to run the same convention game at three or four conventions so that the custom-built stuff gets a few outings before moving on to the great wargame convention in the sky.

That being said, the patrol boats and hovercraft sound like they might find a new home in a flea market.

I made a 4 ft long railway embankment for a WW2 project, it has also seen use in a FPW game,

Tally Ho!

I spent quite a lomg time making 3D dungeon boards on 1 foot bases with walls that were modular, but felt that just base boards with 3D doors didn't block line of sight for me when sitting, so the 3D stuff with walls went to the great dungeon in the sky. Storage was an issue.Good fun to make though.

I would always try to find a better fate for any game item than the landfill.

Selling isn't often a workable option.

Some cons have charity raffles/auctions where they sell off donated items. Maybe that…

If you can get a little kid to play that game, give him the terrain pieces, a little kids imagination will use that 100 different ways.

I try to limit the need/use of such unique pieces. When I do need them, I tend to go as low-budget as possible, because it will head to the trash/recycle bin soon after the game.

Had a friend scratch-build the Lonely Mountain for a Battle of Five Armies game (Tolkien's The Hobbit book). It was great for the one-off game, but I could not store it long after.

I built a 2.75D terrain setup using PDF terrain printouts, slotted into rubber mats. The game was a 2.75D model, with full figures, of a classic 1e AD&D game of The Steading of the Hill Giants. I ran it through several playtests at home, with friends, then I took it to a couple of conventions. It's been sitting in a bin, ever since.

I plan to run the next two modules, in the Giants series, in similar fashion: G2: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (modular 3D foam terrain pieces set atop painted rubber floor mats), and G3: Halls of the Fire Giant King (using a friend's full 3D resin dungeon terrain, Dwarven Forge.

The slotted printouts glued to 3mm cardboard worked, superbly, but it was incredibly labor-intensive to make, and to set it up every time… The foam ice cavern pieces are quick and easy to setup/tear down. The Dwarven Forge stuff will be tedious to unpack, set up, then tear down and pack up again, but for convention play, they can be worthwhile. Thinking of re-doing the Hill Giant project with wooden blocks, or pieces of wood, cut for each specific wall, to speed up setup and teardown. The slotta cards take hours to set up -- literally! Cheers!

No such thing as a one-use piece.

A three step process for unique scenery. The last step is a last resort
Use it
Give it away or sell it
Throw it away

I built a foam mountain for the Thor's Ness Field game I ran at a convention. It was nice enough, and I did use it for a game with my group, but it was close to being one use terrain. I bought an inconveniently long plastic box to store it in, but last January, I sold it off at a local gaming auction.

Next time, I need to consider storage before I build, and go for a size that isn't a storage nuisance. I also need to make it fairly flexible: most of this was steep slope, but a bit of it had cliffs. I should have given more thought to that, so it could be used for other things. Finally, just sell it off if it takes up lots of room and hasn't been used in a couple years.

Probably need to sell off the fjord shore I built for my Rifsker game next.
Grelber

Reuse, sell, or give away. But it's something to consider in scenario design. Does a game require unique terrain (or a unique character/unit) with limited replay value? If so, might consider a different scenario.

I went through One Hour Wargames once, and realized that 27 of the 30 scenarios could be played with a standard set of terrain regularly reused, and three required unique pieces. I assembled what I needed for the 27, and let the three go.

Grant's Scenario books are similar. You ALMOST never need that 9th line infantry unit or the 3rd light infantry. I simply make it an absolute, dropping those possibilities from the army lists.

Miniature warfare requires money and storage space, and it behooves us to consider points of diminishing utility.

No such thing as a one-use piece.

There have been orchards in every single horse & musket game I've run since I got them, except the one game I set in Mexico.

I have a hare-brained plan to build a model of The Rock (Gibraltar) at 1/2400-1/3600 scale, for 1/1200 scale naval gaming. It would be 4.5-6' long, but only about 4.5"-7" high at the peak(s). I don't know where I'd keep it, but after making something that big, I'm sure not gonna toss it. If somebody has one they're giving away, contact me first.

- Ix

The miniatures gaming community needs to invent a new category of collection: You keep it for a while, but it's not yours, it's just in your possession until you're tired of storing it, and you are charged with caring for it. When you've finally played out the topic, in a year or three, you pass it on to the next gamer, in a condition as good as or better than you got it. (All basing must be adhered with white glue, so miniatures can be rebased without damage.)

Some topics have nearly infinite replay value – ACW, most of WWII, Napoleonics, ships of the line and frigates, wars of Rome/Carthage/Macedon+Successors, various Medieval eras, Victorian redcoats and FFL and their enemies, etc.

But some topics have only have one battle or one matchup, and the gaming opportunities are exhausted in less time than it takes to build the collection – Lepanto, Lissa 1866, and Jutland; Aztecs vs. conquistadors; the Spanish-American War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the first Sino-Japanese War; the 1745 Jacobite army or Sparticus' slave revolt army; all 237 Russo-Turkish wars… and on and on. There only need to be a few of these collections, passing around so we all get to play them, but so nobody has to agonize about anything more than adding a unit or rebasing for a different set of rules.

This all goes for particular battles with notable terrain you're only going to need a few times. Not all Napoleonics gamers need to have their very own La Haye Saint or farm at Quatre Bras… we could get by just passing around a couple dozen nicely rendered dioramas in about 5 or 6 scales.

I'm not sure what you'd call such a piece or collection. A PIPIO ("Play It, Pass It On")? A PIF ("Play It Forward")?

- Ix

Give it away to someone who plays your game, a kid is an excellent choice.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

I went through One Hour Wargames once, and realized that 27 of the 30 scenarios could be played with a standard set of terrain regularly reused, and three required unique pieces. I assembled what I needed for the 27, and let the three go.

Grant's Scenario books are similar. You ALMOST never need that 9th line infantry unit or the 3rd light infantry. I simply make it an absolute, dropping those possibilities from the army lists.

Miniature warfare requires money and storage space, and it behooves us to consider points of diminishing utility.

All this is just so wise – I am coming to it after a few years of doing the opposite & my three small boxes of terrain and figures which enable one to play every OHW scenario has been a bit of a revelation in an otherwise difficult period. If you can just discipline yourself to *not need* that last marginal unit or terrain piece, it makes so gaming life quicker, cheaper, smaller (to store) and easier.

"Make the game fit the figures"

To be honest figures are ne,very an issue, I only play modern and WW2 and now really only in 1/144 to any extent so no real one off use army's. One off terrain is really only for conventions my normal stuff is deliberately super flexible but some unique stuff does get in and I need to throw some more. I did a few feet of what may be called Berm. In the UK sone villages on river flood plains are surrounded by about 8 ft high steep bank Birm to keep food water out, the roads have a mor gentle gradient over the bank. It was fun to have a go at attacking a village held like this but it's not a feature with great flexibility so I proably need to throw it. In the UK for various reasons lots of shows have given up bring and buy facilities. You can hire a table to sell stuff for an hour but that to me is not a good use of show time so throw away it is.

Of course somtimes it just goes to he'll in a handcart. I use Kalistra Hex but thought a small straight ridge system about 1 contour tall About 8ft tall model scale not hex based a place on to if you will. Like the berms but cross able by tracked. In the end it just did not have enough interesting uses to make it worthwhile.

Yellow Admiral, I like your thinking. For some time, I've been saying that MHGS-(formerly East) Needs to keep a storage locker in Lancaster with
Rorke's Drift
The Alamo
The Peking Legations
in 25/28mm so people don't have to keep carting them in every four months. Just schedule who gets them for which session.

But all our armies are only ours temporarily. I passed my 30mm CLS Napoleonics on to a younger contemporary a few months back, and not because they've exhausted their replay value. I had more castings under my roof than I could trust my heirs to find homes for, so the troops will be safer with him. (I have visitation rights, of course.)

MHGS? I see I was less than sharp last night.

Points remain, though.
Optimize replay value.
Pass on what you no longer use.
Have a plan in place so nothing gets binned.

Not to say no one should ever build a unique terrain piece only suitable for one army or one battlefield. But I'd say try to hold it to one such per army.

Has anybody ever fought over Hougoumont with WW1 troops? Or contested Rorke's Drift with US cavalry and Apaches? Just wondering if switching historical periods could wring some more life out of custom pieces?

For some time, I've been saying that [HMGS] Needs to keep a storage locker in Lancaster with
Rorke's Drift
The Alamo
The Peking Legations
in 25/28mm so people don't have to keep carting them in every four months. Just schedule who gets them for which session.

That's brilliant! Check out the miniatures, add your own flair with custom markers.

These giant terrain features? Instead of throwing them away break them down into more usable features.

You have the Alamo? Break the buildings/walls into smaller groups.

You can sell the smaller groupings easier or store the smaller bits easier.

If the terrain features are styrofoam, or insulation foam these days, if the bits are too big cut them into smaller hillsides.

dragon6 These big features are special, thay are by definition not flexaibke in use. Cutting them up just changes the shape of the storage it does not make them any more useful.

Eumelus wrote "Has anybody ever fought over Hougoumont with WW1 troops? Or contested Rorke's Drift with US cavalry and Apaches? Just wondering if switching historical periods could wring some more life out of custom pieces?"

Good point! I usually try to stick a little closer in time and climate, but there are usually possibilities.

Consider Camerone with US cavalry--or buffalo hunters?--against Apaches or plains tribes. Or put the Foreign Legion in Adobe Walls.

Could Rorke's Drift be used for the Anglo-Boer Wars? Or the Herrero Wars? How about WWI Tanganyika?

There is, if you will, "First Alamo" when the Texans threw out the Mexican Garrison. But it's still there for the Mexican American War, and it was already there for the 1812 fighting in Mexico no one seems to wargame.

The BEF was actually on the Waterloo battlefield in 1940. Throw a platoon into La Haye Saint for a delaying action. (For myself, I tend to regard La Haye Saint as "generic walled farmstead." It gets around a lot.)

That big building with an arch on Cemetery Hill was more like what I was thinking of when I said "one per army."

Just wondering if switching historical periods could wring some more life out of custom pieces?

I donated my Cinco de Mayo set (minis, terrain, and all) to a school wargaming program. Took a couple of years to build it back up. I played the Battle of Puebla with Barsoom figures and terrain for a while.

We also play the Battle of Short Hills, MJ (AWI, guarded retreat) with figures and terrain that reflect a different Imperial and Rebel milieu. :)

I'm also very unsure of what terrain could not be used with a Cthulhu game…

The game is about player decisions. That said, minis and terrain should be evocative. So while you can play on a hand drawn map with nuts and bolts (I actually saw a lovely chess set made from hardware once), that's not the TTWG hobby. So … are we trying to evoke the number of buttons on an 1856 vice 1848 uniform or an outmatched force defending its homeland from invaders? Or something else?

But if you want to be a warMODELER instead of a warGAMER and spend your time that could be gaming on creating very specific terrain pieces, filled with detail that does not affect the gaming and nthus "can't" be used for other games, then that's the way you enjoy the hobby.