"Making the Hurtgen Forest" Topic

Well, that's a bit misleading, how about 'Making a very small part of the Hurtgen Forest'?

A blog post about a recent terrain project for a Hurtgen Forest campaign for Chain of Command in 20mm, where I took some ready-made pine trees and changed their look (and height) for a more atmospheric pine forest. No rocket science here, but I think it's made quite a difference.

The full post is here: link

Any idea why the trees in the Hurtgen Forest don't have lower branches? I understand that in some places, rather than chop down the whole tree, they just lop off the lower branches and use that wood for carving, firewood, or construction. After all, a whole tree is pretty big, heavy, and awkward to move about.

Grelber

It is a way to control the fuel on the forest floors. Unlike in the US, the Europeans practice forestry and pay attention to removing fire hazards. Don't hear about many forest fires the likes we see in the US.

In a forest of any density the lower branches die off due to lack of sunlight, old growth forests in the Pacific northwest can have bare trunks as high as a hundred feet before there are any lower branches. Effectively the tree self-prunes by denying nutrients to branches that no longer contribute.

Or it may simply be because such is the case in a conifer forest. In this instance, the forest of the Landes, south of my native Bordeaux.

Looking forward for reading about your new campaign!