"Terrain Pieces with Three (or More) Lives?" Topic

I'm currently building a WW2 weapons pit lined with sandbags. It struck me that such a field fortification could appear in several periods.

I use them for WW2, obviously but just as easily for WW1 trench sections, ACW fieldworks, colonial blockhouses, the Boer War and even earlier siege works going back centuries.

With a bit of imagination, they can probably serve from the C16th right through to modern conflicts.

Same with stone walls, farmhouses, bridges, churches, roads, rivers, woods—some terrain seems to have fought in every war since Caesar. Several of my old hedge lines have probably seen more action than most generals.

What terrain piece in your collection has served in the most periods? Which bit of scenery has had the longest military career on your tabletop?

Probably Bellona and TCS bridges. Maybe trees, styrofoam hills and felt roads. I know some of the houses have 50+ years of service, usually having been reinforced, touch-up painted and sometimes re-roofed over the years.

Hills. LOL! Seriously. Non-scale, non period, non-genre limited (except for possibly exo-planets, or desert regions). Cheers!

Hills, woods, fields and my winding river – I do have some houses that have served from medieval Europe to 20th century Mexico and everywhere in between

Hills, roads and hedges have seen most games. They are over 40 year old now.

My favourite is an old monastery building that has been a Spanish convent in the Peninsular War, a Belgian farmhouse at Waterloo, a Normandy strongpoint and once,under protest,a mage's castle in a fantasy game.

Likewise, one bridge has served Romans, ECW, Napoleon and was crossed by WW2Shermans without ever being repaired by the engineers.

Surely someone has a terrain piece with an even more questionable service record?"

Yeah … hills, woods, rivers, fields, mash, bluffs, open water (ponds, oceans, etc.), snow, ice, lava … pretty much any period.

Stone ruins usually get a lot of mileage.

Small boats basically work from Medieval on.

Statues usually carry forward quite a way forward from their origin.
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Huts will work for ancients through colonials, fantasy, pulp, and many scifi genres.

Hills and rivers are among the best, clearly. I didn't list them because my own have been upgraded--vinyl replacing resin and plywood.

I have some 1/2" thick plywood hills I cut out back around 1978 or so. Used a sabre saw with the blade angle and drilled a starting hole for the blade and cut out multiple levels that stacked or laid flat (small ones within big ones). I also have Bellona terrain, stone walls and bridges, that I poured plaster in, carefully broke the plaster free once it was fully dried, and then painted both original Bellona pieces and the plaster ones. These are also from the late 1970's.

Churches in a European setting can cover Saxon & Norman to modern periods.

Perhaps some unusual ones:

Mist or sandstorm. Yep, cloud-shapes made of card which denote decreased visibility – very simple things to make look effective, and they're popular in any period.

My personal winner has to be two ancient Greko-Roman stone columns. We're using them for Ancient Britons verses Romans at the mo', not least because they make excellent plinths for god-figures – as there's a mythological element in my rules. They worked for the WW2 desert war in Libya and for moderns in Iraq too. 2,000 years almost, separating gaming periods.

My stone fort ruins are pretty useful for any period; from Roman onwards.

Wooden palisades I'm presently using for ancient Britons, also hid artillery in a recent Napoleonic Peninsular skirmish game.

Flat-roofed, plastered mud buildings I've played with in both WW2 desert games and Middle Eastern Moderns. Although I've put them somewhere safe now and can't find them. Always the way. Agh.

Plastered mud compound walls were very useful for Napoleonics (a "Sharpe's Enemy" skirmish game) and a Moderns skirmish game verses the Afghani Taliban. I made some card shapes that double up as holes that fit over the walls, in case someone wants to blast a hole in them. Unfortunately no gamer's yet had the inclination.