The Dutch AWI Project - final week - 3
Deadline stress is best reserved for work. When it comes to a hobby, I try to avoid it whenever possible, by setting manageable targets and a bit of planning. So, the miniatures were ready in June. I even painted a bit more than required, to make some units a bit bigger for use in other scenarios. Making plans for future expansion of this army are, of course, closely associated with ordering the required miniatures, resulting in me becoming the proud owner of sufficient miniatures for four more of said scenarios. This war isn’t over yet.
With the miniatures done, some terrain is required for the scenario as well. As the battle of Hanging Rock took place in a wooded area, I decided to get some trees. Now I noticed that a lot of games are played with rather small trees, standing far apart. Though this may be more practical from a gaming perspective, this didn’t match my idea of the North American forests, with big trees in dense woods. So I bought around 50 big railway trees (18-20 cm high) as well as several smaller ones to make up the edges of the woods near the clearing, the forest track and the stream. I placed the trees on 60mm round MDF bases, which works well to keep them from toppling over and treated the trees with diluted PVA glue to make them a little more durable. For the forest ground I use some felt, cut to size according to the scenario map. The track and river, which I acquired from Total Battle Miniatures, cross at a ford. As TBM doesn’t offer fords, I made one myself. For the hill, a generic gaming hill was made, which can be used again in future games.
The finished battlefield asked for a test battle, which was fought early August. Despite the struggles that come with familiarizing oneself with the rules, I can tell you that after a year of planning, researching, building and painting, it was a great pleasure to finally play the game for both me and ‘my’ rebel player. His miniatures were nearly finished (just the bases and a few command modes) so the sight was already spectacular. Photos were made, but new ones will be made when the rebel army is completely finished (and with better light than offered by my attic on a rainy summer’s day). On friday, there will be the final rehearsal game before meeting my fellow Rebel and Redcoat generals on sunday and seeing the results of their labours.
