Saturday, February 21, 2015

Quick and Easy Grid Markers for "To the Strongest"

I picked up Big Red Bat's "To the Strongest" the other day, a new set of ancient and medieval wargame rules that use a grid to regulate movement and distance. I didn't want to mar my game mat with grid lines or ugly stickers, so I whipped up some "table scatter" style rock piles to mark the corner of each grid point. They were pretty easy to put together:

Step 1) Drops of white/PVA glue on wax paper



Step 2) Model railroad ballast. When the white glue dried I added a few drops of Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue to each pile as well.



Step 3) I added some additional white glue and grass flock for about half of the stone piles. And done!

I set up the table for a trial of "To the Strongest" and was pleased to see the stone piles clearly marked the game grid, but combined with other table scatter and terrain did not call too much attention to themselves.





9 comments:

  1. Those are absolutely great! Now why didn't I think of that? :- )

    Perhaps it might even be possible to use a slightly tacky glue, so that they would stick loosely to the cloth.

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    1. Thanks Simon! Love the rules!

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    2. I'm glad you like them! I'm currently working on a free update that should come out in around 6 weeks time, with a couple more troop types, some minor tweaks and extra examples.

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  2. I just saw this due to the link in the TtS Newsletter. I had a similar, and unnecessarily complicated, idea using washers and velcro dots.

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  3. Hi.
    I have to ask you how did you make those tres, they all look so cool, for me its the best vegetation Iv ever seen.
    Its possible to take more pictures of them?

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    1. Thanks for the compliment Marino! There are a few different trees in the picture:
      - the far conifer/pine trees were purchased at a war game show 10 years ago. They came in a big bag of about 20, but I don't remember the manufacturer. The trunk is a wooden dowel, each branch is wire and they are flocked.

      - The deciduous trees in the mid ground are classic Games Workshop trees. I just saw a thread about them on TMP and I think it said you can still get them from KM railroad terrain?

      - The trees in the foreground are Woodland Scenics, but I improved most of my Woodland Scenic trees with extra foam. See my tutorial here: http://1000footgeneral.blogspot.com/2012/10/flocktober-improving-wargame-trees.html

      Good luck!

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