Crafty Terrain

I've always liked the terrain aspects of gaming. For me, a wargame should firstly be a visual spectacle, then a story, and only thirdly, a game.

(You might deduce from this that I'm not a very good gamer - and I can also be a sullen loser, which doesn't help. Generally I have great tactical ideas, but fail to pull them off. And I never know the rules as well as my opponent. Excuses, excuses. Also, those dice are cocked...)

My skills as a crafter/designer/artist are limited. I've some moderate abilities, but also some weaknesses which get in the way of perfection (sometimes, very massively in the way). I can be impatient. I want to deliver my idea, which ignores the practicalities. I overwork things. I'm a wargames butterfly, always wanting to get onto the next project. I have several projects on the go, all the time. I like to try new things then, when the concept is proven, I never use it again.

And that's just for openers. 

I've never been satisfied with my battlefields. I've abandoned or sold on all sorts of systems which, for one reason or another, just haven't worked. Storage is always a problem, of course - although I've a decent sized games room. But appearance is as much an issue, and I think there's an inverse relationship between the two. The more "authentic" you want your battlefield to look, the more space it tends to require. Conversely, pragmatic storage solutions tend to lead to mediocre or dull battlefields. 

I've veered between these two poles - once investing in about 30 interchangeable 2' square tiles, that gave great flexibility and such features as sunken rivers and roads, but whose storage took up half the room! Veering the other way, I went for cloth table coverings and paper buildings that would nest inside each other - and simply hated the look.

So these days it's always compromise. I've a couple of professional mats - one for Frostgrave, one for Sea (for Black Seas, mainly) and the rest tend to be cloths with stepped hills, though the buildings tend to be nicely modelled mdf or resin, when I can afford them (roll on Xmas!) 

However, my fantasy revival has led to the crafters on Youtube, particularl Black Magic Craft and the Terrain Tutor. And their ideas and practice have been nothing short of inspiring. I've learned - or at least practised! - several new techniques, and found myself wanting to create "realistic" terrain for each of the Rangers of Shadow Deep scenarios.