Nile River Table Top Battle

 

Nile River gunboats attempt to run the Dervish blockade.

CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO SEE THEM IN THEIR FULL SPLENDOR

Every so often I clear all of the terrain off of my wargame table and set up new terrain, or more accurately, a new diorama. I had the desert terrain on the table for a couple of months and I decided that it was time for something new. Since I'm in the midst of constructing 54mm boats for my Khartoum Project, I thought that a stretch of the Nile River would look nice.

I already finished a paddle wheel steamer for the British/Egyptians and a dhow for the Dervish, but then I decided "in for a penny, in for a pound" and opted to make another steamer and three more dhows. This will give me a good sized flotilla of boats with which to play a Limeys & Slimeys in the Sudan type of naval game.

One of the advantages of laying out your terrain ahead of a battle is that you get a better idea of the table spacing as well as it revealing some of the terrain items that you could/need to enhance the overall look of the scenery. I will likely leave all of this river terrain up on the game table for at least the whole month of November or as long as it takes me to complete the build of the other boats that I intend to build. The terrain provides the inspiration to work on the new boats.

After I set up the river terrain that is shown in the pictures below, I started taking photos but found that the cluttered background made it difficult to get a good picture. So I bought 8 yards of sky blue felt cloth and suspended it from the ceiling tiles to give me a sky photo background. I then took a can of white primer and sprayed some random cloud patterns. I would recommend doing the spray painting outdoors. I didn't follow my own advise I am sad to say.

I ordered some dark blue felt (5 yards) to use as the Nile River water. I folded the six feet wide cloth into three feet width and placed it down the middle of the table. I wanted to keep my Cigar Box Battle Mats desert terrain visible as the shoreline on both sides of the river. My table is currently set up for 12 feet in length, but I have enough felt and Cigar Box mats to extend the river out to 20 feet for a convention game. Hopefully I will get enough players in this game if I run it at Historicon 2023.

I have to say that I think this is one of the best table top set ups that I have ever done. One obvious thing that I spotted was the need to make some riverbank pieces to lay along the sides where the felt meets the game mat. I had previously made some dry wadi sections (12" by 5") and so I placed these alongside the river to give me an idea of what some similar riverbank pieces might look like. 

I could also lay pieces of clear shower curtain on top of the felt to get a reflection on the water.

Britain's Nile River boat (left) and my scratch built boat (right).

Note the placement of the wadi modules on the riverbank on the right.
My proposed riverbank sections would be curvy and irregular looking.

A Dervish dhow contests the river passage with a smaller British boat.

I placed the three ship hulls from Hobby Lobby on the river to give me
an idea of how the full Dervish flotilla of dhows will look. I still have 
to build decks, mast/yardarms and lateen sails for the other three boats.

Here are a few more random photos of the river boats and the shore terrain:

Trophy of Wales made the smaller screw-driven Nile River boat.

A view of an oasis on the right bank of the river.

Some curious Dervish watch the infidels' boats pass them by.

Nile River boat made by Britain's for the collectors market.

A Dervish held village along the Nile.

A great overhead view of the table top.

Last night, after setting everything up, I stayed up way too late just admiring my handy work and I'm now paying the price of insufficient sleep. I foresee an afternoon nap coming up.

Keep coming back for updates as I build the planned boats. They shouldn't take too long to build.