How Much Is Too Much Tabletop Terrain?

 

Napoleonic Peninsula War terrain on my table top

Click on all pictures to enlarge

Recently I stumbled across an interesting topic about terrain on the You Tube video blog:

Big Lee's Miniature Adventures Vpblog

Click this link to Big Lee's You Tube page (and click the subscribe button on his page) and have a listen. It only takes about 12 minutes and is worth the listen to this thoughtful presentation. Big Lee addresses the question "How Much Terrain Is Enough Terrain?" and it is something that I do not always think about because some of the elements of building a movie set on my game table are intuitive because I have been doing them for so long that set design becomes second nature to me.

Here are some of the topics that Big Lee covers. The comments are my own, not Lee's:

(1) How much terrain is enough on a war games table?

--- club game versus a big demo game: the big games tend to have more detailed terrain for the simple matter that we have more tabletop space to work with at a convention game. At the home/club level we are happy to get away with a little bit less which improves the playability of the game.

---- more always looks better: this is my philosophy for the most part. You can never have too many trees on a wargame table.

--- terrain as set dressing: Thanks to Big Lee, I have now started to think of myself as a movie producer and director rather than a host of a wargame at a convention. I like to view my table as the set of a big budget movie. I have to write a script (the game scenario), create game objectives (the story plot), be a casting director (collect, paint and provide the figures used in my game), and design the movie set (the game table).

--- game play/playability this is probably the most important thing to consider before you set up your table top terrain. A Hollywood quality (railroad setup) terrain looks good, but it can lead to a bad game if the terrain hinders the players from actually playing the game.  Do you really need to have that large woods in the center of the table, or can it serve its purpose better if the woods is set up along the edge of the table? Is that river down the middle of the table going to impede the play of the game or can you tilt your tabletop 45-degrees and move the river out of the center? If you are going to use a large mass of buildings, perhaps it would be better to set up the game as a skirmish game that takes place in the city. Can you shift some of your terrain pieces to the left or right that will create larger avenues for troop movement?

(2) Aesthetics

--- we all want to put on a good show: very true. I tend to go overboard on the vignettes and the little details as a way to display my sense of humor and convey to the players that this is not life or death, but simply a game.

--- pride of your collection and artistry: I admit that I like to 'show off' when it comes to setting the tabletop for a convention game. Conventions usually give me more tabletop acreage to display my figures and terrain pieces in a larger way than I can in the smaller confines of my Man Cave tabletop. A convention game always nags at me to add a little something more.

One of my favorite terrain set ups for the Seven Years War. A Cigar Box game mat with

lots of individual terrain pieces placed on top of the mat. Note how the road moves diagonally 

the table rather than in a simple horizontal and vertical axis.

(3) Balance too little versus too much

This is always the overarching decision to make when you are bringing your scenario to life as a three dimensional tabletop game. I find that if I have enough open avenues for troop movement then the game will flow much better and my gamers will enjoy a better playing experience. Then they will come back next year and seek out my game and play in it. 

The picture below, of my Hannibal game at home, shows the need for plenty of wide open space to move these large 54mm toy soldiers. A lot of terrain pieces in the middle of the table between the battle lines would hinder the play of the game.

(4) Realism balanced with playability

The longer that I have been in the hobby the more I want to do to make my terrain better. Many of my readers would say that I am already doing a pretty good job of it. But I feel that there is always room for improvement. The picture below shows one of my Seven Years War 28mm game set ups. There is plenty of realism when viewed from afar, and even more if one stoops down to table top level and views the terrain from the ground level. However, you will note that the center of the table provides plenty of room for game players to move their troops without running into difficult terrain. The left side of the picture has more terrain obstacles than the center, but even then, there are definite avenues of approach in those areas. I think that this picture illustrates a nice balance of realism with playability.

A photo of the SYW table shown in some of the previous pictures provides a nice
overview of the entire table. You can see that there is plenty of space in the center of the 
table for battle action whereas the ends and corners of the table have a greater clutter of more terrain.
Cigar Box Game Mats are topped with various terrain pieces: buildings, road sections, cornfields,
wooded areas, open fields and lichen scattered strategically around the table.

(5) Size of the table and scale determine what you need

This is not a big consideration for me because I have the good fortune to having a basement that can accommodate two parallel tables measuring 6ft by 12ft. For even larger games, I have a friend who has three gigantic 6ft by 32ft tables, parallel to each other, that we can use when we want to really go crazy on epic level wargames.

(6) Decorative versus Functional terrain

--- little items that have no in game effect but look good. As Big Lee says, we have to make our own judgement of what terrain is merely for decorative purposes and what we really must have (at a minimum) in the terrain to match up with the game. The picture of the Roman ship in port was something that I messed around with at home for the fun of it, but it did not become a part of my Hannibal game terrain for the simple reason that there was no need for it and I'd rather spend my tabletop space on open areas for the playing of the game. Looks great, but not very functional.

Not very useful terrain. It looks good, but is not really functional for my game.

(7) Does too much terrain slow down the game?

---- filling up the table with terrain without regard to movement. Yes this can be a problem, but once you have had the experience of playing in a game where the amount of terrain ruined a good time, then you likely won't allow it to happen again. Sure, I could set up a railroad display that would look fantastic, but the logistics of transporting such a game to a convention would stop me from attempting such a thing.

(8) One Third Rule? (only one third of table should be covered with terrain)

---- treat this as a starting point and then modify to fit your scenario. I had not heard of the One Third Rule prior to listening to Big Lee's pod cast. It does make intuitive sense and I have probably been setting up my game tables this way without even knowing it. Going forward I will be more cognizant of the amount of terrain that I place on my table.

---- think like a photographer or set designer; what tells the story of the battle : this is really a good piece of advice and this is probably my number one take away from Big Lee. The game needs to tell a story. I can improve my convention games by giving more thought to the story that I am trying to tell in my game. Below, here is someone who is one of the convention greats at telling a story with his games.

Jeff Wislewski is a master story teller who's games are always filled up at Historicon 
conventions. He is a great story teller and showman and his games always win awards
for good reason. One day I hope to play in one of his games or sit on the sidelines observing 
how he manages and runs his game. He is one of the best.

---- terrain that looks good and is functional: this goes back to our previous comments about the functionality of terrain. You have hit the jackpot if you can achieve both good and functional.

"Good terrain placed thoughtfully makes a big difference with your participating players" - Big Lee

A few of my own observations and opinions:

1) Trees - you can never have enough trees on your tabletop game. Trees look better in clumps of 3 to 6 (or more) rather than placing a single tree here or there around your tabletop.

2) Lichen - invest in several bags of lichen. Lichen is your friend and it will look any game table look better. You can use it to cover up the edges of table mats or terrain pieces. You can randomly scatter lichen around the table to break up the monotony of flatness that many game tables have. You can layer it in different colors to create a good looking effect.

3) Roads/Rivers - always have your roads and rivers running in diagonal directions instead of rectangularly on the table top. If you must have a cross roads in the center of your table, have the roads running at angles from the four corners of the table to where they meet in the center. Rivers should always curve somewhere on the table.

4) Buildings - Put your buildings in a cluster of three or more buildings to create a town. Place the buildings diagonally to one another rather than in a neat rectangle pattern. Put some large trees next to the buildings. I picked up on this idea at a military museum diorama in Dresden, Germany.

5) Table Corners - put your non-functional terrain (AKA "eye candy") in the four corners of your table. This keeps them out of the way of the main action where they would hinder, rather than help, your game. For example, put a little cottage and a sheep herder in the corner. Place a field hospital in another corner. Put a military headquarters or camp site in the corner and then fill the camp scene with all manner of camp followers and soldier vignettes.

6) Game Mats - invest in a good tabletop game mat. Green felt was ok in the Old School Days, but now you can purchase realistic looking ground mats for a manageable price and dramatically improve the look of your table. If you must stick with green felt, then purchase some cans of spray paint and mottle the felt with random patterns of lighter colors that hide some of the green and create a look of depth to your table.

7) Sand/gravel/railroad ballast - Several cans of Woodland Scenics fine railroad ballast can be sprinkled on top of your table mat to create roads. Take a pencil and score some wagon ruts into the ballast. When your game is over then it is a simple matter of scooping up the material and putting it back in the canister.

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That pretty much covers the pod cast. Click the link above and hear it for yourself. You will be glad that you did.

Here are some more pictures that I pulled out of my photo library of wargame photos that illustrate some of the points made in this blog entry.

54mm French & Indian War stockade fort at the Gettysburg Toy Soldier store.

Cityscape for a small skirmish game. This fits on a 6ft by 5ft table.

A recent AWI game in my Man Cave.
Lots of open area for maneuvering, but sufficient terrain pieces to tell the story.

AWI terrain depicts a small farm on the edge of civilization. The pair of farmers working 
in the field tell their own story, yet their placement on the table does not interfere with the game.

The same AWI terrain as shown in the previous picture. I think that lots and lots of
trees can never look wrong on a game table. If you think that you have enough trees then get even more of them.

Here is a nice ACW vignette of a Union Army field hospital. The vignette was
set up in one of the corners of the game table so as not to interfere with troop movement.
We have a surgeon doing an amputation in most likelihood and a pair of stretcher
bearers are bringing another customer to the doctor. In the corner, some weary
orderlies are taking a short coffee break from the grisly task of caring for the wounded.

ACW terrain for 54mm figures from my Antietam war game.
Snake rail fences and lots of trees are essential to ACW games.

Another view of one of my SYW table tops. Note how I have placed the built up areas
in the corners of the table. The towns aren't entirely critical to the play of the game, 
but they provide some nice background and, dare I say, eye candy for the players.

I like to take "ground level" photos of my table top sets. They add a degree of realism to the photo.
This is one of my favorite pictures.

Same scene as the previous picture, but not quite as effective when the photo
is snapped from a higher level than ground level.

Individual vignettes are usually placed in the four corners of my table set ups.
This is where you can have some fun with your creativity.

Again, another built up area is placed in one of the corners of the table.
There could be some fighting here, but it won't determine the outcome of the game.

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