GMills wrote:Jeez,
Looking at all these beautuful painted minitures playing on crappy-looking terrain. My
miniatures are crappy-looking playing on beautiful terrain. Someday guys, we in this
hobby have to get both parts together and upgraded.
BattlerB, yer models look GREAT. Very nicely done. I don't mind the terrain at all. I also
do felt cloth battle-boards.
But ...
Y'know, Gary DOES have a point. One of the reasons I had so much fun gaming this
past year was the very good terrain boards that Thunder had made. My own skills with
the models have improved much, but putting them on his boards just added that much
more to our games. And C.G. Erickson's boards AND figs are just magnificent, and make
for a wonderfull gaming experience.
Still there is something to be said for felt cloth. It can serve well, for those who don't
have room to play (or store!) terrain boards, or who have other reasons for not doing
them (like focussing time on the models). In my own case, as much fun as I've had on
Thunder and C.G's boards, I also recognize the limitations they impose. Most importantly
to me, there are only a limited amount of terrain variations that can be achieved with any
given set of boards.
As an example of what can be done with felt, I submit my own Kursk battle from one of
the Fall con's. I hope I don't bore y'all, as I had posted some of this before...
First, the battle maps. Here is the German CO's orders map:
This was provided before the battle day to each CO (the Soviet CO got the same map,
but different orders of course).
Here is the CO's battle map, provided on game day :
The game took place along the northwest banks of the Psel river valley. It was up to the
players to determine where they were on the map from observing the terrain.
Note that most of the roads do not appear on the maps. I had an actual survey map of
the Prokhorovka area to guide me in preparing the maps and the battleboard. But neither
side got the gamemaster's map with all the details of hamlets and dirt roads. That was in
keeping with the tradition of poor maps in the Soviet Union.
Here is the felt-cloth battleboard early in the game, looking SW from Polyezhaev. Most
of the units on the board are still chits at this point:
German armor makes a dash for the Mikhajlovka bridge:
Tigers march boldly down the north slope of hill 226.6:
... and take up hull-down postions to face the flood of T-34s:
A look at the whole battleboard, seen from N to S:
Closest to the camera, two full battalions of T-34s prepare to rush the depleted Tiger
company, as a company of Pz IIIs marching to their aid just crests hill 226.6. Meanwhile
in the distance along the Psel a company of Pz IVs battles it out with a battalion each of
T-34s and T-70s. All the while, the Soviet infantry and AT guns (all still chits)
have the good sense to sit tight in and around Polyazhaev.
My preparation time would have gone up by a factor of 5 or 10 to have made
battleboards for this particular clash. Or I would not have been able to go 'historical" to
the extent I did.
I think there is room for both battleboards and felt cloth. No doubt, better-looking is fun,
both for models and terrain. But flexibility is fun too, and deep historical is fun as well.
Oh, and Gary, I'll be happy to play on YOUR boards any day!*
-Mark 1
*Well, any day we find ourselves in the same state, perhaps...
Useing tweezers to "dip figures in common housepaint"? 
