Wednesday 12 August 2009

Hills and Mountains – interesting responses

Judging by the responses my recent blog entry generated, the problem of representing hills and mountains on the tabletop seems to be of interest to several people.

As I wrote in that blog entry, I have tried several different methods to solve the problem, but none has been totally successful. However I think that Heroscape hex terrain might provide a viable answer, and as I bought a lot of it last year when Argos were selling off master sets very cheaply, I have enough to experiment with to see if it will work.

4 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

Bob,

I'm not familiar with Heroscape terrain. I suspect that I'm not alone . . . so you might want to share some photos with us.


-- Jeff

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

Jeff,

I hope to rectify that deficiency tomorrow.

All the best,

Bob

Phil Dutré said...

I sold of my collection of Heroscape about a year ago. I had the same idea: using the terrain for miniature wargames.

However:
1. Visually, it didn't look good. The Heroscape hexes are shiny plastic, so to get some nice visual appeal I think they should be flocked. Of course, personal preference w.r.t. the look of your gaming table might nullify this.
2. It was not very easy to put a terrain together.
3. The size of the hexes is too small to my taste. They fit one figure, and I am a big fan of grid-based games, in which 1 unit of several figures fits in one gridcell. Thus, the superimposed hex-grid was too dense to my taste. I prefer Hexon2-sized hexes (10cm across). But of course, this also depends on your rules.
4. In order to build something with a mountain with Heroscape, you need a LOT of terrain.

Nevertheless, I am curious how others employ Heroscape terrain to build mountains.

I am still sticking to the profile mountains as seen on the Major General's site, which I think are the best alternative so far.

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

Ph.D,

As you will see from today's blog entry (13th August) I use it with 15mm figures, and I can just get four figures on to a Heroscape hex. If you are using larger figures (25/28mm), you are quite right; only one (possibly two) will fit.

Currently I have three different terrain systems; Hexon II (which I use for all my 20mm World War II wargames and some 15mm Colonial wargames), 50mm squares, and the Heroscape terrain. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and at present I am looking at using the Heroscape terrain as I have so much of it. Once it is painted and flocked, I think that it will be suitable for small 15mm Colonial wargames. It is certainly worth experimenting with.

All the best,

Bob