My Gaming Developments

Some miscellaneous gaming notes.

The bases are coming! The bases are coming!

Actually, they're finally here! Last month I created and printed some modern era counters. I had to order the bases for them. They finally arrived. I'll be able to put the counters together.

New markers

In last week's Revolutionary War battle, I used some new and some old counters. I like how they enhanced the game.

•  The red, pill-shaped tokens are casualty markers. I like them because they stand out but are small so don't obscure the counters.
• The white pipe cleaners indicate units that fired. I've had these for a while and used them before, but it has been some time. I think it makes the photo battle reports more understandable.

Terrain

My portable battle set uses flat markers for built up areas. They are convenient but honestly don't work very well. Usually, the counters obscure the BUAs.

Last week, I pulled out some old 2mm terrain. The fort (top) worked pretty well (with one drawback). The farm (bottom) did not work well because it took up too much space. The units did not fit neatly into the BUA spaces.

I have a solution in mind - buildings in two dimensions (length and height). Bob Cordery has some excellent examples on his blog. I just need to pick up the supplies and build some.

There is one issue with these, and it is the same quibble I had with my fort. The walls are on the interior of the grid sides. This means that there is not enough room for a unit to fit in a space. I see a few  solutions to this problem.

1. Create buildings that fit on the outside of the grid sides. I just worry that it restrict space in the spaces next to the BUAs.
2. Create a slightly larger grid. I currently have a 1" grid. Perhaps I could go to 1.25"?
3. Uses smaller counters. My counters are also 1" wide. 3/4" counters would probably fit better.

Number 3 is the least likely option because it would require redoing all my armies. Number 2 would be fairly easy - I just need to create 2 new battle boards then create BUAs that match the grid size.