Ideas for Miniature Battlefields

Board 1

by Nic Birt

Figure MB1 shows the first miniature battlefield I developed following the ideas outlined in this article. This is easily achieved with a piece of hardboard, careful marking out and cutting with a jigsaw. If, like me, you like a grid work of small hexes all over your wargaming table these can easily be produced by temporarily gluing hex paper on the board and drilling tiny holes where the lines meet. Once the paper has been removed these holes can be joined with lines or if you prefer not to see grid lines the holes serve as quite adequate visual guides.

The outer area of the board is divided into 12 sectors for reserves and flank movements as outlined earlier. The central area, the battlefield, is marked out with smaller hexes to assist measurements and define terrain effects. The size of the board is approximately 350mm across flats, which gives under 700mm at its widest points. The board is painted an earthy colour and sprayed lightly with green to give a patchy grass effect. I painted my board blue on the back for naval battles but you could have white snow or yellow desert sand. Scenery can be positioned on the board as required.

I mainly use this board for relatively small battles employing up to a division each side and utilising 15mm figures with a small ground scale of one hex being 50 metres and one figure representing 100 soldiers. By adjusting scale it would be suitable for skirmish wargames and company sized games. It is particularly good for late 19th Century British colonial games with the British square in the centre being rushed by wild tribesman coming from any of the 12 outer sectors of the board.

More Ideas

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