This article is the second in an ongoing series of articles pertaining to wargaming with 6mm figures. By convention, this modest proposal is designed for use with the Napoleon's Battles wargaming system, although much of the following information should be useful for virtually any set of rules, from virtually an period desired. With this in mind, let's move forward.

Terrain features are as indispensable as figurines for an aesthetically pleasing wargaming experience. It has been often frustrating, however, to find understandable disputes arising during games with respect to deployment, movement, line of sight, and other problems stemming from geographic limitations. Too often, borders are unclear, or rigidly based trees and dwellings disrupt the smoothness of play that we all desire.

It is, therefore, important that terrain is designed such that it is flexible enough for unit movement and deployment, yet remains visually appealing. The major principle required for this to be successful is the concept that such features are entirely abstract. This notion is very easy to visualize if you can appreciate that the brigade zone approach to Napoleon's Battles, where each basic unit represents multiple units within the actual confines of its borders.

One could thus appreciate terrain features as terrain zones, such as wooded zones, village zones, and rough zones. Streams and rivers are pretty easy to scale to appropriate width, and thus function as water zones. Roads, however, are horribly out of scale, and the visual appeal mandates monster "interstates", though these may be dismissed as an abstraction in the mind's eye to be much smaller in game scale. It is important to understand that bridges will be so out of scale that they should be easily and temporarily removed, towns look much better with multiple houses grouped in each village zone. Specific buildings, like an historical church or chateau can be placed upon brown cloth as well, increasing gaming flexibility. If you desire to fortify a town during a game, small groups of pilings, or barricades, can be placed around the border of the village zone to simulate this condition, one group for each increase in the die roll modifier can be utilized. Pilings, barricades, and structures can be easily made (or purchased if desired), and there are many companies to choose from for the 6mm scale. It is impressive to look at close-together houses on the village zone, which can be moved as needed, as opposed to a lonely dwelling representing these areas.

Rough terrain can be represented in the same way, but using a different shade and/or texture of brownish cloth. Sprinkling these areas with drab flocking and small rocks can definitely add to the effect. Swamps are easily represented in similar ways, but one might consider a few sprays with a clear gloss within the area, prior to flocking, to simulate the sheen of shallow water within the bog. Bog terrain should be even more brown than swamps, but with a similar construction style.

There are lots of methods for road construction, ranging from cloth, to tape, to paper. Generally, 1/2 inch across does the job for 6mm troops. Bridges, however, need to be 3/4 inch across in order to accommodate cavalry in march column. They can easily be constructed from thin cardboard, and all painted up as desired, or can be purchased. I find the former option to be more desirable because purchased bridges seem too big for this scale.

Rivers can be represented by cloth or other methods. One interesting river style involves sections of clear transparency material, painted on the underside, with deepening shades of drab towards the center, and with rocks and flocking material on the banks. Remember that the width of the river or stream can have a great impact on the scenario, with respect to fording brigades in both combat and movement. Stream width can be that of a strand of yarn, or up to 5 inches across. With all due respect to Strauss, not every river is the Blue Danube! Quick and dirty gullies can be represented by a dark brown piece of yam, cloth, or whatever suits you. Green pipe cleaners make great hedges -- just accent them with a bit of flocking (or season to taste ... ).

Hills are often a nightmare to put together on the field. Manufactured hills often have a nice contour line to help with line of sight and dead zones for artillery. "Blueboard" (insulating board) can be cut, sanded, painted, and flocked to your specifications as well. Paper mache is also useful for making custom designed hills for historical scenarios. If you are using flocked cloth for your general playing field, flocked hills make the most sense -- just try to create a discernable contour line. If you are playing on a cloth surface, consider custom-cut hills placed under a tracing of the contours drawn directly on the playing field cloth itself.

The last idea reminds me of a terrific battlefield that I had the privilege to play on in Atlanta. The local club actually put together Ligny and Quatre Bras on a 12x4 foot table. They projected Avalon Hill's maps for those scenarios onto drab sheets and drew in the desired terrain. When all of the trees were clumped onto the woods, and all of the towns were full of structures, the sight was magnificent. The play was terrific too, because the boundaries of all the different terrain zones were clear to see. Best of all, when we were done, the sheets were folded up to be used another day.

I hope that this has been helpful, and I sincerely appreciate all of the kind remarks pertaining to my previous article regarding 6mm Napoleonics. I'm sure the local merchants will be pleased with my gluttonous suggestions for towns and forests, but it's worth the added cost and minimal effort. I'll be providing you with some homemade historical scenarios in the near future. I would also be pleased to help anyone get started with their own 6mm army and terrain, or for generating a battery of historical scenarios to delight the noble masses within NOVAG and clubs elsewhere.