Once you have made the decision to raise and maintain a wargames army the next decision you face is where to use it. If you belong to a club or have access to an existing table. you're all set. If, however, you wish to create you own table, you'll have to decide what type of table you need, and whether you can have it permanently set up (attic or basement and an understanding family are required), and what type of terrain can be used.

Between the extremes of a green sheet thrown over the kitchen table and a permanently installed sand table in the basement is a system we have used to have value.

The requirements of this system are four 4' by 3' sheets of plywood, cabinet hinges, styrofoam insulation panels (all available from your local home improvement store), a few rolls of grass paper, flocking (in as lose a match to the color of the paper as possible), lichen, trees and small rocks (available from your local model railroad store) and some blue cloth from a local fabric store. You'll also need some green water based paint (Polly-S or poster paint), a screw driver, a staple gun, some white glue and a modeler's knife.

An 8' by 6' playing area is too big to pick up and put away in the closet, but a 4' by 3' foot playing board is storable. Just setting the 4' x 3' boards on a table is very unstable. By joining the boards with the cabinet hinges (either into two 8' by 3' boards or one accordion folded board) you achieve the necessary stability and have the storage convenience of a 4' by 3' board.

To obtain the proper scenic value for the boards, cover them with the grass paper. Two rolls will cover the boards with some left over for other terrain uses. The paper can be folded over the edges of the boards and secured to the undersides with staples. Areas will probably have to be cut out of the paper to allow for the hinges holding the boards together.

If the boards on not to be left an the table permanently, it is recommended that an old sheet be placed on the floor of the closet, and the boards be placed on it. The sheet will catch any loose flocking that falls off the boards.

To create terrain (using WRG requirements as an example) that matches he color of you table, use the leftover grass paper (or additional rolls if needed) and the flocking. Specific examples:

MAJOR WATER FEATURE: Cut a strip of blue cloth 6' by the necessary width. Lay it on the edge of the table. If you want to be fancy trim the loth on the inside edge with a narrow strip of brown cloth as a shore line or river bank. You can also attach grass paper to the edges of either the brown or blue cloth with ordinary paper staples.

MINOR WATER FEATURE: Either cut thin strips of the blue cloth or take strips of the grass paper and paint the center of each strip blue. The blue paint can be irregular within the strip but should be of uniform width at he ends to allow joining to other strips. The rivers can be straight or curved.

HILLS: Draw a circle of appropriate size on the styrotoam. Cut the circle out (using the modeler's knife) and trace the outline on the back of of grass paper. Cut out this section and glue the pacer to the styrofoam. White glue is fine for this. You can cover the other side with an additional piece of grass paper or leave it blank. Trim the edges of the paper as close to the styrofoam as possible. Paint the styrofoam edges with green paint (water based paint is necessary to keep from dissolving the foam), and while still wet, dip the edge in the flocking. The flocking will adhere to the paint and should provide a uniform coverage matching the top in color.

RISES: LOW RIDGES AND KNOLLS are prepared in the same way as hills.

GULLIES: are created by taking a strip of styrofoam and marking it lengthwise into 3 sections. The center section is hallowed out to about 1/2 to 2/3 of its depth. The hallowed section in painted in browns and grays. The edge sections should be shaved down at an angle (so that in cross section the piece will look like this /:_:\ [only with much less steep angles]). After the center has dried, paint the outer slopes green and, while still wet, pour some flocking over them. Pour the excess flocking back into the bag. The flocking left behind should give a good color match to the basic board color. For additional strength, glue the bottom of the styrofoam to a piece of stiff cardboard or thin piece of balsa wood or plastic.

WRG suggests that you use pieces of felt to create MARSHES.

BRUSH, ROCKY OR BOGGY AREAS: Instead of using felt. use the grass paper with the proper colors painted on or brush or small rocks glued to the paper. These can also be stiffened by gluing them to pieces of cardboard, balsa or plastic.

We have found that this system is easy to assemble, costs very little (as compared to the high cost of commercially available systems), is extremely flexible and very easily expanded.

Well, you probably don't believe what you're seeing, but, yes, your editor has got a computer! Move over Hal Thinglum, here comes SAGA! Seriously, this IBM machine is on loan for a year (after which time, I'm sure I'11 have to got one of my own), and I'm getting very little sleep, what with typing, games, etc. The first of my projects will be to got this article together which I have been working on for some time ... the WRG 'DEMO' article. So here we go ...