More Turnip28 Terrain

I finally had/made the time to finish up this piece of terrain for Turnip28. Being larger at 8x10, it would be treated as 'dangerous terrain'. The fish are 'terror fish' by Reaper with thier creep legs trimmed off. Like a lot of turnip28 projects this did not finish in the form originally intended. Just gotta go with the flow, y'know?

Get in here!

Chimney pipe is just cereal box cardboard rolled up sections and superglue together.

Getting a good feel for using the 'Realistic Water' product.

And here are some work-in-progess photos:

Crossing the Dredge at Beleynay

Terrain set up for the Dredge.

I arranged a game of Turnip28 with Roger, who has a wonderful collection of converted and customized Turnip28 regiments.  We played the "Crossing the Dredge" scenario from the main rulebook but on a 3'x3' board.  The Dredge is a single piece of defendable terrain in the dead center of the board, with dangerous terrain extending out to each side.  Objective markers are placed on each piece of terrain.

The Dredge, viewed from other side.

I played the Grand Bombard cult again, and Roger used the Lopers stilt-walking cult.

The "kissing booth" objective marker that Roger made!

Unlike in the prior game of Turnip28, my bombard was actually able to score a hit on the second turn, reducing the unit of stilt-walkers from 6 models to 1 in one shot!  However, after this, I started having problems finding targets in LOS of the bombard (which cannot move).

Bombard makes a hit.

My fodder take the objective in the center...

 

...while my Brutes take an objective on the right flank.

 Things sort of see-sawed for a turn. Roger's Lopers made some melee progress on his right flank,

Roger's melee fodder, led by his horrifying tooth-head Toff.  His carrot-headed chaff-skirmishers are in the background.

But dangerous terrain took its toll, and the bombard seems to have given me too much control of the right side of the board, which allowed me to grab control of three of the five objectives by the end the game.

This was a really fun and really inspiring game, and it spurred me to make some more progress on my forever-90%-completed fourth piece of dangerous terrain.

Lance Fournies in the Fold

We played another Italian Wars game of Kings of War Historical.  Gabe played the French army, which consisted of two regiments of chevaliers, two men at arms, two cavalry, two Swiss pike, two crossbowmen, and two cannon. 

French on right, Italians on left.

I played an Italian army comprised of two regiments men at arms, two cavalry, three arquebusier regiments, three Landsknecht pike, one cannon, and two small cannons.  

French cavalry on French right flank.

For the scenario we placed an objective marker (a 1" cardboard chit) in the exact center of the board, and took turns placing one additional objective marker each somewhere on the centerline more than 12" from another marker and at least 3" away from any terrain pieces. At the end of the game (6 turns), if a friendly unit was within 3" of a marker, it scored that objective.  If an enemy unit was also within 3" of the marker, it was not scored for either side.

Initial deployments viewed from Italian right. Landsknechts started in the woods.

The two houses could be occupied.  They counted as height 2 (so they could shoot over other units), counted as cover (-1 to hit if shot at) and hindered charges (-1 to chargers to hit).  I just acquired the old 2019 Clash of Kings supplement, which includes siege rules, and incorporated its "Tower" rule to the houses - a shooting unit within the house could choose one facing each turn as its center point and measure line of sight from there. All of these rules worked well.

Starting positions - at the upper center you can see the "fold" between the two hills that the French nested their assorted cavalry within.  This kept them out of LOS from missile fire but in position to made a lateral charge or double move at the two objective markers.

Because objective points are not scored until the end of the game, this was the most both-sides-holding-troops-in-reserve game I have possibly ever played. This in turn made it a very interesting and enjoyable experience.

Landsknechts in Italian service tangle with Swiss in French pay.

At first both sides tried to hold back, with the exception of Italian arquebusiers and French crossbowmen moving up and into houses in the village at the center.  Italian Landsknechts took a direct hit from French cannon fire, and decided to advance on an objective on the Italian left. Hoping to lure the French out into the center of the field, the Romanian mercenaries on the Italian right on charged the French men at arms opposite them.  This Romanian unit managed to tie up the entire French left flank for almost three turns, as it scored a snake eyes on a nerve check (automatic pass) despite taking 21 casualties.

Romanian cavalry counterattacked from front and flank.

In the center, the Italians were able to disperse a regiment of Swiss pike with missile fire and a charge by the heavy cavalry. But by this point it was turn 5, so the French finally began committing their cavalry.
 

French starting to commit the cavalry, who had been sheltering in the fold between the two hills on the left.

In short order, the French were able to move within 3" of each of the objective markers. The troublesome Romanians, as well as some stradiots, were routed.

Landsknechts attacked from front and flank.

Romanians take 21 hits but pass nerve test anyway and stay on the table.

A thick melee on the Italian left.

The Italians had the last move on Turn 6, and although unable to route any of the French off the objectives, were able to also be within 3" of two of them, which causes those markers to not count towards either side's final score.

Landsknecht in waiting.

French have cleared the Italian cavalry from the French left flank entirely.

Situation before last turn.

Unfortunately, an oversight by the Italians caused a unit of landsknect arquebusiers to not move within 3" of the center objective marker - this allowed the French to score a solitary point and claim the field for the day!

Final combat on Italian left.

This really was an enjoyable game, with the addition of the objective markers really changing the entire look and feel of the game and both sides making very different choices than in previous games.

Long March from Hopfurst

Managed to arrange for a game of Turnip28 quite quickly after finishing my terrain set! Ben's regiment is only partially painted but he completely restarted the project with new conversions. He suggested just starting the campaign from the Taster book. He took the Tall Man cult and I took Grand Boombard.

 

I previously played Ben back in February or so (no photos) and a new version (v17) of the rules had come out since.  So there was a lot of rule looking up.  Luckily, the tri-fold QRS that is now available is super helpful and a lifesaver.

In the Taster-version of the Long March there are five objectives, one basically in each quarter of the board and one in the middle.  We were both able to claim the two in our halves and Ben got to the center one first.

The next turn was just sort of back and forth. There was a biggish melee on my left, and I ended up losing my objective marker over there.  The Grand Bombard kept firing but not hitting anything.

At some point at maybe turn 3 I realized the utility of the Grand Bombard cult's ability to have Toffs and Toadies (commanders) seize objectives - every objective I had added +1 to the Bombard's to hit roll.  At the beginning of the fourth and final turn I was able to momentarily capture 3 of the 5 objectives.  +3 to hit!  But the Bombard rolled a one and since it already had 3 panic tokens (making it "unstable" as an artillery piece) the whole thing exploded.

Ben was then able to fairly easily recapture some of the objectives since they were defended by a solitary individual, and he picked up the win.

Appropriately, this piece of dangerous terrain was responsible for consuming many figures!

This was only the second time I've played Turnip28 this year so I wasted a lot of game time looking stuff up. In theory we will link our future games together using the system proposed in the Taster book.

Up next? I need to finish my fourth and final piece of dangerous terrain its about 50% done), and I need to make some obstacle pieces (crumbling walls, waddle fences, etc.). I need to make tokens to denote which objective is currently in control of whom. I need to make/convert a stump gun (i.e. a regular artillery piece) to go with the Bombard.  I have the pieces to create some cavalry and a procession of woe cult, so I should do that sometime soonish.

Turnip28 Terrain Set

 

 

Feeling confident from the recent refurbishing of older buildings, I pushed forward with the necessary terrain pieces for a Turnip28 table.   Turnip28 has three types of terrain: dangerous (usually on a 9"x9" base), defensible (on a 6"x6), and impassable (also a 6"x6).  After making a few kitbashed custom regiments, I managed a casual game using available terrain created for other games, and was immediately struck that the effort that went into the figures was diminished by the lack of matching terrain.

 

The first new piece was this dangerous terrain board (8"x10", so close enough to 9"x9") featuring a ramshackle and broken foot bridge. I had two goals for this piece: (1) to try using Woodland Scenics Realistic Water effect for the first time, and (2) to resolve a perpetual thorn in my side when making terrain, which is that the base MDF board always warps like crazy.

On the second point, it turns out that I have been using way too much water in my PVA mixes and too much water when thinning paint for terrain.  I also discovered the habit of applying a "primer" coat of un-thinned PVA to a side of the board, then using a brush just wet enough to help spread the glue evenly, then immediately doing same for other side.  This greatly helps control warping during the various steps. As to the Realistic Water effect, I think I did not "push" the effect to the edges of my pond enough, which caused the effect to have a raised surface-tension appearance like a puddle of oil instead of water.  I painted the pond area black to create illusion of depth, which seemed to work.

The second piece is this 6x6 impassable terrain, featuring a house sinking into a pool of water. The recent refurbishing of the older buildings using DAP joint compound and individual shingles was applied here. The white fungal stalks growing at the side of the house are stems from the leaf stalks of the horse chestnut tree that grows behind our house.  I pre-soaked these in a water/PVA mix, and after letting them dry, discovered that if you cut them they had a hollow tube in the middle, which gives them an eerie organic look. They also have some natural little bumps that look that part.

Speaking of those chestnut leaf stems, the next piece is a boggy dangerous terrain piece, 8x10, featuring little islands with fungal growths all over them. Here you can see how different parts of the chestnut stems can look very different based on what part you use and even which direction you glue it to the board.

The only fault here is that I poured the water effect a little too thin, and you can see granules of coffee grounds which I used for texture that got into the "water" portions of the board. These reflect light and create all those little white spots. Otherwise, I am quite pleased with use of some thinned dark green paint I applied before adding the water effect.

This house and bridge is a 6x6 defendable terrain piece. I think I originally was envisioning a bridge with a toll gate, and maybe a warming hut/guard hut on the side. But this is what actually came out. The house has a rhomboid footprint, so I got make an irregular shaped, warped roof.

This was a fun exercise in trying to cram the visual features I wanted into a small space.

This last one was very fun and definitely did not end up being what I originally intended.  The initial idea was a piece of dangerous terrain consisting of a bog or marsh with a few small muddy islands, with two Reaper Bones giant toads lurking around. 

I painted the toads first and while looking at them was struck that it would be funny if they had little crowns. So I made little crowns out of paper, carefully cut with spikes and sealed with superglue. And toad monarchs need a throne, right?

The idea of an ancient stone set of thrones as a terrain piece for fantasy wargames is an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a while, so making a stepped dias and two simple chairs out of foamcore scraps was easy enough. I then covered in joint compound and sanded down (and coated in PVA before painting!).  I did a base coat in very dark gray and then did two coats of drybrushing in progressively lighter greys.  The toad on the right came with its tongue extended, but I trimmed it out.

Now the next game should be a real treat!