I have recently bought another rule set and unusually for me, a book on terrain and scenery modelling. I have a lot of scenery articles saved from discarded magazines. So why do I really need any more advice. It is not like I am overflowing with home-made items.
Well it just caught my eye. It being “Battlefields in Miniature” by Paul Davies and published by Pen & Sword. Dating to 2015, I have the paperback version printed in 2018. I think the original was in hardback.
A quick flick through has made me pleased I bought it. It looks a comprehensive view of this part of the hobby. Also, I have noticed a preoccupation with “high density foam”. This appears in a lot of my saved articles as well.
Somehow it is not a material I like and in fact generally I have avoided plastics when it comes to scenery and terrain. Maybe that’s because when I was far too young to be left alone with polystyrene ceiling tiles I cut them up with nice sharp knife to make contour hills. I then glued them together with polystyrene cement with exciting melting results and interesting vapours. That was the 1970’s – safety was basic common sense then, which children often lacked!
It put me off, except for retaining a continuing interest in plastic figures.
I will use some of the ideas in the book and Paul Davies writing style is engaging: Very much just have a go. My only criticism so far is that the book is rich in finished items in use and yet some of those picture slots would have been better showing some more intermediate steps of construction for greater clarity.
Now how about that ruleset?
Well I looked at the Too Fat Lardies Dux Britanniarum several years ago just before I bought Maurice (another card driven ruleset as it happened). That was at Fiasco in Leeds, just one of many shows I have missed this year.
Here is one of those cards that drive the game. Love or Hate them they have an impact you cannot quite control. The figures are Greenwood & Ball (Garrison) Vikings from circa 1978. Yes they are posing as 5th century saxons……..
The figures are painted in Humbrol matt oils finished with gloss varnish while the basing in those days was dried tea – uncoloured. looking good at around 40 years of age.
I took a punt and bought the full rules including the follow up “raiders” supplement and all those cards.
I like dice and card driven games and I like the “big man” idea that threads through Too Fat Lardies publications.
I have since played a single game solo that took an age to complete. That will be reported in another post. Suffice to say I will play these rules again.
The Wargaming Erratic 