TERRAIN TIPS

In response to emails and questions at shows we have decided to give terrain its own section, as it not connected with Panzer Marsch rules. The most common asked questions relating to terrain fall into two areas of interest.

What size gaming table will I need to play Panzer Marsch?
How do you make the terrain?

Gaming table size:

This depends on the scale of the figures 6mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm or other. The nature of the battlefield can also decide the gaming table size too. House to house street fighting in a built up area with a predominantly infantry army will require less area than a tank battle in open desert for instance. Plus larger armies require more room to manoeuvre.
From our general experience over the years with different scale figures we can suggest the following guide minimum gaming table sizes with a maximum of 6 feet or 2 metres along one edge and an unlimited maximum along the other edge. The reason for one edge being given a maximum is that this gives the maximum comfortable distance at which figures in the centre of the table can be moved easily, without disturbing figures and terrain at the edge of the table.

These are only guidelines for beginners, there is no fixed rule. The typical value refers to the most common sized game at our club but they can be a lot larger, our display games are usually 6ft x 12-18ft at shows.
All values are given in Imperial measurements as opposed to metric because the rules use Imperial measurement, and our club terrain consists of terrain boards 18" square, 2ft square, and 3ft square depending on the scale it was built for.
Our club terrain is actually a club standard for terrain boards, the terrain itself is owned by individual members of the club and it is this terrain that is featured on our gallery pages. They are 3ft square boards with 3" wide roads that always meet at the centre of a board edge. Initially designed for 20mm scale it is used for 15mm and 25mm as well. They have gradually replaced the old 1:300 scale 6mm terrain used for WWII, which used an 18" square board. All boards are painted to the same standard, style and colour scheme. Everybody accepts this as it makes them all interchangeable and gives a much greater variety of terrain options than any one person could hope to achieve on their own.
Not everybody has or uses terrain boards, some people use a flat green base with separate hills and roads - that's their choice.
Personal preference is for a set of sculptured terrain boards, which brings us to the next area of interest.

How we built the terrain - by Steve Dunn:

This method of building terrain is a scaled up version of a method I used for 1:300th scale terrain building, featured in an issue of Miniature Wargames in the early 1980's. A few members at the club now use this method for building terrain, including Andy Worsley of The Last Valley, so we have a consistant standard.
In brief all boards are 18mm thick chipboard, and are painted on the back and sides before any work begins. This coat of paint actually helps reduce warping caused by the terrain on the other side over the years.
The road system is made from a coating of two part car body filler no more than 2mm thick. While the filler is still wet add ruts into the surface using a matchstick or something. Don't try and do the whole board in one go, it will set solid long before you get anywhere near finished and you need time to put the ruts in.
Hills are insulation board or fibreboard cropped to shape and layered, then glued and nailed to the board. The whole lot is then coated with main surfacing. This is sharp sand, PVA wood glue and fine sawdust mixed to the consistency of porridge. It is coated on the boards 3 to 4mm thick, it also doubles as a filler around the hills. Once dry this substance is very hard, strong and durable. Our boards have recently been maintained for the first time since they were built over ten years ago, all that was required was a new paint job. These boards take some hammer, most of them are stacked in the backs of cars for a journey to and from the club every week, or are transported in the back of a van to shows.

The paint is vinyl matt emulsion with a bronze green base dry brushed yellow, and khaki roads dry brushed sand, plus other artistic shades and highlights I won't go into.

Hedges, trees fences and walls etc. are separate items as are the buildings.