Wheat-fields for Wargaming

Once again I am revisiting a subject I have touched on several times before. I have made wheat fields on a number of occasions and have utilised the traditional materials of hessian matting and teddy bear fur. However, as with my ploughed fields, the finished products never quite looked right and were usually too small for my needs. So I bought a couple of square meters of fur fabric and set about making a new collection of versatile and cheap wheat fields for use with 15mm and 28mm scales. The only work I did on these was to give the rather shiney synthetic fur a dusting of light beige spray paint (I used a car paint from Halfords). It has to be applied sparingly or the fibres clump together and don't look right. 

There's nothing particularly innovative about this project, many wargamers have made use of 'Teddy Bear Fur' for fields before, including myself. Their use largely depends on your own personal aesthetic. Some people don't like the wavey look of fur and prefer the look of coconut matting. Some, like me, prefer fields where troops and vehicles don't float across the top of the wheat when they pass through. This is one of my main reasons for not wanting to use this material, but also that the fur fields are much lighter and flexible so they can be folded around the edges of the battlefield if, like me, you have a smaller table. 

One thing to note is that modern wheatfields are not the same as those seen in the early part of the 20th Century or earlier. The wheat seen in a modern filed is a very long way from the wild variety first cultivated by humans 10,000 years ago in what is now southeastern Turkey. Ancient species were very tall, averaging about 160cm or well over 5ft tall. By the early 19th Century, Wheat was the most significant cereal crop grown in Britain but it wasn't until the mid-1800's that the first plant breeders started to produce single varieties that gave higher yields by selectively breeding the best ears from their crops. These plants were shorter than the ancient variety, standing about 130cm's tall. 

Fast forward 50 years and by WWI a hardy wheat variety called Yeoman was becoming prevalent in Britain and its crops stood about 110cm tall. The next big change occurred in the 1980s with varieties like Skyfall developed specifically to service the demand for white sliced bread. However, this relied on the use of liquid fertilisers to increase yields increasing the need for shorter plants which were less likely to fall over. Modern wheat is typically only about 60-70cm tall, less than half the height of the ancient variety. 

The reason I have presented this short (and rather dull) potted history of wheat is that the 'look' of a wheatfield will have changed over time. The further back in time we go, the taller the wheat and the more likely it is to be affected by the wind resulting in a rippled and wavey surface -  like the fur fields. Modern wheat on the other hand probably does look very much like the coconut matting seen on many games tables, because it is short with stocky stems capable of holding up larger seed heads. It doesn't (in my mind) look anything like the wheat typically seen as little a 100 years ago. 

On the Road Again

My family and I like to get out and about, and most weekend we can normally be found heading towards a Museum, Living History Event or Historic Building. However, in the UK a certain pesky virus stopped all that back in March. Since then, like everyone else, we've been confined to the house at the weekend. All that enforced 'free time' had to go somewhere and I channelled it into The Quarantined Wargamer videos I have been putting on my YouTube Channel. I never thought it would be five months before we finally got to visit another museum, but with Pubs prioritised over Museums (and schools) many of our favourite locations have only recently reopened their doors to the public. This week we finally got out of the house and have visited three museums (!) and while we were at one of them I made a little video to mark the occasion. 

Rest assured this isn't the end of The Quarantined Wargamer. Sadly the risk from COVID-19 is a long way from being eradicated, and no-one knows if local lockdowns and other restrictions could be reimposed. So we are trying to make the most of it while we can, deliberately picking locations where we can enjoy some history, socially distanced from the hoards visiting beaches (and pubs). 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. Next week I will be back in the Operations Room, and I'll be talking about how we learn new rules. Until then, stay safe and keep rolling high!

Ploughed Field Terrain

Over the years I have made a lot of custom terrain and repeatedly return to the need for fields and crops for use in different periods and scales. Last year I made some small fields using thin MDF and brown plumbers caulk. They looked quite good but I have since found that their small size, and rigid nature, makes using them difficult, especially on my small table. I started toying with the idea of making some larger, more flexible fields a long time ago, but I have finally got round to making some ploughed fields using brown corduroy fabric as my base material. 

The fabric I bought came on a 1.5m wide roll so a 1m offcut gave me enough material to make 20 reasonably large fields for my games, more than enough to cover my modest games table, but also suitable for bigger games at Reject HQ. 

Once cut to size the fields were given a simple three-step makeover to finish them:

• Although the material was called chocolate brown it had a bit of a purple undertone to it so I sprayed all the fields using Amy Painter Leather Brown. 
• When this dried I gave the ridges a very light drybrush of sandstone from a tester pot of household emulsion paint. This has to be done sparingly, just enough to highlight the ridges. Try not to be too even with this, it looks better if some areas are lighter than others because real ground is rarely even and monotone when you look at it. Slight depressions will look darker than better-drained lumps and bumps. 
• Then I added a few turf patches to some of the ridges. This looks a bit like grass growing in patches on the untended field. I used a large flat brush to apply the PVA to the ridges, using a very light drybrush-like stroke to get the PVA only on the ridges. The turf I then scattered on only adhered lightly and, after shaking, only a little bit remained glued in place. The result looks like sparse weeds growing in areas of deeper soil, or where the drainage is better. 

Additional details could be added, like patches of flowers or actual plants, but I wanted these to be simple. The only 'special effect I went for was one field where I added a hint of a crop ring in the field. 

I need to thank fellow Reject, Ray (Don't Throw a One) who helped with the colour and suggested the weeds which make these look so much better. Cheers, ol' fella! 

Ditch the Army List

I have been spending a lot of time during lockdown playing solo wargames and small scale test games across a range of periods and rulesets. The common denominator has been that I haven't abided by the army lists and often the 'sides' were wildly asymmetrical. And the result has been some really interesting min games that have left me asking, why aren't we doing this more often? The latest episode of The Quarantined Wargamer aired on Friday and I'd love to hear what you think on this subject.

As always I hope you enjoy the video, and if you do please consider hitting the Like button and subscribing to my channel. And of course, I'd like to hear what you think so please leave your comments either here or on my channel. 

This coming Friday sees The Quarantined Wargamers first 'outside broadcast'! Until then, stay safe and keep rolling high!