Ground Surface,
Hills and Vegetation

Textured Paint. Max's gaming table has a smooth surface which was painted with a sandy color spray paint, and given visual texture with irregular splotches of slightly different colors, lightly sprayed on after the first color had dried. Max has since created gaming terrain squares for Seven Years War games which feature paint containing sand for actual texture, and says that he would do the same for the desert terrain if he had it to do over. Commercial texture-paint applied with a paint roller directly to the tabletop is another option.

Vinyl. David uses a golden-brown heavily-grained upholstery vinyl called "Hippo Hide." This is the ground surface you see in most photos on this site. Many fabric shops (at least in North Texas) carry this brand, though you may have to visit several before you find the particular color you need. The vinyl has a naturally irregular color, and a strong texture, but a few light splotchy oversprays of lighter sand color make the surface even more random. The vinyl should be kept rolled up around a heavy, large diameter mailing tube when not in use; it will develop creases if it is folded for storage.

Wrapping Paper. Brown wrapping paper, used for mailing packages, makes an inexpensive and easy table surface. It comes in small rolls at office supply stores and is sometimes sold off large rolls by the foot. Crumple the paper and smooth it out for a pleasing surface irregularity. You can add light patchy dustings of slightly darker and/or lighter colors with spray cans, or green for sporadic vegetation, though the crumpled surface gives enough variation by itself. Cut the paper at your table edge for an exact fit and tape the edge down with removable tape. If you need to use more than one piece, tear the overlap into an irregular shape to avoid an artificial straight seam, and glue with spray glue or hot glue. Lighter paper, both in weight and in color, is better than heavier or darker paper. You can see this surface on the Residency at Biltezi battle pages.

Other Possibilities. Any sort of suitably colored cloth without an obvious weave texture can make a good playing surface. Check the fabric store's calico print section for inexpensive mottled patterns (photo). On solid-colored cloth, you may need to spray misty splotches of a lighter and a darker color here and there. Do not spray any area so heavily that it solidly covers the basic color; instead, stand back and mist a light overspray of paint to vary the material's color, not hide it. Avoid bright yellow paint; instead use light creams, tans or mustards, and golden or other warm browns.

Some stationery, educational supply, and art supply stores sell colored bulletin-board paper or project paper off large rolls. You may find a tan or light brown color. The paper is sold by the foot and is quite cheap.

Non-desert Surface can be represented by green cloth. Felt is a traditional choice because it lacks a visible weave and has a "fuzzy" surface which suggests grass. Old-style wool felt, if you can find it, is better than the common acrylic felt, as the latter has a strange texture and tends to sparkle when the plastic fibers catch the light. Green felt is often used for Christmas decorating, so fabric and craft stores sometimes carry a greater variety of shades and types, making December a good time to look for gaming felt.

Multi-level hills are very versatile -- a box of single levels of various sizes can provide a tableful of low hills, or be grouped and stacked to whatever height needed for taller hills. They also store in a smaller space.

Hills from Cork Tile
David uses 3/8" cork tile, of the coarse-grained sort used for wall surfaces or thick bulletin boards. These are really a bit thin for 25mm figures; 1/2" might have been better, had it been available.

The cork is easily broken by hand into irregular shapes of various sizes. Leave some pieces with the straight edge of the original cork tile; these create half-hills that are can be used at the table edge and can also be placed edge-to-edge to form larger hills. Be sure that the straight edges are in standardized modular lengths (such as 10", 5", and 2.5") so they will fit together evenly with the same size half-hill, and two of the smaller can fit against the larger.

Painting the Cork. Take a sample of the color of your ground surface to the paint store, and have the clerk mix up a quart of cheap latex paint that is a little lighter. Record the color formula on the lid, so you can get a good match if you run out. Get some artist's tube acrylic paints that are somewhat darker and lighter, and a 1" and 2" paintbrush.

Paint one side and all edges of each piece with the latex paint. On the edges, be sure to work the paint into all the low spots, so the strength of the paint will keep the cork granules from coming loose. Use the corner of the smaller brush to vary the color, by stippling (dabbing) the lighter and darker artists' colors into the latex paint on the cork while it is still wet. Don't bother to clean the brush between colors, just let the colors mix on the brush and on the cork. Move on to the next piece. When all are dry, you can go back and drybrush lighter paint over the surface to emphasize texture.

Reversible Hills. You can create very useful and versatile hills by painting the remaining side of each piece green. If you also play non-desert battles on a green table or cloth, choose a green that works with the color of your playing surface. Have the paint store mix a quart for you. First paint the areas near the edges with your basic brown latex paint and dab splotches of the brown on the interior. Then add the green, occasionally leaving spots where the brown paint shows through as bare earth. Work darker and lighter greens into the paint as you did with the brown paint on the other side. Do not paint green onto the edges of the cork; leave them brown. When they are stacked green-side up, they give the effect of grassy hills with eroded sides.

The reversible hills are useful in several ways: They allow the hills to be used with a green table surface for non-desert games. The two colors can be used with either ground color to indicate two different types of hill terrain (rough terrain versus smooth, or vegetation which provides cover versus bare ground). The green sides can also be used as shoreline edges.

Shoreline Edges. Often a colonial game will have a river running along one edge of the table. The water will be a strip of paper or vinyl, usually on top of the brown ground surface. Cork hill levels can be used to give the shore an irregular shape and to disguise the fact that the water is actually above the ground level. Generally the green sides provide an attractive shoreline, resembling the vegetation that grows near the water; however it is possible to use both colors, green indicating vegetation that would give soft cover to riflemen, brown indicating bare shore. When using hill levels as shoreline, their elevation is usually ignored for game purposes (i.e. they do not have the same effect as an actual hill does on combat, firing, and visibility). The tiles can also be used as islands.

For photos of shoreline tiles in an actual game, go to the Assault on Kaiserinsport battle page.

Hills from Styrofoam
Max creates hills from inexpensive 3/4" white styrofoam board (sometimes called bead-board). This is the rigid insulation board carried by the builder's supply or lumberyard, as well as at some craft stores. It is formed of packed granules about 1/8" across and the extra thickness gives much more dramatic hills than the cork tile.

Styrofoam board is easily and cleanly cut with a thin-bladed serrated steak-knife. Max's hill levels are not reversible, so he gives a slight angle to the sides. He also prefers to glue a number of levels together into permanent larger hills. This reduces the flexibility, but saves paint, since much of the surface of the lower levels does not have to be painted.

To paint styrofoam hills, use only water-based paint. Latex interior house paint is ideal; acrylic artist's or hobby paints work well but are much more expensive. Oil, lacquer or enamel paint and most spray paints will melt the styrofoam. (Once the surface is completely covered with latex or acrylic, though, spray cans can be safely used to dust on color variations.) Max starts by brushing a dark reddish brown on the edges, then applies the lighter colors by brush, letting some of the dark paint remain in the crevices between the beads to give texture to the hill sides.

This picture of Max's table gives an idea of the dramatic effect of the tall hills.

For even more spectacular styrofoam hills, see Max's treatment of the Northwest Frontier in the battle for the Karoram Valley.

Small clumps of lichen can be scattered about the gaming table as areas of brush. The game effect of these bushes should be spelled out by the scenario designer before the game begins. They may be mere scenic window dressing, having no effect on movement or combat, or they may block visibility, provide soft cover, slow movement, etc.

Undyed and brown lichen can be used to create "zeriba" walls. These were tangled barriers of cut thorn-bush, used to protect encampments in the Egyptian and Sudanese campaigns, a kind of all-natural precursor to the barbed wire of WWI.

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