Yet more cornfield improvement and terrain tiles for Battle Cry!

During the week I decided that I was still not happy with the re worked Cornfield for the simple reason that it bore little resemblance to the real thing and looked more like my late old Nan's privet hedge. Much as I'm taking a stylised approach to this project I feel that more can be done. So I did a search for 15mm scale metal cornstalks thinking maybe the Model Railway world might offer up a few ideas possibly. The search threw up a video showing such made from individual plastic bamboo aquarium plants with corn cobs added. I'm going to have a go at something similar but based on 2mm drilled MDF removable sections and will try to achieve small cobs of corn more in scale. So, I have on order plastic bamboo stalks from eBay which should be arriving this week and I plan to have some fun with it! I'm honestly not obsessed with cornfields but it's a common feature of Civil War battlefields. 

Lets see what can be done with these!

Also been making more hill toppers as you can see and will now start to cut the 5mm foamboard hexes that will be sandwiched between 2mm MDF to form the 16mm tall hills. The edges will be textured with Vallejo earth texture and then painted or possibly flocked.

Sharpshooter on a hill.

Also planning road and river tiles, first standard 'rough road' experimental road below. 'Plank Roads' offer faster movement than rough roads in the variant rules so that will be another interesting modelling challenge.

Sharpshooter markers - The Battle Cry Sharpshooter card allows a player to select any enemy general on the board as a target when played. I want something a bit more specific than this so decided that when this card is played a sharpshooter marker may be placed WITH ANY FRIENDLY UNIT IN RANGE OF AN ENEMY GENERAL. The shot is then taken with a crossed sabres required to remove the general for a Victory point. This reduces the 'bolt from the sky' effect and of course will be affected by line of sight rules. Just a touch more realistic I think.

Couldn't hit an Elephant at this range!

I have been making labels for the rear of the unit bases and small casualty markers that will be placed on the strip to show casualties as current strength. The markers are fairly unobtrusive I think and I decided that for those units reduced to a single point a red marker would make it clear that the unit is at the point of wavering and about to break. A big part of the Battle Cry game play is to pull back such vulnerable units and replace them with fresh troops to prevent the loss of another victory point where possible. I discovered a nifty little old tin for the bits and pieces when sorting through some old boxes, it might possibly have been,  (Ahem), a stash tin at some point in the dim and distant past! It was a nice find and perfect for this project.

Finally an example of the labels. It's been a very long time since I have felt such a strong connection with units of model soldiers, somehow the label helps me to really identify with individual Civil war units and will I think greatly improve the narrative when battle commences.

Right then, next step will be planting some Corn.