Foam Gothic Terrain

 

Lets start the year with the near completion of another terrain project. This one started 4-5 years ago. I made terrain using the incised method of foam carving. I liked the look but it was less practical on the gaming table - specifically for games like Mordheim. It simply did not have sufficient access points to climb and risk averse players chose not to scale the surfaces. 

One reason is that the blue foam sheets I can purchase (in my home town) are all 30mm tall - not the smaller sheets available in other places (eg: USA.) This means its taller than a model - well about ... I'm looking at you GW - demanding a climb test. Also 30mm equates to around 1 1/2 inches meaning some slightly funny math on movement. 

Also, I made these because ... now I can do better. My foam crafting has improved and these look better. The different sizes make these more functional. I also made more bridges or walkways to aid player movement. 

And all this is pretty damn stupid because ... I don't play Mord, Warcry, IHMN or Frostgrave any more. My group doesn't have much interest in those directions. (I must say that Mord is my preferred fantasy skirmish game out of all of those listed.) 

So ... in other words ... I've made a lot of terrain that I won't use. 

It was a significant investment of time and I'm not going to use it. 

But I do really like the results.

As usual with my posts, I've gone off half cocked as I'm finishing off 10 small pieces of ruined wall scatter terrain to complete this project. Everything is a little bare atm. These look great with my Sigmarite Mausoleum terrain from GW and can certainly use those. 

I have a narrow hope that this would work really well with smaller games of MESBG - including Battle Companies (which appear to have been dropped in the latest 2024 edition of the Middle Earth game) - as ruined places such as Osgiliath, Fornost or something similar (maybe a raid on ruins around Minas Morgul itself?) There is also the opportunity to use in IHMN games with a more gothic horror twist. 

(I know there are games like Silver Bayonet but after 6-8 games of Frostgrave, I was sharply reminded about how much I dislike wargaming systems that use D20. Too swingy and luck based. Even D10 is sometimes too much eg: Fire and Fury.) 

All up ... another filled container in much wargames cupboard, going beside another 10-12 that I never open. But wargames is a funny old thing and sometimes you just never see the future potential of miniatures and terrain until it arrives. Overall, these mark a final trend - my increasing desire to toss out my previous terrain as I can now make better - but who can face such as massive commitment to do all that ... plus I don't have a good method for making hills as yet.