Friday, January 31, 2020

Battlescale Terrain

     While on Facebook a couple of months ago, someone mentioned Battlescale terrain hexes. I looked up battlescale.com and after some thought, I placed an order. My plan was to get enough pieces for a 8x8 playing board; my math skills are quite atrocious and didn't order enough.  As I ordered them shortly before Christmas, I quickly forgot about the order.

      Today the order came and I am pleased with them. I must admit, having used Heroscape for years, I was expecting lightweight plastic tiles. However, these hexes have quite a bit of weight to them. You can buy "non skid" tabs for the bottom of the hexes to help keep them from sliding. To me they seem to set firmly and I don't think shifting will be a major problem. I bought a large number of plain tiles, several "rough terrain" and hills. The tiles are 3 inches across from flat edge to flat edge. I am thinking of making an edged tray to keep the base tiles firmly in place. I must admit I'm excited to try them out. Of course the size of the tiles cuts down on the portability of the board.

    The next issue is how to finish the tiles. Battlescale gives a nice tutorial on flocking the tiles. I still am leaning towards just painting them; flocking could come later.

Some of the Battlescale hexes laid out.

Some Peter Laing GNW based units on the hexes. Plenty of room for good sized regiments.

Individually based Peter Laing Boers. I think even the individual figures look  good with these hexes.  Also, rebasing the figures on square stands instead of washers was a good move. Figures mounted on washers don't stand well on the rough terrain hexes.

Trying Airfix figures on the hexes. They might be good for skirmish games.

Testing out different terrain features with the hexes. Once again, there is plenty of room for trees and houses, and stands of figures.


While setting up the hexes, I thought of "Simplicity in Hexes" wargame campaign that  I played  last year. In the rules for that campaign, the scenarios used One Hour Wargame scenarios, but set up on a 6x6 hex board. I plan to clean my workbench and set up a 6x6 board and try out a couple of games using those scenarios.


6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. They really are nice pieces. They fit well on top of the plain hexes.

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  2. They look really good John. They would be a perfect size for the games I play.

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    Replies
    1. Although I haven't used them yet, I think out of all hexes I've tried to use, these may be the best. I also think they are a good buy.

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  3. They look good with your figures and when finished will be an excellent addition to your gaming.

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  4. I at one time wanted to buy Hexon 11 terrain hexes, but they were close to 4 inches across and would be too big for my games. Now to paint them.

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