3 Wargaming Terrain Basics 

As much as I love the historical battle reports, seeing stuff like this is also cool. Series on how to build simple historical terrain (since lots of terrain videos on RU-vid are geared toward 40k), and maybe how to research a unit historically so you get their models right?

Thank you guys so much for trying to keep historical hobby alive I have been one of those people that's been very critical of historical games mainly because you can't find them not even flame of war although bolt actions becoming easier I came from role-playing mainlink Dungeons & Dragons I was introduced to the stork wargaming cuz I haven't Love Of History but I'm 40 so I'm old so thank you we're trying to get people who are not old interested into this Hobby hopefully your will allow younger viewers start playing more historical war games

As a scandinavian it’s awesome to see you guys pushing vikings as a period. Sweet! 😀👍

That square foam exercise mat you were using as a foundation can also be used to make hills, and sands mechanically fairly well. It comes in upto 1" sheets, and can be bought in bulk. It the same kind of foam that cosplay artists use to make weapons and armor from. Doing this means you have to same material for the entire underside of your ground mat, and any Tree pins you are using.

I have used trees with pins for years but I find it easier to cut the head off the pin, heat one end with a torch and shove the heated end into the plastic tree. It melts its way in and then the plastic hardens leaving it very solid! Saves the drilling, etc. I use Needle Nose pliers to push the hot pin into the tree.

Great video guys. For trees, just after Christmas stores in my area are getting rid of their orniments and decorations - that includes trees. I bought some at between 50% and 80% off a few years ago and they had snow on them. For some I left the snow, for the remainded a quick shot of paint covered up the snow. And the washers work well under the bases. I place mine on a 1/8" thick irregular wood base that represents the entire wooded area. A few trees on the base means the whole area is treed. The trees can be moved within the base, or removed, when troops get in there. Happy Gaming :)

As someone who works in a hardware store, one of the few ways i've found alleviate boredom, is looking over what might make good hobby terrain (faux wood floor tiles, flipped over and painted with textures, would make decent roads, having a bit of height)

I have even gathered rocks from a creek near my house to place on the table as terrain. I've also used (fresh) kitty litter to mark roads and reindeer moss is good for bush and scrub.

I just bought my first landsknechts miniatures hope you guys do a pike and shot or another civil war battle sometime.

For hills under the matt I have been using plastic food containers like pre cooked chicken containers, I find the bottoms a nice height, and plastic plates. These are cheap, light and save space, and can be stacked to create different shapes of hills.

Round metal roofing tin-tags are an economical tree basing option that allows area for enhancement with appropriate ground cover.

I had a friend who would take magnets and base the trees on something metal and hold the trees in place with the magnet underneath the mat. Worked pretty well.

Awesome tips thanks for these. I have been exploring buying a battle mat recently and had not considered how I could create my own, food for thought!

Thanks guys! As usual, you keep the subject light and easy for new gamers! I steer all my newbies to you guys! You are a gold star in the hobby of mini gaming!

Thank you for this basic terrain video and am really looking forward to the rest of them. Hope you all have a blessed new year.

I've been trying to get into miniature wargaming for a while now. It's not really very popular in my area, and the places that do support it are basically all 40k or bust. To be fair, my interests shift uhm...well fast would be an understatement. I have tried to build into several games. Learning all the aspects of the hobby as I go. I find my interest in historical wargaming captured by this dark age setting you picked for Ravenfeast. I got some dark age mini's for Christmas and I'm going to get to building 👍👍 Anyway thanks alot and I hope you do more batreps in addition to terrain vids.

Looking forward to the stone walls. Keep it up guys!

Nice job guys - really appreciate what you are doing with Raven Feast and the efforts to help new gamers -well done.

One thing to note...if your using xps foam and sanding it, please wear a mask or respirator....you do not want that dust in your lungs

This is awesome. Combined with the paper vikings....we are talking about superb value for money. You guys are awesome!

Excellent terrain choices and suggestions. Back in the days when I played 40k, we made a lot of ruins out of simple materials. Rusty pipes out of straws, hills with moss and puddles - it is amazing what you can do with a little bit green and some glue.

For me this was an out of the box will be interesting to see what comes next

Looking forward to the coming weeks ,you folks are awesome!

I wish there had been some mention of proper tree size scaling

Great to see you guys trying to get new people into the historical miniature gaming hobby. Hell, I might even learn something myself.

Loves your vids as usual but really looking forward to seeing you guys game again. I enjoy that and learn alot by watching the actual expereince. Stay safe and thanks again for all you do.

You guys have a fantastic channel and an amazing space. What a special club!

One of the major barriers to entry for a lot of players is the proliferation of “museum quality” terrain that you now see on nearly every website and/or RU-vid video. Players, especially at the beginning, need to learn to be happy with what they can manage using their own skills and budget. These videos of yours are perfect to show beginners that you don’t have to have an unlimited budget or terrain making skills to match Weta Workshop, you just have to do enough to make your game visually enjoyable.

A great video on the basics of Tabletop. I've been into miniatures on and off for about 30 years but I've always been ambivalent. Most rules always required an intimidating amount of painted models but I find the current trend towards skirmish rules quite heartening. Ravenfeast looks very playable. It resembles first edition Warhammer from 30 years ago before all the faff.

Great content as always, love to see it!

Great advice...the Carnage and Glory group that hosts dozens of games at HMGS conventions pioneered these techniques and have been refining them for 10 years or more...makes for some great looking games. I've even gone back to using geo hex under the fur or felt...it does take more time to set up but is more flexible for different types of terrain.

Should be a good series. Looking forward to it.👍🏼

I love the pin idea :) It really looks good!

Awesome tips for beginners. I have never purchased the pink foam, but every time I get something ensconced in styrofoam I instantly gauge it for use under my cigar box mats. Sigh, I have trash bags full of styrofoam hills hanging in my garage.

Great video guys!

For basing trees try: 1) old coins, cheaper than washers and they do not have a hole 2) a disc of thick cardboard. Treat the board with sand or small stones on PVA glue and that will give it extra weight 3) a cluster of trees can be fixed to an old CD or DVD. Cover the hole with tape and the disc will take two, three or four trees, a bit of rock and some scrub/bushes to taste. For the tree trunks, select thick twigs from real bushes, small trees, etc growing in the wild - or your garden - which have the natural look. If these are still fresh and 'green' stick them in a hot oven or an oven which has just been turned off. The heat will dry them. You can also select a thick natural stem (say pencil diameter) drill out one end to a depth of about a quarter inch and fill the hole with super glue or epoxy adhesive. Straighten out several paper clips (or other stiff wire) and insert these into the glue-filled hole. Once set, bend the wires to a natural shape and put your foam foliage on these wires with super glue. Cover the wires but leave the twig 'trunk' on show as it is a natural material. B

I have based my TREES on metal washers and drilled holes in the Styrofoam hill. I put a cheap magnet button in the hole to hold the washer. Not sure if the magnet will be stronger enough to hold the tree in place under a Matt. My Styrofoam hills are all cover with a mixture of Paint , PVA glue and fine sand. Kind of the same idea as the pins except you don't have to worry about getting stuck by the pins.

The compression algorithm doesn't quite like Keith's shirt, does it? The mats look amazing. I wouldn't have guessed they're home-made!

Great vid chaps 👍

FANTASTIC

Tabletop tees need not be a pain in the butt nor a drain on the wallet. I have forested an entire tabletop with the only out-of-pockets being pigments (mostly spraypaints), adhesives and sealant. This has been done by ripping out small shrubs (ones locally classified as environmental weeds) and using the base of the stem and root system as armatures. The roots are usually quite wiry and often have better resilience and durability than the above ground wood, and can have very compact and complex structure, I have noticed that the root systems often tend to be a bit like a miniature reflection of the above ground growth, and that specimens in sandier soils have much more structural complexity. Senna pendula (winter cassia) is particularly suitable. Once the armatures have been washed, trimmed and sealed, foliage can be added. The cheapest and easiest option I have found for this has been to use poly fibre (pillow stuffing) that has been appropriately hued through several applications of brown then green spray paint, but fencepost lichens or shredded sponge (natural or synthetic) can also be used. I base most of my trees in clumps of 2-5 rather than individually, as this better reflects the on the ground reality of forests and also makes the trees much more stable. The resulting trees have a much less 'manicured' look than commercial models, and particularly oddly shaped specimens can be 'tetrised' together to make very naturalistic looking copses. Using these materials and techniques, a table full of varied trees can be created in a surprisingly short time for very little cost. I'd be happy to email a few before/after photos if you are interested.

So when I glued the "teddy bear felt" to my foam board after I cut the rivers out, when I used a Xacto knife to cut of the rivers from the felt it was very hard to even cut it out.

LOL .. it may only be a coincidence but your favourite tree supplier is sold out of your favourite trees! Could that be your doing? That’s a sign of success.

Great idea for a series guys...it looks so difficult to get into miniature gaming, but doesn't have to be. Totally agree on buying trees, that's one thing I don't mind dropping some cash on. I've never found a satisfactory method (in terms of time and durability) of making my own trees.

Very good info!!!

WELL DONE

How thick are the foam tiles that you use under the mat to stick the trees in?

Trees and stone walls, essentials!👍👍

This is slightly off topic, but if I was going to read some background to learn more about Viking Era for wargaming, what books (nonfiction and fiction) would Little Wars TV recommend? Also, in your videos we can see the library at your club. Any thoughts on a regular-ish segment about reading for more wargaming eras beyond the Discord "shelf to table" which seems to be more general reading recommendations.

You guys are promoting your game so much I think I just might have to try out Ravenfeast

Nice

For 28mm, what size do you recommand for trees? 3/4" - 2" VS 2" - 3" VS 3" - 5" ? Thanks!

what scale are the trees for?

I'm having trouble finding the type of cloth you're using. The stuff I've found are either "regular" felt (which is too thin) or "teddy" cloth which is too fluffy…

Great Simple and informative vid for a newcomers to match the great work you guys have done with the free rules etc...well done! It would have been easy to have sat satisfied with 'kicking the hornets nest and creating 'clickbait' in your "is historical wargaming dying and what can we do about it" topics. That isnt what we expected you to do BTW , but youve already surpassed expectations with the volumes of stuff youre doing to get newcomers involved with absolute minimal barriers. Happy New Year! Dan and Rex

What size/type of washers do you use? I can't seem to get my mind around that part. Never comes out right.

Unfortunately, this is right at the time when the best option for trees as a starting terrain thing is just over. Right before christmas, a LOT of places have packs of snow dusted evergreens that are aimed at christmas villages. They aren't the most realistic looking, but they're extremely durable and look pretty good for a great price...it's like 20 trees of various sizes for $12 at Lowes and Home Depot. I'm also one of those that doesn't really like the under the mat hills, they never seem to lay correctly and naturally looking while maintaining easy use for minis. As a side thing, I'd love to see musicians and banners added to Ravensfeast (along with doing something for the 6th enchanted item...)

Trees hmmm? Pom poms!!!!!!!

Plain, Boring, and Flat - sounds like my high school sweetheart

Hi l am thinking about getting in to the hobby but l don't really how.l 14 years and l don't know anyone around me that wants to historical wargaming with me.