tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839601747923375105.post810223921100724410..comments2024-03-28T01:22:13.683-03:00Comments on Battle Game of the Month: An Elf Might be HandyRoss Mac rmacfa@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04053555991679802013noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839601747923375105.post-40168721832432908042014-12-12T11:47:40.348-04:002014-12-12T11:47:40.348-04:00Thanks Jerry, very different from most of Quebec w...Thanks Jerry, very different from most of Quebec which in turn is quite different from Nova Scotia, both different from out west.Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04053555991679802013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839601747923375105.post-73965391344011521782014-12-11T08:47:09.405-04:002014-12-11T08:47:09.405-04:00Dear Ross & Ion,
In the northeast part of Nor...Dear Ross & Ion,<br /><br />In the northeast part of North America - the British settled New England part to be precise - groups of people would receive permission to settle in an area. They then would "buy" the land from the natives and a map would be drawn for the village clearly delineating where the church would be erected and where the green was located. Streets would be drawn in and plots assigned sometimes by lottery and sometimes by virtue of who was wealthiest or who had sponsored the settlement. Plots would be reserved for things like the blacksmith and for future residents. If areas of Long Island are any indication, these layouts were rational and usually followed some basic rules like access to the Church, water sources, proximity to the common green, and shared out the spots which could be farmed as equally as possible. Roads followed soon after. Later the counties would figure out where the seat of government would be and rail lines would connect these with the "big" cities.<br />Your wargaming scenery looks terrific and could easily be located anywhere on the Eastern seaboard. If you wanted to push the story line you could lay down a rail line and have a train full of reinforcements arrive in your settlement.<br />Happy Holidays to you and yours,<br />JerryCelticCurmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17687177512999052331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839601747923375105.post-6055648182532792482014-12-10T23:08:10.369-04:002014-12-10T23:08:10.369-04:00Yes I do find the style practical and attractive. ...Yes I do find the style practical and attractive. I considered the silhouette idea but it won't mix comfortably with existing buildings so it would have been or nothing and a complete break. Also a visual break to LW, Charge!, etc.<br /><br />The houses and roads are completely out of line with ground scale, 100 yd wide rds etc so its all very abstract. Larry Brom had an article in The Courier during the early 80s that I always liked. He fadtened a few houses, walls etc onto a base with just enough open space to hold the number of bases allowed to garrison the town. For bigger towns several such town bases were placed adjacent ti each other. For the 40mm troops though, my table is too small for the system so each house represents several blocks or a whole village.Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04053555991679802013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839601747923375105.post-75546547262582994242014-12-10T18:16:56.848-04:002014-12-10T18:16:56.848-04:00I like these sorts of buildings - friendly, don...I like these sorts of buildings - friendly, don't you reckon? Wargames friendly, that is to say. On the capacity for villages to block line of sight, I have always enacted that a village or town might be seen into down a street, but not through, however tiny the hamlet. It's partly an 'accidents' of ground thing - casual rises and declivities too trivial to depict otherwise on the war games table - and partly urban clutter - vehicles and assorted detritus of village living. Mind you, I rarely allow straight main streets.<br /><br />Villages and towns on a gridded playing surface rather limits the shapes of the towns and the opportunities to create blocks to LOS. Some while ago a couple of bloggers (I forget who, offhand) was experimenting with 2D or semi-3D village profiles for gridded tables. These simply lined the square, leaving an internal space for troops. <br /><br />A method I have been thinking about is to make cobbled or paved surfaces upon which buildings may be placed close together, forming an impression of a closely built up area. Through roads are indicated by those entering this built up area. If troops need to be placed within its precincts, just enough buildings are moved or removed to allow their deployment. The Volley & Bayonet system uses something like this, but what I have in mind is less 'formal'.<br /><br />Having said all that, I infer from this posting that Atlantica is 'New World' country. Not knowing enough about it, I can't comment upon the city development of the Spanish and Portuguese colonists, nor upon indigenous city dwellers. But the North American colonists (as in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) went for square gridded town planning, in which the city limits were defined even before the place was settled. The result was often a quite a dispersed residential zone (houses separated by empty lots, gradually being filled in) about a fairly compact CBD close to road junctions or railway stations. The plan of leaving whole squares empty to accommodate streets seems to me very appropriate for a 'New World urban frontier' style of town development.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />IonArchduke Piccolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15533325665451889661noreply@blogger.com