As fair as these green hills may be

They're not my land's hills.


( click here for those not familiar with the reference, a Scottish Soldier is a song that was popular on the juke box in the Black Watch armoury when I was a Cadet though I'm a still a little iffy on exactly when this Scottish soldier with his trusty piper beside him lay dying on a Tyrolian hillside. According to Wikipedia, the tune as a pipe tune dates back to the Crimean war but is adapted from an opera air itself based on an Alpine folk tune which would explain the Tyrol bit but not why a Highland soldier should lie dying there.) .
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For me, the decision to go with single glossy toy soldiers meant that I needed to replace my aging foam slopes or cloth over shapes with flat contour hills, partly for thematic consistency but mostly because single 40mm metal figures just don't stand well on steep slopes.

I could have used various materials but as life would have it, a change in domestic arrangements 2 years ago when we agreed to have my 88 year old mother-in-law  move in, led me to evacuate my previous wargames room in progress for the current smaller one. This left me with about 30 running feet of surplus pine shelving painted in a bright green. Some 5 or 6 foot lengths, other pieces being shorter off cuts from when I shortened various 8' shelves to fit the new space. Prepaid hills!

They need a bit of work though. The second step is going to be easy, they need to be painted to match my table which itself needs to be repainted. A job for a winter afternoon. While I am at it, I'll be looking for a lighter shade of green. I must have spent too long in the city, looking at grass up close and playing on felt sheets. It was a bit of revelation when I started to really look at the hills around here and to see just how bright a green they are, even in the early fall. Now, I'm not saying that all hills everywhere are this green all year round. I well remember getting used to the brown hills of some parts of BC in mid summer, but if I'm going to have a fictional land, it might just as well resemble the world I see around me now.

The hard part is going to be deciding on shapes and sizes. After studying various options and checking various OSW books for inspiration, I have come up with several options to consider (now that I've abandoned my hex trials for the near future at least).:

1. Cut out various stack-able, vaguely oval, shapes of different sizes, some cut in half to fit on an edge. This is more or less what Charles Grant's books show and is something I have done in the past, though never before with vertical edges that I can recall. This is one of the simplest methods to use but it is might be the most limiting unless I build up and store a huge selection of hill shapes .

2. Collect a large number of small rectangles and use them pixel-like  to create hills of the desired shape. This method allows for almost any piece to be used in any game thus avoiding sorting through stacks of hills looking for the right shape but it also means sharp angles, straight lines and a lot of seams. My refight of Hooks Farm was the first time that I can recall using rectangular hills (usually books) without throwing a cloth over them to soften the outline. I was surprised last weekend when I deployed rectangular hills again that I didn't mind the right angled hills.  This option could also be made compatible with a square grid.

3. Something along the lines of what HG Wells proposed in the appendix to Little Wars. A mix of  squares and triangles with 2 straight sides and a curved side, some convex, some concave. The straight sides to match the sides of the squares. If done right, this could allow a wide variety of hill shapes. If not done right or without enough pieces, it would be even more limiting than the first option.

I think I need a miniature Topographical Engineering Section to sort this out. Maybe I should paint one up. Where is Captain Lee when you need him anyway?

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