Table Testing

Now that the first encounter of the actual campaign is so close, I decided I should test some configurations that are close to the actual layouts or have common elements.  Having done so, I have since gone back and carried out some more work.  Suffice to say, progress has been satisfying.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few more pictures.

I now have three squads plus an HQ element for the Japanese, making a full platoon, one platoon of British, two squads of East India Federation, one of the mythic blocks and a squad of Australian troops ready for action.  Changes to the table layout have also allowed me to test two actual potential encounter areas.

The picture below shows an airfield as viewed from one end of the table. You can see unfinished work such as the contrast between the green undercoat on the tile with the road bend and plantation and the one to the south where the green has been sprinkled with the finishing touch of modelling grass. Similarly, the unpainted track element near the gun emplacement.  I'm gradually putting touches on but felt we needed the basic tiles ready so it was possible to play without.

With the orders coming in from the faction commanders, it's started well. A good set of first moves has opened the campaign as I had hoped.  Next time, I hope to report on the first clash.

One of the factions without a commander assigned and so not involved yet are the French. I have two squads ready, one painted recently which is an HQ squad with specialist equipment;

These are old Lone Star figures from the 50s and 60s which I always loved, as a boy, for their substance and because there were quite a lot of less common troops that used to turn up at the markets and places that sold them.

Above, my French HQ squad cross a small field in the countryside. A French marked radio van sits in the background.

Urban and semi urban settings have also been on my mind.  We have been making some new buildings, recently, as I reported.  The table test on a town edge is shown below.

This farmland on the edge of a typical European style town was used as a test of transition from open countryside to town fighting.

As always, there's plenty more to do but it feels like I'm ready for the initial stage of the campaign and building towards more serious stuff in the near future.