A simple weather system

For any campaign, I've always felt that a weather system to gives it a real lived-in feel as well as adding a little bit of chrome for a game for very little effort. For my Rampage on the Rhine and Destruction on the Danube Roman/Barbarian campaigns, I devised a useful system I will describe below.
　
First of all, the turns are bi-weekly. This allows me to break up the months into an even amount of turns (more or less). It also works for the movement rates on the campaign map.
　
Of course, I have the months along the top (with their Roman equivalent names for a little added chrome) with the 8 turns per month below that track box.
　
Below those are the two areas I keep track of the weather on a turn by turn basis. The blue months use the Winter track box, while the white boxes use the Summer track box. March and November on their 1st turn have a chance to be either winter or summer, based on a D6 roll.
　
Weather ranges from Clear, Cloudy, Rainy/Snowy, Storm/Blizzard in effect of intensity. Cloudy is really clear but with more of a chance for bad weather in the future. This allows you in the campaign to get a feel for what the next turn's weather might be (if its clear, the next turn will at worst be cloudy, which is as good as clear). Weather of course effects movement rates (including forced marches), reaction moves, and of course the battlefield weather if any battles are to be fought.
　
To get a feel of how it works, we'll assume its the 1st turn of the campaign and its June, so we'll use the Summer Weather chart. The weather on turn 1 starts as clear.
　
At the start of each turn, a 2d6 roll is made to determine the status of the weather. Following the arrows in the appropriate box, lets assume I roll an 8. For turn one, the weather is cloudy. On turn 2, I roll a 9. The weather for turn two is Rain. On turn 3, I roll a 7. No change. Another rainy turn. On turn 4, I roll a 3, so the weather reverts to cloudy. And so on and so forth.
　
Also, note that in Arpil and November boxes there is a +1 to the 2d6 die roll to account for the chance of more inclement weather.
　
All in all, the system works fine and is easy to modify to meet any needs. Now if only I can finally get another full Rampage on the Rhine or Destuction on the Danube campaign going !

A base map for my ancients rules

This is a map of 3" hexes, measuring about 42x72 inches, used for my for my DSRAA (DSR Advanced Ancients) rules. These rules were designed for campaign battles.

There are setup zones for each side, broken down into Flank/Center/Flank areas (Light infantry, Skirmishers, Light cav can set up in Any zone, Heavies only in center zone).

There are also terrain points on the map for potential hill and woods terrain templates that can be laid down (These are clear acetate printed templates) before the battle begins. It leads to some very non-repetitive maps.

Terrain can be generated either randomly (based upon what type of terrain in the fighting is in) or placed tactically during the setup process by the two players (also based upoin what type of terrain the fighting is in).

The rules take into account the side with less scouting points deploying more often and allowing the side with more to have an advantage during setup. They also take into account possible flanking actions, as well as pursuit once the battle is over.

This map rolls up easily, as do the templates for the terrain. The biggest/heaviest items to be transported to a convention are the figures themselves.

WW2 After Action.... and the screwup...

I'm sorry to not have pictures down on the after-action for the previous scenario- I managed to delete them by accident (don't ask me how). I'll give the scenario a try sometime later, meanwhile, on to pastures anew....


I've been using clear forest templates for my woods- they are easy to transport and use. But they do lack that 3D effect that makes miniatures so nice. So I did something about it.

My solution ? Tree clusters. But I also wanted them to be easy to transport, so I made some plaster (actually dental plaster- its much more solid and less crumbly) bases that fit the trees I had available. I made a mold so I could mass produce them (2 types- one with 2 trees, one with 3). The holes in the finished casted product were 4/16" and were drilled in with a Dremel.



After I flocked them (base coat of green, flocked, then followed by a dullcoat) they came out as the pictures show. I think they look nice and are very functional. And the trees fit snug, allowing me to remove some if neccesary for transport or to make room for figures vehicles.


All in all, not a very hard project and very rewarding besides. Now if I could just figure out how to do real hills like that template in the 1st photo.......