Cigar Box Europe II Mat

Just a couple pics to show off the Europe II mat.

Fresh out of the bag! Added some depth underneath (the same as for the pics of the Europe I mat earlier).

Some terrain added. An excellent mat with fewer fields. Don't mind the creases, as they have been in a bag and folded all this time; never used. This is a fleece mat, so creases don't last long once laid out.

Cigar Box Europe I Mat Video: First Impression

Here is a quick video o the Cigar Box Europe I mat I posted on earlier today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Battle using Cigar Box Europe I Mat!!!!

Had a quick battle today using the Cigar Box Europe mat. This was a fantastic battle with lots going on. Here are a few pics demonstrating the lay-out using the mat. It should be noted that I am using the "25mm" scale mats with my 15mm scale miniatures and terrain. The only difference between the 25mm and 15mm versions of the mats are the width of the roads. The roads on the 25mm scale version are about 3" wide (1" wide for the 15mm version). I prefer the 3" width actually as this equates more to the scale of roads in 15mm (such as used with Flames of War).

This is the Europe I mat. American forces are moving up from the fields and along the road at the top of the pic. There is a nice rise in elevation on the top left.

One of the great advantages of using a Cigar Box mat is the fact you can smoothly represent elevations - depth on the battlefield. I have always felt that throwing down pre-made hills never looked right. For one thing they are usually too small to avoid standing out un-realistically. Lay-outs tend to look like flat surfaces with bumps randomly placed about as a result. Well, I am happy to report that using the Cigar Box mats has solved that problem for me. For one thing you can now stick hills (books, foam, or if your lucky, some Geo-Hex terrain boards) under the mat to allow for large (or small) height changes. These changes look much more natural and actually blend very well into the lay-out.

Another look at the Europe I mat. German forces rush to the sector to slow the advance of the Americans.

At first it took some getting use to, but the tables seemed much more brighter. My lay-outs tended to be very dark green with mostly dark browns scattered about for variety. However, the Europe mats by Cigar Box tend to be much brighter, using lighter tones and color on the mat. This is not a bad thing at all.

First elements make contact! In the center is one of my own felt fields - dark brown - placed on the mat.

Another thing we did in the battle is make use of some of my felt forest and field pieces. I placed these over top the mat to add variety to the lay-out. I can report that yes indeed, it is very easy to change up the pre-made lay-out on the mats by adding your own terrain pieces. Simply throw them on top of the mat to cover-up areas, or otherwise change it up.

American M-10 tanks move up. Again, the dark brown field is my own terrain placed atop the mat. Blends in perfect!

All in all it was a fantastic battle. I really enjoyed the lay-out. I bought both Cigar Box Europe I and II mats for even more variety. I can combine these together to add even more variety if I so choose - or simply use both at once to cover a huge battlefield.

A look down a thin path-way.

I should note one thing. Compared to the Desert mat, the Europe mats are slightly smaller along the long sides, perhaps only a 6" overlap on a 4' wide table. The Desert mat looks more like a full 12" overlap. However, this makes very little difference. I used some pretty good sized hills under the mat in this battle, there was still plenty of over-hang all around the 6' x 4' table we used. So it is possible to just go crazy with placing hills underneath the mat.

A German recon element spot s the American advance. Note the natural elevation change here.

I should be doing some full video reviews on these two mats shortly. So stay tuned for that.

Check out Cigar Box here.

New Terrain and Basing Issues Settled!

Progress continues on my Blood, Sand and Empire project. This week I managed to finish off a couple desert dwellings for my layout. Did some experimenting with the texturing on these. The bigger one was given a good coat of joint compound ("spackle") with sand mixed in. The smaller was white glue, sand, and a touch of baking powder. Not sure about the latter. It did dry very quickly however - not really a good thing. Either way both turned out alright for my purposes. Astute readers may recognize the models as being from the old Epic 40k wargame by GW! I simply converted them to fit 15mm scale.

Some new buildings all finished.

To go along with these two building I have also purchased two boxed sets of desert buildings for Flames of War (Battlefront pre-painted). These sets include a total of three additional buildings, some walls, and a well! So that should be enough buildings to get me by at the moment.

Also, I bought a ton of plastic palm trees off of Ebay to go along with the few I already have. All they need is to be painted up a bit and based as appropriate. Of course, I still need to make more terrain for rocky areas, cliffs, and shrub/greenery to clutter up the table.

As for my basing dilemma, I have finally made a decision! I have decided to base my infantry six models to a 30mm square stand. This is very useful and equates to 24 models on four stands which is perfect for representing a "standard" size unit in Black Powder, as well as for units in Battles for Empire II. My units will look big and have a really nice feel to them. "large" units are six stands, "small" units are two stands, and "tiny" units are six individually based models. So I am all set regarding that. The "tiny" unit models are perfect as I want to use them also with some skirmish rules I also have and am eager to have a go with.

Six models in two ranks on a 30mm square stand. Perfect for Black Powder
and Battles for Empire II.

I should have more stuff in by the end of the next week or so, so stay tuned for that. As soon as I finish some ancient Gauls I am painting, I will start getting these models on the painting desk and get some Khaki splashing about! Perhaps next week I will post some more photos of the lay-out using my Cigar Box desert mat and some new terrain.

Update and Things: what have I been doing regarding Ancients Wargaming...?

Quite a bit has been going on around here regarding my ancients wargaming. In between my other interests - and SCHOOL - I have managed to get a few things done/started. Among other things, work continues on some new terrain pieces for my ancient battles. So far I am experimenting with a Greek type temple, as well as making several forts for camps in DBA (and other rules). More pics and details coming soon.



A new camp just built: from TIDDLY-WINKS!



Greek temple made from straws, foam and card. A statue will go in the center.

I also just got in some Corvus Beli (Numidians) and Xyston (Aitolian Greek) 15mm DBA army boxes. Very nice indeed. I threw in some extra blister packs as well to round out these little armies. I am particularly fond of the Numidians (an army I believe I will expand for some bigger battles).



Some new minis to paint!

Of course progress continues on my Gauls I have been painting off an on the past couple weeks. A complete DBA army should be complete by the time of our next go with our DBA campaign.



Some Old Glory and Essex Gaul/Celt foot.

My good friend has a pretty good blog for DBA (and other periods) here on Blogger. Head on over to the Splendid Little Wars Blog! to see some good DBA 3.0 write ups! Includes some Big Battle DBA as well. A four part series of write ups has recently been posted. Hoplite Greeks, Persians, Gauls and MORE! Pretty exciting stuff over there if you want to see more DBA goodness :)