One-Hour Wargames; Terrain List

There are 30 Tabletop Tests in here - can you pass them?

Don't trip on this small package - most gamers fall flat on their face.

Neil Thomas begins this section of OHW with an astute observation: that most gamers pay loads of attention to rules, and then little attention to the type of scenario they play. This leads to the constant use of the contrived "Pitch Battle" type of encounter, which is both implausible and becomes sterile over time, anyway. He concludes, "The key to any rewarding wargame is therefore an imaginative scenario." 

NT then provides 30 scenarios of which I've played over half and had to tweak nearly nothing. Still, with a couple of modifications like random setup or entry of reinforcements, the possibilities of the 30 can be easily doubled to 60, which is then doubled to 120 since you should really play both sides. One could also reverse the terrain types, so for example if playing in 'Nam or Guadalcanal, you could make all clear area jungle, and the woods clearings.

A challenging bit of statement here - and quite convicting.

This is why his rules can be so simple - the games aren't about the rule mechanics, they're about achieving the victory conditions 60 different ways. And with 9 sets of rules, you are already looking at 540 unique playing situations, throw in the variable force matrix of 6 forces per side [36 different combinations] and you are suddenly at almost 20,000 different possibilities for games to play, in around an hour.

Unlikely any of us will live that long!

It's not all as simple as the below, of course.


In any event, you will find your setup time to go more quickly if you prepare all the terrain in advance - much of it repeats from scenario to scenario, so there isn't as much to do as you would think. A couple of suggestions:
- Sticking to one terra firma will make life easier. The most obvious is N. America / Europe green landscape. Next up would be a more arid, desert Mediterranean ground. 
- Sticking to one scale will also be easier. If you must pick one, I strongly suggest 15mm, followed by 10mm for these rules, since they are designed to be played in a small amount of time, space and resources. 20mm or 1/72 also works fine. 
- the scale issue also translates into a vertical issue for terrain heights, and shapes. A hill that is a gently rising from the desert and is a few hundred yards long is very different from a hill that rises 50-100 feet in the foothills of the Vosges!

Below: 15mm desert dune - pretty easy to make, well fought over, and gets a lot of complements...would work for 10mm and 1/285 also, but 20mm and up it's just too small.


So without further ado, I offer up the terrain list for these scenarios - build all this, and you will be knocking out your terrain needs for 100 years of One-Hour Wargames!

Roads & Rivers: 3” width – could model narrower with cleared berms and banks. [EDIT: I had the hills wrong, apologies!]

• 6 HILLS all 2-level: 6x12” x 2, 18x12”, 18x6", 12x12” [“rough”], 24x6".
• 6 WOODS: 6x6” wood x3, 6x12” woodx2, 12x12” wood.
• 2 x 6x6” towns, 8x8´town, 6’ of road, 2x Bridges, 2xFords
• 3’ of river, 6x6” Swamp, 6x12” Swamp, 12x12” Swamp

Obviously, some terrain pieces could be built up from two-three others, like making a 12x12” wood from 2 6x6” woods and one 12x6” wood, for example. There are a couple of scenarios with a 24”x 6” Hill but the 18” long one will do just as well, or you can put together the two 6x12” Hills, you’ll just have a saddle in the center. There’s also a giant woods in one scenario, 1’x3’, but probably best done by marking the line of the table with string/yarn, and distributing the 4 Woods into the space.