Building the Village

For any gamer we need our home field to defend, for some it is our home county, town or village. For me it is a non-descript English/Cornish village that can be used for both Operation SeaLion and a VBCW campaign (have not given up on that yet).

Image from Tiger Terrain

With receiving this weeks test order from Tiger Terrain. I ordered the stone barn and farm house and was very pleased. I also picked up the outbuildings to give the village a rustic feel. While still unpainted I am please on three levels. They were delivered in a timely manner of less than two weeks. Coming from the UK, that is great. Customer service was top notch with me receiving emails through each step. Lastly is the quality. I am very impressed with the quality of the resign castings. These buildings have great detail and I look forward to painting them. The company even sent me painting instructions. Well done Stephan.

Village is coming together

As of this evening the village has a manor house, a vicarage, a small shop and a post office and telephone exchange. Add to this three farm building and five houses we have an exciting village coming together.

O Tannenbaum - Sort Of

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!

Well while these are not Chrstmas trees, my European forests have received an additional 28 trees waiting to be built. These are on the larger side so will cover more area of the forest than their smaller cousins that I currently have.

I will also be using an Amazon gift card for additional trees and glue so the village project appears to have received a jump start in 2016.

Building Me a Village

Your average wargamer will have many projects that he or she is working on. Some will be at the front of the queue such as a new army for a new period, while others are further back such as researching a new period or front. Not normally number one on most lists, this year I will be moving terrain to the top of my project lists after an interesting conversation that went something like this...

An English Village or one in Normandy

"Nice farm"

          'Thank you'

"Do you play a lot in Normandy?"

               'Why yes, Normandy and England'

"So you can do an entire village"

                    (After a pregnant pause)
                                            ...'Well I don't know'

So lets find out.

A Better View of the Church.

Most of my battles are conducted in 15mm on a 6 by 4 table. Here we see the layout of a possible English village with cobble stone roads (no dirt paths here); with all the houses on display. There are few trees or fields as I wanted to give the best possible view of what I need to add to my collection.

I did leave room for the church yard as it is important for my paras to have a place to fight/play over. I see I am lacking in additional commercial businesses and residential housing. Have to keep my people happy.

I see my needs include:

• Trees - Lots of Them
• Bridge
• Town Center/Memorial
• One or Two Businesses, maybe more
• Three or Four Houses, also maybe more
• Rail Road Station - I have the Track
• Manor Hall

I expect to work through the list  during 2017 based mainly on any upcoming sales. This will give me a village suitable for an Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers adventure. Will even have a Lord's estate with the necessary out buildings. An estate to be used as a defensive structure to hold back German invaders for Sealion or ruffians and the lower orders for a Very British Civil War.

I am  certain this village will be growing. Population spurt I guess caused by all those boys in there spiffy uniforms turning a lady's head. :-)