The Bordurian Incursion Part 5

Fording the Wasz

After having been pushed back across the Zkrem, the Syldavians are prepared to block the Bordurian advance at the river Wasz.

When The Bordurian light infantry arrives at the ford there seems to be only a small group of Syldavians.

The Syldavians have to fall back under the increasing Bordurian fire.

But then the Syldavian machine gun and militia deploy.

The Bordurians who were moving towards the ford are hit by machine gun fire and take shock.

For a moment the Bordurian dash towards the ford seems to succeed when the Syldavian machine gun jams, but then more Syldavian units deploy, blasting away at the Bordurian light infantry.

While one Bordurian unit collapses, another unit tries to wade through the deeper part of the river Wasz. Bordurian conscripts and a machine gun provide cover fire.

However, this is as far as the Bordurians will get. Although they manage to break the Syldavian line troops, their machine gun becomes jammed for the rest of the game.

The Bordurian light infantry breaks under unrelenting fire from the Syldavian force and limps to the safety of the woods.

Although Force Morale for neither the Syldavians nor Bordurians is close to zero, it is low enough to make it impossible for the Bordurians to achive their objective. The Bordurians withdraw.

Victory!

 

The final confrontation of the campaign will take place near the village of Waswa. Will the Syldavians succeed in pushing the Bordurians further back or can the Bordurians retain the conquered lands between the border and the river Wasz? Stay tuned for the final episode of The Bordurian Incursion ;-)

Corn fields

It's too hot to paint miniatures over here so time to make some terrain. 

For the American Civil War games I've got planned, corn fields are needed. I read several "how to make your own corn field" blog and forum posts. One of those used plastic plants from IKEA (Fejka). I couldn't remember where I read that so after buying two pots of Fejka, I tried to reconstruct the steps from memory.

First I cut off all the individual stalks and straightened the bent ones out by putting them in very hot water (use tweezers!). The hot water causes the plastic stalks to straighten. Then I drilled holes in strips of MDF (strips make storage easier and miniatures could be placed in the field by leaving room between 2 strips), glued the stalks in the holes and covered the MDF with woodglue and sand.

In addition to the strips of corn, I decided to make one small rectangular corn field. Just in time I realised that if I put all the stalks in, I wouldn't be able to reach the base to paint it.

All MDF parts painted.

After drybrushing with a light sand colour, I glued a bit of mixed Italian herbs between the stalks and some static grass at the edges.

Insert the remainder of the stalks and the corn field is ready for a game.

Of course I remembered the blog with the Fejka tutorial after finishing the corn field:

John Bond's corn field.

After again admiring Mr Bond's superior detailing and scratchbuilding skills, the one thing I wished I'd remembered is allowing sufficient space between the stalks for miniatures.  

And possibly to make the stalks shorter. They are now quite tall.

I can't do anything about the rectangular field, but the corn strips were designed to solve this problem.

Two Fejka plants worth of corn fields: