DBA Terrain Type - Arable

Compulsory: BUA, plough,

Option: river, difficult hill, gentle hill, wood, enclosure, road, waterway, scrub, boggy.

Gentle Hill

These are a single thickness (2mm) of floor cover material, painted and flocked with electrostatic grass. I prefer the grass over the use of turf to cover my terrain as this has proven resistant to constant usage. Regarding the size of hills, I found it convenient to have one large (3BW x 6BW) and several smaller hills (3BW x 4BW) available for games. 

Difficult Hill

These are made from the same material as described above, but with two pieces glued together. If the upper piece reduced by a ½ BW this will keep figures from toppling over and function as the area from which bow may shoot from, see p. 10, paragraph 3, Distant Shooting. Apply glue along the outer edge of the underside as this will avoid shrinkage and your hill curling. 

Difficult hill .

I have constructed a duplicate and painted these for use in European and dryer climes; the latter have electrostatic grass sprinkled over them, then painted an earth colour and later dry-brushed. I find this technique enhances the ‘arid’ look. The large rock formations (sculpted from pink foam) help identify these as difficult hills rather than raised gentle hills.

Difficult hill for arid landscapes

Wood

I made two sets of templates so wood can be used in for European or arid climates. From our game experience we found the smaller wood far more effective than a large one; during the placement of terrain there is less chance of discarding a wood.

Wood in dry locations can have their templates treated in the same manner as described in the section Difficult Hills. The trees (2 or 3) are mounted on triangular or oval shaped bases made of 1.2mm thick triplex. I found it expedient to paint the bases dark brown so fir trees may be used for both climate regions. 

Wood (trees fixed three to a base)

Enclosure

Enclosures have fencing, hedges or ditches to mark its boundaries. These are considered rough going and mine have hedges which can be removed. The same template can serve as scrub, marsh, boggy ground by simple placement of the appropriate scatter on top. See page – Scatter Material. 

Enclosure with hedges and gate

If you prefer stones mounted on thin strips, then I recommend these have measurements of ½ BW x 2BW which can easily conform to any curvature of your template.

Road and Rivers

These are constructed from the same material as used for hills; 2mm thick floor covering. The pieces are 1BW wide as per specification, so the actual road and water surface will be slightly less. I prefer a length of 5BW for both as this will allow roads to meet BUA if placed away from a board edge and with the use of small curved sections (2BW) you can simulate a river meandering around hills and wood. The small curved sections are useful, so you may want to produce enough to use a full length of river. As our boards are 80cm square this would allow the placement of 120cm of either road or river.

Road and river

Waterway

This feature is covered in detail under Littoral features. 

Waterway

Plough
These plough are the result of several variations. The field is produced by Busch and is packaged as one large sheet roughly 20cm x 21cm. This is enough to cut into small pieces and glue to the standard template after it has been painted an earth colour. Pictured here are two versions of grain fields. BUA (built up areas)

Plough.

BUA (built up areas)
Of the four types listed in the rule book, City, Fort, Hamlet and Edifice, we prefer to use the hamlet option. A hamlet does not require a garrison but is considered rough going and would reduce movement for troops other than 'fast' types. The construction of the buildings can be followed here.

BUA (hamlet)
Pictured above in the section 'road and river' you will note the advantage of basing structures apart from its template; these can be swapped with others of another architectural style or era. 

Next: Forest