Table edge forts

[martin goddard]

Have you used or built forts for use at the table edge. This means that it has 2 or 3 sides only because the open side(s) is on the table edge.

"Forts" includes castles, palisades and similar.


At the table edge allows a shorter  wall  length to represent a bigger perimeter.

Your thoughts and experiences?


martin

[Colonel Kilgore]

Yes.  I have a very nice Baueda Roman fort gateway that sits on the table edge in DBA.

Simon

[Stewart 46A]

I have
the Aifix Western fort for Western
The airfix fort Sahara for PITs
Samurai catle walls etc for Samurai
A House and fortifications for ECW siege
Walled fortifications for Dark ages
And trench/wire lengths for Vietnam fire base

Have used them all

Stewart

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Yes I've used (and modelled) a few in my time. I recall my ire at the fact I could not use the Airfix Roman milecastle without modelling wall sections either side (at a tender age beyond my modelling skills) The popularity of the DBA camp spawned a whole set of very innovative camp scenes but they were like mini vignettes seemingly totally out of scale with the figures.
I try to include something for every period... hence the Presidio, a Japanese castle, a Central Asian Chinese RCW fortress etc. As primarily a visual modeller rather than a gamer, when ground scale varied from figure scale I tended to come unstuck. I far prefer the table edge fortification so I can stick closer to the visual scale of the figures.
As a military historian I know the outer enceinte of most fortifications though are visually quite boring - ditches and so forth. So I usually end up going down the rabbit hole of reproducing a mammoth edifice scaled to the figures that is largely impracticable. At 3' x 4' x18" high 'Sahyun' my 25mm fortress is currently glorified loft insulation...not to mention the 'Rammas Echor' also for 25mm; 8 copy boxes worth of modular stone wall and towers making up 12' in length...

Neil

[Colonel Kilgore]

Completely nuts but very impressive,  Neil! 

Simon

[Leman (Andy)]

Yes, I have a 15mm Medieval castle that can be put together with 3 sides only as castle or town wall. I also have a 15mm Italian Renaissance town wall and gateway. I have a 6mm Baccus 3-sided cavalry fort for use in Pony Wars. I do think these table edge fortifications and field defences are very useful for setting a scene, objective or for use in a siege game.

[Colonel Kilgore]

And of course they also look good - particularly in a show game!

Simon

[Smiley Miley 66]

Same sort of list as Stewart has.
I do have some old castle walls that I ve fashioned into something that could go down one side of a table.
Miles

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I'm currently looking at refreshing an old project completing a modular C18 Central Arabian fort for reuse in my Sahel region AK47 game, along with a Mosque...

Neil