Leprechaun Love

 

Sometimes projects just roll, sometimes they need a little push. Tableaus from Talamhlar, the new book for The Woods, is something that has been in the works for a few years now and falls in the latter category. It needed some impetus to get finished. That was provided in part by booking a table to do demo games at Beachhead this coming weekend. I wanted to take the opportunity to do another table rather than recycling the same Woods terrain again. A fantasy Necromunda setup based on the lost boys' hideout in Hook and Lothlorien has been on my to-do list for a while and with Tableaus featuring rules for scenic woodland elements this seemed like a good crossover to give me the kick to finish writing.

I know everyone will say "oh, Endor", but really the Ewoks were far from my mind in creating it. My influences are (as I said) Hook and Lorien, plus the woodland adventure trail I used to love playing on as a kid and Puzzlewood (used for parts of the Endor shoot, so there is a connection after all) in the Forest of Dean. This is a 3' square table with the intention that all elements can be used in a modular way in conjunction with my other terrain pieces.

A part of the setup was on show at Reveille in November, so you may already have seen the trees in person. If you're in the south coast area and can get to Bournemouth for Beachhead this weekend hopefully you'll get to see more and maybe have a play on it. If not it should be featured in an article for Miniature Wargames Magazine in the coming months.

The Acorn (Oakbound's newsletter) has been running a short series on making the forest. There's also some video footage of it along with my ramblings on the YouTube channel.

I wanted to try and include all the terrain features mentioned in Tableaus on this board- Ropes, ladders and rope ladders, rope bridges, walkways, railings, slides, swings, ziplines, wasps' nests... Actually the only thing I have left to fit is the zipline. I had planned something magnetised, we'll have to see what I have time for before the weekend!

Yes, that is my latest Bob Ross imitation lurking in the background... I like it more with subject matter in front of it!

The subject for the weekend's scenario (as featured in Tableaus) is Cuda's Well, a magical spring that the Leprechauns hold sacred and are guarding against intruders. Their opponents are trying to snatch a wineskin of the water and make it out of the trees alive. For their part the Leprechauns are forbidden to kill in their sacred grove, so they either have to wait and attack in the scowles (Gloucestershire word, look it up, it's worth the effort) or try their tricksy pranks to deprive the enemy of its prize.