Bloody Bucket terrain

[Jeff965]

Just a quick question to those of you who have played this PSC, the contours on table 1 are they hills or depressions in the ground?

Cheers, Jeff

[mgluteus]

They are hill contours of 10 meters each. This can be discerned by looking closely at the small area maps at the beginning of the Campaign book.

[donglewwe]

My read of the land (using Google Earth):

The areas at the left and bottom of the map are depressions (~a meter below the road) and the area in the the upper right is a hill (~2 meters above the road).

Tangent: As the campaign moves down the road, I recommend including the actual topography if at all possible as the large elevation changes on the tabletop (eg: a 10-12 meter drop from the road to the table edge in Scenario 2) as the dead ground it creates presents both sides with some pretty interesting (and influential) line of sight issues, as well as (if you want to add a bit more trouble) movement restrictions for those troops trying to slog up those hills through the snow.

[MLB]

There was no significant snow at that time in the area of the campaign. There were no heavy snowfalls until after the time period represented. It was cold but the Bulge battlefields characterised by heavy snow were further north or occurred at a later date.

Looking at Google Earth and reading the first hand accounts the ground on which this is fought is predominantly the flat land along the ridge lines. The Americans talk about the Germans advancing across open fields. For those reasons I’d be inclined to not read too much into the contour line on the map. If anything it represents a gentle incline that is unlikely to have a big impact on lines of sight or movement.

[john de terre neuve]

There was no significant snow at that time in the area of the campaign. There were no heavy snowfalls until after the time period represented. It was cold but the Bulge battlefields characterised by heavy snow were further north or occurred at a later date.

I just could not resist doing it in the snow, mostly because my Americans are in winter uniforms as are my volksgrenadiers. We dice for the ground at the start of each game: 1-3=Solid, 4-6 soft.

We place the contours in for the first table but did not bother for any of the other tables.

As the Germans I have had a lot of fun advancing across open fields and after 10 games, I have now got the sobriquet "The Butcher".

John

https://fuentesdeonoro.blogspot.com/sea ... y%20Bucket

[mgluteus]

This is one more argument for the need of a "Terrain Key" that is constant across all the campaigns and maps. If it is a problem adding it to each scenario book. Simply publish it as a free download. I find contour lines confusing as no mention of them can be found (as far as I know) except they being depicted on maps. They should be explained as is all the other terrain, preferably in a Terrain Key>

[Truscott Trotter]

This is one more argument for the need of a "Terrain Key" that is constant across all the campaigns and maps. If it is a problem adding it to each scenario book. Simply publish it as a free download. I find contour lines confusing as no mention of them can be found (as far as I know) except they being depicted on maps. They should be explained as is all the other terrain, preferably in a Terrain Key>

This

[alanincanberra]

Yes a good key to contour lines is very important but only if the key itself is correct. I vividly remember playing a boardgame in the late 1980's , a magazine game of Little Round Top at Gettysburg. Unfortunately the key was incorrect and the hill was depicted as hollow and the 20th Maine died very quickly in a turkey shoot trapped at the bottom of a ravine! Alan

[Truscott Trotter]

Gee if it was called Little Round Bottom I would not be surprised but........

[Jeff965]

Thanks for the replies chaps, I think I'll leave them out completely. On a battlefield as small as this I doubt a gentle slope made much difference