Terrain - Building an Oasis

My next project - a model an oasis for our wargames set in North Africa and the Levant including a water basin, water channels and of course showing it´s agricultural use:

Overview of my Oasis.

I was not aiming for 100% accuracy of detail, for example in terms of the plants depicted.
On the one hand, terrain for wargames has to be reasonably robust, which means that many techniques from diorama modelling cannot be implemented, and on the other hand, the scale itself sets its limits when it comes to realising it in the model.
The main thing for me was the modelling of the different levels/storeys into which the cultivation of the different types of fruit and vegetables in an oasis are divided.

Schematic illustration of the layers of an oasis

The inhabitants of the oasis developed a three-layer farming system: The tall date palms sheltered shorter trees, and below these trees grew even smaller shrubs and plants.

Date palms are widespread and there were grapevines, pomegranate, and fig trees. Also found here are annuals, including lentils and cereals but also simple grasses, which are needed as fodder for the cattle (mostly goats).

And before I get to the photos of the terrain pieces I built, one more note:
I am aware that the use of wooden buckets for drawing water in oases was the exception rather than the rule and that bags made of goatskin were used in the majority of cases.

In my example, the bucket simply arrived at the oasis with a caravan and was exchanged for dates etc. - which is quite plausible if you look at the following drawing of an oasis near Suez from the 19th century:

And here are completed terrain pieces representing my version of an Oasis that is very far from perfect.

Palms are cheap China plastic ones completely repainted - I will post a link to the WiP post at the end of this one:

Well, water basin and wooden water crane - a housing for a diesel pump will be added later to the platform next to the well.

The central water distributor and 2 seperate water channels

Date palms provide shade for the underlying fields of fruit ...

pumkins ...

vegetables and even just gras to fodder the cattle.

and some additional bases with more Date palms to fill gaps.

There will be follow more bases over time but together with all my palms I finished over the last year I will be fine for now 😉

Some more detail shots of the pieces:

And a few shots with 28mm and 15mm miniatures for size comparison:

Information and pictures of the WiP stage can be found in this post:

https://utgaards-blog.blogspot.com/2025/06/terrain-work-in-progress-constructings.html

Read More

Terrain work in progress: Scratch building an Oasis agriculture - last update 29.6.2025

One of the intended uses of my newly painted palms is to depict an oasis agriculture - usable for settings in North Africa and the Middle East, especially in the Levant for ‘Operation Exporter’ (Palmyra etc.).

In my case, it will be a well oasis, of which I want to schematically depict the well itself, a water collection basin directly adjacent to it and the distribution via canals to the individual fields.

In order to be able to use the fountain in different eras, I will build both a wooden water crane and a small stone platform next to the fountain on which I can place a housing for a diesel engine for more modern times.

Update 29.6.2025

Moving on with growing even more plants for my rising oasis 😎

Update 25.6.2025

My desert oasis starts taking shape

Update 24.6.2025

Scratch built some more vegetables:

A few Citrus trees

Tomato shrubs

and a few pumpkins modelled out of Greenstuff

Update 23.6.2025:

Prepared some plants that together with the already finished palms I will use to represent the three-layer farming system. Made from cheap China plastic plant I completely re-painted them using my airbrush.

Update 22.6.2025:

The stones of the water channels are set and painted, to depict the water I use ModPodge Glossy, which now has to dry for 48 hours.

Well and water basin made from Styrodur.

Bucket for the wooden water crane under contruction ...

... and finished.

The centrepiece of my planned oasis is finished and waiting to be painted: the fountain, water collection basin, wooden cradle and the bucket for the fountain, as well as the water pipe.

For size comparison with 28mm and 15mm figures.

My oasis starts taking shape slowly but steady - centre piece is the water distribution and on the right the first fieldd to grow fruits and vegetables, grass to feed the goats and so on.

Pictures and information regarding some background of my completed Oasis can be found in this post:

https://utgaards-blog.blogspot.com/2025/07/terrain-building-oasis.html

Read More

Chain of Command v2 BatRep: Our first game using the new v2 rules: The Patrol

Max and I took the opportunity to play the new v2 of CoC, having used the previous days to familiarise ourselves with the new version.

We decided to play the missions one by one and so ‘The Patrol’ was the chosen mission for our first v2 game, setting was again "Operation Husky" as usual.

Max wanted to play my US Armoured due to the new National Characteristics and so I took over his Bersaglieri (played like the Grenadiers of the Wehrmacht in the rulebook, the 8-shot Belt Fed LMG played as 6-shot Magazine Fed LMG and the Rifle teams increased by 2 Rifleman each, which then corresponded quite exactly to the historical formation).

Of course, we also subtracted the Panzerfaust, as these were definitely not available to the Italians in Sicily.

The Bersaglieri thus had a force rating of -2 and with an FR of +6 for the Armoured, this resulted in 8 support points for the Italians - not too bad, I would say 😎

For the mission itself, 4 support points per side were then rolled, resulting in a total of 12 supports for the Italians - which they would desperately need against the firepower of the US boys, as would soon become clear.

The Armoured patrols advanced towards the enemy lines near the village, while the Bersaglieri patrols advanced to the left of the date palm plantation.

Unfortunately, the Italians were involved in a race around the village instead of securing the olive grove in front of the plantation.

And so it came as it had to - the US Armoured were able to secure the village centre as well as the grove with the fruit trees, while the Bersaglieri allowed themselves to be completely squeezed into the date plantation.

This naturally made them a perfect target for enemy infantry and mortar fire (bunched up target!) and the Armoured took full advantage of this opportunity.

Somewhere near Gela on Sicily ...

the sun is just rising above a small village.

American scout teams push forward after having secured the village ...

... and a small orchard.

Their LMG squad deployed in one of the houses but immediately suffered from mortar fire.

No room to manouvre my Bersaglieri are clearly a Bunched Up target for the US Armoured, suffering accordingly.

And now even got outflanked by another US squad.

But the little Olive groove is not save for long ...

... as I could deploy some more firepower and was able to concentrate my fire on this lonely squad.

With mounting casualities the Armoured squad has been Pinned ...

... and two of my squads attacked them using Handgranaten!

The Plt. Leader of the Armoured Infantry decided it was time to start pushing the Bersaglieri ...

... because my two attacking squads had pushed away all opposition and taken the Jump off Point in the orchard.

Supressing Fire rendered the LMG team almost useless, so the infantry squad tried to attack my thin lines in the date palm groove using Marching Fire.

The US Boys had to withdraw their HQ squad from the houses because of mounting casualities and wounded leaders because of that their Force Morale was dropping dangerously low.

Two squads of my Bersaglieri have taken position in the small orchard now.

After a crossfire of volleys from my infantry and mortars, the US squad's attack collapsed - the ‘Maschinengewehr’ rule with its Storm of Steel bonus can have devastating effects with a bit of luck, especially if the mortar fire also has a similar effect.

Conclusion after Game 1

The new version of the CoC rules are absolutely great, the changes make sense everywhere and the game is even more fun than it already was.

We were constantly running out of CoC Points, which allow for a much more interactive game - since you can now take pinned units out of the line of fire (Reposition), take advantage of opportunities that arise (React Fire), or simply seek cover (Hit the Dirt).

The Armoured could also move their scout teams by spending a CoC point (Recce Action), as well as being able to use these teams as JoP (National Characteristic of US units).

Read More

Terrain work in progress: Palm trees for 28mm and 15mm - Updated 29.5.2025

As I want to depict an oasis cultivation and need more palm trees in general and need more palm trees in general, it was time to paint the ones I had ordered from China some time ago.

However, of course I don't want to use them as they were delivered - apart from the unnatural plastic shine, the colours are also anything but true to the original.

Accordingly, all of them will be completely repainted using an airbrush before I base them.

Here are the stages of the repainting - I will update this post accordingly.

Trunks basecoated, pre-shaded and repainted using different inks.

Treetops are just basecoated with a dark Green from below and already look not too bad now.

Basecolours done, followed by 2 highlights.

Trunks and treetops have received their final drybrushs each and are now ready for basing.

Read More

Terrain: A mediterranean house in 28mm

For our 28mm project, which is set in the Levant as part of ‘Operation Exporter’, we naturally also need suitable terrain.

While the trees and palm trees I built for the 15mm games can also be used in 28mm without any problems and I still had a few suitable stone walls in stock, the situation was different for buildings.

Fittingly, I had kept some MDF kits from Micro Art Studio from an old Freebooters Fate project, which fit perfectly into the Middle East setting. This one is called "Cabana Maduro".

As I was under a bit of time pressure to get everything ready by CONflict Rhineland 2025, I'll add the little details that bring a scene to life later: Barrels, sacks, clay jugs etc.

And some more pictures from the WiP stage:

Read More