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Lego Bamboo Forest

The Lego Store had a panda project that laid out a few of the green cylinders and leaves as bamboo to decorate the animal's baseplate. I liked how that looked, so I grabbed a $9 fill up bucket and got handfulls of those parts (as well as a few others) to see if I could make a bamboo forest.

Working from the idea, I decided to go with 2x6 base plates for individual stands, with five stalks each. I also had some plates (the 1/3 high ones) to use to vary the height. This was my prototype stand.

Rinse and repeat.

Also, I got some of the flowers, because they were there. I integrated flowers into a few bamboo stands, then put the rest on their own.

The individual stands were then distributed to some medium sized outdoor baseplates. The stands won't stand on their own ... too unstable. Putting them on these baseplates gives them stability and provides two levels of configurability. I can move them around on the baseplates, and I can arrange the baseplates in different configurations.

Here are some 28mm figures in the forest. The bamboo looks reasonable, especially as it took about 15 min to assemble the whole thing and only cost $9 (plus the baseplates that I already had) for a ~2'x2' area.

My first attempt at gaming with them made the stands high movement penalty to infantry but impassible to cavalry, blocked close combat, and gave a high penalty to ranged combat. (If you play QILS, the stands are three hindrance and three obstruction.) Functionally, this gives you a bamboo forest where you can still move your figures, but you have practically random lines of sight and movement paths through the weeds (Remeber, bamboo is a grass, not a tree.).

Here's a flowering hedge. These have a moderate movement penalty (two obstruction), but do not affect ranged or close combat (though the movement penalty affects the ability to charge and maneuver to advantage while in close combat).

The flowers weren't the only "extras" I got. DOM suggested getting these little grate pieces, which I have used before as scifi floor terrain. But in context, I found an appropriate sized baseplate, added a band of green paper strip, and ... viola! A tatami mat. I know what my next $9 at the Lego Store will buy.

I also got a Shoggoth.

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